The history of music magazines

 

The UK has been in the forefront of the music industry and has had many music based magazines to follow the movements in the music industry. The longest running UK music magazine is BMG (Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar) which was founded in 1903 and is still running today and promotes fretted instruments. Other UK music magazines include NME (New Musical Express) which has lead music magazine sales since its first edition in 1952.NME covered the up and coming rock and roll scene. During the 50s NME had longstanding competition with Melody Maker magazine, which began its publication in 1926 and covered music from the jazz scene but due to the rise in the use of the internet have stopped publishing. There was an increase in the production of music magazines in the 1990s, with several new magazines including Sounds and Select started to get published. current UK music magazines include Kerrang! (produced in 1981), Mojo and Q, which focus on pop music. while there are other magazines such as Top of the Pops and the no longer published Smash Hits who aimed at a younger audience and focused on pop music.

Major music magazines in the Unites States include Rolling Stone which was founded in 1967. Rolling Stone magazine contained less factual information and more on the culture of music as well as documenting the social changes and political concerns about music. Other major magazines in the Unites States included Spin (founded in 1985) and Billboard which founded in 1894 only began to publish music information in 1918. In 2005 the magazine and its website were repositioned to provide coverage of all forms of digital and mobile entertainment and has a large focus on the music industry.

Music magazines are still used today although have become less popular due the increase in the use of other media such as the internet and television.