The
History of Magazine
The
concept of the magazine was first conceived in 1731 with the creation of the
Gentleman’s Magazine. Due to the time period, the publication was mainly text
based and any illustrations used were drawn in instead of printed.
In
1885, a Good Housekeeping magazine was published. The magazine was aimed at
women, and contained details on ‘how to get a man’ and ‘how to keep your
husband happy’. Surprisingly, the publication was popular, and without much
competition, sold loads of copies.
The
next major publication was Vogue, first published in 1897, which featured
articles on royalty, and the position of women in society.
1955
saw the publication of Marylyn magazine, which was more celebrity-based, rather
than just featuring practical articles.
As
the roles of women began to change in the 1960s, and women had more freedom,
the magazine industry saw the publication of Nova magazine, which presented a
more free view of women.
Magazines
for men were typically niche, based on and featuring things like fishing,
football and cars.
1986
saw Arena published, the first general lifestyle magazine aimed at men. The
publication originally had men on the cover, but switched to women after
discovering they were more popular amongst men. The 1980s also brought the
modern representation of women. White, young, slim, with perfect teeth and
skin. The idea focussed on what the ideal image of women was, rather than a
realistic view.
The
first black model wasn’t idealised until Vogue published it in 1996, apart from
health and fitness magazines.
NME
1952
saw the first issue of NME, a non-glossy, tabloid format magazine owned by IPC.
Journalists wrote about pop, and would respect the bands and artists.
Morris
Kinn was the first editor, and the magazine was the first to feature a music
singles chart.
NME
itself drew large amounts of inspiration from Rolling Stones magazine, an
American publication that used the same layout and free style of writing as NME
prior to the U.K magazine’s first publication.
In
1976, two of NME’s most iconic journalists, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons,
signed up with NME after replying to an ad asking for “hip, young gunslingers.”
Their
columns about punk rock helped catapult NME ahead of rival magazines Melody Maker and Sound.
The
NME changed it’s style to suit readers of a different kind, those into Punk.
The
magazine moved away from “just music” and also focussed on politics, philosophy
and other “serious” issues.
NME
started to focus more on the bands, their lifestyles, and the meanings behind
their lyrics rather than just the music itself.
Towards
the end of the 1970’s and during the early 80’s, NME’s readers began to abandon
the magazine, mostly because the magazine didn’t write about “normal” bands,
and was too obsessed with itself and it’s own politics.
As
music developed into the 80’s, style in music, especially pop music, started
becoming more important than the actual music.
During
Thatcher’s reign, NME vocally supported Red Wedge, and the labour movement.
During
the early 90’s, NME suffered a phase known as the “Hip Hop Wars”, the concept
of black artists rapping didn’t appeal, and NME lost two thirds of its
audience.
Most
of the old music tabloid magazines faded away towards the end of the 80’s and
the early 90’s, apart from NME, whose switch to modern magazine format has
helped it retain its readership.
Morrisey,
a former fanatic of NME magazine, became popular in the early 90’s, and after
an interview, became NME’s poster boy, the magazine put him on the cover for
almost any excuse, until journalist John Harris put Morrissey on the cover and
called him a fascist, Morrissey returned to the paper 12 years after not
talking to NME when Conor Mcnochols managed to convince him to come back.
Sales
of CD’s began to fall once things like MP3 players, Ipods and Youtube came
about, meaning the Music Press has lost a lot of both advertising revenue and
sales, and NME has been forced to expand into other areas of music, such as
reviewing the new technology.
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