Is This The New Smash Hits?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=122193692

Popworld Pulp, launching in a couple of weeks as a new music WEEKLY (v bold).

Looking at its MySpace it doesn't seem to be offering anything hugely compelling though.

Does anyone here still buy print music media, out of interest?

Comments

[zenith.livejournal.com]

I buy Plan B on occasion, but not regularly - and the reason I don't buy it regularly is I never end up reading it cover to cover. Which I know one doesn't have to do, but it's always sort of an indulgence - I only get it when there's the right alignment of money in the bank, time on my hands, and prominent articles by and/or about people I'm interested in.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Am I going mad or does the cover not name any of the bands pictured? That seems an odd move...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Obviously it's worth pointing out that I'm a grown man and parent only just clinging to the 25-34 demographic, so "not hugely compelling" coming from me means about as much as "x;=vafsdjba#'[e'sRG2W" in terms of the aims of the mag.

[getbacknow.livejournal.com]

Definitely not the new Smash Hits...not very pop-oriented at all, as far as I can see. Look at their music interest list and their sampler; very NME. No thanks.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Dude not even Plan B writers ever read it. I only read my own stuff, and what maybe a couple of other people write.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I guess I mean something more complicated than just "I never read it all so don't buy it" - it's something to do with the way the nature of the large amount of material in it I know I'm not going to read is very predictable to me by this point...

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

WIRE, but I haven't read a feature in ages, only checking the odd review and the contemporary classical page.

I rially rilly rilly want to read and GET something anything from reading in print. Shame there is so little of it about.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I still buy Mojo if I want the cover-mounted CD, which usually means on 2 or 3 occasions in any one year. Last month I actually bought Uncut as well, for the first time in yonks - for the "nu North America" cover CD (I wanted it mainly for educational purposes, as a primer, but actually the CD was very listenable).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

er, I do read the mags I buy as well, but generally skip the features and concentrate on the record reviews pages.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I subscribed to a German magazine, Spex, for a year, as they have a really good cover-mounted CD every month (which is where I got the Michaela Melian track I submitted to the Chart Championship in week 2). If I spoke better German I'd have read the magazine and carried on subscribing as it covers a wider range of interesting music (although still rather indie-biased) than most UK mags. And it has lovely design too.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

arf with the hadouken song on their myspace! an odd time for 'popworld' with this list of bands:

Akon, Lily Allen, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Ash, The Automatic, Babyshambles, Biffy Clyro, Bloc Party, CSS, Dirty Pretty Things, Editors, Enter Shikari, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, The Fratellis, The Game, Gnarls Barkley, Green Day, Guillemots, Hadouken! Calvin Harris, Hot Chip, Jamie T, Jay-Z, Just Jack, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Kelis, Klaxons, The Killers, Kings Of Leon, The Kooks, The Long Blondes, The Maccabees, Maximo Park, Muse, My Chemical Romance, Nas, Oasis, Panic! At The Disco, The Raconteurs, Razorlight, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lionel Richie, R Kelly (especially Trapped In The Closet), Mark Ronson, Scissor Sisters, The Strokes, The Twang, The View, We Are Scientists, Kanye West, Wolfmother, Wombats

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

with pop just about in there as: Lily Allen, Gnarls Barkley, Green Day, Kelis, Lionel Richie, Scissor Sisters

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

How are Green Day more pop than all the other rock bands there?

Ask Dr DJ Martian

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

What SHOULD a weekly music magazine be covering?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

How are Akon and Kanye West not pop? I'd argue for Jay-Z and R Kelly too, but the first two are surely as pop as pop gets nowadays.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I never did buy print media! Apart from Just 17 and Sugar. Hence my patchy knowledge of all things musical. I've bought the NME once or twice (many years ago) just for something to read on a long train journey but that's about it. I never bought Smash Hits (too pop for teenage indiekid Kat) and I didn't really know about Melody Maker. I found out my pop news by reading Planet Sound teletext! That was free!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Those are ALL pop! viz they have been played on Hits!TV with the intention of selling rekkids to pop lovers.

Re: Ask Dr DJ Martian

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I really can't think of anything which isn't already covered by the internet or existing print media.

I do like the idea of a monthly or bimonthly London Review of Music idea which gets periodically floated around ILM.

Re: Ask Dr DJ Martian

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

- New releases, obv
- Comedy Showbiz news (eg "Lily vs Amy, FITE?")

Erm

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

That looks ace, should it reach this far out, I will be straight down WH Smiths for a copy.

I read Rock Sound when I have the money, (£3.50 :O etc.) it's actually pretty damned good and has pages and pages (15 or more) of reviews which is, to be honest, the only thing I'm interested in unless there's an interview with someone I really like/am incredibly curious about. I also read the Observer Music Monthly-my-arse-it's-always-fucking-sport-or-food thing, which is good but appears to be cutting back the review section, which is bad.

NME occasionally turns up in our bathroom after a particularly drunken night ending in 24 hour Spar. There's a certain level of intoxication which makes me think 'free CD of utter rubbish?! FVCK YEAH!' and hand over my money.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i knew that would wind ppl up :-D

sorry

Re: Ask Dr DJ Martian

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

But with LRB you can actually READ the words and get a taster. Unless there is a covermount then you cannot HEAR a print magazine.

dancing about architecture again

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Which is my main beef with printed music media. You can't hear it! A pop news blog like popjustice can link to the myspace or whatever and you can listen to it while you're reading, or listen to it later but at least you know what they're on about.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Yes, they're all pop but it's quite a snobbish view of pop - their media pack is quite clear that they won't cover certain types of pop (I've deleted it now and can't remember exactly what they said; Girls Aloud may have been mentioned)

Re: dancing about architecture again

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is the biggest shift in the ground rules of music discourse for ages, really. Because I am 1x old man I think I still prefer a distance between reading about music and hearing it: but that distance is pretty much gone.