The Big Takeover is a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City since 1980 by critic Jack Rabid.
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The Big T usually appears in June and December, with most recent issues coming in around 200 pages. The review section, featuring Jack’s Top 40 for the issue, is regularly 60-80 pages long. The magazine also features lengthy, in-depth interviews with favorite artists transcribed verbatim, sometimes stretching over two issues. In 2006, the magazine relocated to Brooklyn from the apartment on Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that was home to the magazine for 25 years.
Jack is known for championing what he calls “Music with Heart.” This could consist of any kind of music that requires attention, regardless of trends or popularity. This means the magazine is a diverse mixture of independent and major label bands from punk to electronica to slowcore. The magazine has been criticized for having a limited scope, mostly because of Rabid’s personal dislike of hip-hop and rap.
Jack Rabid and Dave Stein began publishing the Big Takeover as a fanzine dedicated to New York punk band The Stimulators. The title of the fanzine was taken from Bad Brains. The first issue was one page, front and back, printed from copy machines and given out for free at local punk shows. Stein left the fanzine to Rabid after one issue and Rabid has remained the dominant creative force behind the magazine since.
The Big Takeover moved from the more primitive fanzine style to the black-and-white, stapled magazine style around issue 26 in 1989. During this period, Rabid worked during the day and was still doing most of the writing, all the layout and advertising sales. Other notable contributors to the magazine in the early days included former MTV personality Tim Sommer. During the first half of the 1990s, The Big Takeover began using professional layout design and by the end of the decade had become a semi-glossy, color magazine. Circulation is currently around 15,000.
In 2003, Rabid and longtime Big Takeover contributor Jeff Kelson launched Pink Frost/Big Takeover Records, initially releasing two albums: former Guided By Voices guitarist Doug Gillard’s first solo album Salamander and Last Burning Embers’ Lessons In Redemption, featuring Rabid on drums. The label has continued to sporadically release albums by mostly NY-area groups as well as distribute albums not in print in the US, such as Don McGlashan’s Warm Hands.
In 2005, The Big Takeover launched a redesigned website featuring contributor’s blogs, top ten lists and a large forum area. The website was relaunched with a new design and organization in July 2010.
On July 30-31, 2010, "The Big Takeover" will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary with a two-day music festival at The Bell House, a venue in the Gowanus area of Park Slope, Brooklyn. New York. Mark Burgess and The Avengers are among the 16 acts scheduled to appear.