The Germanic BRAVO the negative example
The first issue of the beat and pop magazine " pop ", launched by the Swiss Jürg Marquardt with 2,000 francs borrowed, was published on November 15, 1965 as a test issue or zero issue for the price of one franc. The magazine had 28 pages; as a supplement there was a double-sided, black-and-white poster of the group "The Kinks". In the editorial of the test issue, Jürg Marquardt explained: "The major German show business newspapers completely ignore the Swiss music market. That's why we want to try to close this gap with pop ."
From March 1966, " pop " was published regularly on a monthly basis. In March 1968, just in time for its two-year anniversary, " pop " was also published in a German edition, although the content was hardly different from the Swiss edition. According to Beat Hirt, one of the first campaigners, the breakthrough and success came after the decision to include a poster with every issue of pop.
The publication schedule changed in 1972. In the first year, 16 issues were published; from 1973, "pop" was available at kiosks and magazine stores up to 26 times a year – sometimes with double issues. In April 1980, "pop" merged with the originally Dutch magazine Popfoto and was published for three issues as " pop – Now with Popfoto ". Another three issues later, Rocky magazine joined in, which in turn had already merged with "Das Freizeit Magazin" since issue 40 in 1979. This was the birth of the extremely successful youth magazine " pop/Rocky ", the most popular and best-selling youth and music magazine after BRAVO .
In terms of content, " pop " was not all that different from BRAVO . There was a photo novel in installments, the annual star vote ('Hammerwahl'), a list of the top 20, song lyrics, a suggestion box ('Liebe Brigitte'), a pop encyclopedia and even educational series (including Rolf Bertuch and Dr. Ralph-Holger Raben). And this despite the fact that Beat Hirt reported on the start of pop in an interview with the Zurich Sunday newspaper in 2016: "The French magazine ' Salut, les Copains! ' was our shining example. The Germanic BRAVO was the negative example."
In the 15-year history of " pop ", a total of 249 issues were published, including the zero issue. Today, the individual issues are sought-after and expensive collector's items - mainly because of the numerous two-, four- and eight-page posters.