Creem Magazine

Creem

December 1977 cover featuring Grace Slick
Categories	Music magazine
Frequency	Monthly
First issue	March 1969
Final issue	1989
Country	United States
Based in	Detroit
Language	English

Creem (which is always capitalized in print as CREEM despite the magazine's nameplate appearing in mostly lower case letters), "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine", was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid. Lester Bangs, often cited as "America's Greatest Rock Critic", became editor in 1971. The term "punk rock" was coined by the magazine in May 1971, in Dave Marsh's Looney Tunes column about Question Mark & the Mysterians.

In the winter of 1969, Barry Kramer owned the Detroit record store Full Circle as well as Mixed Media, a head shop/bookstore and was an unsuccessful concert promoter and band manager. In a fit of pique at the local alternative paper rejecting his concert review, he decided to publish his own paper. Tony Reay, a clerk at the record store, became the first editor, naming the publication after his favorite band, Cream. Charlie Auringer became the photo editor and designer, and Dave Marsh joined soon after at age 19. The first issue was distributed only in Detroit as a tabloid-sized newspaper. A deal was struck with a distributor, but many copies were ordered by porn shops who were confused by the faintly suggestive title, who displayed it next to the similarly sized Screw magazine. Richard Siegel became circulation director and within two years CREEM had become a glossy color magazine, sized for newsstand distribution, and secured a national distribution deal.

The original offices were at 3729 Cass Avenue in Detroit for the first two years. An armed robbery of the offices convinced Kramer to move the operation to a 120-acre farm in Walled Lake, Michigan at 13 Mile and Haggerty Road. Just before the move, Lester Bangs was hired, originally to write a feature on Alice Cooper. He had been fired from rival music magazine Rolling Stone by publisher Jann Wenner for "disrespecting musicians" after a particularly harsh review of the group Canned Heat. Bangs fell in love with Detroit, calling it "rock's only hope", and remained there for five years.