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Editor | Gerald Rothberg [1] |
---|---|
Categories | Music |
Frequency | Monthly |
First issue | October 1966 (Hullabaloo); March 1969 (Circus) [2] |
Final issue | May 2006 [3] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Website | https://www.geraldrothberg.com/ |
ISSN | 0009-7365 |
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from October 1966 to May 2006. The magazine had a full-time editorial staff that were prolific in rock journalism, such as Paul Nelson, Judy Wieder, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder. It rivaled Rolling Stone in sales and surpassed Creem . In 1974, a sister publication was launched, titled Circus Raves, [4] and by 1977 that venture had been merged into Circus magazine, making Circus a biweekly publication. [5]
Gerald Rothberg originally published the magazine under the name Hullabaloo in 1966 (23 issues), before changing the name to Circus in 1969. [2]
In its early years it covered hard rock acts like the Doors and Grand Funk Railroad. Patti Smith wrote for Circus, as did her bandmate Lenny Kaye. Rock critic Kurt Loder was also a contributor, as was Lance Loud of An American Family fame. A Circus reader could look forward to music reviews penned by Ed Naha, whose entire review of an album by the German rock group Can consisted of exactly one word: "Can’t". Despite the era’s printing constraints, the magazine included high-quality color photography.
In 1971 Howard Bloom joined Circus as editor, his tenure lasting until August 1973.
In the late 1970s, the magazine started focusing on pop culture as a weekly in the vein of People Magazine. The magazine gradually shifted to heavy metal acts in the early and mid-1980s, then began focusing coverage on glam metal groups like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard in the mid-to-late 1980s.
As the 1990s progressed, Rothberg changed the longtime design and logo of the magazine, reduced the staff complement, and made use of freelance writers. It was during this period that Rothberg was attacked in the Guns N' Roses song "Get in the Ring".
Before the magazine was ceased publication in May 2006, [6] Circus covered contemporary heavy metal, competing against magazines like Kerrang and Hit Parader .
Thrash metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and fast tempo. The songs usually use fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead guitar work.
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Candlemass have been referred to as "the Big Four of Doom Metal".
The new wave of British heavy metal was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Editor Alan Lewis coined the term for an article by Geoff Barton in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of new heavy metal bands in the mid to late 1970s, during the period of punk rock's decline and the dominance of new wave music.
Kerrang! is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd. The magazine was named onomatopoeically after the sound of a "guitar being struck with force".
A number of heavy metal genres have developed since the emergence of heavy metal during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At times, heavy metal genres may overlap or are difficult to distinguish, but they can be identified by a number of traits. They may differ in terms of instrumentation, tempo, song structure, vocal style, lyrics, guitar playing style, drumming style, and so on.
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1980s built on the post-punk and new wave movements, incorporating different sources of inspiration from subgenres and what is now classed as world music in the shape of Jamaican and Indian music. It also explored the consequences of new technology and social change in the electronic music of synthpop. In the early years of the decade, while subgenres like heavy metal music continued to develop separately, there was a considerable crossover between rock and more commercial popular music, with a large number of more "serious" bands, like The Police and UB40, enjoying considerable single chart success.
Creem is an American rock music magazine and entertainment company, founded in Detroit, whose initial print run lasted from 1969 to 1989. It was first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. Influential critic Lester Bangs served as the magazine's editor from 1971 to 1976. It suspended production in 1989 but attained a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a tabloid. In June 2022, Creem was relaunched as a digital archive, website, weekly newsletter, and quarterly print edition.
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by the Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the world.
Kurt Loder is an American entertainment critic, author, columnist, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone, during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire, Details, New York, and Time. He has also made cameos on several films and television series. He is best known for his role at MTV News since the 1980s and for appearing in other MTV-related television specials. He has hosted the SiriusXM radio show True Stories since 2016.
Headbangers Ball is a music television program that consisted of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV and its global affiliates. The show began on MTV on April 18, 1987, playing heavy metal music videos from both well-known and more obscure artists. The show offered a stark contrast to Top 40 music videos shown during the day.
Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1990s continued to develop and diversify. While the singles charts were dominated by boy bands and girl groups, British soul and Indian-based music also enjoyed their greatest level of mainstream success to date, and the rise of World music helped revitalise the popularity of folk music. Electronic rock bands like The Prodigy and Chemical Brothers began to achieve a high profile. Alternative rock reached the mainstream, emerging from the Madchester scene to produce dream pop, shoegazing, post rock and indie pop, which led to the commercial success of Britpop bands like Blur and Oasis; followed by a stream of post-Britpop bands like Radiohead and The Verve.
Revolver is an American heavy metal music and hard rock magazine, published by Project M Group. It was originally launched under Harris Publications in the spring of 2000 by Tom Beaujour and Brad Tolinski, who envisioned it as an American version of Mojo. After five issues, it was relaunched in late 2001 with a focus on heavy music. The magazine features both established acts and up-and-comers in heavy music.
Indian rock is a music genre in India that may incorporate elements of Indian music with rock music, and is often topically India-centric. While India is more often known for its classical music, filmi, Bollywood music, Indi-pop, and Bhangra, the Indian rock scene has also produced numerous bands and artists.
Hit Parader was an American music magazine that operated between 1942 and 2008. A monthly publication, it focused on rock and pop music in general until the 1970s, when its focus began turning to hard rock and heavy metal. By the early 1980s, Hit Parader focused exclusively on heavy metal and briefly produced a spinoff television program entitled Hit Parader's Heavy Metal Heroes. The magazine reached its circulation peak in the mid-to-late 1980s selling a half-million copies every month as heavy metal music achieved high levels of popularity and commercial success.
Psychedelic music is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as DMT, LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin mushrooms, to experience synesthesia and altered states of consciousness. Psychedelic music may also aim to enhance the experience of using these drugs and has been found to have a significant influence on psychedelic therapy.
Australian heavy metal music has its roots in both the Australian hard rock and pub rock tradition of the 1970s and the American and British heavy metal scenes. Since the mid-1980s, Australian heavy metal has been particularly influenced by foreign bands, particularly Swedish death metal, American thrash metal and black metal from Norway. Within Australia heavy metal has always remained part of the underground but since the mid-1990s many Australian metal acts have found widespread acceptance in overseas markets, particularly in Europe.
The use of electronic music technology in rock music coincided with the practical availability of electronic musical instruments and the genre's emergence as a distinct style. Rock music has been highly dependent on technological developments, particularly the invention and refinement of the synthesizer, the development of the MIDI digital format and computer technology.
KRLA Beat was an American rock music magazine that operated between 1964 and 1968. It began in October 1964 as a free newsletter distributed by the Southern Californian radio station KRLA, before being reworked as a more reportage-focused title in February 1965. The music journalism archive Rock's Backpages describes KRLA Beat as "the first American newspaper dedicated to coverage of the top-forty rock-and-roll music scene".
Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrumentation into their music. Electronic rock acts usually fuse elements from other music styles, including punk rock, industrial rock, hip hop, techno and synth-pop, which has helped spur subgenres such as indietronica, dance-punk and electroclash.