Q (magazine) - Criticism

Criticism

Some critics and readers of the magazine have believed that it has lost its edge, and is now opting to play safe with who and what it covers, focusing more on the popularity of bands rather than their music. The award of five stars to the 1997 Oasis album Be Here Now (widely criticised elsewhere and subsequently dismissed as self-indulgent by the band's songwriter Noel Gallagher himself) has been seen as a turning point.

In a 2001 interview in Classic Rock, Marillion singer Steve Hogarth criticised Q’s refusal to cover the band despite publishing some positive reviews:

I don’t understand why Q Magazine won’t write about us. The most memorable review they gave us was of Afraid of Sunlight which said, ‘If this were by anything other than Marillion it would be hailed as near genius’. And they still wouldn’t give us a feature. How can they say, 'this is an amazing record. . . no, we don’t want to talk to you'? It’s hard to take when they say, 'here’s a very average record . . . we’ll put you on the front cover'. Why don’t they just stop pretending that it’s all about music and admit it’s really about money? Then put the top-selling five bands on the cover and tell everyone else to fuck off.

At the 2006 Q Awards, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner criticised the magazine’s choice of boy band Take That for their “Idol” award. Commenting on the winners of the night, he said:

A lot of people make jokes about having awards for no reason just for the sake of having awards, and pretending they were good when they weren't. I'm not old enough to know a lot of them, but even I know Take That were bollocks.