Black Music Magazine

By racket racket

Black Music was a UK magazine published in the 1970s and 1980s. Here are some classic front covers from the mag featuring reggae royalty like Third World, Pete Tosh, Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer.

The monthly magazine featured articles and features on all strands of black music but probably concentrated it’s emphasis on soul, funk, jazz and blues music – those being the most popular genres of those decades; although BM is thought of and credited as being one of the first to give respect and notable credit to the emergent reggae genre.

We came across these front covers after reading about Linton Kwesi Johnston writing for the magazine. All of the following front covers appeared between December 1973 and the end of 1976, plus there’s a few from 1979 and the early 1980s. Too many favourites to mention…

Huge thanks to the extensive and comprehensive Dance Crasher website for these; as well as a brilliant interview with Carl Gayle, one of the most notable journalists to write for the magazine on the Reggae Vibes magazine.

Black Music Magazine 3
Black Music Magazine - Bob Marley
Black Music magazine - Pete Tosh
Black Music magazine - Bunny Wailer
Black Music magazine - Wailing Souls
Black Music magazine - Don Letts
Black Music magazine
Black Music magazine - Space Rockers
Black Music magazine - Linton Kwesi Johnston
Black Music magazine - Bob Marley

Once again massive thanks to Dance Crasher for the help with this one. If you liked this then check them out. And for more reggae related bits and pieces from us visit Reggae For Bed on Facebook and on Racket Racket.

4 Comments

  1. surfingbob

    i recently went into my loft and found afew of these mags that i forgot about , if they areany good to anyone let me know.

  2. racket racket

    Hi Bob,

    We would be very interested in taking them off your hands actually. Send me an email to andy@racketracket.co.uk and we can sort something out. Hope you enjoyed the article and the rest of the site!

    Cheers for now,

    Andy / Racket Racket

  3. Jay

    Hey, I also have a vast collection of these magazines thinking about selling, any advice?

  4. Helmut

    Hi,
    for an investigation I am looking for the issue with Carl Gayle interviewing King Tubby, think it was February 1976. If no one wants to leave the issue, a scan of that article would also be helpful. Thanks, Helmut