BigO, Singapore's 1st independent rock music magazine, shuts after 38 years
During its heyday, it documented emergence of local music scene and was an organic space for creative talents to work in
SINGAPORE — BigO, Singapore's first independent rock and roll magazine when it first started in 1985, has finally called it a day this month.
Editor Philip Cheah announced the decision on its online blog, paying tribute to the magazines 100-odd contributors throughout its 38 years of existence - such as the late DJ Chris Ho and the Oddfellows' lead singer Patrick Chng - as the magazine documented the emergence of independent music in Singapore.
"We were music fans from the start. And we always wondered why the appreciation of pop culture in Singapore was so terribly superficial. Hence our desire to engage the appreciation of pop and youth culture," he wrote in the blog.
"For those with a long memory, we did break the first story here on grunge in our early photocopy period. We were the first in the world to include a free music CD with the magazine, beginning in 1991."
In its heyday in the 1990s, BigO - which is an acronym for "Before I Get Old" - became an organic space for creative talents to work in. Writers, designers, photographers and filmmakers in Singapore were involved in its monthly issues, as the magazines sought to become more than just a chronicler of the city-state's music history.
Cheah's brother Michael, who is the publisher of the magazine, said the idea to start BigO as a monthly photocopied magazine in 1985 came after he and his brother lost their jobs when the Singapore Monitor newspaper closed down.
"During our career as journalists, we were interested in the local creative scene - the pop music of which we were fans and the opportunity for creative writing," he wrote in the magazine blog.
"After so much time has passed, you’d have to be optimistic to think that there’s now a thriving music scene in Singapore or that there are lots of talented writers strutting their stuff.
"However, it feels very much like nothing has changed; only the scenery has moved on. The creative scene remains very still. All bound by rules. Nobody rocks the boat."
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