Fancy some music magazines? - Google Books has plenty of those

Google Books provides free access to a huge number of music magazines, going all the way back to the 1940s, now mostly defunct. It's funny to see how music critics 35 years ago felt about Red Hot Chili Peppers ("baddest posse of white funk west of the mighty Mississip" - Spin), how Vibe announced "the most eagerly anticipated album in hip-hop history" (Snoop Dogg's), or how CMJ was trying to understand Portishead ("an invitation to a nightmare"). Billboard it the eldest among these, it was coming out during World War II (prior to that as well, it's just that the G-Books didn't archive it).