July 10th, 2008 // 10 Comments

tapeop.jpgTake heart, those of you who fear the imminent demise of the era where people read about music on stapled-and-printed pages: Seven music-related periodicals have made the short list of the Chicago Tribune‘s annual “50 Best Magazines” list. They are: the Baroque-centric bimonthly Goldberg; the classical mag Gramophone; the indie bible Magnet; the Metropolitan Opera’s house organ Opera News; the still-hanging-in-there Rolling Stone, which gets points for its access and being nicer than Pitchfork; and the home-recording obsessives’ guide Tape Op. And, um, the NME, which I guess does hold its own in the “soldiering on breathlessly despite the facts being in the way sometimes” department. [Chicago Tribune]


  1. Ned Raggett

    Well, speaking of magazines that still are predominantly magazines rather than websites — hats off to my recent discovery Bixobal. And then there’s Dream but as I’ve written for them my view is by default biased.

  2. Lucas Jensen

    As a gamer, I have to say…Nintendo Power? EGM remains the best and not a tool of one company (no matter how much I adore them).

  3. the rich girls are weeping

    @Ned Raggett: Woah, thx for the heads-up on Bixobal. Srsly.

  4. Anonymous

    TapeOp is a great magazine. And a subscription is absolutely free!

  5. westartedthis

    “…decidedly absent of intrusive first-person narratives in which the self-indulgent journalist becomes that obnoxious solo marring what could have been a tight pop song.”

    uh – which Magnet were they reading?

  6. cheesebubble

    A portion of the Tribune’s list seemed middle-of-the-road. I was happiest to see [www.BelieverMag.com] in there. I’ll go on to namedrop [www.ArthurMag.com] along with [www.ReadyMadeMag.com] and Canada’s lovely music mag [www.Exclaim.ca] too. The cyberworld hasn’t killed off the printed word just yet!

  7. bcapirigi

    I forgot about Tape Op!

    Also, why is Wax Poetics not on that list?

  8. Murgatroid

    @cheesebubble: seriously, Exclaim? it’s one big ad, i’d be hesitant to even call it a magazine.

  9. cheesebubble

    @Murgatroid: SERIOUSLY! The ads are what makes it available for free. And, honestly, they don’t bother me. At least the ads are largely music related. I can’t think of another Canadian music magazine that comes close to Exclaim. Chart Magazine is like Teen Beat fodder.

  10. conveyancing Solcitors Essex

    Such interesting work and reporting! Keep up the great work guys

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