Free to Read Pop Music Mags

Popular music fans are discovering a wealth of available material on the Web because of various projects to digitize the magazines that chronicled the rise of pop music, particularly in terms of rock and roll.

A fan has placed carefully digitized complete issues of KRLA Beat, the earliest American newspaper to cover top-forty music. The Beat which was published by a Pasadena radio station began in 1964 as a small four-page newsletter, but grew to a sixteen page weekly, and then a 24 page bi-monthly before it ceased publication in 1968. You can find a careful, thoroughly documented collection of almost all the issues here.

Google has placed digitized copies of Spin and Billboard online, and at least right now, they can be browsed without a fee. The Billboard issues go all the way back to Feb 10, 1979. Billboard is primarily known for the lists that track, weekly and monthly, what's selling in terms of single songs, as well as albums, for a variety of popular music genres. Spin contains feature articles and it's fascinating to go back in time to see who, and what, is in or out in terms of top forty at any given time. Also? We used to wear really ugly clothes with lots of bad hair. Spin issues go all the way back to May 1985.