BBC Music vs Gramophone

[MDL]

Well put

Thank you! I'm worried that Gramophone is losing its way. I'm old enough to remember the days when Gramophone looked more like IRR than today's Gramophone. OK, it was slightly uncompromising, but people respected its integrity. When I was a student and spent all day playing X-Mal Deutschland, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees (after realising that playing Stockhausen's Carré and Penderecki's The Devils of Loudun all day long was alarming the neighbours), I really got into indie mag Zig-Zag. But in the mid-late '80s, Zig-Zag shifted from indie to mainstream. People lost interest and Zig-Zag died. Then in the '90s, Classic CD magazine tried to broaden its audience. The same thing happened. People were buying the mag to read about classical music, not jazz or world music. I stopped buying it, and so did a lot of other people.

I've been reading Gramophone on and off for 30 years, and for the last 20 years I've bought every issue. If it were to dilute itself, lose its core audience and fail like so many other mags, I would be so, so, so, SO-O-O-O-O-O gutted.

[Mark]

Even in the four years I've been regularly reading Gramophone, I've detected a shift towards a more commercial tone and a general dumbing down. The title seems content to be in the pockets of whichever advertisers pay the most. It's as though they're gunning for a peculiar marriage between the accessibility of BBC Music Magazine and the tittle tattle of sister title, Class FM Magazine. It's disappointing, but it's just another example of a downward cultural trend, it seems to me. 

[Solitary Wanderer]

Well, I've just taken out a 13 issue subscription to BBC Music.

I bought an issue last year and was rereading it last night and found myself quite enjoying it so I've decided to take the plunge and subscribe.

I'm buying very few cds at the moment due to other financial priorities [renovations on the house/trip to Canada next year] so the prospect of a classical music magazine arriving in the mail each month is something to look forward to.

[M forever]

Even in the four years I've been regularly reading Gramophone, I've detected a shift towards a more commercial tone and a general dumbing down. The title seems content to be in the pockets of whichever advertisers pay the most. It's as though they're gunning for a peculiar marriage between the accessibility of BBC Music Magazine and the tittle tattle of sister title, Class FM Magazine. It's disappointing, but it's just another example of a downward cultural trend, it seems to me. 

You write advertisements, don't you?

[Mark]

You write advertisements, don't you?

The irony has not escaped me ...

[M forever]

Irony is not the correct word in this context. Hypocrisy is. How can you criticize a "downward cultural trend" when you contribute to it yourself?

[Sergeant Rock]

I don't read either anymore. Having come of age with Gramophone in the 60s, I was a faithful reader until just a few years ago when I became disgusted with the direction Haymarket decided to go.

This illustrates the problem:




Empty, wasted space; too many pics; larger font than in the previous century; and approxiamately 35% fewer words per page than in this example from 1993:




I like illustrations but not at the expense of critical commentary.

Sarge

[DavidRoss]

I'm only mildly surprised that by 1993 literacy standards had slipped so low that Gramophone failed to distinguish between "among" and "between."

[M forever]

I got an email from Gramophone last week asking me to participate in a survey. I am not a subscriber but I am a registered user of the website. Funny though, at the same time the website went down for several days. And not for the first time. They have been offline regularly and then often for extended periods of times. I have a strong feeling that whatever people manage the magazine these days are drastically incompetent. Maybe I should take the survey and say that!

[M forever]

The website is back up. So I went there to look up a review in Gramofile, but

Sorry, Gramofile is currently unavailable due to technical problems. We apologise for any inconvenience.


OK...

[Mark]

How can you criticize a "downward cultural trend" when you contribute to it yourself?

I don't. All my work is non-product based.

[M forever]

What does that mean?

[eyeresist]

I like illustrations but not at the expense of critical commentary.

So really the problem is not wasted space but lack of content. I dislike paying for a magazine I can finish off fairly thoroughly in two hours at lunchtime.

[The new erato]

What does that mean?

That he doesn't produce anything?

[Mark]

What does that mean?

That the field of advertising in which I specialise has no impact on the general downward trend to which I referred earlier. Advertising is broken down into numerous specialisms - mine is HR communications. Therefore, what I do specifically doesn't put me in the same bracket as those who produce adverts for the likes of BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone.

And ... we're back on topic.

[Hector]

I's the same people.

There seems to be a 'pool' of music critics able to be called upon to review a stack of CDs on a monthly basis by the BBC Magazine as well as the Saturday CD Review (no pictures but expansive examples from the disc under review and, often, the whole record!), Gramophone and IRR. I cannot speak about Classic FM because I have never read it neither do I listen to it (there is a limit to the number of 'Great Bleeding Chunks' I can take in a sitting).

If one is so keen on reading other peoples opinion, albeit professional, then subscribe to all of them or, better still, pop down to your local WH Smiths and read them off the rack. A lot of people do this and annoy people like me who cannot reach past them for a copy of 'Asian Babes'( apparently, I'm not the only subsciber to this board that has a predilection for this artwork).

[Sergeant Rock]

So really the problem is not wasted space but lack of content. I dislike paying for a magazine I can finish off fairly thoroughly in two hours at lunchtime.

Exactly. Twenty, thirty years ago a new issue of Gramophone would be a three day project. The issues published this century I can usually polish off in less than an hour. If that is what a younger generation of classical music lovers want--a short read--then Gramophone is giving them what they want. But I know I'm not the only old fart who has given up on them. They have offended quite a few loyal readers, readers that had been with them for decades.

Sarge

[Lethevich]

But I know I'm not the only old fart who has given up on them.

After only seriously listening for six or so years (AKA young fart), I have already gotten tired of Gramophone's non-content. Every article (especially the front page "headliners") seems to be an excercise in stretching out minimal material over multiple pages, aided by tons of graphics. A while ago I realised that I had almost never read anything other than the reviews, and am not going to spend money on it anymore... The useless CD is the final nail in the coffin, as I am paying a further premium for that rubbish. The reviews I still find to be good, but that isn't enough.

[Don]

After only seriously listening for six or so years (AKA young fart), I have already gotten tired of Gramophone's non-content. Every article (especially the front page "headliners") seems to be an excercise in stretching out minimal material over multiple pages, aided by tons of graphics. A while ago I realised that I had almost never read anything other than the reviews, and am not going to spend money on it anymore... The useless CD is the final nail in the coffin, as I am paying a further premium for that rubbish. The reviews I still find to be good, but that isn't enough.

The reviews are enough for me, and my adult daughter appreciates the "useless" CD.

[Lethevich]

my adult daughter appreciates the "useless" CD.

Fortunate... I feel like some kind of environmental criminal throwing the CD out each issue (the cases get saved for future use).