The Big Takeover

The Big Takeover is a semiannual music magazine published out of New York City since May 1980 by critic Jack Rabid.

History

Establishment

Jack Rabid and Dave Stein began publishing The Big Takeover in May 1980 as a fanzine dedicated to New York punk band The Stimulators. The pair had formed a garage band the previous month called The Even Worse, which played punk rock cover songs, which was quickly tapped to open a show for The Stimulators, and the publication followed. Rabid, an intense music fan, ended up taking over the project, which evolved into a general punk rock fanzine.

In a 1983 Flipside interview, Rabid recalled:

The title of the fanzine was taken from a Bad Brains song. The first issue was a one-pager, printed front and back, photocopied 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.

From fanzine to magazine

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, and all of the layout work 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