Pick a Day

Music History Events: Magazines

August 22, 1938 America's most famous dancing partners, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, appear together on the cover of Life magazine.

January 4, 1936 Billboard magazine publishes their first "Hit Parade," which ranks songs based on sales and airplay. The first #1: "Stop! Look! Listen!" by Joe Venuti & his Orchestra.

September 26, 1908 The first stereo advertisement, for an Edison Phonograph, appears in the Saturday Evening Post.

November 1, 1894 Billboard Advertising, a trade publication dealing with all manner of billboard advertising, begins publication and sells for a dime. Within a few years, it will begin focusing on the entertainment shows advertised by billboards, and by the 1930s Billboard, as it has come to be known, is covering radio and sales of the new medium, juke box records.

November 13, 2020 Harry Styles appears on the cover of Vogue, becoming the first man to get the cover solo.

July 28, 2020 The British music magazine Q publishes its last issue, ending a 34-year run.

March 9, 2018 After 66 years, the British music magazine NME publishes its last print edition. The London rapper Stefflon Don gets the cover.

July 2, 2015 For the first time ever, Rush make the cover of Rolling Stone. The magazine and their cohorts at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (which didn't induct the band until 2013), have given Rush short shrift throughout their career, but even diehard fans are pleased with the piece.

February 12, 2015 "Weird Al" Yankovic becomes the first-ever guest editor at MAD magazine when it is announced that he will be assisting with issue #533.

August 19, 2013 The phrase "bro-country" appears for the first time, used by Jody Rosen in a New York magazine story to describe the Florida Georgia Line song "Cruise." Rosen crowns Luke Bryan king of the genre, which he describes as "music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude."

April 13, 2011 New American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez is named People magazine's Most Beautiful Person of 2011.

October 2, 2009 Esquire announces Kate Beckinsale as their Sexiest Woman Alive with a video of the actress set to the song "Goodbye Hollywood" by Jet.More

March 11, 2008 Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's newborn twins, Maximilian David and Emme Maribel, make their public debut in People. With a $6 million price tag, the exclusive photo is the most expensive celebrity picture ever taken at the time.

October 4, 2007 Pitchfork gives Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, a positive review (8.1) leading to huge record label interest.

June 8, 2000 Sinead O'Connor comes out as a lesbian during an interview with Curve magazine, saying, "I would say that I'm a lesbian. Although I haven't been very open about that and throughout most of my life I've gone out with blokes because I haven't necessarily been terribly comfortable about being a lesbian. But I actually am a lesbian." She marries a man the following year and says she's "three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay."

November 1, 1997 Fiona Apple appears on the cover of Spin magazine under the headline, "She's Been a Bad, Bad Girl." Apple is peeved at the portrayal and writes a 90-word poem in response, which becomes the title over her next album, When The Pawn...

July 21, 1997 As the forerunner of a new era of women in rock, Jewel becomes the first Atlantic Records artist to grace the cover of TIME magazine.

August 12, 1996 With ska booming in America, Time magazine runs an article titled "It's a Ska World After All." Sublime, No Doubt and 311 all have albums on the chart.

January 15, 1994 Ska music bubbles under in America as Billboard publishes a cover story called "Hunt for 'Next Big Thing' Unearths Ska Underground." Bands like No Doubt, Reel Big Fish and Sublime soon break through with ska-inflected sounds.

April 16, 1992 Nirvana appear on the cover of Rolling Stone with Kurt Cobain wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."

October 27, 1986 David Byrne, who has recently directed the movie True Stories (with a soundtrack by his band, Talking Heads), makes the cover of Time magazine under the headline "Rock's Renaissance Man."More

February 26, 1986 Thanks to their hit "West End Girls," Pet Shop Boys land the cover of Smash Hits magazine, which their frontman, Neil Tennant, used to write for.More

September 12, 1985 Rolling Stone publishes their interview with Prince, who has not spoken to the press in three years. He remains elusive, but explains why he made up stories in his early years to appease and confound reporters: "I used to tease a lot of journalists early on, because I wanted them to concentrate on the music."More

June 7, 1985 The movie Perfect debuts in theaters, starring John Travolta as a Rolling Stone reporter who falls for aerobics instructor Jamie Lee Curtis. While the drama is a dud with critics, it portrays Rolling Stone as more than a music magazine – which is exactly what its editor-in-chief Jann Wenner hoped. More

February 28, 1985 Bruce Springsteen wins for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and pretty much any award he was eligible for in the Rolling Stone reader's poll.

December 8, 1980 Annie Leibovitz photographs John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their apartment in New York City for a feature in Rolling Stone. Lennon is shot and killed hours later.

May 21, 1979 Time magazine runs a story on Rickie Lee Jones titled "The Duchess of Coolsville," a reference to the song "Coolsville" on her debut album. The moniker sticks.

January 2, 1975 Suzi Quatro lands the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with the headline, "Suzi Quatro flexes her leather." With a string of UK hits under her cowhide, she's ready to conquer her home country (born and raised in Michigan), but fails to break through. The magazine does get the attention of Happy Days producers, who cast her on the show as Leather Tuscadero.

March 31, 1973 Elton John appears on the front page of Melody Maker, which proclaims, "Now Elton's A Teen Idol!"

January 3, 1970 Melody Maker names Al Stewart's Love Chronicles its folk album of the year.