Hit Parader: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 11:17, 20 August 2025

Revision as of 11:17, 20 August 2025

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===Secher era===

Longtime editor [[Andy Secher]] joined the magazine as an assistant editor in 1979 when the staff consisted of essentially two people. Secher was hired on the strength of an interview he had done with [[AC/DC]] which appeared in the ''[[New York Daily News]]'' and has said that ''Hit Parader'''s mission at that time was to simply survive month to month. During this period, editor Lisa Robinson had begun taking the magazine in the direction of new wave music, traveling to England four times a year to interview [[the Clash]] and positioning ''Hit Parader'' to be on the cutting edge of what Secher would later refer to as "the whole Avant-Garde, New Wave movement". The magazine struggled, however, printing 200,000 monthly copies but only selling approximately 30% of them. In 1980 Secher replaced Robinson as the magazine's editor and Shelton Ivany came on board as editor-in-chief, and it was under their leadership that ''Hit Parader'' moved away from new wave music for good, becoming the first monthly publication to focus exclusively on hard rock and heavy metal.<ref name="james" /><ref name="SecherInterview" />

<blockquote>"''...we were the first magazine in the world to focus exclusively on hard rock/heavy metal. We were a bit lucky in that the [[New Wave of British Heavy Metal]] was just kicking in, and the West Coast Metal Explosion was about to launch. Our timing was very good. We've stayed loyal to hard rock throughout the years because that's where my interest remains. Trends, bands and fans have come and gone, but hard rock has stayed strong.''" - Andy Secher in 2004<ref name="SecherInterview" />

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