The History of the Music Press

                  

The first music magazine that was published was Billboard Magazine, which was printed in 1894 but became well known in 1936. Billboard magazine then gradually evolved into radio airplay and record sales charts.

Melody Maker then began in 1926, this was a Jazz Magazine. By the 50s, it had competition from New Musical Express (NME). This appealed to a younger audience as it had coverage on the up and coming rock scene. Both magazines offered weekly information on new record releases.

Crawdaddy and Bomp are examples of music fanzines that exist now, these first came around in the 60s. It is thought that they emerged from sci-fi and comic related publications. These types of magazine are mainly for a niche audience because they are mainly focussed just around one topic or type of music.

1967 saw the Rolling Stone magazine created. It soon became an important part in the culture of youth with articles about music and social change. However, this magazine was less factual information and more about the culture of music.

Smash Hits magazine 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 way. This is because it was a genre-specific magazine. Along the similar styles of Smash Hits, Kerrang! was then introduced in 1981.

The Face was launched in 1980, this was a monthly magazine that offered the colourful layout of Smash Hits but was aimed at an older audience. This magazine stopped running in 2002, but it did influence other magazines like Q Magazine and Uncut.

In 1980, a magazine called Record Collector became available. This was a magazine that was filled with adverts and contained sources of buying and selling music. This was sort of the start of people turning to the internet to get their music fix and information on new record releases. As this magazine told people where they could go to get this information rather than in a magazine.

Nowadays, music magazines have become less popular as getting new information on new music is very easy, thanks to Twitter and Facebook. You can now also use the internet to buy music magazines.