For pop media 2018 was a fatal year. The British „NME“, which set the tone for decades, has been history since this year. At the end of the year, the music channel Viva stops operating – and the magazines „Spex“, „Intro“ and „Groove“ have been published for the last time. It is not a big surprise that classical formats will lose the audience. Sustainable business models are hardly in sight.
The pop-media mass extinction of the year 2018 will go down as a particularly merciless in the history of the media. Long-established print titles such as „Spex“ got it as well as the once influential TV broadcaster Viva. The market adjustment also knows no contentwise borders: It concerns magazines for music enthusiasts specific Genrezuschnitts such as „Groove“, in addition, on mass directed free media like „Intro“. And also from a geographical point of view, there is little mercy.
Pop media are in crisis in the German-speaking countries as well as in the mother country of pop music, Great Britain. US media are not doing much better. But as brutally as the balance may read – great bewilderment has caused none of the news, but at most one or the other nostalgic feeling triggered. For all concerned media it was an expected end. The question was not if, but when.
New consumer behavior
Above all, the radical technological change and the accompanying change in consumer behavior in terms of music are responsible for the suppression of classical pop media. From a scarce commodity became a constantly available oversupply. This is nothing new. What is new is the clarity with which the large-scale change is increasingly showing.
In particular, the fact that young listeners with music consumption are socialized via smartphone changes the media offer. If there is no way past music magazines for a more intensive discussion, then there is no longer any need for a change of media. Music is read wherever it is consumed – online.
Also a change of interactions
Therefore, the development by no means the end of pop journalism – which takes place long ago in relevant portals and platforms. But with the end for many pop media relics of an era disappear, in which the power of definition was concentrated in a few media, which ultimately also provided for interactions between media and music. This has been shaping for a long time. The general change is therefore extremely profound, causing many feedbacks.
Out after 66 years
Just the example of the „NME“ („New Musical Express“) shows how much the situation has changed. In March of this year, the Musikblatt has been published for the last time as a print edition after exactly 66 years – the media brand exists online. The digital competition had already made sure for some years that the „NME“ had disappeared in insignificance in terms of content. To know what’s going on in Pop Britain, there was no need to go to the kiosk for a long time. Digital channels proved to be a more adequate means. The edition dropped drastically. Most recently, the sheet appeared as a free magazine.
Magazine as a hype machine
For weddings of the „NME“ the magazine was an active element of the British music machine, which proclaimed new trends and hypes on a weekly basis – sometimes in an excitement that was in no way inferior to the British Yellow Press. In particular, the Britpop wave of the 1990s was accompanied by great media noise.
Rivalries between bands were designed to give the music scene certain soap opera qualities – a form of coverage that also favored the emergence of bands and artists of a certain caliber – who were willing to play the media game of the „NME“. It was about making stars or dismantling them – always with a fair amount of transfiguration and great interest in the debauchery of bands and musicians.
Social media characters instead of mythical icons
Therefore, the end of the traditional „NME“ and many other pop media is not only linked to the general change in the media. Digitalisation is also bringing about a cultural change that makes classic media look very old.
If their business had long been creating mythical icons that were bigger than life, today’s broad-based pop star is a transparent social media figure, for example the „taz“ describes the transformation. Likewise, in a globalized world, the major creative capitals have lost their appeal. The vanishing definition of a few titles basically means a democratization process. Classic gatekeepers have lost much in importance. Under such conditions as a print title to pass is difficult.
Last „Spex“ issue appeared
Also „Spex“, the most influential German-language music magazine, has made an end this year in view of the collapsed advertising business after 38 years. In the 1980s, the magazine became a relevant player and certain the discourse with coverage that went beyond music, including social and pop-thematic issues. Also the end of „Spex“ was no surprise. Crises and realignments have been constant companions for years. The glory of old days had long since vanished. Identity could no longer find the leaf. The final issue was released on December 17th.
There are hardly any ways out of the crisis. And the difficult framework conditions are clearly visible in those magazines that still appear in print. Titles such as the German „Rolling Stone“ set in the face of lack of young readership on the administration and canonization of music history. The golden years of rock and pop history are more important in content.
Noble shoes and fries
The helplessness is also reflected here in the form of lifestyle topics and consumer instructions that have already brought many other pop media to the grave. Men’s fashion and upscale footwear dominate the ads, as if the average music fan were middle and senior management who wanted to express their authenticity with a large vinyl collection. And even before culinary is not stopped: Noble French fries in duck fat so rock’n’roll theme and testify that the identity crisis of the pop media is likely to last even longer.
