USA Print Magazines

i think the lack of humour in US publications limits their appeal to me, it seems people like anthony decurtis take their jobs so absolutely seriously they come off sounding a bit silly when writing about people like sisqo or jewell. the few magazines/zines that cover bands i might be interested in come off amateurish and dull (puncture/big takeover) and yet the professional, slickly produced ones cover nothing i care for. being a national publication might make it difficult to focus on smaller acts here given that so few acts outside of the mainstream have any national identity. there also is the lack of a scene-creating mechanism here also so that probably takes a lot of the luster of magazines like Spin and ROlling Stone and even Alternative Press which has sufficently transformed into trash as they always seem to be late on the bandwagon.

Option and Ego Trip spring to mind as the most recent, quality, large-scale U.S. music mags. I'm afraid I'd have to say the simplest, most blindingly obvious explanation is the best one here: The U.S. is a big country. Distribution and shipping costs alone are huge. And to have a truly national mag here you'd have to secure a much larger circulation than you would in the UK -- and therefore a much larger print cost -- despite having roughly the same amount of ad space to attempt to sell. The larger the scale of the magazine, the more finance matters, and the more concessions end up being made for advertising. If only major labels can afford to advertise in a mag with a 500,000 circ. they are going to bother if it isn't stumping for their product.

Periodicals are such a niche market, the launching of any nationwide, general-interest magazine is a huge, costly undertaking. (Recently it's taken the cache of celebrity of JFK Jr., Tina Brown, or Oprah along with, in one case, the deep pockets of Miramax to make this possible -- and even then that hasn't guaranteed success.)

It follows that the launching of any large, successful, national music magazine would have to be as watered down as our national music product such as radio, MTV, or VH1 is or Rolling Stone and Spin are. AP is just reinventing itself with the times and undermining its credibility -- and I'd doubt that it's circ. is actually that high anyway.

Sorry for the dull business model answer instead of a music discourse-related one. Unfortunately, I think it's appropriate.

Yeah, obviously I meant to say that major labels are NOT going to advertise in publications that don't promote their product. Oops.

I always liked Option because they had a bazillion reviews in the back and when I became familiar with some of the writers I could actually buy records on the basis of their likes/dislikes. I don't trust anyone anymore (which is more the result of incessant drinking than anything else!). The UK music scene seems like a music scene in a big American city, cliques, backbiting etc.... which is a more interesting read.

I don't get too excited about music mags anymore.

American Music Magazines

The Urb The Urb worth picking up, lots of features, reviews and the once year future edition is excellent

XLR8R Xlr8R is better than Urb, focusing on more leftfield material going towards across between the electronic coverage in The Wire to Jockey slut.

The big take-over The Big-takeover if enthusiasm is what you are after, Jack rabid the owner of the big take over has it in abundance, stacks of interviews, reviews. Over twenty years this title has been running. Covers the alternative rock spectrum, from post punk onwards

Outburn Outburn covers a very diverse range of music from techno to darkwave to space rock to black metal to trip hop to dark ambient to drum n bass to trance to breakbeat to ethereal to gothic to IDM/ experimental electronica to its primary focus on industrial. Britain does not have a similiar magazine, Outburn approach to music is one of discovery and the reviewers are often spot on.

Grooves Grooves the IDM/ experimental electronics/ techno magazine. Does an excellent job in these fields.

Alternative Press Alternative Press while the front covers often are bizarre choices, May will have Weezer! Alternative Press does an excellent job at highlighting new and upcoming artists, and a large review section. Recommended reading, Britain could do with something similiar. Borders have it in stock early in London, often in the first few days of the start of each month.

Skyscraper Magazine Skyscraper this must be the largest page number wise, music magazine in the world. Comes out Quarterly, covers everything in underground US indie rock, lo fi, some punk, hardcore, post rock etc. Often features many bands that I have never heard on the radio in Britain.

US Magazine average

CMJ - now and again, the free CD is worth picking up. CMJ is more on an overview magazine you don't go here for indepth insight!

Magnet - too much authentic critic favourite music. Like Ned said in his essay on po faced indie superiority, the Magnet concentrates on a certain type of music in-house favourites.

US Music Magazines that suck

Revolution - you know that magazine with naff mission statements, rock is dead, dance is future welcome to the revolution. Except your 10 years/ 13 years to late. Now ceased production.

Revolver - this magazine sucks, lifeless, dull, conservative, predictable - you see it on the newstand and leave it there.

Rolling Stone - a truly nightmare of magazine, for people with no interest in creative music. Mainstream and right wing, this magazine is a vehicle for selling advertising space and crap music released on major labels. A lifeless magazine, for mainstream america. Yuck.

Spin - sets itself as voice of alternative nation, and misses the mark wide every edition. Has a feeling like the NME that they know what is best, when they don't.

PS

URL for Outburn Outburn

well, having worked for rolling stone, or rather the company that owns and produces rolling stone, i have to correct something, though nothing to do with your assessment of the magazine in general.

rolling stone is a VERY left wing magazine, or as leftist as a big magazine in america can get. christian groups and gun-fans were particularly outraged, the former sending us prayers and bible verses, the latter cancelling subscriptions because of an anti-gun article in one issue.

beyond the editorial content, the atmosphere was very liberal, from the attire to the fucking gore-lieberman signs in the windows. i'm very right-wing, though less than i like to think, and i was actually frightened of putting forth an opposing view to the rampant liberalism that plagued (PLAGUED!) the offices.

beyond that, the magazine largely sucks, "integrity" ceased to exist in the company handbook twenty years ago (and that's being kind) and the writing is bland. photos are nice though.

I already read the ones DJ Martin menioned, pretty much. Big Takeover is good for enthusiasm (the way it wallows in the late 70s/early 80s punk hardcore is annoying, as is Rabid's obsession with the Catherine Wheel) and generally a fun read. Grooves, XLR8TR, and Urb all offer some breadth, but lack any real depth (see that earlier thread.) Good writing about electronic music is hard to come by, outside of Simon Reynolds. Very hard. I guess instrumental music doesn't much lend itself to analysis. Or something. I just read my 2nd or 3rd Mojo ever, the Genesis cover , and enjoyed the hell out of it. That thing is like a big bag of halloween candy, very tasty if not very nutritious.

jack rabid's regular proclamations that "rock is dead" are a bit tiresome.

Revolution is DOA? Damn, there goes the rest of my subscription. Pardon me for being stupid, but I really liked the dang thing.

the problem with big takeover maybe lies in their failure to embrace electronica. I mean, who needs an elastica interview, now, in 2001? (it would be irrelevant even in 1995 :)) Also, jack seems to fall in love with every-guitar-band-that-comes- from-england : idlewild? doves? in his top forty??? Anyway, the interviews are great (mostly the ones that cover 60/70´s bands), and jack *really* loves what he does, so there's a passion in it that you won't find in mojo i.e. :)

The content of the The Big Takeover is entirely based on Jack Rabid's tastes. I approve of that, but his tastes, especially for current stuff, are almost as bad as Glenn McDonald's (though with a much better sense of history). It's never quite made clear why semi-psychedelic British pop, punk rock, and pre-70s R&B are so infinitely preferabe to, say, hip hop, metal and top 40 pop.

It's funny that Jann Wenner can consider himself so liberal and left- wing when his magazine basically is a Maxim for old yuppies.

oh, yeah, that's why i threw in "as liberal as a major magazine in the u.s. can be" or whatever it was i said. jann is liberal, but he's also a capitalist, fiercely so. ;) i took delight out of watching him make an ass out of himself last night during the rock n' roll hall of fame inductions.

A fundamental problem that I have with US rock magazines is that, outside of the large, obviously crappy ones -- RS, Spin -- is that they are almost totally review-driven, a sad result of the "you review record, we buy ad" backscratching necessary to keep indie mags and labels going. Magnet springs to mind in particular. It really makes the mags seem dated quickly, especially when cometing with eZines.

Magnet also has gotten a bit predictable. You could pretty well nail down its six cover stars for any given year as soon as you turn the calendar: Sonic Youth, Elliot Smith, Sleater-Kinney, Flaming Lips, Guided by Voices, and some forty- or fiftysomething such as Tom Waits or Brian Wilson. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (As opposed to Mark's example, MOJO, which, like Uncut, has some thoughtful historical pieces, provided you're interested in the artists featured).

Magnet bites. I hate that rag more than any of the real majors -- their articles are predictable press-kit rewrites for the most part, and there's never an interesting word to be found in their consensus-mush. Puncture is, for me, the height of what an indie-mag should be. The reviews section is massive and always (!) interesting, and the features and interviews always have some sort of clever take. On the other hand, I find Puncture too overwhelming and too focused on things my tastes aren't quite at now to read cover-to-cover regularly.

Agreed, MAGNET has become complete junk. Not even the free CD with subscription makes me want to renew mine. I enjoy Mojo from time to time or whenever I see it lying around someone's house. I generally don't buy music mags, I'd rather spend the money on actual music. Ok.... you got me, beer. ;)

Oh, for music/recording geeks, TapeOp is a good read, and free.

Option, Puncture, Your Flesh are all sorta worth a look...but I reckon most Americans who've got anything interesting to say about pop/rock/whatever ( apart from Chuck Eddy) do it in fanzines & on the internet.

Some NYC magazine did a stellar interview with Stephen Troussé last year. That was - naturally - the best thing I'd read since Stephen Troussé's review of the Wedding Present (Melody Maker, December 1992).

That NYC publication is Gail O'Hara's Stevie Jackson-inspiring 'zine, Chickfactor. I believe she's relocated to London in the time since.

-Actually, Gail's moved to Mexico to stay with her sister.

-Guadalajara?

-No, that's her cousin.

- Subaru? - No, she went in her own Accord.

Fans of this thread should look out for the forthcoming volume Cool To Newcastle: The Collected Pop Writings of Stephen Troussé (Stevenage: Blue Sparrow Press, April 2001), 45pp+vii.

I know I do.

PUNK PLANET is truly great -- reviews are all over the place stylistically; their articles are DIY instruction manuals which is refreshing in this age of marketed independent rock masquerading as actually independent.

Magnet varies from lost in indie world, to on occassion covering something with insight and passion.

Wire would be one mag that I'd say I love, but... its not American.

Isn't Option dead? Did it statr up again?

I think the (American) music interview magazine "Seconds" is sometimes interesting. It covers a fairly wide range of music.