San Francisco Music Blog

​The Grim Reaper has been very busy dispensing with music magazines: More than a dozen in the past 12 months, in fact. Fortunately, there are still some strong titles on the market that are hanging in there, but for how long? Here are 10 we hope won't die this week -- or anytime soon.

Billboard
Life would be very different without the music industry's main trade magazine. We'd have to come up with our own Hot 100 pop charts, and that'd just be a chaotic free-for-all.

The Wire
This British electronic and avant-garde publication is one of the few music mags where lengthy features are still the norm, a rare place for in-depth analysis. And big words.

​XLR8R
From dubstep to broken beat, XLR8R schools readers on the constantly mutating landscape of electronic music's micro-genres. It's also one of the few places that still gives ample space to single and album reviews.

Wax Poetics
Presented like a smart literary journal, WaxPo ignores current release dates and delves into classics, providing intellectual takes on all things funky and soulful.

XXL
Though The Source is still hanging on by a thread, XXL has long since stolen its spot as the top hip-hop mag with vivid feature stories.