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You bastards killed pop music!!!


Paulscoconutass

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The last ever issue is on sale Feb: 13th.

Smash Hits, which is to close after 28 years, was the bible for many teenagers discovering their musical tastes in the 1980s and 1990s.

Every fortnight, Smash Hits thumped through the letterbox dishing out gossip, interviews, pull-out posters - and perhaps most importantly - lyrics to the top tunes of the day. The whole kit and caboodle was served up in a typically playful house style that would go on to set a new standard in magazines.

In 1981, it is rumoured that the then Smash Hits editor David Hepworth sent a memo to record companies saying he intended "to reverse the entire direction" of pop music publishing in favour of trivia, demanding to know the colour of their artists' socks. The approach worked.

Interviews with artists like The Cure and the Cocteau Twins were sandwiched comfortably between gossip on pop acts like Duran Duran and Wham! Smash Hits was the brainchild of former NME man Nick Logan, who thought about calling his protegee pop bible Disco Fever. Founding editor Logan went on to launch The Face in 1980

Mark Frith, who now edits Heat magazine, said the music industry itself may also be to blame for the demise.

"I think these days, a lot of pop music is invented in boardrooms at record companies and it kind of ticks all the boxes and appeals to the right demographic. Where are the characters coming through now and making pop music? It's not just there. I think Smash Hits particularly thrived on those kind of people."

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Guest Neubeatz
I agree. When I was a teenager I read Penthouse. I say read' date=' I actually mean.... Oh what the hell I read it too. Some of those stories were extremely arousing.o_O[/quote']

ha ha, :) when smashits was cool I used to enjoy the "Fishing News".:D

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