It’s called Good Music?
We’ve used that as a shorthand, but that’s never been the actual name.
Were you implying that what gets written about is bad music?
We have a tag line: music built to last. I think about this project in terms of artists who have been around and demonstrated their longevity and substance, and in terms of the younger artists who aspire to something other than just sound-of-the-moment stuff.
You’re after people 30 and older.
Boomers want to maintain that link to the music that was so important to them when they were growing up. To not care about pop music anymore–it’s kind of to turn into your parents. The classic rock icons are important to what this magazine will be, but I don’t want this to be nostalgia. It’s just that, at a certain point, every new band of 19-year-olds has the same story. The most interesting stories often come from the more experienced artists because they’ve got more to talk about.
Do thirtysomethings buy music? Do they want to read about it?
That’s the challenge. They’ve been pushed out of existing music media. I get put off by the extent to which music magazines now make fun of music. If you want to read one of these magazines, it should be because you like the stuff. Not because you want to see it mocked. There’s a community in little pockets. You see that with the “O Brother” record selling 6 million copies, Norah Jones at about 5 million. Blender, Rolling Stone, Spin–their mission is to serve an 18- to 24-year-old audience. We’ve seen the emergence of a different audience that doesn’t have a vehicle that speaks to them.
