NewsClassic Pop magazine: new launch
With Q magazine, revamped to appeal to ‘the kids’, Mojo firmly rooted in 1970s rock folklore, and The Word now closed for business, Anthem Publishing think they have spotted a gap in the market for a magazine that treats pop music seriously – a periodical, perhaps, that would appeal to the demographic who read the legendary, irreverent Smash Hits as teenagers in the 1980s.
Those same surly youths will now be in their forties, and despite spending much of their spare time looking for kids’ shoes and helping with homework, the passion and enjoyment for what was a truly golden era for pop music, never goes away.
Classic Pop is the new magazine, and it hit the ‘newsstands’ on 4 October. To give you a feel for the content, this inaugural issue contains an eight-page feature on five decades of Duran Duran, a history of the Pet Shop Boys with their top 25 tracks selected (nice to see Jack The Lad at number 10…) and a ‘classic album’ article focusing on ABC‘s 1982 masterpiece, Lexicon of Love.
With magazine sales declining, Classic Pop is something of a brave move, but like many of you, we love ’80s pop and wish the team every success with this venture. Issue one was a highly enjoyable read and the second issue is due out in early December (it’s bi-monthly).
Look out for the mag at your local newsagent. For those outside the UK, or if you just want an easy life (and to save on the cover price), you can also subscribe.
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Just bought this issue, not sure if I will buy it every time but it sure looks good…oh and the cover is not the same as shown here, Duran Duran are having the full cover!!
I want this magazine to succeed, and the first issue shows promise. The piece on Talk Talk artwork was great. The interviews are a little on the brief side, but that’s probably intentional. The only slight disappointment was the Depeche Mode catalogue overview which was rather too thin.
Nothing wrong with having the likes of the Thompson Twins in a future issue, I’d love that actually! There have been enough Smiths, Cure, New Order lovefests in the other main music mags in recent times (much as I think all three bands are completely seminal).
Drownedinsound and Pitchfork are among the best for new music in my opinion.
Not sure NME is right for new bands either. It seems to want to be part of latest scenes to the point of trying to create them. It ignores many quality new bands, possibly because of image issues.
a brave move indeed, i have bought it and must admit i am disappointed by the depth of the reviews (ie scant) – as only bit read so far – but i think the mag is aimed squarely at a certain market, i dont want to read about new bands, if i wanted that id buy nme. one hopes the depth of the articles is better though.
Funny to see that The Smiths, The Cure and New Order are mainstream to some, you’re probably in the UK, but in North America those bands are still obscure to many people and many more don’t even know them, the only airplay they get are not from socalled commercial radios but rather from community/underground radio…not that long ago HMV in Canada had a rock section and an indie section and the afore mentionned bands were all in the latter section…I will certainly give Classic Pop a try, thank you for letting us know about this!!
Mainstream does not equal cack, though. But point taken, a little bit. There is another issue with all of these mags. They’re all too chicken to put new bands on the covers. I stopped buying Uncut about a year ago. I am more interested in new music, and the best you can expect in these mags for new bands is an album review. And even then only because the band has PR representation. They all fail to introduce new music. Instead they give us another Neil Young, Paul Weller, Stones, Dylan etc blah blah blah 20 page feature. Since I got 6music sorted in my car, I’ve never felt the need to buy any of them.
Richard – maybe not what you think, actually. Issue one featured articles and sidebars on The The, Blancmange, Kraftwerk, Thomas Dolby, Claudia Brücken, Talk Talk and The XX – it’s not all mainstream (as The Smiths, The Cure and New Order – three of the decade’s top singles bands – undoubtedly were!)
I remember the exact point that Q alarms bells went off – it was the issue with Bowie on the cover with Kate Moss, and an article therein comprised of a transcript of a chat they had which was as vapid as it was superfluous. That along with an issue featuring a Radiohead piece, the first four pages of which were made up solely of arty pics and no text. That was when I realised Q had ditched content in favour of style forever. Did I stop buying it? No, of course not. I still buy it to this day (the iPad edition now, in preference to print) because when it’s good it’s still very good. But the big pics, big text thing is frustrating knowing how wordy it used to be throughout it’s first decade or so. I think Classic Pop suffers from the same formatting, but despite the brevity of reading time (and their arse-licking review of the “So” box *spits*) it was a damn fine first issue. Enough of worth to make me want to buy the next issue, anyway.
haha this looks like a complete load of shit. And The Word was quite good. I predict an epic fail for this magazine…..The kids that really cared about their music in this era were more likely listening to Japan, The Smiths, The Cure, Bowie, Sisters, New Order, Rem, The Banshees, Psychedelic Furs, Violent Femmes, PIL Mary Chain…..not f78cking Duran Duran and The Pet Shop Boys. And next month…..is it going to be Kajagoogoo and the Thompson Twins!?
With the closure of Word, I wander forlornly around the magazines at WH Smith. I hope this truly fills the gap and doesn’t lean too heavily on pure nostalgia.
Invariably I agree with most of what Super Deluxe says but I take exception to the thing about Q being revamped to appeal to the kids, and like Paul Fraser I too miss The Word deeply. Lately I have found that Q magazine has worked harder on its content to almost fill the huge space left by The Word. You should try it out. There are some great and well thought out features in Q. More power to it. I’m done. As you were. (I shall also be buying every issue I can find of Classic Pop too.)