- Y-Mag
Infobox Magazine
title = Y-Mag
| image_size = 200px | image_caption =
editor = Sbusiso 'The General' Nxumalo, Nicole Turner, Sandile Dikeni
frequency = monthly
circulation =
category = Cultural Magazine
company = Private
firstdate =
country = Flag|South Africa
language = English
website = [http://www.chimurengalibrary.co.za/periodicals.php?id=5]
issn =Established in the late 1990's of
South Africa , out of a joint partnership betweenStudentwise , publishers of white youth targetedSL Magazine and black youth targeted Johannesburg radio stationYFM , Y Magazine was conceived as the new voice of the South Africa's recently liberated black urban youth.Published under the pay-off "Y - because I want to know", it aimed to tap into the market that made YFM the biggest regional station at the time. This was what was referred to as the "Y Generation", a "freedom's children" that got to celebrate the freedom of an apartheid-free South Africa.As poet
Lebo Mashile explained: "if we were 20 or 30 in the 70's and 80's we would have been using everything we had to fight Apartheid... but now we have the freedom and space to do what we want with our talent and we have the ability to really manifest our dreams..."Under founder editors S'busiso 'The General' Nxumalo and Itumeleng Mahabane ,Y quickly came to encapsulate this spirit of freedom of expression. Like YFM, its emphasis was on urban street culture with a strong focus on the sounds of post-apartheid black South Africa especially
Kwaito . Written in spoken English and drops ofScamto , it was filled with diverse youth interests without ever narrowing them down to just entertainment. From the relationship between kwaito's apolitical, "hedonistic and flighty preoccupations" ,toPresident Thabo Mbeki's macroeconomic ideology, and to the politics of fashion and the aesthetic of struggle,this publication is very well rounded.This radical challenge to the binary opposition of political/apolitical placed "Y" a step or two ahead of other mainstream magazines,intended for both balck and white audiences. This also meant that corporate advertisers remained at arm's length. Inevitably the magazine gave over to market pressures and changes at the radio station. Both Nxumalo and Mahabane stepped down as editors. Since then Y has continued under no less than eight different editors but it has never recaptured the idealism or attitude of those first few issues.
References
"Material in this article is duplicated from [http://www.chimurengalibrary.co.za/periodicals.php?id=8 chimurengalibrary.co.za] , which is released by
GFDL ."External links
* [http://yfm.immedia.co.za/content/view/42/39/ Y Magazine website]
*Kaganof, Aryan. " [http://kaganof.com/kagablog/2006/09/22/the-kwaito-story-rude-boy-paul-interviewed-by-aryan-kaganof/ The Kwaito Story: Rude Boy Paul interview] ."
*Owen, John. "Y boosts youth magazine market," Mail & Guardian, June 23, 1998.
*Matabane, Khalo. "Waiting for Bongani," Mail & Guardian, January 14 1999.
*" [http://kasiekulture.blogspot.com/2007/03/review_22.html Y Magazine Is Dead - An Eulogy And Obituary] ", Kasie Kulture, March 2007.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
