TS: Uncut vs. Mojo

that's not my reading of jerry the nipper's stuff.

mojo seems fustier, overall, but i guess i'm more into movies so...

xpost oh dear.

Jerry the Nipper is a bit of a maverick, a bit of a loose cannon. He is his own man.

I borrowed a Bruce Lee film on Uncut's advice, and it was shit. This leads me to believe they are posturing with all that macho film shit.

Used to prefer Mojo, but I've not read that for years either. I liked reading the poignant stories of early British metal 'contenders' and suchlike.

-- PJ Miller (pjmiller6...), February 3rd, 2006.

well, look at a film critic and assess how much the 'macho' dial turns.

mojo should have put talk talk on the front cover, not the kinks.

I've managed to avoid reading Uncut all these years.

I like the Kinks cover. It caught my eye. Talk Talk wouldn't.

But I still don't really read Mojo either.

Beatles, Dylan, Pink Floyd and Queen are all excellent acts that are very important acts in rock history.

That being said, I suspect that, at least in the case of the first three, coming up with new and unknown facts about them that will make an article interesting is kind of hard.

Therefore, the winner = Uncut

OTM! (Brown)

There are always new generations of potential fans that weren't around at the time.

- Uncut's American bias

Well, that's what makes me like it so much. I have always had an American bias and neglected English bands (more than American ones anyway), so that didn't bother me.

I might agree with that were some of Uncut's articles not actually exciting. Again, there have been less of them in the last two or three years, but that feature in '01 or so on Springsteen's first UK shows—not exactly a subject I give a crap about—was unbelievably good. Cardigan, my ass.

Having said that I usually buy one or the other, but it depends on how desperate I am to have something to read on the bog and whose on the cover.

Re: The Rabbit Fur coat question, I'd have to side with Mojo on that one

I used to read a magazine called Sight and Sound. Is that still around?
-- Redd Harvest (louder...), February 3rd, 2006.

yeah but a) it's non-profit-making and b) it only has about 25,000 readers and c) it actually doesn't cover old films that much -- not at the level mojo covers old music.

...with music DVDs coverage!

(I read both mags, enjoy the coverage of old stuff, snigger at what they think of the new stuff. I'm a n00b when it comes to cinema, thus canon-prone, thus I enjoy their DVD coverage, tho Enrique's complaints are pretty valid.)

The fact that they don't give much coverage to more recent genres has more to do with their readership. Rarely have they got so many angry readers' letters as they did when they did a Destiny's Child cover story.

Jon Wilde's interview with Stone Roses in Melody Maker circa December 89 = CLASSIC.

-- Naive Teen Idol

I second that. Plus, Uncut had The Reaper, and Simon Reynolds was writing more often before he got consumed with the postpunk book.

MOJO's writing improved, and for a while they seemed to be trying to try to get more adventurous. They seemed to have stopped trying over a year ago. I don't buy either magazine regularly anymore, though I did get a couple Uncuts recently.

One would think the magazines would, after ten years in publication, start to move the cover stars forward at least a decade. The problem is, the boomers will always be the biggest demographic, at least as long as they keep their buying power. We probably don't have to wait for them to die off though -- I can't imagine they'll still be buying magazines for the 99th cover story on the Beatles in 2016. At least, not as much as slightly younger geezers in their 40s-50s would be willing to buy for cover stories on XTC, New Order, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Pavement and, who knows, even Disco Inferno and Talk Talk?

My perception is that Uncut has become more conservative, predictable, boring and retro than Mojo in the past year.

stop buying them!

I have re Uncut the last two issues.

Both cover better music than Mixmag, Kerrang or even NME.

Q beats both though. (Or: Mojo writes about better music than Q, but Q is slightly more interesting because a larger portion of the good stuff they write about I don't already know)

IPC Ignite's publishing strategy in 2008

NME: is aimed at teenagers
Uncut: retro rock bores in their 40s

I haven't bought either magazine for over a year now. I flicked through an "Uncut" in WHSmith last week, realised that I haven't even looked at a copy in 6 months at least. It just doesn't seem to matter anymore, what all these guys have to say.

IPC Ignite's publishing strategy in 2008

NME: is aimed at teenagers
Uncut: retro rock bores in their 40s

-- djmartian, Monday, February 4, 2008 1:37 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

"in 2008"

NME: is aimed at teenagers

That's exactly why it sucks. Any music mag that is aimed at teenagers - or even people in their 20s - is destined to suck. The best mags always aim at people in their 30s or older.

but it IS 2008 xp

The best mags always aim at people in their 30s or older.

-- Geir Hongro, Monday, 4 February 2008 13:42 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.pulham.org.uk/Cuttings/Thumb%2006%20-%20Saga%20Aug%2005.jpg

^^^Dude who edits Word Magazine writes the pop column for Saga, it's pretty lulz.

Word - Britain's most boring music monthly

My point is that IPC Ignite haven't got a vibrant, contemporary, challeging, informative, diverse music magazine that appeals to people in their 20s or 30s, or indeed people older.

A readership that doesn't want lazy recycled big name 1960s / 1970s nauseous nostalgia (Uncut) or be patronized by the latest gormless generic trad british indie-guitar rock (NME).

INTERESTING KNEE-HIGH BLACK BOOTS TOO.

HOLISTIC ANALYSIS REQUIRED

Taking sides:

http://www.uncut.co.uk/history-of-rock

or

http://www.mojo4music.com/20508/mojo-60s-vol3/

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uncut-editor-john-mulvey-steps-into-phil-alexanders-shoes-as-new-editor-of-music-monthly-mojo/

"It will be an honour to uphold Mojo’s traditions and values"

*vomits*

well there goes any coverage of electronica i guess.

On a whim, just bought Mojo for the first time in a few years. Best part of six quid and took me all of 20 minutes to fillet the 'good' bits. Main interview is with Liam, who is being transformed into a national treasure before our eyes (is he fuck), and there's Ron Wood, Mama Cass and the Undertones. Eck. CD looks half decent, mind.

Six quid??? That's like when someone tells you how much a pack 20 cigs costs these days. Love that they still give away CDs.

Anyway, what's Ron Wood up to these days? Anything pressing he needs to ataned to?

*attend to*

Has His Own Album To Do, iirc

I wouldn't mind reading a good feature on Mama Cass, but not for for £6

The Ron Wood interview is a greatest hits with the greatest bits removed. Anyway, it's a bit like complaining about the Steve Hoffman forums, innit. Six quid, though!

my subscription ran out years ago, but they continued to send it to me for many months after.
eventually they realised and i stopped getting it.
do i miss it?
nope.
everytime i see a new cover, i realise they are telling the same stories over and over again.
i do miss my hit of ILM'r articles though (hello stevie !).

i used to buy both sometimes, hard to tell apart. it always seemed odd to me how they never acknowledged each other's existence, remember how in the old days rock mags always took lots of snide shots at each other, that was sort of cool. anyway now i never have to buy either 'cause i once again live in a town with decent public libraries. can only read them while making running out-loud commentary critiquing writing (100% conformity to house style, also that house style being that of british magazines from the 1950s, etc), opinions expressed ("uncontroversial"), nice to see the beatles on the cover again, etc

yes i am hardly less predictable myself

I still buy Mojo for it's fairly diverse reviews section. And I like the monthly 'How to Buy' feature. Tortoise featured this month and YMO before that.

The issue with the YMO how to buy also had a pretty cool list of 50 underrated albums from 1971, thought about polling that.

Tbh I'd buy it every month if they focused entirely on the obscurities, especially French/Japanese/Brazilian stuff, that isn't as well documented in the English speaking press, and stopped covering the big boomer icons altogether. But I realise that's not a viable business model.

Say what you will about Mojo but I never felt it had a problem with trying to appear cool to the reader like Uncut - the latter too self-referential (“Uncut faves”) by half which in itself created a cul-de-sac of cosy complacency whereas with MOJO information was generally presented without attitude or a knowing wink to the reader

Does anyone know if something is up with Uncut and MOJO being distributed in the US recently? I haven't seen a new issue from either in many months, even at the really good newsstand that has always carried both. The last Uncut I saw there was the November 2023 issue and there are a few straggelrs of the December 2023 MOJO, but nothing since.