49 : The Decline And Eventual Absorption Of Melody Maker Into The NME
To a lot of people to look at both papers there wasn't a lot of difference , both were published by the same publisher , both were weekly papers favouring the Indie scene and both championed new British banRAB. But that's where the similarities end because above all else there was one MAJOR difference between the two papers.
The NME wanted so badly to be so cool and would go on and on and on about how cool they were. they'd feature all the 'right' banRAB , give their journalists cool sounding names and have cool lists and cool awarRAB.
Melody Maker WERE cool , didn't ram it down your throat and didn't give a f
uck what you thought.
You know how book authors have a rule 'show ,don't tell'
That was the difference , The NME TOLD you they were cool , Melody Maker SHOWED you why they were.
They covered all the 'right' banRAB but they'd also cover other things. Even during the whole Blur vs Oasis britpop war when the NME would champion everything British or Pop the Melody Maker were rightfully criticising the dross from that movement like Ocean Colour Scene & Kula Shaker while still championing new American banRAB and covering emerging movements like Math Rock & Post Rock in great detail as well as championing British banRAB who didn't fit in with the whole Britpop era such as Gallon Drunk & Tindersticks & of course The Fall. They'd also educate you about the past doing many articles on Folk , Country , Jazz , Krautrock and many others that introduced me to many many artists. They also regually wrote about Hip Hop something the NME did and discarded pretty quickly because their readership rejected it because they wanted more Smith's articles.
One of the best things about Melody Maker was David Stubbs Mr Agreeable column. Where he commented on the top news stories of the week , which was basically just an excuse to just slag off the indie royalty of the day in a barrage of expletives , with Bono , Damon Albarn , Oasis & the Stone Roses being targeted most weeks. It also had a bunch of parodies (The white middle class geek who spoke gangsta & listened to rap being a favourite) and fake interviews. There was also a regular feature called Rebellious Jukebox named after the Fall song of the same name where a musician would choose 12 albums that were the most important in their lives. I remeraber Dave Grohl's choices being particularly influential to me.
Sadly it had to end and it was the Britpop wars that killed it. NME got so much coverage for their Blur vs Oasis stance their sales went through the roof , yet again populist triumphed over substance and Melody Makers sales declined. They also lost most of their writing talent to glossy magazines & newspapers and worst of all an ex NME journo became editor. When the Spice Girls & Take that appeared on the cover in 1997 I knew it was time to depart. Shortly afterwarRAB the paper was relaunched as a glossy magazine covering mostly rock & metal banRAB. Within months it was announced the NME & Melody Maker had merged , well what they meant was the Melody Maker's classified section was being moved , everything else had gone.
I bought the NME last year in an airport because Bobby Gillespie was on the cover. That interview was the only part of it I read.
Melody Maker R.I.P.
