Good Looking 'Zines

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What are the best-looking music mags ever - ones where the art direction, ideas, photography were just right and a piece with the content?

― Tom, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Smash Hits used to be great. The Wire has had beautiful moments. The Face's music covers nearly always look terrific but the insides are a let-down. Mojo's design fits the mag very well.

Most horrible thing - UNCUT's black-and-white covers, the 'austere' effect of which is cheap and then ruined anyway by a honking great CD on the front (I'd have been convinced by Jerry's anti-CD crusade if he'd just said there's no way to make them look nice)

― Tom, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I'd nominate Poplust by my friend Rob Morgan -- an actual zine, not this glossy stuff you mention. ;-) Handwritten, illustrated, crammed with info and maintaining a strange humor logic very clearly all its own...

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I've always been impressed by the gritty-printing-press aesthetic of Punk Planet. (But, then, that's a simplistic way to describe Dan Sinker's design skillz - he's quite good, though, I think.) (And Punk Planet isn't a music mag, actually, but pheff.)

― David Raposa, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

i'm gonna second punk planet. (which i haven't read in years, but i remember looking ver' swank. too bad the content wasn't as good.)

― jess, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

(dan = no reln, far as i know)

― mark s, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

dan = midwestern amurrican emo boy, prolly in his late 20s now, so i would guess not, mark.

― jess, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

PP non-music content = choice! (Recent articles on prison inmates, the "truth" about Bush & Gore, an interview w/ Ralph Nader I haven't read yet.) PP music content = OK, but, for the luvva Pete & Emma, SKIP THE RECORD REVIEWS. Unless you like uninformed hit & run jobs on records that aren't "punk rock". Notwithstanding the occasional stroke of brilliance. For instance, a review of the Swords Project EP consisting of one word - SUCKS! (Or something like that.)

― David Raposa, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

well my cousin ollie [secondnamedifft] married a san-fran Xtian and was a big fan o' The Fixx back in the day, so blood-ties are no guide here: but if Dan is fambly, I don't know how the linXoR work

― mark s, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

i didn't even know there was a shift in focus. me only read when twas bout music. and den very poorly indeed.

worst continually art direction (and content): maximum r n' r?

― jess, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

that last post was written by gremlins gnawing at my belly right now, which explains why it read like an INSANE PERSON wrote it.

― jess, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I supect Maximum R'n'R think that art direction = anti-punX0r.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I agree with Tom about CD cases being ugly on Uncut - I am pretty sure I said 'cardboard cases' when I mentioned them for just this reason. If I didn't, I meant to. Even otherwise OKishly designed magazines like CGI look worse with a jewel case on the cover. I noticed Create have tried a sort of U shaped pouch thing but that means you can't store the CD after you throw the mag away. Though I can't think of an actual good looking music zine I would like to suggest that my ideal perfect music magazine would be 1. Smaller than normal for a music mag
2. Thicker than normal for a music mag
3. Have lots of long articles
4. Have lots of text (maybe even the index page) on the cover
5. Yes, well spotted everybody, I just described the Reader's Digest
Of course it wouldn't sell, but if anyone reading this is a musician don't follow my advice on perfect music either if you want to make your fortune.

― Alexander Blair, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I think my idea is 99.9% similar to Alexander's. The .1% being I have no idea what his endless pages of text would be about.

― hans, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

THE FADER is exactly the holistic con-jameration you describe, Tom. You must buy it in paper form to appreciate the quality of the photography, layout, etc. Really really nice. I hate it of course.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

halana

― francesco, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

beikoku ongaku, losing today

― keith, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

'Caff' by Bob Stanley looked stylish, Euro-fresh and sexy - just like most of the groups it covered. 'Debris' by Dave Haslam looked arty and Prague-minimalist and spanned both 'dance' and the best of late 80s independent music. Passing parsie for Are You Scared To Get Happy?, Troutfishing in Leytonstone, Obsessive Eye, Tangents, mid-90s Straight No Chaser.

― T. Traherne, Thursday, 27 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Jockey Slut and Sleazenation - are the best designed British music magazines. Lots of colour, nice fonts, bright, good use of photos and interesting layouts.

Outburn and Alternative Press - are the best designed US music magazines.

― DJ Martian, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Martian -- You really like the design of Alternative Press? They have a few good writers but I'd consider that one of the worst looking magazines going.

I love the paper Mojo uses. That magazine feels great in your hands. An ideal package for music history porn.

It's kind of a techno clich w/ the spare gemoetric look, but I like the design of the Grooves 'zine. It gets much better with each issue. Tuba Frenzy also had nice design, & I'd love to see another issue someday. The Wire is also good , as is Punk Planet, though one day I'd like to start a thread about how much I despise the content of PP.

― Mark, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I must concur that "Fader" is pretty nice. The articles are a little on the skinny side, but it's possibly the best looking music mag--and occasionally they do interview some pretty neat people. And they're far less pretentious than Wire. The wee half-sister to magazines like "Nest," "Bomb," and the mother of all gorgeous magazines (and so expensive that it's not really a mag at all,) Visionaire. If anyone has a penchant for off the wall creations and have really, really deep pockets, do check out the Visionaire series.

― Mickey Black Eyes, Friday, 28 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I like what the new look The Wire does with photo's. And The Face is spot-on most of the times esp. like the October interview with Aphex Twin: no pics and printed as written on a typewriter black-on-white paper - but very important! - glossy paper. Very nice, relaxed interview with Aphex btw.

― Omar, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

the wire = NO WAY PRETENTIOUS ENOUGH!! It is a great sludge of truish promo-biog "facts" and far too little agitation as to why any of the acts *attached* to the "facts" might actually matter, to writer or reader...

ok now i will get in trouble with phil mass-tansfer for misusage of words

― mark s, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

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