Smash Hits RIP - 2

The web is awash with stuff about Smash Hits, from outpourings of grief from those distraught at the the idea of a life without the magazine, to things that are a bit more useful.

This - from the BBC - is VERY useful and prompts you with an activity that could have come straight from the GCSE exam.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4690000/newsid_4690200/4690232.stm

It's also worth noting that although the magazine has gone, the Smash Hits brand lives on in the form of Digital radio and TV stations. This is their website:

http://www.smashhits.net/

Smash Hits RIP - 1

February 13th 2006 was a dark day in the history of British pop music as the mighty Smash Hits was published for the final time. During its 28 year history - particularly during its golden age of 1982-1988 - the magazine transformed the way that pop music was written about in this country. Gone were the stuffy, earnest questions of NME and Melody Maker that treated pop stars as visionary prophets, replaced with questions about what fruit they thought Friday was.

Several factors are thought to be responsible for the fact that the magazine has gone to that big WH Smiths in the sky, and an understanding of these is likely to prove vital for yoour chances of the succes in the exam.

Start be looking at the Wikipedia entry and reading these articles from the Guardian that co-incided with the magazine's valedictory issue!

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1700405,00.html

and

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/feature/0,,1701291,00.html

More stuff t0 follow!

Popworld Pulp - New Mag Launched

In a staggeringly good bit of timing considering that the exam is hurtling towards us and it's a fairly good bet that they'll ask you to explain how you might launch a new music magazine, someone has gone and done exactly that by launching 'Pulp' a spin-off from the Channel 4 show Popworld. Many media bods have long believed that Popworld is the place where the original cheeky and irreverent spirit of Smash Hits magazine (RIP) now resides, so we'll see if Pulp maintains this.

As you can see by the choice of Klaxons as cover stars for the debut edition, they are squarely aiming at the NME crowd. Find out more about the magazine by a) buying a copy b) visiting their website at:-

http://www.popworld.com/pages/popworldpulp_home

and c) visiting this site where I'll be deconstructing the magazine and the issues it raises later this week!

The Twang 'Wide Awake' music video

And if you don't know what all the NME concocted fuss is about, this is it. It's like 1990 all over again.

The Twang - Pt 2

In a recent post I made some points about the NME's latest darlings The Twang, to the effect that their portrayal as a bunch of hooligans rampaging across the nation offers a great insight into how even a band such as this, who would probably come at you with a samurai sword - a key element in the mythology the press is building for them - if you dared suggest that they were in any way manufactured, are exactly that.

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Last week they capped their meteoric, Stella fuelled rise through the rock firmament by getting their first NME cover, and it was even more blatant in its attempt to position and represent the band as inheritors of the Gallagher's Rock Thugs in Chief mantle.

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The cover lines spoke volumes. 'Getting wasted with Britain's best new band' screamed one, 'You want some?' offered another. The article itself was full of references to their hard boozing ways, while the obligatory pint glasses featured in many of the pictures. Don't be so naive to think that this isn't as carefully stage-managed a way to represent a band as anything Simon Cowell or Louis Walsh would devise for their charges.

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And let's face it, you can't be cool and have a Brum accent.