Flippin’ the Page: Chicago Music Magazines

This exhibit of Chicago music magazines published between 1977 and 1998 is featured August 1-31 in the 3rd floor display cases at Harold Washington Library Center. 

In pre-internet years, music fans relied on magazines for news of Chicago festivals, performers, and events. Magazines documented the changing trends of Chicago music.

The Gabba Gabba Gazette, published in the late 1970s, documents the rise of La Mere Vipere as the first punk dance club in Chicago, bringing the genre to the city and paving the way for magazines like Last Rites and Punk Planet.

In the mid-1990s, the beginnings of digital design appear in the punchy, bright graphic styles of Chicago's Subnation and Gospel Chicago Style Magazine.

Magazines like Buddy Guy's Legends and Magic Blues Magazine trace the imprint of the blues in Chicago.

Ask a librarian at the 8th floor reference counter to see these and a variety of other music magazines housed at Harold Washington Library Center.