Mojo (magazine)
Encyclopedia
MOJO is a popular music
magazine
published initially by Emap
, and since January 2008 by Bauer
, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q
, publishers Emap
were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock
music. MOJO was first published on 15 October 1993; in keeping with its classic rock aesthetic, the first issue had Bob Dylan
and John Lennon
as its first cover stars. Noted for its in-depth coverage of both popular and cult acts it acted as the inspiration for Blender
and Uncut
. Many noted music critics have written for it including Charles Shaar Murray
, Greil Marcus
, Nick Kent
and Jon Savage
. The launch editor of MOJO was Paul Du Noyer
and his successors have included Mat Snow, Paul Trynka and Pat Gilbert.
While some criticise it for its frequent coverage of classic rock acts such as The Beatles
and Bob Dylan
, it has nevertheless featured many newer and "left-field" acts. It was the first mainstream magazine in the UK to focus on The White Stripes
, whom it has covered as zealously as many older acts.
MOJO regularly includes a covermount CD
which ties in with a current magazine article or theme. In 2004 it introduced the Mojo Honours list
, an awards ceremony which is a mixture of readers' and critics' awards.
In early 2010, MOJO was involved in a controversial move by its new parent company, Bauer, via Bauer's attempt to unilaterally impose a new contract on all photographers and writers, which takes away their copyright and off-loads liability for libel or copyright infringement from the publisher onto the contributor. Two hundred photographers and writers from MOJO and Bauer's other music magazines, Kerrang!
and Q were reported as refusing to work under the new terms.
In 2007, the magazine set out to determine "The Top 100 Records That Changed the World." The list was compiled and voted on by an eclectic panel of superstars, including Björk
, Tori Amos
, Tom Waits
, Brian Wilson
, Pete Wentz, and Steve Earle
. Little Richard
's original 1955 hit "Tutti Frutti
" took the number one spot. The record, dubbed "a torrent of filth wailed by a bisexual alien," beat the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (2nd) and Elvis Presley
's "Heartbreak Hotel" (3rd). The magazine's editors claimed "that the 100 albums, singles and 78s that made up the list make up the most influential and inspirational recordings ever made." Hailing "Tutti Frutti" as the sound of the birth of Rock n Roll, the magazine's editors went on to state "one can only imagine how it must have sounded when the song exploded across the airwaves!"
The top 10 on Mojo's 100 Records That Changed The World list are:
The magazine also published an issue in 2008 that celebrated the Beatles' 'The White Album', featuring a cover-mounted CD that included many cover versions of tracks from the album, including 'Blackbird' sung in Gaelic
by Julie Fowlis
.
, many stand-alone, themed special editions of MOJO have been produced, devoting an entire magazine to one artist or genre. Three of the most successful were the series, produced by then special editions editor Chris Hunt
, telling the story of The Beatles - one thousand days at a time. Featuring contributions from many of the world's leading rock critics and Beatles experts, such as Hunter Davies
, Mark Lewisohn
, Richard Williams
, Ian MacDonald
and Alan Clayson
, the three magazines were published between 2002 and 2003, before being collected together by then-Editor-in-Chief Paul Trynka and published as the book The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World (Dorling Kindersley, 2004). Other special editions have focused on Pink Floyd, Psychedelia, Punk and The Sixties. MOJO has also published four editions of "The MOJO Collection: The Greatest Albums Of All Time" (Canongate books), originally edited by the magazine's founding features editor Jim Irvin
, and a series of short, definitive biographies under the imprint MOJO Heroes, starting in 2002 with Neil Young: Reflections In Broken Glass, written by Sylvie Simmons
, a longtime MOJO Contributing Editor.
, also produced a digital radio station
. This station was called Mojo Radio, and was transmitted on the digital television
networks in the UK (Freeview channel 721 and Sky Digital channel 0182, though not Virgin Media
) and online. The output of the station was based on that of the magazine. It was announced on 5 November 2008 that Mojo Radio would cease broadcasting on 30 November 2008 in order to save parent company, Bauer
, money.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
published initially by Emap
EMAP
Emap Limited is a British media company, specialising in the production of business-to-business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences...
, and since January 2008 by Bauer
Bauer Verlagsgruppe
The Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV...
, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
, publishers Emap
EMAP
Emap Limited is a British media company, specialising in the production of business-to-business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences...
were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
music. MOJO was first published on 15 October 1993; in keeping with its classic rock aesthetic, the first issue had Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
as its first cover stars. Noted for its in-depth coverage of both popular and cult acts it acted as the inspiration for Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
and Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
. Many noted music critics have written for it including Charles Shaar Murray
Charles Shaar Murray
Charles Shaar Murray is an English music journalist. His first experience in journalism came 1970 when he was asked to contribute to the satirical magazine Oz...
, Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
, Nick Kent
Nick Kent
Nick Kent is a British rock critic and musician.-Career:Along with writers including Paul Morley, Charles Shaar Murray and Danny Baker, Nick Kent is seen as one of the most important and influential UK music journalists of the 1970s. He wrote for the British music publication New Musical Express,...
and Jon Savage
Jon Savage
Jon Savage , real name Jonathon Sage, is a Cambridge-educated writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his award winning history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, England's Dreaming, published in 1991.-Career:...
. The launch editor of MOJO was Paul Du Noyer
Paul Du Noyer
Paul Du Noyer is a British rock journalist and author. He was born in Liverpool and educated at the London School of Economics. He has written and edited for NME, Q, and Mojo...
and his successors have included Mat Snow, Paul Trynka and Pat Gilbert.
While some criticise it for its frequent coverage of classic rock acts such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, it has nevertheless featured many newer and "left-field" acts. It was the first mainstream magazine in the UK to focus on The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
, whom it has covered as zealously as many older acts.
MOJO regularly includes a covermount CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
which ties in with a current magazine article or theme. In 2004 it introduced the Mojo Honours list
MOJO Awards
The MOJO Awards is an awards ceremony that began in 2004 by Mojo, a popular music magazine published monthly by Bauer in the United Kingdom...
, an awards ceremony which is a mixture of readers' and critics' awards.
In early 2010, MOJO was involved in a controversial move by its new parent company, Bauer, via Bauer's attempt to unilaterally impose a new contract on all photographers and writers, which takes away their copyright and off-loads liability for libel or copyright infringement from the publisher onto the contributor. Two hundred photographers and writers from MOJO and Bauer's other music magazines, Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
and Q were reported as refusing to work under the new terms.
Lists
More recently, the magazine has taken to publishing many "Top 100" lists, including the subjects of drug songs (Mojo #109), rock epics (Mojo #125), protest songs (Mojo #126) and even the most miserable songs of all time (Mojo #127). To celebrate 150 issues, the magazine published a "Top 100 Albums of Mojo's Lifetime" list (essentially 1993 onwards). The top five for this list were:- Grace - Jeff BuckleyJeff BuckleyJeffrey Scott "Jeff" Buckley , raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician...
(1994) - American RecordingsAmerican Recordings (album)American Recordings is a Grammy Award-winning album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in April 1994 , the first album issued by American Recordings after its name change from Def American...
- Johnny CashJohnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
(1994) - OK ComputerOK ComputerOK Computer is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 16 June 1997 on Parlophone in the UK and 1 July 1997 by Capitol Records in the US. It marks a deliberate attempt by the band to move away from the introspective guitar-oriented sound of their previous...
- RadioheadRadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
(1997) - Time Out of MindTime out of MindTime Out of Mind is the 30th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 30, 1997 on Columbia Records. It is his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait...
- Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
(1997) - Definitely MaybeDefinitely MaybeDefinitely Maybe is the debut album by English rock band Oasis, released in August 1994. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and "Live Forever"....
- OasisOasis (band)Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
(1994)
In 2007, the magazine set out to determine "The Top 100 Records That Changed the World." The list was compiled and voted on by an eclectic panel of superstars, including Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
, Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, Pete Wentz, and Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
. Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
's original 1955 hit "Tutti Frutti
Tutti Frutti (song)
"Tutti Frutti" is a 1955 song by Little Richard, which became his first hit record. With its opening cry of "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bop-bop!" and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also one of the...
" took the number one spot. The record, dubbed "a torrent of filth wailed by a bisexual alien," beat the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (2nd) and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's "Heartbreak Hotel" (3rd). The magazine's editors claimed "that the 100 albums, singles and 78s that made up the list make up the most influential and inspirational recordings ever made." Hailing "Tutti Frutti" as the sound of the birth of Rock n Roll, the magazine's editors went on to state "one can only imagine how it must have sounded when the song exploded across the airwaves!"
The top 10 on Mojo's 100 Records That Changed The World list are:
- "Tutti FruttiTutti Frutti (song)"Tutti Frutti" is a 1955 song by Little Richard, which became his first hit record. With its opening cry of "A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bop-bop!" and its hard-driving sound and wild lyrics, it became not only a model for many future Little Richard songs, but also one of the...
" by Little Richard - "I Want to Hold Your HandI Want to Hold Your Hand"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band The Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment....
" by The Beatles - "Heartbreak HotelHeartbreak Hotel"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboards Top 100 chart, became his first...
" by Elvis Presley - The Freewheelin' Bob DylanThe Freewheelin' Bob DylanThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin initiated the process of writing contemporary words to traditional melodies....
by Bob Dylan - AutobahnAutobahn (album)Autobahn is the fourth studio album by German electronic band Kraftwerk, released in November 1974. The 22-minute title track "Autobahn" was edited to about 3 minutes for single release and reached number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and performed even higher around Europe, including...
by KraftwerkKraftwerkKraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008... - King of the Delta Blues SingersKing of the Delta Blues SingersKing of the Delta Blues Singers is a compilation album by American blues musician Robert Johnson, released in 1961 on Columbia Records. It is considered one of the greatest and most influential blues releases ever...
by Robert Johnson - The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet UndergroundThe Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...
and NicoNicoNico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s... - Anthology of American Folk MusicAnthology of American Folk MusicThe Anthology of American Folk Music is a six-album compilation released in 1952 by Folkways Records , comprising eighty-four American folk, blues and country music recordings that were originally issued from 1927 to 1932.Experimental filmmaker and notable eccentric Harry Smith compiled the music...
(various artists) - "What'd I SayWhat'd I SayAccording to Charles' autobiography, "What'd I Say" was accidental when he improvised it to fill time at the end of a concert in December 1958. He asserts that he never tested songs on audiences before recording them, but "What'd I Say" is an exception...
" by Ray CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records... - "God Save the QueenGod Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
" by Sex PistolsSex PistolsThe Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
The magazine also published an issue in 2008 that celebrated the Beatles' 'The White Album', featuring a cover-mounted CD that included many cover versions of tracks from the album, including 'Blackbird' sung in Gaelic
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels", including language and culture. As a noun, it may refer to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually.-Gaelic languages:...
by Julie Fowlis
Julie Fowlis
Julie Fowlis is a Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist who sings primarily in Scottish Gaelic.-Musical career:Fowlis grew up in North Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides, in a Gaelic-speaking community, and has been involved in singing, piping and dancing since she was a child.She is a...
.
Special editions
After the success of an all-Beatles issue, published to mark the release of The Beatles AnthologyThe Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology is the name of a documentary series, a set of three double albums and a book focusing on the history of The Beatles. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the...
, many stand-alone, themed special editions of MOJO have been produced, devoting an entire magazine to one artist or genre. Three of the most successful were the series, produced by then special editions editor Chris Hunt
Chris Hunt
Chris Hunt is a magazine editor, journalist and author. He has worked in journalism for over twenty years, most often writing about football or rock music. He was managing editor of Match from 1993 to 2001, a period that saw the weekly title become Britain's biggest selling football magazine...
, telling the story of The Beatles - one thousand days at a time. Featuring contributions from many of the world's leading rock critics and Beatles experts, such as Hunter Davies
Hunter Davies
Edward Hunter Davies is a prolific British author, journalist and broadcaster, perhaps best known for writing the only authorised biography of The Beatles.- Early life :...
, Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn
Mark Lewisohn is an English author and historian, regarded as the world's leading authority on the English rock band The Beatles.-The Beatles and related subjects:...
, Richard Williams
Richard Williams (journalist)
Richard Williams is a British music and sports journalist.As a writer, then deputy editor, of the weekly rock magazine Melody Maker, he became an influential commentator on the rise of new forms of rock music at the end of the 1960s. Williams and MM, as it was known, helped to promote and...
, Ian MacDonald
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich...
and Alan Clayson
Alan Clayson
Alan Clayson is a singer-songwriter, who was popular in the late 1970s as leader of Clayson and the Argonauts...
, the three magazines were published between 2002 and 2003, before being collected together by then-Editor-in-Chief Paul Trynka and published as the book The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World (Dorling Kindersley, 2004). Other special editions have focused on Pink Floyd, Psychedelia, Punk and The Sixties. MOJO has also published four editions of "The MOJO Collection: The Greatest Albums Of All Time" (Canongate books), originally edited by the magazine's founding features editor Jim Irvin
Jim Irvin
Jim Irvin is an English singer, songwriter and music journalist.Irvin was born and raised in West London. He was the singer in the British indie-band Furniture, who released singles and albums with Survival, Stiff and Arista Records between 1982 and 1990. He co-wrote their 1986 UK hit single,...
, and a series of short, definitive biographies under the imprint MOJO Heroes, starting in 2002 with Neil Young: Reflections In Broken Glass, written by Sylvie Simmons
Sylvie Simmons
Sylvie Simmons is a London-born music journalist, named as a "principal player" in Paul Gorman's book on the history of the rock music press In Their Own Write...
, a longtime MOJO Contributing Editor.
Mojo Radio
The company behind the magazine, BauerBauer Verlagsgruppe
The Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV...
, also produced a digital radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
. This station was called Mojo Radio, and was transmitted on the digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
networks in the UK (Freeview channel 721 and Sky Digital channel 0182, though not Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
) and online. The output of the station was based on that of the magazine. It was announced on 5 November 2008 that Mojo Radio would cease broadcasting on 30 November 2008 in order to save parent company, Bauer
Bauer Verlagsgruppe
The Bauer Media Group is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV...
, money.