“I read the news today… oh boy” Taking the Pulse of UK Popular Music Journalism

Abstract

A letter, published in the New Musical Express, complained that that venerable bastion of UK music journalism had lost its way and was not as good as it used to be. That letter was sent in 1953, a year after the title came into circulation. Almost as soon as the white hot elements of popular music criticism began to solidify, and then codify, into the discipline we now understand it to be, people have sought to announce its demise… and every announcement has been premature. We are in another such moment of the reading of last rites, and this chapter therefore sets out to truly test the health of this patient, while arguing rumours of its death have, once again, been greatly exaggerated. This chapter will make its diagnosis by the examination of two major organs. Firstly, the NME itself. One of the symptoms of this apparent demise is this very title, and indeed this arises at Open Days for the Music Journalism programme at Chester: “Where are the jobs in music journalism,” concerned parents will cry, “even the NME has closed.” Except that it has not. The NME persists as an online proposition, serving consumers of music by utilising the medium they – predominantly young people – use. The internet. Further, it is, for the first time in many years, returning a profit in its current form and indeed is currently hiring. An analysis of this title, and other online music journalism will therefore form an important aspect to the chapter, encompassing the rise of music websites such as Stereogum in the US and Dork in the UK. While even a cursory overview of the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Music Journalism in the 1970s will reveal all of three places where young music critics could be published – the NME, Melody Maker and Sounds – the limits of publishing now extend as far as the outer boundaries of the internet itself, from successful websites such as Pitchfork, (turning over $5million annually), to intriguing and innovative personal blogs from where new journalistic voices emerge. The chapter will also consider the energy to be found when music journalism is not merely written down, but spoken, with YouTube blogs such as Needle Drop now massively popular. If NME is exhibit A, then the closure of Q is exhibit B. Notwithstanding the context of this business decision made during the global pandemic, an argument can be made that, rather like the 1970s NME journalists joyously ‘barbecuing the dinosaurs’ of their perceived dad rock, so it might be argued that it is also that very time for some of these big beasts of monthly music criticism, with the same cycle of cover stars, the same music featured within. On the plus side of the ledger, however, the resulting space in the market has allowed for an interesting and significant reappearance of the music inkie... local magazines like Bido Lito and The Skinny, but also semi-regional magazines such as Crack, Loud and Quiet and, indeed, the re-emergence of Sounds itself, as New Sounds. Drawing on new primary interviews with some of the key personalities in this evolving story, and research into the commercial health of titles such as the NME, this chapter will serve as almost a 'State-of-the-Union' overview as to where we are with this industry and what the future might hold. Both The Guardian and New Statesman have run features about the more positive picture for music journalism than might commonly be read into the industry and it is therefore key that an academic title such as this should also offer scholarly insight into that story, and where we stand with music journalism, in the third decade of the new century. Ironically, with so much access to music, we indeed need critical assistance in cutting through the noise and getting to what is worth listening to. We must not allow those key decisions to be the preserve of algorithms; indeed, after all these years, such important decisions are best left to human judgement and taste and, after all the industry has been through, we might just find that events bring us all the way back around to where we started… and the fundamental role of the music journalist.