PURPOSE: To provide a magnetic recording medium capable of attaining high recording density.

CONSTITUTION: This magnetic recording medium 10 consists of a substrate 12, a textured underlayer 13, a smooth layer 14, an intermediate layer 16, a magnetic layer 17 and a protective layer 18. The smooth layer 14 is formed by spin-coating the substrate 12 with liq. alkoxide of a metal such as Ti, Zr or Si and converting the resulting coating film into a film of a metal oxide such as SiO2, TiO2 or ZrO2 by solidification by baking at a high temp. Since the smooth layer 14 is liq. before solidification, it fills deep recesses in the underlayer 13 and the irregularly rugged surface of the underlayer 13 is made smooth by the smooth layer 14. Since the magnetic layer 17 is formed after ruggedness caused by the smooth layer 14 and the surface is smooth, the extent of levitation of a magnetic head can be extremely reduced, therefore recording density is increased.