The Politics Of The Greek Music Press

The politics of writing of the Greek Music Press during the 1980s and 1990s, was the outcome of the local music distribution deals. For instance the fact that a record store owner was running a magazine and had agreements with a German label, led him to “push” articles that mainly promote German bands. Sometimes I am in temptation to use a scientific method such as content analysis of the magazines articles just to support my argument.

However, the problem is that the “lobby-stic” style of journalism affected the local sales and the US or UK scene which remained in the shadow of the German bands that conquered the Greek market. On personal level I like many German artists but I would prefer a more democratic access to the available music. The limited awareness of UK and US bands in Greece also affected the “education” of the Greek fans since most of them that were teenagers in the 1980s, appreciated genres such as Thrash Metal but hated Glam/Hair Metal because it was out of the journalistic sight of the Greek Press.

The Southern suburbs of Athens such as Glyfada or Nea Smyrni were full of kiosks with imported Press and music magazines from US and UK. As a matter of fact, these two areas became more open minded towards melodic rock because they had access to the foreign music Press. The awareness of new music knowledge from UK and US in Glyfada and Nea Smyrni, generated a new wave of melodic rock bands like Raw Silk or Spitfire.


Glyfada City