On October 31st Stylus Magazine, one of the most unique and innovative “webzine” publications around, stopped the presses for good.
Since 2001 Stylus has been a place where some of today’s best music and film journalists (for my money anyway, of which there is little) have been given free reign to publish their most passionate and idiosyncratic missives. In a time when thousands upon thousands of websites devoted themselves to publishing up-to-the-second information 24 hours a day, Stylus completely ignored the news (for the most part) and played chronological Twister like a Chuck Palahniuk novel.
While new record and film reviews were supplied daily, 5 days a week, the site’s bread and butter was their columns. “On First Listen” featured staff writers giving their first impressions of classic bands they by all means should have been familiar with but which had somehow eluded them. The “Bluffer’s Guide” series aimed to get the reader well-versed in obscure musical sub-genres (such as “hiplife“, a West African blend of hip-hop, Christian hymns and big band jazz), obscure film icons (1940’s English filmmaking team Powell & Pressburger) and…Reese Witherspoon. They even had a column (Tape Hiss) devoted to covering cassette-only releases.
One of the things that was so exciting about the site was how utterly unpredictable it was. The weekly articles, generally bigger pieces updated in increments, were just as likely to focus on the 50 best drummers of all time as they were to contain in-depth tributes the multi-faceted career of Kate Bush.
Stylus didn’t strive to be on the cutting edge of anything, they just covered what they were excited about regardless of time or trend. They will be sorely missed. *Lone tear*
Fortunately the website is still up and you can peruse their archives at your leisure. While a simple aimless browsing of the site almost always yields great results, here is a list of some of my favorite Stylus pieces (mostly music-related), off the top of my head:
Top Ten Bob Dylan Harmonica Solos
Top Ten Songs With Raps in the Middle
Top Ten Musical Signifiers (Almost) Guaranteed to Make Me Fellate A Record Regardless of its Quality
Top Ten Films — According to a Film Librarian
On Second Thought: Scud Mountain Boys - Massachusetts
On Second Thought: Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
On Second Thought: R.E.M. - Up
On Second Thought: Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Seconds: Neutral Milk Hotel - “Ghost”
…I could actually spend hours listing this. Just go to their archives.
Yours,
Torquil Crossingham
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November 13th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Eli
I really, really miss Stylus. I actually bought some of the cassettes they featured on Tape Hiss, Orphan Fairytale being a favorite. I wish they hadn’t left.
-Eli