From polyglottism to branding

The popular music press in the UK has undergone a number of important changes since the mid-1990s. These changes are due to a variety of factors including the emergence and proliferation of high-production glossy niched monthly titles, the fragmentation and over-saturation of the market for consumer music titles, the bureaucratic restructuring of music magazines, the occupational re-evaluation of the music journalism profession and an increasingly PR-led industry climate. What all this has meant is that the space devoted to, and the access required for, ‘immersion reporting’ – the New Journalism touchstone which informed the music press through the 1970s and 1980s – has been greatly reduced, resulting in a refocusing of resources and the once autonomous ‘personality writer’ being superseded by a single branded magazine identity. The article draws on interviews with music journalists, editors, editors-in-chief and press officers as well as participant observation in music magazines, all conducted as part of the author's PhD research at the University of Westminster.