New Musical Express facts for kids
The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular Indie and pop music magazine from the United Kingdom. It has been published every week since March 1952. It was the first British magazine to include a singles chart, which showed the most popular songs.
Contents
History of NME
The first issue of the magazine came out on 7 March 1952. It was first printed on regular newspaper-like paper, not glossy paper.
The 1960s: New British Bands
During the 1960s, the magazine strongly supported the new British bands that were becoming famous. Bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were often on the front cover. These bands, and others, also performed at the NME Poll Winners Concert. This was an awards event where artists voted as most popular by NME readers would collect their awards.
Later in the 1960s, the magazine started writing about psychedelic music. It also continued to feature articles about the popular British groups of the time.
The 1970s: Punk Rock Arrives
In early 1972, the magazine was almost going to close down. But a new editor took over, and the way the paper wrote about music changed a lot. It became smarter, cooler, and funnier than other British music papers.
By mid-1973, the paper was selling almost 300,000 copies every week. It was selling more than its rivals like Disc, Record Mirror, and Sounds.
In 1976, Punk Rock music became popular. NME, like other music magazines, was slow to cover this new style. To help sales, the paper looked for new, cool writers. This led to hiring two journalists who made sure the magazine was fully up to date on punk. Bands that had criticized NME before now wanted to be featured.
The magazine also became more open about political topics during the Punk era. Its cover sometimes showed issues important to young people, not just music acts.
The 1980s: Facing Challenges
Sales started to drop, and by 1985, NME was having problems and was in danger of closing again. During this time, the editors disagreed about what to cover. Some wanted to write about hip hop, which was new in the UK. Others wanted to stick to rock music. Sales seemed lower when hip hop artists were on the front cover. This made the magazine's lack of clear direction obvious to readers.
The late 1980s and early 1990s had a quiet rock music scene in the UK. The paper had to give a lot of attention to less famous bands.
The 1990s: American Bands and Britpop
By the end of 1990, American bands mostly filled the magazine. This was because American music was very popular at the time.
From 1991 to 1993, American bands like Nirvana were very popular. But the NME still covered the Indie music scene a lot.
By 1992, some new British bands started to appear. Suede was quickly praised by the paper as a fresh sound. They were seen as an alternative to the heavy Grunge music. Indie music was still very strong. However, the rise of new British bands became a bigger focus for the paper.
In April 1994, Nirvana's singer Kurt Cobain was found dead. This sad news affected many fans and NME readers. It also led to a big change in British music. Grunge music was soon replaced by Britpop. This was a new type of music influenced by British music and culture from the 1960s. NME first used the term "Britpop" after the band Blur released their album Parklife that same month.
Britpop filled the musical space left after Cobain's death. Blur's success, along with a new band from Manchester called Oasis, made Britpop very popular for the rest of 1994. By the end of the year, Blur and Oasis were the two biggest bands in the UK. Sales of the NME grew thanks to the Britpop effect.
In 1995, NME covered many of these new bands. Many of them played on the NME Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. The magazine had been sponsoring the second stage at the festival since 1993.
The 2000s: New Indie Success
In the new millennium, NME focused on new British bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs. "Indie music" continued to become more successful. This success led to bands like the Arctic Monkeys becoming extremely popular and being strongly supported by NME. This kind of huge success had not been seen since the Britpop era.
In December 2005, some people said that the NME end-of-year poll had been changed for business or political reasons. These claims were denied by the magazine.
In 2006, NME won the CocaCola best magazine this century award.
NME.COM: The Website
The first editor of NME's website was Brendan Fitzgerald. Later, Anthony Thornton redesigned the site to focus on music news. The website won 'Online Magazine Of The Year' in 1999 and 2001. Anthony Thornton was named 'Website Editor Of The Year' three times.
It won 'Best Music Website' at the Record Of The Day awards in October 2005. In 2006, NME.COM celebrated with a party in London. The band Kasabian played there. The website then won the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine. It also received the first 'Chairman's Award' from the Association of Online Publishers.
In 2007, NME.COM started in the USA. It added more staff and planned to launch its 'Breaking Bands' contest and the NME Awards there.
Today, the website offers news, reviews, concert listings, and videos. It also has downloads, merchandise, and message boards.
Over the last year, the website has also started to include fun stories about celebrities alongside its usual music news. It has regular articles called "Daily Ligger" and "Tabloid Hell."
In 2007, NME.com offered a free download from The Verve. These were the first songs The Verve released since they got back together.
Images for kids
-
Cover featuring Patti Smith from February 21, 1976
-
The logo that has been used with slight changes since 1978.
.jpg)
See also
In Spanish: NME para niños
