Mojo research

MOJO was born as a print magazine, back when they launched such things, in the autumnal mists of October, 1993. Originally it was going to be called PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING, but good sense (and lawyers) intervened*.
Its original team had been involved in the launch of Q Magazine in the previous decade, but MOJO's rubric immediately differed. While Q surveyed the contemporary pop-culture landscape, taking the temperature of pop and fitting music into a world that contained film, television, celebrity and the like, MOJO was always about music pure and simple. Since its first issue it has championed music old and new that appeared likely to one day acquire the epithet "timeless". Always we've favoured the mavericks, divas, loonies and shitkickers, the lost classics and ambitious opuses, over the fads, starlets and best-sellers pored over by other magazines.
In other words, we like to think it's the music magazine you go to when you've grown out of all the others.
The roll-call of MOJO editors includes Paul du Noyer (1993-1995), Mat Snow (1995-1999), Paul Trynka (1999-2001) and Pat Gilbert (2002-2003). The current incumbent is Phil Alexander. Its influential staff and contributors have included Lloyd Bradley, Greil Marcus, Jim Marshall, Dave Marsh, Sylvie Simmons, Victor Bockris, Jim Irvin, Steve Fawcett, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Keith Cameron, Henry Diltz, Barney Hoskins, Joel Selvin, Nick Kent, Ben Edmonds, John Harris, Barry Miles, Charles Shaar Murray, David Cavanagh, Phil Sutcliffe, Robert Hilburn, Kevin Westenberg and many other legendary icons of the music magazine racket.
In 2001, MOJO first launched mojo4music.com (why such a rubbish URL? It's a long story) and in September 2003 it celebrated its 10th anniversary by morphing itself into a digital radio station, broadcasting via Freeview Channel 721, Sky Channel 0182, and online, if you're on a PC.
Since October 1993, Mojo has profiled hundreds of artists and reviewed over 10,000 albums. In that time we've encountered music that made our souls melt and some that made our stomachs turn, but our guiding principle has never wavered. We chop through the jungle of novelty (and indeed, the novelty of "jungle") seeking the source: the essence of soul or genius that makes music, of whatever genre, endure.


Mojo (magazine)
Mojo is a popular music magazine published by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music. Mojo was first published on 15 October 1993; in keeping with its classic rock aesthetic, the first issue had Bob Dylan and John Lennon as its first cover stars. Noted for its in-depth coverage of both popular and cult acts it acted as the inspiration for Blender and Uncut. Many noted music critics have written for it including Charles Shaar Murray, Greil Marcus, Nick Kent and Jon Savage. The launch editor of Mojo was Paul Du Noyer and his successors have included Mat Snow, Paul Trynka and Pat Gilbert.
Often criticised for its frequent coverage of classic rock acts such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan, it has nevertheless featured many newer and "left-field" acts. It was the first mainstream magazine in the UK to focus on The White Stripes, whom it has covered as zealously as many older acts.
Mojo regularly includes a covermount CD which ties in with a current magazine article or theme. In 2004 it introduced the Mojo Honours list, an awards ceremony which is a mixture of readers' and critics' awards.
More recently, the magazine has taken to publishing many "Top 100" lists, including the subjects of drug songs (Mojo #109), rock epics (Mojo #125), protest songs (Mojo #126) and even the most miserable songs of all time (Mojo #127). To celebrate 150 issues, the magazine published a "Top 100 Albums of Mojo's Lifetime" list (essentially 1993 onwards). The top five for this list were:
Grace - Jeff Buckley (1994)
American Recordings - Johnny Cash (1994)
OK Computer - Radiohead (1997)
Time Out of Mind - Bob Dylan (1997)
Definitely Maybe - Oasis (1994)
In 2007, the magazine set out to determine "The Top 100 Records That Changed the World." The list was compiled and voted on by an eclectic panel of superstars, including Björk, Tori Amos, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Pete Wentz, and Steve Earle. Little Richard's original 1955 hit "Tutti Frutti" took the number one spot. The record, dubbed "a torrent of filth wailed by a bisexual alien," beat the Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (2nd) and Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" (3rd). The magazine's editors claimed "that the 100 albums, singles and 78s that made up the list make up the most influential and inspirational recordings ever made." Hailing "Tutti Frutti" as the sound of the birth of Rock n Roll, the magazine's editors went on to state "one can only imagine how it must have sounded when the song exploded across the airwaves!"
The top 10 on Mojo's 100 Records That Changed The World list are:
"Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles
"Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan by Bob Dylan
Autobahn by Kraftwerk
"King of the Delta Blues Singers" by Robert Johnson
The Velvet Underground and Nico by The Velvet Underground and Nico
Anthology of American Folk Music (various artists)
What'd I Say by Ray Charles
"God Save the Queen" by Sex Pistols
The Magazine also published an issue in 2008 that celebrated the Beatles' 'The White Album', featuring a cover-mounted CD that included many cover versions of tracks from the album, including 'Blackbird' in Gaidhlig by Julie Fowlis.
Special editions
Many self-standing themed special editions of Mojo have been produced, devoting an entire magazine to one artist or genre. Three of the most successful were the series of magazines produced by editor Chris Hunt, telling the story of The Beatles - one thousand days at a time. Featuring contributions from many of the world's leading rock critics and Beatles experts, they were published between 2002 and 2003, before being collected together by then-Editor-in-Chief Paul Trynka and published as the book The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World (Dorling Kindersley, 2004). MOJO has also published four editions of "The MOJO Collection: The Greatest Albums Of All Time" (Canongate books) and a series of short, definitive biographies under the imprint MOJO Heroes, starting in 2002 with Neil Young: Reflections In Broken Glass, written by Sylvie Simmons, a longtime MOJO Contributing Editor.