Timeline 1966–2022
Music magazines have been published in Australia since the 1950s. They peaked in popularity during the 1970s and '80s, but currently, there are still several national titles, including local editions of Rolling Stone and the classical music-focused Limelight, among others.
The first music magazines in Australia began during the 1950s and were focused around youth and pop stars of the day. During the early 1960s titles included Teens Today, Teen Topics, Fan Forum, Australian Rock and Pop Stars, and Young Modern. They weren't viewed as being very serious, and by the mid-60s had ceased publishing, and it wasn't until 1966 when Go-Set was launched that Australia had its first successful national music magazine. [1] [2]
Go-Set was founded by Philip Frazer, and is considered to have laid the foundations for the Australian music press industry. It was published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974. [3] The magazine had two offshoot titles, Revolution which ran from 1 May 1970 to 1 August 1971, and High Times which ran August 1971 to 1 January 1972. [4] [5] In the fourth issue of Revolution, Rolling Stone Australia was included as a supplement. It became its own magazine in January 1972.
Australian Dance Band News had been founded in 1932, [6] and later became Music Maker in 1960. [7] It focused on jazz, both international and Australian jazz. It ceased publication in 1972 and was absorbed into Soundblast which ran another year. [8] [9]
During the 1970s Juke Magazine and its main competitor Rock Australia Magazine (RAM) started. Juke ran from 1975 to 1993 and was published weekly in Melbourne, while RAM was published fortnightly in Sydney from 1975 to 1989. RAM republished articles from English magazine New Musical Express (NME) alongside new Australian content. [10]
Outside of Melbourne and Sydney, Roadrunner was published in Adelaide as a monthly music magazine between 1978 and 1983. [11] In 2019 an anthology of articles from the magazine was published in a book titled The Big Beat. [12]
Between 1982 and 1987 the ABC TV series program Countdown had their own magazine and annual. [13] Other music titles formed during this period included Australian Smash Hits (1984–2007), TV Hits (1988–2005), [14] cassette magazine Fast Forward (1980–1982), classical music magazine ABC Radio 24 Hours (1976–current), and several others. [15]
See main article: Music Street Press of Australia.
Beginning in the late 1970s Australia had a strong street press culture, with titles in each state. They were available free and were often published weekly.
The popularity and frequency of the street press are credited with killing off the paid weekly music magazines during the 1990s, with Juke and RAM falling to their free competitors Beat and Drum Media . [16]
In 2020 most street press across Australia closed due to COVID19. In 2022 the remaining national titles are Mixdown and scenestr, while Canberra's BMA has become Australia's longest-running street press after Beat moved completely online. [17]
The 1990s saw several new magazines founded. Rhythms Magazine began in 1992, focused on Americana music such as blues, folk, and jazz. Juice , which included articles reprinted from Spin , was launched in March 1993 but closed its doors in 2003 after circulation dropped in its last three years from a reported 25,000 to only 6,000. [18] [19]
In 1994 The Music Network was started, and ran for 925 issues until 2013. [20] Drum Scene launched in 1995, focused on drumming, following the percussion newsletter In The Groove. [21]
Recovery launched in 1998, as a spinoff from the popular ABC TV series, and ran for 25 issues until 2000. [22] The ABC's Triple J radio station launched their own J Mag in 2005, eventually changing its name to Triple J Magazine, and then moving to an annual format before closing in 2015. ABC Radio 24 Hours was rebranded Limelight in 2003 and has continued to publish regularly about classical music.
Online music websites Mess+Noise, The Vine, FasterLouder and inthemix each had their own following, but were either merged or shut down as they were assimilated into Junkee Media. Nearly two decades of past content was erased during the process. [23] Mess+Noise had begun in 2005 as a bimonthly print publication and was one of the most widely viewed websites in Australia before it was closed. [24] The print edition ended in 2007 with their 14th issue. [25]
Swampland launched in 2016 and focused on longform writing, earning it comparisons to Mess+Noise. [26] The magazine also stood out for not running album reviews, and for focusing on Australian music. [23] [27] It closed in 2019. [28]
While there had been several Australian music magazines running concurrently during the 1970s and 80s, [15] there are still a significant mix of national magazines widely available in newsagents (Rolling Stone, Rhythms, Limelight), and smaller independent titles available in record stores or online ( Foley Magazine, Women In Pop). The following are in print:
Of those, NME Australia is owned by Singapore based music company BandLab Technologies and is a spin off from the English magazine, [29] while Rolling Stone Australia is licensed from the American company Penske Media Corporation. [30] The original run of Rolling Stone Australia ended in 2018 but was relaunched again in 2020 by The Brag Media, publishers of The Music Network website. [31] [32] Australian Guitar is part of Guitar World , an American magazine owned by NewBay Media. They published their 146th Australian issue in January 2022. [33]
Outside of the popular music focus of NME and Rolling Stone, the remaining titles tend to focus around niche subjects, such as Rhythms and Trad&Now (Americana), Limelight (classical), and DRUMscene (drumming). Others like Foley are produced independently, and aren't as widely available. [34] Music zines are also available in print and serve local focuses. [35] These are often printed in limited quantities and are available to purchase in speciality stores or online. [36]
Rolling Stone is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason.
New Musical Express (NME) is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "rock inkie", the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication, before becoming an online brand which includes its website and radio stations.
A punk zine is a zine related to the punk subculture and hardcore punk music genre. Often primitively or casually produced, they feature punk literature, such as social commentary, punk poetry, news, gossip, music reviews and articles about punk rock bands or regional punk scenes.
Uncut is a monthly magazine based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections. A DVD magazine under the Uncut brand was published quarterly from 2005 to 2006. The magazine was acquired in 2019 by Singaporean music company BandLab Technologies, and was published by NME Networks from December 2021. to August 2023, when the brand was sold to Kelsey Media.
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine Rolling Stone. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in a special issue of the magazine in 2003 and a related book in 2005.
The Music is an online Australian music magazine. It previously existed as a street press devoted to long-form music journalism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. In its printed form, it was based in Sydney and distributed throughout Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, Canberra and surrounding areas. The magazine changed its name to The Music in 2013, following the merge with two other magazines, Brisbane's Time Off and Melbourne's Inpress, owned by Street Press Australia. In 2020 the print edition was paused.
A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews, concert reviews and occasionally have a covermount with recorded music.
Rolling Stone Australia is the Australian edition of the United States' Rolling Stone magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture, published monthly. The Australian version of Rolling Stone was initially published in 1970 as a supplement in Revolution magazine published by Monash University student Phillip Frazer. It was launched as a fully fledged magazine in 1972 by Frazer and was the longest-surviving international edition of Rolling Stone until its last issue appeared in January 2018.
Addicted to Noise (ATN) was an American online music magazine in the early days of the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 by ex-Rolling Stone associate editor and senior writer Michael Goldberg and online music pioneer Jon Luini, it published its first issue on December 1, 1994 and was the first online magazine to include audio samples alongside new album reviews. It published its final issue on July 3, 2000.
Limelight is an Australian digital and print magazine focusing on music, arts and culture. It is based in Sydney, New South Wales. Originally published in 1976 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), as ABC Radio 24 Hours, or simply 24 Hours, since March 2018 it has been published independently by Limelight Arts Media, owned by music lovers Robert Veel and Bruce Watson.
The Music Network (TMN) is an Australian music magazine launched as a in 1994 by John Woodruff. It was printed weekly until March 2013, when it went fully online. In 2017 it was acquired by Jake Challenor, who served as its publisher and editor. In February 2022 The Music Network was acquired by The Brag Media, with Poppy Reid serving as editor-in-chief.
Darren James Cross, previously known as Darren E. Spielberg-Cross, is an Australian songwriter, musician, guitarist, record producer and video maker. Cross is the founding mainstay lead vocalist and guitarist of alternative rock group Gerling (1992–2007). He started the E.L.F. project in 2007, which issued an album, Plankton Icke and Tina Turner David City Limits (2010). His folk noir duo Jep and Dep were formed in 2012 with his domestic partner, Jessica Cassar on co-lead vocals, which have issued two albums. Under his own name he has released five studio albums, _Xantastic (2016), Peacer (2018), Keeping Up? (2020) and Distorder (2021). The artist's instrumental folk guitar project, D.C Cross has released five albums, Ecstatic Racquet (2019), Terabithian (2020), Hot-wire the Lay-low (2022), Wizrad (2023) and Glookies Guit (2024).
DMA's are an Australian rock band formed in 2012 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band is composed of lead vocalist Tommy O'Dell, lead guitarist Matt Mason, and rhythm guitarist Johnny Took. They originally gained popularity for their debut single "Delete" and for their self-titled EP, which were both released in 2014. The band have since gone on to release four studio albums: Hills End (2016), For Now (2018), The Glow (2020) and How Many Dreams? (2023). All four albums have peaked within the top 10 of the ARIA Albums Chart, with the latter two also reaching the top five in the UK and Scotland.
Alice Skye is an Australian singer and songwriter. She is a British and Wergaia/Wemba Wemba woman from Horsham.
Ruby Phillips, known professionally as Ruby Fields, is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Cronulla, New South Wales. In 2018, she released her debut EP Your Dad's Opinion for Dinner, followed by the singles "I Want", "P Plates", and "Ritalin". Her single "Dinosaurs" reached number nine on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2018.
Lime Cordiale are an Australian pop rock group formed in 2009. It consists of brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach, with additional members James Jennings, Felix Bornholt and Nicholas Polovineo. They released their debut studio album Permanent Vacation in 2017. The group have performed at Groovin' the Moo and South by Southwest (SXSW). At the 2020 ARIA Music Awards they were nominated in eight categories and won Breakthrough Artist – Release for their second album, 14 Steps to a Better You.
Anti Fade Records is a record label run by Billy Gardner based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
Australia has had a long history of street press media, beginning in the 1980s. Most street press have been centred around music and gig guides, but subjects have also included movies, fashion, and food. Each major city in Australia had at least two music street press at some point, and they were at their most popular during the 1990s.
Vintage Crop are an Australian music group from Geelong. They took their name from the English horse Vintage Crop.
Jake Robertson is an Australian musician from Central Coast, New South Wales, who moved to Geelong, Victoria in 2010. He has released music as Alien Nosejob, and in the bands Ausmuteants, Hierophants, Leather Towel, Modal Melodies, Smarts, and The Frowning Clouds. Many of these releases are on Anti Fade Records.