Music For Grown Ups (Q)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	Q
Date:	11/11/02 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Informative, Good quality writing, Good record reviews

Disadvantages: Too much advertising

I grew up with punk, new wave, ska and reggae I remember when Paul Weller was an angry young man rather than the personification of ‘dad rock’ and like countless men of my generation I knew that god did exist and his name was JOHN PEEL!

Why am I telling you all this? Well in those far away days before PC’s, Chat rooms and Computer games ruled the lives of teenage boys, music was my number one interest and as such I religiously read the NME and Melody Maker. However as anyone knows, with time things change, and just like it’s thought to be very sad to go clubbing and attempt a new dance after the age of thirty, reading the NME now in my late thirties doesn’t feel right. So what’s left for people like me, we are not like our mums and dads who gave up on music when they reached 30, there is a huge market of thirty plus people who still buy CD’s and still want to follow what’s happening in the music world.

This is where Q magazine comes in. On the face of it this would be exactly right for me, a mature look at music that isn’t bothered about Will Young, Steps and the meaningless con game that has now become the top forty singles chart… but something is not quite right with the world of Q…

Q

The magazine was first published in 1986 and still comes out every month and looks very much like any other glossy lifestyle coffee table magazine. Colour pictures, expensive ads for cars, music and mobiles phones fill a large part of its pages. It is published on high quality fairly thick paper and it is a hefty read.

CONTENT

You have to turn to page 5 before you get to the actual magazine content the first pages are adverts. Glancing at the contents page there is a list of the special features in the issue, in the copy I’m looking at there are articles on ‘The Hives’, Bono, and Shakira as well as a report asking whether ‘Pop Idol’
is evil! (Of course it is!)
Turning the page we get to a listing of the magazines regular features that I will talk about in detail below.

Generally the content page is well laid out includes lots of photos illustrating the articles with the page number included in the bottom corner do that you can easily find your way there. In ‘web speak’ it is easy to navigate around.

INTERVIEWS

Every issue there is one major interview usually relating to the cover picture. The subjects can be almost anyone and in the past Madonna, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Van Morrison, Morrissey, Oasis, Travis, John Lydon, PJ Harvey etc. have all been featured. I think the standards of the interviews have slipped of late and now tend to try and be more sensational in their tone. An in depth investigation about an artist motivations towards his/her music often seems to have given way to a often sneering discussion about revelations of their drug taking habits and/or sexual encounters… Rock and Roll! (Not really).

The interviews slot used to feature the tag line ‘Who The Hell Do You Think They Are…’ but now it’s changed to ‘Cash For Questions With…’ maybe more appropriate in a more commercially minded time.

NOW

This is a short article section featuring some usually flattering paparazzi style photos of a variety of star names. Little snippets of official gossip are included next to each one. Usually included amongst these features are a few whole page spreads called NEW devoted to highlighting new bands or performers. In the past ‘Sum 41’, the ‘Vines’ and the ‘Hives’ have had this treatment.

TOP 40

Further in to the magazine we get to the top 40 charts…(No not the singles charts Q would never do that). We’re talking about the more serious and less easy to manipulate album chart. All the information is given, c
hart position, how many weeks, highest chart position as well as how many albums in total have been sold. Some of the records featuring in the chart have a little feature attached giving some relevant interesting information about it. Often humorous chart compilations are also included as a bit of light relief.

Q INTERACTIVE

Piling my way through more cigarettes and beer adverts we come to the ‘Interactive’ section, which is really the meat of the magazine. This includes a letters page, a question and answer section and the ever-popular ‘Where Are They Now?’ (Although I often find myself answering ‘Who Cares!) Recent issues have featured Brother beyond, Age of Chance and Leif Garett…see what I mean, but sometimes someone interesting is featured.

Most issues also include the celebrity buyer’s guide, which is as the title suggests this is a choice of five records selected by a top entertainment personality. One issue included ‘Ricky Gervais’s Guide To Famous Acts, Before They Went Shit’ Which I thought was very funny.

Other one off special features in this section have included ‘Top 50 women of Rock’ ‘How Drugs have influenced music’, Bets Live performers and annually in the December issue Q have always listed their top 40 albums of the year, which is always an interesting read. To accompany this feature the magazine has in the past given away a special CD featuring one track from some the top albums they have picked. In the past this CD alone is worth the price of the magazine

Q REVIEW

This section is the main reason why I still buy the magazine. Q reviews a fairly comprehensive selection of new albums and re-releases using their famous Dooyoo/Ciao like 5 star scoring system. 5 star being ‘Indispensable’ to one star being ‘Poor’ a short description of each album accompanies each selection and you get the fe
eling that each of the reviewers tend to be fairly knowledgeable in the particular genre of music they are discussing. All genres of music are covered and even teeny bop chart topping acts (as long as they have a album out, are reviewed.
The review also includes related media such as music DVD’s, Video’s and books and as such provides a first port of call for anyone wanting to find out what’s new in the shops.

GIG REVIEW AND GUIDE

Each issue contains a full gig guide on forthcoming concerts a few months in advance. You will also find a lot of advertising of gigs by the various promoters in addition to the magazines official listings. This section also includes the critical review of selected recent concerts by Q journalists attending.

OVERALL

Over the years Q has tried to slowly work it’s way to a younger market worried of being labelled as dad’s rock magazine. To some extent that has been successful and now you are just as likely to read a piece about Eminem or Marilyn Manson as you are about Neil Young or Bob Dylan…that’s progress for you.

Despite this its look, the way it’s presented and the price still aims at predominately the 30 plus market (who might want to feel that they are in touch with the kids…)

It has come a long way from the early issues and it does offer something for most music fans whatever their age or musical preferences. The problem I do have with it is that it still seems to be reverential of established acts in a way that mostly they don’t deserve. It seems to me that if Bob Dylan brings out a new album he is likely to get an easier critical appraisal that is a newer less established act. Q also seems to have an editorial policy to publicise Oasis and a disproportionate number of articles are written about them or their music. They do tend to latch onto a band and for a while at least that band become the ‘darling̵
7; of the Q journalists. In the past I have noticed this happen with U2, REM and Nirvana that is not to say that these bands don’t deserve high praise it’s just that Q can overdo things. In essence my biggest problem with Q seem to be that now it has become essentially part of the big record company establishment this feeling has been recently reinforced by them setting up their annual ‘Readers Awards’ and even more by the production of a satellite TV channel. Inevitable as this progression to the mainstream might be, for me a music magazine must always maintain a healthy level of scepticism and adopt a subversive attitude.

Despite their increased coverage of more exclusively youth based music Q still gives the impression (between the lines) that it is written by middle-aged journalists who were once fans of the ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ and their general tone certainly can seem to me to be slightly smug and patronising in its views, especially in their clear bias towards certain kinds of music. They also seem to have to some extent bought into the ‘post modern ironic’ lad culture and their tone especially in their article on well known female artist does seem to take this approach although Q cannot be said to be like ‘Loaded’ or ‘FHM’ in this respect.

Having said all this it is still one of the best music publication around and now still sets the standards for serious music journalism. It is a hefty magazine and is just about worth the money. It can be read cover to cover but will also be useful to dip back into for bits of information.

Recommended…just about…

Thanks for reading and rating this opinion

© Mauri 2002

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