''Tiger Beat'' was an American teen

fan magazine A fan magazine is a commercially written and published magazine intended for the amusement of fan (aficionado), fans of the popular culture subject matter that it covers. It is distinguished from a scholarly, literary or trade magazine on the one h ...

published by The Laufer Company and marketed primarily to

adolescent Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated w ...

girls. The magazine had a paper edition that was sold at stores until December 2018, and afterward was published exclusively online until 2021.

History and profile

''Tiger Beat'' was founded in September 1965 by Charles "Chuck" Laufer, his brother Ira Laufer, and television producer and host Lloyd Thaxton. The magazine featured

teen idol A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers themselves. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. By region Asia Ea ...

gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Etymology The word is from Old English ''godsibb'', from ''god (word), god'' and ''sibb'', the term for the ...

and carried articles on

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music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

. Charles Laufer described the magazine's content as "guys in their 20s singing 'La La' songs to 13-year-old girls." A distinctive element of ''Tiger Beat'' was its covers, which featured cut-and-paste

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

d photos – primarily

head shot A head shot or headshot is a photographic portrait in which the focus is on the subject's face. The term is usually applied to professional profile images on social media, images used on online dating profiles, and promotional images of actors, ...

s – of current teen idols. For the first twelve issues, Thaxton's face appeared at the top corner of the cover (at first the magazine was titled ''Lloyd Thaxton's Tiger Beat''), and he also contributed a column. After 2016, the magazine cover featured a single image of a celebrity. During the 1960s, The Laufer Company leveraged the teen market dominated by ''Tiger Beat'' with similar magazines, including ''FaVE'' and ''Monkee Spectacular.'' In 1998, ''Tiger Beat'' was sold by publisher Sterling/MacFadden to

Primedia Primedia is a South African media group, headquartered in Sandton, Johannesburg. History Primedia was established in 1994 and its listing on the JSE Securities Exchange was completed in April 1995. Primedia remained listed on the JSE until 1 O ...

, which in 2003 sold the magazine to Scott Laufer, the son of magazine founder Charles Laufer. Until 2014, Laufer also produced the similar teen magazine '' Bop''. After 2015, ''Tiger Beat'' was published by

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

–based Tiger Beat Media, Inc.

In popular culture

Jude Doyle founded the

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

Tiger Beatdown (a punning reference to ''Tiger Beat'') in 2008. It concluded in 2013.

References

{{reflist Monthly magazines published in the United States Celebrity magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1965 Magazines disestablished in 2019 Magazines published in California Defunct teen magazines published in the United States