British music magazine Q was first published in October 1986. The journalists and broadcasters Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who worked together as presenters on the BBC music programme Whistle Test, started the magazine as a higher quality alternative to existing music magazines.

The founding editors originally wanted to call the magazine Cue, in the sense of getting a record ready to play, but changed the name to Q to avoid it being confused for a snooker magazine and to make it stand out on newsstands.

The magazine offers reviews of new releases, reissues, compilations, film, live concerts, and radio and television broadcasts. Its main features are interviews with popular recording artists. Over the years of its publication, it has given away promotional gifts including CDs and books. For a number of year, Q had a relationship with Glastonbury Festival which included publication of a free on-site daily newspaper during the festival and a special edition review magazine at the end of the event.

Originally published by the EMAP media group, Q was sold along with other EMAP consumer magazine titles to the Bauer Media Group in January 2008. Following this move, Bauer reissued Q as a slimmed down publication with an increased focus on subjects other than music.

Q is currently published in print and online.