Pop journalism as intellectual protest  “As long as it pops”

In 1980s Germany, a new journalistic style emerged: pop journalism. It found its voice in influential magazines like “Sounds” (1966–1983) and “Spex” (1980–2018), where it carved out a distinct identity. Unlike academic musicology or traditional journalism, pop journalism embraced a hybrid mode of writing, oscillating between rationality, sensory perception, affect, and experimentation.

Shaped by French post-structuralism and British cultural studies, an alternative counter-public began to take form. Culture was no longer confined to aesthetics in the narrow sense (music, art, theater, literature, etc.) or reserved for a privileged elite ('high culture'). Instead, it was redefined, as 'a whole way of life' (Raymond Williams). This expanded understanding opened the door to subjects largely absent from traditional media: pop music, pop literature, film, rave culture, theory, subcultures and social milieus, racism, and feminism. In principle, anything could be explored, so long as it resonated with the pulse of pop culture.

A Mixture of Commitment and Calculation

Pop journalism in Germany was also deeply influenced by the New Journalism movement of the 1960s, pioneered in the United States by figures like Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, and Tom Wolfe. This approach offered new ways of capturing the present—through close observation and precise, literary storytelling, often resembling the style of a 'realistic novel.' Between diary, reportage, essay, glossary, and record review, Spex – Musik zur Zeit (later Magazin für Pop-Kultur) became a vibrant platform that not only informed but also experimented with new formats. Founded in Cologne, the magazine fundamentally reshaped pop journalistic writing: 'Since 1980, the authors of Spex have invented a new language, a language within language, that not only made journalism possible, but also transformed how we talk about pop and culture today' (Spex: The Book. 33 1/3 Years of Pop). Writing about pop became a hybrid of commitment and calculation, driven by a passion for gaining knowledge. It was both an intellectual protest against prevailing social conditions and an act of cultural subversion. As Diedrich Diederichsen, editor-in-chief of Spex from 1985 to 1990, writes: With the so-called “quality pop press” (Diederichsen), a conscious discourse around pop culture with its own boundaries and judgments of taste began to take shape. This marked the emergence of a cultural public sphere that engaged in debates over musical tastes and opinions through alternative means. Pop audiences were no longer passive consumers; they became active participants in a discourse that shaped identity and fostered community. This also manifested in new urban spaces: people traveled to concerts in cities like Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and Berlin, and gathered in record stores, bars, and clubs. As Diederichsen observes: Yet the German pop discourse was not without its elitist undertones. “There were only two camps: us and the dumb ones,” wrote Clara Drechsler, one of the few women in pop discourse, in the pages of Spex.

The Revaluation of Pop Culture

The “pop left” identified neither with bourgeois culture nor with the New Left of 1968 and its critique of consumerism. Pop art and Andy Warhol, new music and John Cage, post-punk and new wave were the leading discourses. The “artificial” and the “non-authentic” were the motifs of a counter-movement that was defined by the “intensity of the lived moment, by music, by an empathic sense of existence” ¹ was determined. “Alles was knallt” (English: As long as it pops), wrote the - and Spex author - Rainald Goetz in 1992. ²

Serious writing about pop music has contributed to a revaluation of pop and popular culture and given it an artistic status. Today, pop journalists write in the established feature sections of national newspapers – such as Diedrich Diederichsen in the Süddeutsche Zeitung or Dietmar Dath in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The topics have also expanded: pop, film, comics and science fiction, feminism, gender, lifestyle, and diagnoses of the times are now integral parts of the cultural media landscape.

Pop culture has become institutionalized: it can be found at universities and in conferences, in libraries and in school lessons, in museums and in concert halls, in the theater and at the opera. Today, those interested in culture are “omnivores”: they listen to classical and electronic music, attend happenings and are interested in modern art. The boundary between “good high culture” and “trivial popular culture” has softened. At the same time, pop journalism and pop discourse – the public conversation about pop – has lost importance. The intellectual style between pop and politics can still be found in magazines such as the pop-feminist Missy Magazine or on the online platform Kaput - Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop. In America, it can be found in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Fader, Noisey, The Ringer, and NPR Music & Pop. However, Spin and Pitchfork have been discontinued there. In Germany, too, traditional music magazines such as Intro, Groove, Visions, and Spex no longer exist.

Gatekeepers

With the end of Spex in 2018, Daniel Gerhardt, its last editor-in-chief, stated: In the past, music magazines determined which pop culture events reached the public. They shaped what was interesting and relevant and how pop culture was thought and talked about. Today, anyone can potentially become an author. With social media, the dynamics for participation have shifted. The role of “gatekeeper” has become a daily task for many in the digital age.

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¹ Böttinger, Helmut (2004): „Nach dem Pop. Hält Literatur nicht mehr über den Tag hinaus? Ist alles seicht und bald vorbei?“, in: Die Zeit 4 vom 15.1.2004.
² Goetz, Rainald (1992): „Alles was knallt“, in: Der Spiegel 2 vom 5.1.1992, S. 143-147.).