Death of the NME?

[kevo]

Is the NME about to go under? I flicked through the mag in Smiths today, and it is sooo thin - there is nothing in it. You could read the entire magazine in about 5 minutes.

I was looking to see if they had reviewed the Strange Death of Liberal England album. They don't mention it, but not surprising seeing as they seem to have almost given up doing proper album reviews. There is a big splash on the Manics but only one other album (Maximum Balloon) gets a decent-sized review. There are about half a dozen others, all reduced to just one paragraph. They have been getting shorter over the years, but this is a change from even a few weeks ago when there were a good 4 pages of album reviews, all of which were at least a couple of paras long.

If the NME is giving up doing album reviews, what is the point of buying it? What a terrible editorial decision. Can only think they must be doing it to save on pagination, in which case it must surely be on its last legs.

[meanmrmustard]

Albums are soo noughties

[Blackout]

It is a year (this week) since I stopped buying it after 23 years, and last weekend I actually picked one up for the first time since then as it was the only alternative to celeb/WAG-mags in the hairdresser's and I'd forgotten to bring a book. Previously I had generally defended the mag against the standard-line NME haters as it did actually still cover quite a lot of interesting new music in the Radar and review pages as well as, certainly at that point, some pretty good feature pieces; I stopped buying it for purely personal reasons and I really missed this stuff, as well as tour news and weekly listings.

Last weekend I couldn't believe the sparsity of content; I guess buying it week in week out I knew it wasn't what it had been but it was such a long slow decline. Comparing a current issue with what I remember of 2009's, never mind the "golden age", was a bit of a shock. There was a massive multi-page spread of photos of Leeds and Reading but the reviewing itself, aside from the obvious Libertines/GnR/Arcade Fire feature panels, was almost non-existent. I learnt more about the weekend from a mate's pissed-up texts. I flicked through the thing four or five times looking for the content and there didn't seem to be much at all. I have a couple of mates who do work freelance for the magazine and they tell me that the staff have been cut back to such an extent that pretty much all the review pages are from freelancers these days.

Soemone should really put it out of its misery, it must be a weekly source of embarrassment to anyone who used to write for it when it mattered.

[gtw]

Saw last week's NME in Tesco last night. F***ing cheeky B******* have a front page dominated by the words '100 great albums that YOU haven't heard.' Many people on this forum will have heard quite a few of these albums actually. I mean - number 33 is SULK by The Associates! I only had a very quick skim before flinging it away with an annoyed 'pah!', but I also noticed Felt, for example. Shame as it is probably a decent article let down by an incredibly arrogant and presumptuous front page / headline writer.

[bancroftboy]

1.Clor <Clor>2005
2.Performance <?we are ?Performance>2007
3.Jenny Wilson <love and youth >2005
4.Leadbelly <last session>1948
5.the shaggs <philosophy of the world > 1969
6.the wipers < is this real > 1980
7.young marble giants <colossal youth>1980
8.shonen knife <burning farm > 1983
9.jad fair <great expectations >1989
10.Felt <forever breathes the lonely word >1986
11.john phillips<john , the wolfking of LA >1970
12.bad brains <roir >1982
13.atlas strategic <that's familiar >2002
14.jonathan richman and the modern lovers <modern lovers 88> 1988
15.the electric prunes <underground >1967
16.the television personalities <they could have been bigger than the beatles >1982
17.the red crayola <the parable of arable land > 1967
18.love <da capo>1967
19.euphoria <a gift from euphoria > 1969
20.the field mice < skywriting >1990
21.satisfact <the unwanted sounds of satisfact >1996
22.eliane radigue <adnos 1-3>1975-1983
23.the zombies <odessey and oracle >1968
24.the associates <sulk >1982
25.magazine <real life > 1978
26.pop levi <the return to form black majick party > 2007
27.jay farrar / benjamin gibbard <one fast move or im gone :kerouac's big sur >2009
28.floraline <floraline > 1999
29.arthur russell <calling out of context > 2004
30.mccarthy <i am a wallet >1987
31.cluster < zuckerzeit >1974
32.the prisoners < thewisermiserdemelza>1983
33.the cardigans <long gone before daylight >2003
34.60ft dolls <the big 3>1996
35.thomas dolby <the flat earth >1984
36.jeffrey lee pierce <wildweed >1985
37.simple minds <reel to real cacophony >1979
38.ABC<beauty stab >1983
39.the bodines <played >1987
40.john cale <fear >1974
41.cocteau twins < heaven or las vegas>1990
42.crass <the feeding of the 5000>1978
43.eater <the album >1977
44.the dancing did <and did those feet >1982
45.organisation < tone float >1970
46.LFO <frequencies>1991
47.boards of canada < twoism>1995
48.motorbass <pansoul >1996
49.position normal <goodly time >2000
50.freestyle fellowship < innercity griots >1993
51. all night radio < spirit stereo frequency >2004
52.chick corea <my spanish heart >1976
53.nico < the marble index>1969
54.queen <queen >debut album
55.the kossoy sisters <bowling green >1956
56.the germs < GI >1979
57.orphan boy < shop local >2008
58.the pretty things < sf sorrow >1968
59.cardinal < cardinal >1994
60.the red devils < king king >1992
61.michael hurley< have moicy > 1976
62.jens lekman < night falls over kortedala >2007
63.curtis mayfield < curtis live !>1971
64.lizzy mercier descloux< mambo nassau >2003
65.XTC <white music >1978
66.serge gainsbourg < you're under arrest >1987
67.the for carnation <the for carnation >2000
68.jarcrew <jarcrew >2003
69.studio < west coast >2007
70.huggy bear < our troubled youth >1992
71.this heat <deceit >1981
72.superstar <palm tree>1997
73.skinnyman <council estate of mind >2004
74.jeffrey foucault <ghost repeater>2006
75.mclusky < mclusky do dallas >2002
76.suicide 1977
77.suicide 1980
78.the prids < chronosynclastic >2010
79.moebius and plank <rastakraut pasta >1980
80.fleetwood mac < mirage >1982
81.howlin' wolf < this howling wolf's new ablum , he doesn's like it . he didn'g lke his electric guitar at first either >1969
82.edgar 'jones' jones < soothing music for stray cats >2005
83.smif -n-wessun <dah shinin ' >1995
84.PETE ROCK AND CL SMOOTH < MECCA AND THE SOUL BROTHER >1992
85.DIAMOND D <STUNTS BLUNTS AND HIP HOP>1992
86.MOBB DEEP <THE INFAMOUS >1995
87.BRAND NUBIAN < ONE FOR ALL >1990
88.SHIT AND SHINE< JEALOUS OF SHIT AND SHINE >2006
89.90 DAY MEN < CRITICAL BAND >2000
90.SANDY DENNY AND THE STRAWBS < ALL OUR OWN WORK>1973
91.FANNY <MOTHER 'S PRIDE >1973
92.THE GO-BETWEENS <16 LOVERS LANE >1988
93.THE WALKMEN <YOU AND ME >2008
94.JUNIOR BOYS < SO THIS IS GOODBYE >2006
95.FIGHT CLUB < CAT FARM FABOO >1984
96.BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB < HOWL >2005
97.SUN RA < THE HELIOCENTRIC WORLDS OF SUN DA >1965
98.JACKIE MCLEAN AND MACHAEL CARVIN < ANTIQUITY >1974
99.morrissey < bona drag >1990
100. the buff medways < steady the buff >2002


right, well we can all say that we know a lot of those but actually the NME is largely talking to teenagers etc who actually don't know about a lot of this stuff, and theres a pretty good chance that they will not have heard of suicide or 60ft dolls or indeed the associates and so anything that widens horizons is welcome in my book.

[gtw]

I agree... totally agree. I'm just annoyed by the highly presumptive front page headline. Your average teen will have parents in their 40s, no? The idea that teenagers will not have waded through their parent's collections and come across at least a few of these albums is crazy. While WatersonJ was still a teenager, he was, even then, considerably better versed than I in obscure janglepop from across the decades.

[Blackout]

Depends if their parents were into music though doesn't it. I'd be willing to bet that I could show that list to a few work colleagues aged 40-50 who have teenage children and who I'm pretty sure wouldn't have heard of anything on it. And I'll happily admit there's a couple of artists on that list I've never even heard of.

[gtw]

I think we all agree that its a great list of albums. All I am saying is that if the front cover wasn't telling me that these were 100 albums that I had not heard, I would have been happier. I'm not saying I have heard all of them. I doubt anyone here has. But most of us will have heard a few at least, so to say 100 albums YOU have not heard is rubbish.

[kevo]

Nice to see 60 Foot Dolls in there - one of the best live bands I've ever seen.

[TheAlex]

It's just the trend the marketeers thinks sells these days, "100 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE", "50 PHILOSOPHY IDEAS YOU MUST KNOW" etc...

[Raumfahrer]

odd to see Howl by BRMC there. whilst not a very well known record, it got to number 14 in the UK album charts, includes their second biggest 'hit', and was only released 5 years ago with a fair bit of fanfare. still, to be fair, given the market its aimed at, you could fill the list with Beatles, Stones, Neil Young and Bob Dylan records and you'd still fulfil the criteria of the list (again, in context of the target market).

makes me think though. If this forum were to be given the task of compiling a list of 100 albums in order for the average NME reader to listen to, what would we come up with?

[Busty]

To be fair I saw this (didn't buy it, haven't for a few years now) and was actually pleased by it. OK so the headline borrows its style from the red tops but does that really matter? And if it encourages some kid who thinks that the Strokes are edgy and obscure (probably about what I thought when I was 14 and reading NME religiously) to go and buy Felt's best album, then that can only be a good thing by me.

[TheAlex]

makes me think though. If this forum were to be given the task of compiling a list of 100 albums in order for the average NME reader to listen to, what would we come up with?

The Strokes, Oasis, The Libertines, Stone Roses...they're a lost cause. ;)

[gtw]

Looks like it might be about to become a freebee. Well, that worked well for The Fly and Stool Pigeon didn't it?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/f ... rie-claire

Print circulation of less than 14,000 though. Ouch.

(to be fair, Free circulation does work well for Time Out and Shortlist, but they are pushed into your hand rather than passively collecting dust in corners of Urban Outfitters)

[Blackout]

The Skinny does reasonably well. (And, in relation to my old posts above) both the people I know who used to freelance for NME now do so for them.

The problem I always found with The Fly was that is was a magazine distributed in live music venues which, due to its tiny typefaces and unsuitable colour schemes, was almost impossible to read in the light available in most music venues.