What is the best Music magazine?

I would say Downbeat is the best magazine being produced.  Every issue has so many albums reviewed with a great explanation.  I think that is missing from the more techy types.  Also rhythm is handled very differently depending on the instrument so when you exclude rhythmical labelings these magazines do a disservice in some ways.  Next year I plan to subscribe to quite a few which are the best.  Electronic Musician, Record, Computers and music vs Keyboard and Guitar player and Downbeat.  What other good magazines are there?

For recording I enjoy MIX and SOS (Sound on Sound). I used to enjoy Electronic Musician, but can't find it locally anymore.  As a guitarist, "Guitar Player" has always been my go to since the early 80's.
 
I don't buy any magazine that is strictly based on reviews, gossip and/or rumors. I find myself growing disinterested in all magazines as the "ads to articles" ratio continues to get more and more lopsided.  Now that I am 50+, I also find the layout of many magazines difficult to read w/ small text & low contrast.
 
Just my 2 cents...

Outside of recording, 'Mojo' is hard to beat.

bapu
I got my mojo working.
 
Oar Dew Eye?

Only Ewe wood know.......if not, it's a signal for SOS.

My take on Computer music is that technical and Genre traditions go along together.  It seems that no time is spent on discussing common introductions in a genre or a common theme that might run through a culture and why musically it might be expressed this way.   When you use electronics it has to fit the style but the styles come out of cultures which always seem to be left out.  I agree with you that steps are left out and I would wwrite out each section and just pair one word to a following and built my vocabulary that way now I am trying to fit that back to styles to actually invent music.  (The cultural process) I guess is what my complaint is is not being talked about. 

tlw
 
 
For music and music related journalism, probably the New Musical Express, 1976 to 1981 :-)

 
A resounding +1.

Glyn Barnes
Sound on Sound for sure.

I like "Prog" magazine, I have discovered a lot of bands through that mag.

 A vote for Prog from me as well. Finding that mag was like a breath of fresh air. A solid proof, if any, of that there is life outside the pop-charts.

Kalle Rantaaho

Glyn Barnes
Sound on Sound for sure.

I like "Prog" magazine, I have discovered a lot of bands through that mag.

A vote for Prog from me as well. Finding that mag was like a breath of fresh air. A solid proof, if any, of that there is life outside the pop-charts.

For "prog" or "progressive", the PA board (Progarchives) is the best, but there are issues in there that are not fun. They are strictly a database, and they are not interested in the artist, and the relationship between interviews, reviews and postings on the board, are not combined or worked together into a cohesive whole. To me, this is like treating music as just notes ... there is no art to it.
 
Sadly, it has a tendency to get almost all threads derailed, because there is always a smarty pants that is more interested in ruining the threads than adding to it. But in terms of quantity, there really is no better site out there, but the quantity has a tendency to alienate folks badly! I get really tired of the 1000 progressive/prog sub-descriptions.

Another vote for MOJO, here.
 
(MOJO is primarily focused on rock and blues. If you want to read @ jazz, classical, etc, look elsewhere.)
 
Cheers,
 
Bert

Moshkito

beltrom
Since this thread seems to have gone in prog rock direction check out the "progzilla radio" podcast if you haven't. Picked up a few good artists from that.

If you check Live 365, for example, you can find about 3 or 4 channels that are interesting, with one exception ... after a couple of hours, it repeats the same thing ... in other words ... top ten all over again, and that in itself is not progressive at all.
 
Even I have tried to get on with them, and I wanted to have a set of rotating things, but already I had 37 hours of music string together and they freaked out ... they only wanted an hour and a half or 2 hours ... and goodness, you can't even introduce a whole bunch of artists on that unless they are top ten turkeys and that's not very progressive.
 
However, there is ALWAYS, one or two songs, or albums that you end up checking out on these things ... but the repetitious nature of it all is sad and pathetic.

Well I normally just download the latest mp3 from http://www.progzilla.com/ (they have plenty of earlier editions to download as well, and mostly with artist lists if you want to be selective) so I haven't really given podcasts as such much thought for several years. But I think I remember a similar experience to yours, as well as having plenty of tech issues back in those days.

beltrom
 
... Well I normally just download the latest mp3 from http://www.progzilla.com/ (they have plenty of earlier editions to download as well, and mostly with artist lists if you want to be selective) so I haven't really given podcasts as such much thought for several years. But I think I remember a similar experience to yours, as well as having plenty of tech issues back in those days.

 
There is a side of things that really turns me off ... and the main page, of Progzilla, right now shows it ... and if you look it has a cut from Jon Anderson's album ... and it is not an original ... it's a cover of an old song.
 
That's not progressive. That's VERY regressive, and tells me that those folks have no ear for music and can not hear new things. The great thing about most folks that are into the "progressive" thing HONESTLY, is that they are not afraid to hear new things, and in most cases they love it.
 
I just find, this example of crass commercialism very untasteful. As for me, heck, I have been into Klaus, TD, and others since 1971 and AD2, Can, and Canterbury way before that, and so much progressive music going back to the days of Sgt Peppers and Satanic Majesty's Request or Days of Future Passed ... and having an understanding for its history is not one of my issues.
 
It's like saying you love jazz, and the first thing you play is "Take Five" ... love the guy, but it's not even a good representative of "jazz" and what it was and became. Even a Miles would be better, but most jazz lounge lizards have not even heard ****es Brew! They just know their scales and minors!

beltrom
Ok, I won't force you to listen to the podcast...
Is it ok if I still think it's progressive rock and like to listen to it?

I'll listen to it, of course ... but that listing kinda ... throws me off. I wish I could get you to listen to things like "Space Pirate Radio" and its uncompromising state in music, and it was on for over 24 years ... the mixes, the weirdness, the music and the numbers of artists, was so insane, that you finally wanted to hear Faust, right after Peter Hammill, right by sound effects going backwards, with Eloy going forwards, and ... in other words, it made "radio" sound like radio. Nowadays, those "podcasts" are just someone's favorite three songs with ... ohh let's play this, it will make it more progressive ... and I was involved with stuff that was way beyond that ... so progressive that we were way out in the stratosphere discussing stratosfears for the xenophobic ... in a foreign language. SPR was like a "foreign movie without the subtitles" ... and the music content was so varied and everywhere that you could not peg it down as this or that!
 
Now, that makes it for music! I wish I had the permission to share it, but I don't and can't. But you can come over and get some really good listens! This makes folks not believe me ... and that's fine ... I have the tapes and 500 hours ... you don't! From 1974 through 1982. I wouldn't even consider that listing progressive! Or the one for today with Steve Hackett 3 times ... how original! The day "The Lamb Died Down on Broadway" came out, my roomie's show played the Genesis album in ITS ENTIRETY, and at the end, decided to do it again, and the station supposedly had one of its highest number of listeners from 1AM to 4AM. It took folks at the station another 2 weeks to decide which songs to play from the album ... they were waiting for a "hit song", or for KLOS or KMET to play something first! (Southern California!)

Once upon a time, "progressive rock" meant music that pushed the envelope of what constituted rock music, by abandoning traditional song structure and instrumentation, and infusing familiar forms with elements borrowed from classical, folk, world and jazz.
 
Sadly, "progressive rock" has since become a genre. Once that happens, a piece of music has to meet established criteria to qualify for inclusion. Anything that truly challenges the status quo won't qualify. The same can be said for every other genre that has a name: modern country, blues, trad jazz, folk,metal.
 
[EDIT: Cranky rant deleted. I've had my coffee now.]
  
Back to topic: Melody Maker was my favorite music magazine back in the day. I don't know if it still exists.

beltrom, thanks for the Progzilla podcast tip. I am enjoying that right now. The host needs to gets some acoustical treatments in his room, though. It sounds like he's recording it in his bathroom.
 

beltrom
... 
I'd love to come over but I guess you're in the US and I'm in Europe so it's a bit impractical. But I bet we'd have a lot to talk about.
...

The show previously mentioned (Space Pirate Radio) was ALL about imports, and in this case, all European, with lots of Japanese and many other things. Pretty much, from 1973 on, every single import of notice was played ... and it still is the most progressive of any show out there. And totally not a compromise show.
 
We never called it "progressive", mainly because that term is silly when it comes to any art, and its progressions. But since the 1990's it seems to have become a term for it, even though its very definition by many websites, is the most ridiculous musical definition for music ever!