Blender Magazine
Written: Sep 01 '06
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Pros: Innovative, entertaining, informative, great price
Cons: A lot of advertising, not enough focus on older music
The Bottom Line: This is a an entertaining, informative magazine well worth the price of a subscription
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| teddiec's Full Review: Blender Magazine |
Blender Magazine
My daughter gets this magazine monthly, and since we always trade off - lucky me, because it's one we both enjoy reading.
BLENDER magazine dubs itself, "the ultimate guide to music and more." I'm not sure if i'd go that far, but I will say it's an edgy, entertaining, often informative read for music fans.
Launched in 2001, Blender comes from the same people that publish "Maxim" (Dennis Publishing), and has a very similar feel. Racy covers, cheeky humor, and glossy ads, but packed tightly loads of content. What's hot, up and coming artists, music reviews, interviews. It's all there, and then some.
Though it primarily focuses on contemporary music and artists (pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, rock and alternative), I'm always able to find a few interesting things about older artists and music every month, too. Minimal space is also given each issue to movie, game and book reviews, with occasional articles based on non-music related people and subject matter.
There is an awful lot of advertising in Blender, but for me, it's forgivable because it's balanced out with so much content. The amount of advertising might be the reason Blender is so reasonably priced, and if so the price is well worth flipping past so many advertisements.
The cover price is $3.99, but you can get this magazine for as little as $.55 cents a copy. (36 months - $19.97, 24 months - $14.97, 12 months - $7.97). To me, that's reason enough to subscribe if you are interested in the music industry even a little. That it consistently turns out entertaining, informative articles and regular features makes this magazine much more than just a bargain.
Monthly Features
REGULARS
This section includes letters from readers, comments, etc., and a featured Q&A on the last page of every issue called, "Who Does [insert artist name here] Think He/She Is? It can be anyone from Jewel to Tommy Lee and the questions seem less probing than they are just for fun. (Tommy Lee: "If you were a woman, who would you be?.") Some of the answers, however can spark some pretty interesting dialogue and follow up questions, depending on the artist.
BURNER
This is where you'll find the bulk of Blender's humor. The section is subtitled, "everything you need to know...and plenty you don't", and it's a pretty apt description.
"Busy" is the word that comes to mind, and seems accurate, but for the negative connotation. I love that there's so much in here. Some of the features you can count on every month include:
****Blender's Burning Question****Almost Famous****Pop Star Must Haves****Tips From the Stars****News Roundup****Weird Band Alert****Obits****In the Studio****20 Songs You Should Download This Month****
That last bit is one of my favorites. Blender recommends 20 download worthy songs, complete with short descriptions and an unusual icon system for suggesting who each song might appeal to. (a cartoon guy with glasses= 'hipster', same guy with glasses and wrinkles= 'aging hipster', thong clad derierre= 'crunky').
In addition to these regular features, this section is just full of news, gossip, fun facts, photos, humorous quips, quotes, reader polls, contests and the like.
THE INSIDER
The Insider usually includes at least one semi-lengthy, offbeat article or interview. August's issue for example included a piece about rocks biggest wusses. (think: Nick Lachey, Donovon...)
There is also a regular Q&A here for a featured artist called, "Dear Superstar." (You send the questions, we get the answers.)
Every month, The Greatest Songs Ever disects a great song from the past, providing background and interesting information surrounding the song and how it came to be so memorable.
Ask Blender is yet another, but general Q&A forum where readers are invited to send thier questions via snail mail or e-mail.
THE GUIDE
Here's where you'll find Bender's reviews in monthly articles titled, "New Releases", "The Top 33 Chart", "Reissues" (reviews of past albums), "Live", "Movies", "Games", and "Back Catalogue."
This last one is always an in depth article focusing on a particular artist or band from the past, with a breakdown of all thier albums listed and commented on.
CONTENT
This section, appropriately titled "content" is a listing of the featured articles in the issue. There's an in depth piece on the cover person, almost always an artist or band, but occasionally a celebrity of another kind. Several other fairly lengthy articles are included. The style is laid back and entertaining, while still managing to be informative.
* Every issue includes a handy 'Artists Index' for easy lookup of your favorite performers.
Blender magazine is clearly aimed at the younger set, but in spite of being mumblemumble years old, I find that I read it almost from cover to cover.
It's innovative, it's entertaining, and it's busy. Very busy..but in a good way as far as i'm concerned.
It's not a Rolling Stone clone, and I get the feeling it doesn't want to be. If you are a hard core music fan, this might not be THE magazine for you, but simply A magazine you'll enjoy - at an amazingly low price.
* BLENDER Magazine contains some colorful language and occasional partial nudity - so unsuitable for young teens and the easily offended.
Recommended:
Yes
Favorite Type of Music: Rock ''n'' Roll
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teddiec
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