-
First ever music magazine published
Billboard is an American music magazine, headquartered in New York City, New York and owned by Prometheus Global Media. It was first published on November 1, 1894, and is the first ever music magazine. It's distinguished as being among the oldest trade magazines in the world, originally focused on bill posting and outdoor amusements before specialising in the music industry in the 1960s. -
Period: to
History of Music Magazines
-
Melody Maker begins
'Melody Maker’ began in 1926 and covered all aspects of the jazz scene. By the 1950’s it had competition from NME ‘New Musical Express’ which was appealing to more of a younger generation as it had coverage on the up and coming rock ‘n’ roll scene. They both offered weekly information on upcoming record releases. The magazines had news paper formats but ‘music inkies’ provided detailed coverage of independent label artists not mainstream chart music. -
Rolling Stone Magazine begins - more variety of music information
In 1967 ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine was created and documented music as an important part in the culture of youth with reflective articles about music and social change, and the political concerns about music. Rolling Stone was less about factual information and more about the culture of music. This was different as it was giving more of a variety of information related to music. -
Smash Hits begins - genre specific
The glossy fort nightly magazine ‘Smash Hits’ was created in 1978 and was aimed at teens. This magazine is important to the development of music because it covered music in a different was as it was designed as a genre-specific magazine (pop). -
Record Collector begins - buying and selling methods introduced
In 1980 a monthly magazine called ‘Record Collector’ became available which was full of adverts and contained sources of buying and selling music. It started out as a glossy A5 publication before a relaunch later on in a full-colour, A4 format. -
More and more genre-specific magazine
More and more genre-specific magazines began to be produced in the 90’s such as ‘Mixmag’ (dance) and ‘The Source’ (rap/hip-hop). -
Glossy Magazine Format
A glossy magazine format for Melody Maker was introduced in 1999. This helped to change the way magazines were presented -
Melody Maker and Nme merge
Melody Maker merged with NME in 2000 which are both owned by IPC media.
