About Discorder

Discorder

Discorder is a Vancouver music, arts and culture magazine published by CiTR 101.9 FM, the campus and community radio station of the University of British Columbia. Founded in February 1983 by Jennifer Fahrni and Mike Mines as an alternative music magazine and the program guide for CiTR, it has grown into one of Vancouver's longest-running independent publications — a free monthly chronicling the city's independent music scene, arts, community organizing and current affairs for more than four decades. Its entire run, beginning with the February 1983 debut, has been digitized by the UBC Library and is available in the library's Open Collections.

Overview

Discorder is published by CiTR, UBC's student radio society, and mirrors the station's mandate to amplify underrepresented communities while giving students and community members hands-on publishing experience. What began as a music-focused magazine with the station's program guide has broadened into a wide-ranging cultural publication covering Vancouver's local arts scene, community organizing, current affairs and much more, while retaining its musical core: reviews, interviews, essay-length features, comics, a mixtape, the CiTR program guide and the station's charts.

The magazine is distributed free throughout Vancouver and Victoria, printing roughly 8,000 copies per issue and publishing ten issues per year alongside web-exclusive content published through the month. It is also one of the great training grounds of Canadian music journalism: an outlet for emerging Vancouver music writers, photographers and illustrators, many of whom have gone on to prominent careers in media. Its staff rotates regularly, and each editor's personal style is often reflected in stylistic shifts in the magazine's aesthetics and content.

History

Discorder was created in February 1983 by founding editors Jennifer Fahrni and Mike Mines as an alternative music magazine for Vancouver and the program guide for CiTR. The first issue, with a circulation of 25,000, included an interview with Stan Ridgeway of Wall of Voodoo by Mark Mushet; an article on youth culture in West Berlin by Werner Janke; album reviews of The Scissors, Los Popularos and Modernettes by Gord Badanic, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Wall of Voodoo and Mission of Burma by Dave McDonagh, and DOA by Dean Pelkey; and a review of the compilation tape Egghead by Brent Argo — a snapshot of the early-1980s Vancouver underground in all its eclecticism.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Discorder documented the stories of bands forming and breaking up, venues opening and closing, musician collaborations and jams on different projects, reviews of long-forgotten albums, and shows that captured the grit and glory of the Vancouver music scene. It became, in the words of UBC Library, a unique and trusted voice for the independent music and culture scene in Vancouver and a key piece of the city's cultural history. In February 2015, the library announced the completion of a major digitization project: in collaboration with CiTR and the library's Digitization Centre, the magazine's entire run from February 1983 to the present — thirty years at the time — had been scanned and made available online, with the Digitization Centre continuing to add new issues as they are published.

The magazine's editorial leadership has turned over regularly, as befits a student publication. Past editors have included Chris Eng (who became editor of Terminal City magazine), Lyndsay Sung, Barbara Andersen, Kat Siddle (2003–2005), David Ravensbergen (2006), Spike Chilton (2007), Nat Jay (2008), Jordie Yow (2008–2011), Gregory Adams (2011–2012), Laurel Borrowman (2012–2013), Jacey Gibb (2013–2015), Alex de Boer (2015), Brit Bachmann (2015–2018), Mallory Amirault (2018–2019) and Tasha Hefford (from 2019). Each has left a stylistic imprint on the magazine's look and voice.

CiTR itself — the magazine's publisher — began as a student club in 1937, gained not-for-profit status and a place on the FM dial in 1982, and is run by the Student Radio Society of UBC on the unceded, traditional territory of the Musqueam peoples. The station broadcasts more than 100 locally focused radio programs in seven languages, streamed online and available as podcasts.

Content

Each issue of Discorder carries a mix of music reviews, book reviews, interviews, essay-length articles, comics, a mixtape, the CiTR program guide and CiTR's charts. The December 2019–January 2020 issue, catalogued in the UBC Open Collections, illustrates the range: Samantha Marie Nock on dismantling colonial and capitalist notions of love; Katayoon's Puzzlehead on collaborative approaches to composing and sharing music; filmmakers Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers on holding the film industry accountable in its treatment of crews; Sharona Franklin asking what community engagement is and who benefits. The magazine's web exclusives extend this coverage between print issues.

The editorial mandate, as stated in the station's own materials, is to provide Vancouver's best monthly coverage of the local music and arts scene and to fulfil CiTR's mandate to support local art, music and culture. The editor-in-chief leads a large team of staff and volunteers — developing an editorial vision, conceiving and assigning stories, accepting pitches, organizing production, and supporting the development of Discorder's writers through monthly contributor meetings.

The magazine's dual function — cultural chronicle and station program guide — has remained constant since 1983. Each issue still carries the CiTR program guide and the station's charts alongside its reviews, interviews and features, making Discorder both a record of Vancouver's independent culture and a practical companion to the station's broadcasts. The UBC Library's Digitization Centre continues to add new issues to the digital archive as they are published, so the online collection grows month by month. For emerging writers, photographers and illustrators, a Discorder byline remains what it has been for four decades: a first professional credit in a publication with real readers and a real archive — and, through the library's Open Collections, a permanent public record of their early work.

Coverage & Audience

Discorder covers Vancouver's independent music and arts scene first and foremost, with distribution across the Lower Mainland and Victoria — some 8,000 free copies per issue placed where the city's music community gathers. Its audience is the city's musicians, artists, students and culturally engaged readers, but its influence extends well beyond: the UBC Library digitization project has made the full archive, from February 1983 onward, available to researchers, journalists, musicians, historians, designers and artists anywhere in the world. As CiTR alumna and filmmaker Susanne Tabata has noted, the archive provides cultural reference points for anyone telling the story of Vancouver's past.

Ownership

Discorder is published by CiTR 101.9 FM, the broadcasting voice of the University of British Columbia, operated by the Student Radio Society of UBC — a not-for-profit student society. The magazine's editor-in-chief reports to the CiTR station manager, who serves as the magazine's publisher, and is expected to attend monthly Student Executive meetings and hold weekly office hours at CiTR. It is a non-commercial, community publication: distributed free, produced by staff and volunteers, and sustained by the station's funding.

Digital Presence

Discorder's online home is discorder.ca, where web-exclusive content is published throughout the month between print issues. The magazine's complete print archive is preserved and accessible through the UBC Library's Open Collections site, which hosts digitized PDFs of every issue from February 1983 onward with full item metadata — title, creator (CITR-FM), publisher (Student Radio Society of the University of British Columbia), date, page extent and subject. New issues continue to be added to the digital archive as they are published. The magazine is also present on the station's digital platforms, and the CiTR website at citr.ca provides the institutional home for both the station and the magazine.