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September 18, 2015 11:32 AM Subscribe
The rise, decline, and possible comeback of Tiger Beat (with free poster of Justin!).
I'm in my late 40s now, but man, if it actually does come back I am buying the fuck out of the first issue, just because. Especially if there's a photo of a young Shaun Cassidy or Leigh McCloskey somewhere inside.
posted by holborne at 11:43 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by holborne at 11:43 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
From reading national treasure Charles Pierce, I thought it had just moved to the Potomac.
posted by Gelatin at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Gelatin at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]
Tiger Beat without the two Coreys just seems wrong and not right.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:48 AM on September 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 11:48 AM on September 18, 2015 [6 favorites]
From reading national treasure Charles Pierce, I thought it had just moved to the Potomac.
I've always felt that comparing Politico to Tiger Beat was insulting to Tiger Beat, and I'm not even really kidding.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:57 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've always felt that comparing Politico to Tiger Beat was insulting to Tiger Beat, and I'm not even really kidding.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:57 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]
Seems like in the age of TMZ and the excrable Right This Minute that anybody who owns the Tiger Beat brand has been sleeping on the job.
posted by rhizome at 12:38 PM on September 18, 2015
posted by rhizome at 12:38 PM on September 18, 2015
One of the happiest moments of my childhood was getting a letter published in Tiger Beat Magazine. David Cassidy, I still love you!!
posted by JanetLand at 12:41 PM on September 18, 2015
posted by JanetLand at 12:41 PM on September 18, 2015
The thinking-teen's Bobby Sherman.
posted by rhizome at 12:53 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 12:53 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thinking back to my own teen years, the fact that gay readers are so clearly a reluctant afterthought even in 2015 makes me sad.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 2:42 PM on September 18, 2015
posted by LastOfHisKind at 2:42 PM on September 18, 2015
Leif Garrett. That's who the poster was of in Tiger Beat all the time while I was growing up.
posted by hippybear at 2:50 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 2:50 PM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Enter Tiger Beat. “Tiger” was slang for “cute boy”; “beat” indicated how central music — the ‘60s teen medium of choice — would be to the magazine.
Huh.
posted by Fig at 7:26 AM on September 19, 2015
Huh.
posted by Fig at 7:26 AM on September 19, 2015
I looooved these magazines for a short time when I was 13. Had the biggest crush on "JTT."
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 9:13 AM on September 19, 2015
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 9:13 AM on September 19, 2015
Leif Garrett.
Hello, likely age cohort. I had one of those on my wall.
I got in and out of the Tiger Beat phase in the space of about six months before I moved on to Creem and other music magazines, but there was a transitional period where I probably had pictures of both Leif Garret with flowers in his hair and Iggy Pop smeared with blood on my walls.
And I distinctly remember having a swoony bookmark that I made by tape-laminating a picture of Generation X era Billy Idol on one side and David Johanssen on the other, so I was still doing the same thing, just refining my tastes a little. It was still, in some large part, about BOYS! for a while there.
Within a couple of years, the boy crazy phase passed and I was in denial that it had ever happened. I'm finally ready to come clean, though.
posted by ernielundquist at 9:14 AM on September 19, 2015
Hello, likely age cohort. I had one of those on my wall.
I got in and out of the Tiger Beat phase in the space of about six months before I moved on to Creem and other music magazines, but there was a transitional period where I probably had pictures of both Leif Garret with flowers in his hair and Iggy Pop smeared with blood on my walls.
And I distinctly remember having a swoony bookmark that I made by tape-laminating a picture of Generation X era Billy Idol on one side and David Johanssen on the other, so I was still doing the same thing, just refining my tastes a little. It was still, in some large part, about BOYS! for a while there.
Within a couple of years, the boy crazy phase passed and I was in denial that it had ever happened. I'm finally ready to come clean, though.
posted by ernielundquist at 9:14 AM on September 19, 2015
My 13 year old desperately wants a subscription to Kerrang. Since I wasn't going to pay that much, she settled for AP. She bought a few issues of J-14 a few years back when she was in her One Direction phase. If they want to age up the magazine, Bieber is not the way to go. Slap a picture of Brendon Urie or Pete Wentz on the cover and you've struck gold. Non-threatening with just the barest hint of edginess. Bieber though? He was a source of scorn years ago, when my Girl Scouts were still in elementary school.
posted by Ruki at 4:22 PM on September 19, 2015
posted by Ruki at 4:22 PM on September 19, 2015
OMG. Shaun Cassidy, Leif Garrett and let's not forget Parker Stevenson!
I lovedNonthreatening Boys Magazine Tiger Beat.
posted by biscotti at 2:46 PM on September 20, 2015
I loved
posted by biscotti at 2:46 PM on September 20, 2015
I am all in favor of providing teenagers of both genders more opportunities to explore their sexuality via figuring out their celebrity crushes but I don't know that the current ownership at Tiger Beat is up for it.
At least as depicted by this article, they are relentlessly unaware of their queer readers, prefer to use Snapchat and Facebook over Instagram and Tumblr, have zero female investors, and namedrop relentlessly but of celebrities who could be some tweens' parents. I'll freely admit that I never got into Tiger Beat--I liked Seventeen and Teen and Teen Vogue--and so for me it's never seemed relevant. Even so, I wish them luck...because I think they need it.
posted by librarylis at 7:04 PM on September 20, 2015
At least as depicted by this article, they are relentlessly unaware of their queer readers, prefer to use Snapchat and Facebook over Instagram and Tumblr, have zero female investors, and namedrop relentlessly but of celebrities who could be some tweens' parents. I'll freely admit that I never got into Tiger Beat--I liked Seventeen and Teen and Teen Vogue--and so for me it's never seemed relevant. Even so, I wish them luck...because I think they need it.
posted by librarylis at 7:04 PM on September 20, 2015
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This is a great article. Buzzfeed generally and Anne Helen Petersen specifically taking "not serious" things seriously and reporting it thusly is a gift for somebody like me.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:42 AM on September 18, 2015 [3 favorites]