Spex is a prominent
German
rock and pop culture magazine located in Berlin
, Germany.
Besides music news,
Spex also covers literature, cinema,
fashion and contemporary social trends. Since January 2008,
Spex is headquartered in Berlin and includes an audio
CD.
History
The foundation
The paper’s first issue was published in
Cologne in 1980 by a small group of writers who
decided to found their own music paper: they were
Gerald Hündgen,
Clara Drechsler,
Dirk Scheuring,
Wilfried Rütten and
Peter Bömmels. They first considered
naming it “555” but finally pitched on “Spex” – which means
“glasses” in English slang. The name “Spex” reminds of the then
very famous punk band
X-Ray Spex. The
magazine was initially distributed in record stores and railway
stations. The articles were not as elaborate as those in comparable
magazines, as the objective was to present new young artists. Four
issues were published in the first year.
Spex turned
monthly in 1981. In 1983 its main competitor,
Sounds, closed down. That paper
addressed very modern artists and tendencies like
punk,
new wave and
the
German new wave. Most of its
editorial team was hired to work for
Spex, like
Diedrich Diederichsen (forthcoming
editor) or
Olaf Dante Marx. The
articles took a new turn, more theoretical and more literary.
The fame
Around 1983,
Spex gained recognition as a major music
magazine thanks to the quality of its editorial line, competing
with British music magazines such as the
New Musical Express or
The Face. The magazine's strength was to focus on
pop music in the context of "
pop culture", while still covering social and
political issues in a humorous and ironic tone.Some
Spex
writers saw their profile rise as they started writing opinions
columns, such as Diedrich Diederichsen, Rainald Goetz, or Clara
Drechsler's editorials, which earned her comparisons to
Julie Burchill.
Spex is not only a
platform for new authors but also for new trends. One of the first
publications to put
Madonna on
their cover (November 1983), the magazine also opens its pages to
debate on contemporary technical and social issues such as «
girlism ».
However, because of its huge freedom
Spex was inclined to
speak only about topics that interested the editorial team, and to
ignore other newsworthy trends. Some good artists were rejected on
principle.
The Smiths, for example, never
appealed to Spex, whereas
Die Toten
Hosen have always been the object of graceful praises.Diedrich
Diederichsen, the editor from 1985 to 1991, brought the spotlight
on American indie punk bands (predominantly from the
SST Records) at the expense of other kinds of
pop music like
house or
hip hop.At the end of the year 1999, after nineteen
years of existence,
Spex went bankrupt and was bought by
Piranha Media. This signalled the end
of self-production and the magazine was completely restructured as
many employees chose to leave. Critics saw the buy-out as a loss of
Spex's independence and predicted that it would become a mouthpiece
of the music industry.
The removal
In December 2006, parent company
Piranha
Media announced the relocation of the editorial staff from
Cologne to Berlin.
Editor Alex Lacher claimed it was necessary
for practical reasons (being closer to the music industry in
Berlin), and for financial reasons: the loss in revenue caused by
the prohibition of tobacco advertising in German newspapers
obligated them to close one of their three editorial offices
(Berlin, Cologne, and Munich
).
This decision has sometimes been seen as a pretext taken by Piranha
to get rid of the editorial staff.The move, first planned in the
summer of 2006, was carried out in December; the Cologne staff who
resisted the move were fired after the publication of the January
2007 issue.
Max Dax was named as
the new editor and Spex settled in the Kreuzberg
neighbourhood, where Groove, a Piranha publication dedicated to
techno music, was already located.
The new Spex
In March 2007, the first issue of the new Spex from Berlin came
out. At that time, the paper became bi-monthly. This choice was
driven by the in-depth transformation of the magazine's content and
the decision to emphasise analysis of wider musical and artistic
trends over news coverage. Spex is no longer focused on listing new
releases, but also on critical analysis of modern social
evolutions. It has more pages, longer articles, and fewer but more
detailed record reviews. The conditions of the production of art
are a topic of interest, with special reports on globalisation, the
rise of digital culture, depolitisation and the difficulties of the
music industry.There are many reasons for those editorial changes.
In the last years of the Cologne period, readers complained about a
degradation of the editorial quality, claiming that the magazine
was losing its trademark wit and just compiling record reviews
indifferently every month. In that sense, Spex was no longer a
voice distinct from other music magazines such as
Intro,
Uncle
Sally or
Musikexpress. In addition,
the financial difficulties of the music industry, meaning declining
ad buy figures, might have decided Spex to diversity the subjects
covered.Today,
Spex in Berlin has outgrown the initial
difficulties, with a solid financial situation and positive
feedback from its readers and peers: with a 18 400 circulation in
early 2007, it grew to 21 349 copies one year later, a 14% raise.
(source : (
IVW)).
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