In which years did the magazine pop exist?

“pop” – The Swiss challenger in the shadow of BRAVO

On November 15, 1965, an inconspicuous test edition of a new music magazine appeared in Switzerland – with a double-page Kinks poster and an ambitious project: The magazine "pop", founded by Jürg Marquardt with 2,000 borrowed francs, wanted to challenge the German market leader BRAVO – or at least score points where the competition had blind spots: with the Swiss music audience.

In the editorial, Marquardt explained the goal unequivocally: "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."

Pop began appearing monthly in March 1966. Two years later, an almost identical German version was added. However, according to co-founder Beat Hirt, the real breakthrough came when a poster was included with each issue—a recipe for success that proved successful.

From 1972 onwards, publication frequency increased, with up to 26 issues per year – sometimes as double issues – hitting kiosks. In 1980, the first merger followed: pop was absorbed into the Dutch music magazine Popfoto . Just a few months later, the next merger took place, this time with Rocky , a magazine that had already incorporated Das Freizeit Magazin . The result: pop/Rocky – the most successful youth magazine after BRAVO.

In terms of content, pop was very similar to BRAVO: serialized photo novels, song lyrics, top 20 charts, celebrity polls (under the title "Hammerwahl "), a suggestion box ( Liebe Brigitte ), pop encyclopedia articles, and even educational series were integral parts of the magazine. But despite all the similarities, Beat Hirt emphasized decades later: "Our role model was the French 'Salut, les Copains!' – the Germanic BRAVO, on the other hand, was the negative example."

In total, pop published 249 issues in its 15 years – including the first issue. Today, the magazines are popular collector's items thanks to their often large-format posters – highly sought after and sought after among pop culture nostalgists.