AOB1 - History of NME

History of NME

March 7^th 1952 brought us the first published issue of NME, after London music promoter Maurice Kinn bought the ‘Accordion Times and Musical Express’ and renamed it ‘New Musical Express’ which was later shortened to ‘NME’, as we know it today. Shortly after this change, NME almost closed down due to being beaten in sales by its main competitor, a magazine named ‘Melody Maker’. Alan Smith, as a new editor, brought with him a team of new talented journalists that gave the magazine everything that it needed and managed to save it from collapse. Next came the exciting new music genre of 70’s rock and the new lifestyle that came with it, along with a new style of music journalism. Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent, along with photographer Pennie Smith were within the package of new talent that Alan Smith had brought to NME offices. Pennie Smith was responsible for the large cover photos, a sign of technical response as images only looked good when they were blown up due to poor quality of paper. Circulation of the paper increased rapidly once it has been re-vamped. Reaching 300,000 copies a week, it was also the first weekly magazine to feature a singles chart.

Music magazines in the 50’s and 60’s were known only to compliment and talk positively about artists and their music, which was becoming too expected and comfortable with the stars. NME has changed this and has since been known to mock and ridicule artists and their ideas and lives. By the end of the 60’s, NME’s audience was changing with the shift in music as ‘rock giants’ such as Led Zeppelin emerged. Around a similar time, the hard-drug-destructive culture of the 70’s emerged, and Nick Kent spiralled into self-destruction, following his idols Iggy Pop and David Bowie, becoming addicted to heroin. The magazine then recognised a need to change with society, hiring Chrissie Hynd after she completely criticized a Neil Diamond album. She and Kent then started a relationship.

In 1976, a few years after punk emerged, NME put out an ad requesting ‘young, hip gunslingers’. The magazine then took on Julie Burchill and and Tony Parsons who embraced the punk era and filled the magazine with coverage. One of Parsons’ first jobs was to cover the Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy in the UK’ tour. Many mainstream publications and television/radio shows at this time refused to cover the Sex Pistols as they were considered too explicit, or stories were blown out of proportion to create a ‘media storm’. NME stepped up and provided real coverage of punk bands such as the Sex Pistols and Clash. One band not praised by the magazine was the Stranglers.  Julie Burchill criticized their song ‘Peaches’, accusing it of being sexist and misogynistic, while Parsons was attacking the band Generation X for being ‘too clean’ and middle class.

NME later faced a mix up in editors as Nick Logan left and later created ‘Smash Hits’ and ‘The Face’. Neil Spencer then took up Logan’s position and cut some of the older staff, including Nick Kent, and brought in a group of new writers. NME journalist Paul Morley heavily covered the ‘Madchester Scene’ which featured bands such as the Happy Mondays and Joy Division, who were then launched into the spotlight as a result.

Of course, as times changed again with the influx of 80’s pop, so did the magazine which involved a more intellectual way of writing, which not only included music journalism, but social and cultural commentary too. An early example of this is Lucy O’Brien’s article ‘Youth Suicide’, which focusses on the rise in youth suicides at the time. Also to hit the scene in the 80’s was American hip-hop, which caused a massive stir as the magazine was split between this and rock, resulting in two thirds of its readership being lost. During the 1987 elections, NME saw the biggest change it would ever experience as Neil Kinnock was given a cover. Heads rolled, three editors were fired, freelancers walked out and Alan Lewis was taken on as a new editor. The magazines days of political involvement were stopped and it was highly controlled. Despite this incident, NME kept producing and has survived as a journalism giant even until this day, proving its ability to survive as a music publication.