Press: the papers and zines that told the story

Before the internet, you learned about a band from print. Weekly papers, glossy monthlies and stapled fanzines did not only report on punk, they helped to make it. This section looks at who published what, and why it mattered.

Britain had an unusually strong weekly music press in the 1970s, with NME, Melody Maker, Sounds and Record Mirror all competing for the same readers. A good review on a Thursday could change a band's week. In the United States Creem, founded in Detroit in 1969, brought a rowdier tone to rock writing and Rolling Stone stood for the established view.

Then readers started writing for themselves. Punk magazine appeared in New York in January 1976, and in July that year Mark Perry put out the first Sniffin' Glue in London, photocopied and stapled. Zines cost almost nothing to make, needed nobody's permission and spread the do-it-yourself idea as effectively as any record.

Our press pages explain how these publications worked and what they meant to the scenes they covered. We describe them in our own words and do not reproduce their pages or cover art.

In this section

3 pages

Creem, NME and Sounds: the 1970s music press

Creem magazine, NME, Sounds, Melody Maker, Record Mirror, Rolling Stone and New York Rocker: how the 1970s music press worked and how it covered punk and new wave.
Rock magazines and how they covered punk

How rock magazines covered punk and new wave, from ZigZag, Trouser Press and Rolling Stone in the 1970s to Q and Mojo, which retold the story decades later.
Sniffin' Glue and the punk fanzines of the 1970s

Sniffin' Glue, Punk, Search & Destroy, Slash and The Ostrich: how punk fanzines were made, who ran them and why a photocopied zine could matter as much as a record.

Other sections

Genres

Punk, new wave, post-punk, no wave and Neue Deutsche Welle explained: where each style began, which records define it and where the boundaries blur.
Scenes

CBGB on the Bowery, New York punk and London in 1976: the clubs, shops and people that turned a few local bands into a movement.
Lists

The best punk albums, new wave songs, and the punk, post-punk and new wave bands that matter, each entry with year, place and a reason.
Songs

The stories behind punk and new wave songs: recording, line-up, chart history and meaning, told in our own words and without printing any lyrics.
Bands

Independent band profiles from punk and new wave, starting with Blondie: line-ups, key records and where each band fits in the story.
Vinyl

Practical guides to collecting punk records, identifying first pressings and choosing a turntable, with clear criteria and no made-up test results.