TimmyH
Vice Magazine - The Gen-Y Bible
August 4th 2008 03:54
For nigh on 15 years, Vice magazine has been dishing up the pixel dirt on sex, drugs, death and anything else taboo. The creators have long claimed to show readers what the traditional media won’t dare to touch. But is it satire or just vulgarity?
Vice Magazine isn’t for you if you’re: boring, easily disgusted, over 30, or just plain lame. You won’t find it at your local newsagency or in the uni shop, in fact the stringent controls on its distribution make it as elusive as the female orgasm. But those lucky enough to hit it (the mag, not the climax) seldom stay away in the future.
Polished editorial content combined with dazzling imagery smacks you in the face from cover to cover. For a magazine without financial support and relying 100% on advertising, the ads aren’t overpowering. Especially when you consider that they have to compete with articles like “Skinheads Against White People” and “They Shoot Homos Don’t They?” But Despite the risqué content, major brands are bashing down Vice’s front door, seemingly begging for half page spaces.
What’s it all about? Bugger all really. It’s almost like reading a well written university magazine (oxymoron?) that doesn’t have to worry about funding. The Magazine’s UK editor Andy Capper can’t even put his finger on Vice’s Pulse, "Everything we do at Vice has an economic and social context," he offers "I guess we're like the Economist meets Rolling Stone, back in the day..." Wait for it…"No, that's rubbish.”
One of the major criticisms of these types of publications is that they are deliberately confrontational. Without a typical social conscience everyone’s a target for Vice.
The mag began as a government-funded start up out of Montreal in the mid 90’s. Back then it was run by three mates Gavin McInnes, Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi. For some strange reason, the Quebec Government thought a magazine would support a community-building welfare program. Little did they know that within 15 years it would have almost a million readers in more than 20 countries world-wide.
As the brand journeys into the world of online television and expands its clothing line, boisterous critics are springing up all over. Stylistic similarities with “Mad” and gratuitous stupidity are common-place, but Vice’s editors are convinced that they are socially relevant. Their supporting evidence in court would be issues like “The Special Issue”, pun intended, whose content was wholly contributed by people with disabilities.
Controversial issues like this have established Vice as a news service for content that other publications just won’t carry. “This is essentially a news magazine," Capper says. "But we cover issues that would otherwise fall under the radar. We present news stories in a way that hooks our audience into subjects they wouldn't otherwise look into."
When the invasion of Iraq was on everyone’s conscience, Vice decided to take in a show. "We spent five years following a Baghdad-based heavy metal band," Capper beams, "from the start of the conflict, through to their relocation as refugees in Syria. And at the moment we've got someone with them in Turkey."
Vice’s new coffee table book showcases a growing portfolio for all things Gen-Y including the typical Dos and Don’ts, a modern guide to Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll, which if it wanted to be genuinely cutting-edge might better be titled “Sex, Drugs and weird, fucked-up Electro Trash.”
"We are bored and disenchanted by what is served up to our generation," Capper says. Vice likes to think of itself as a revolutionary antidote to Gen-Y boredom, but that’s for you to decide.
Vice Tackles Homos
Vice Magazine isn’t for you if you’re: boring, easily disgusted, over 30, or just plain lame. You won’t find it at your local newsagency or in the uni shop, in fact the stringent controls on its distribution make it as elusive as the female orgasm. But those lucky enough to hit it (the mag, not the climax) seldom stay away in the future.
Polished editorial content combined with dazzling imagery smacks you in the face from cover to cover. For a magazine without financial support and relying 100% on advertising, the ads aren’t overpowering. Especially when you consider that they have to compete with articles like “Skinheads Against White People” and “They Shoot Homos Don’t They?” But Despite the risqué content, major brands are bashing down Vice’s front door, seemingly begging for half page spaces.
What’s it all about? Bugger all really. It’s almost like reading a well written university magazine (oxymoron?) that doesn’t have to worry about funding. The Magazine’s UK editor Andy Capper can’t even put his finger on Vice’s Pulse, "Everything we do at Vice has an economic and social context," he offers "I guess we're like the Economist meets Rolling Stone, back in the day..." Wait for it…"No, that's rubbish.”
One of the major criticisms of these types of publications is that they are deliberately confrontational. Without a typical social conscience everyone’s a target for Vice.
The mag began as a government-funded start up out of Montreal in the mid 90’s. Back then it was run by three mates Gavin McInnes, Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi. For some strange reason, the Quebec Government thought a magazine would support a community-building welfare program. Little did they know that within 15 years it would have almost a million readers in more than 20 countries world-wide.
As the brand journeys into the world of online television and expands its clothing line, boisterous critics are springing up all over. Stylistic similarities with “Mad” and gratuitous stupidity are common-place, but Vice’s editors are convinced that they are socially relevant. Their supporting evidence in court would be issues like “The Special Issue”, pun intended, whose content was wholly contributed by people with disabilities.
Controversial issues like this have established Vice as a news service for content that other publications just won’t carry. “This is essentially a news magazine," Capper says. "But we cover issues that would otherwise fall under the radar. We present news stories in a way that hooks our audience into subjects they wouldn't otherwise look into."
When the invasion of Iraq was on everyone’s conscience, Vice decided to take in a show. "We spent five years following a Baghdad-based heavy metal band," Capper beams, "from the start of the conflict, through to their relocation as refugees in Syria. And at the moment we've got someone with them in Turkey."
Vice’s new coffee table book showcases a growing portfolio for all things Gen-Y including the typical Dos and Don’ts, a modern guide to Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll, which if it wanted to be genuinely cutting-edge might better be titled “Sex, Drugs and weird, fucked-up Electro Trash.”
"We are bored and disenchanted by what is served up to our generation," Capper says. Vice likes to think of itself as a revolutionary antidote to Gen-Y boredom, but that’s for you to decide.
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It turned into a magazine that tried too hard to be with it, and the Australian content that's inserted into the magazine is bordering on awful.