2. History of UK Music Press
Almost everyone has a view on music and their
own personal tastes - it’s an influential part of
growing up. It’s no surprise therefore, that music
magazines have been one of the most exciting
areas within magazine publishing. Changing trends
and new bands can make or break a title. With the
amount of different genres of music there are, it
makes sense that there are loads of different
genres of music magazines to match. But there
wasn’t always loads to choose from…
3. History of UK Music Press
Melody Maker
A magazine called ‘melody maker’ was
the world’s first weekly music magazine. It
was founded in 1926 and originally
concentrated on jazz, and only began
writing seriously about popular music after the
Beatles came on to the music scene in the 1960’s. It
finished in 2000, because there was a lot of
competition from other music magazines such as
Uncut, Smash Hits and NME. Soon after NME was
first published, Melody Maker and NME became
involved in a tense rivalry.
4. History of UK Music Press
NME
New Musical Express was founded in 1952,
and was originally a newspaper. It was the
first British newspaper to feature a singles
chart, which made it instantly popular. In
the 1960’s, NME favoured the popular
British bands of the time, such as the Beatles and the
Rolling Stones – they were frequently featured on
the front cover. In the 1970’s NME became the best-
selling British music newspaper. It gradually moved
toward a magazine format during the 1980s,
changing from newsprint in 1998. Today, NME also
has a website that has 5 million users every month.
5. History of UK Music Press
Language
When music magazines first came onto the scene, there were
a lot less features included in them than there are now.
These days music magazines feature so many different
things from breaking news from the music world, to
interviews with bands, to reviews of concerts. In the
beginning, music press had to be more careful about the
language than they have to be today. This is because of the
audience. For example, the majority readers of NME aren’t
likely to mind if the magazine features a swear word,
whereas the majority of the readers of Classic FM magazine
would mind a lot more. It all depends on the readership
and audience.
It has also been shown that music magazines today
concentrate slightly more on the music artist themselves
more than the music.
6. History of UK Music Press
Audience
As mentioned on the first slide, most people have a their
own person view on and taste in music. This is true a lot
more today, because there is a lot more to chose from
these days. There are so many different genres of music
to chose from, and this means that people generally have
more eclectic tastes in music. Obviously this has then
lead to the creation of lots of different genres of music
magazines. The most well known ones are the rock and
pop ones, but there is also dance ones, drum and bass,
hip hop and R&B, classical, jazz and many more. In a way,
this is a good thing for the music magazine industry
because it expands their audience and gives them a
wider audience – people who they may not have
originally expected to buy it are now interested.
7. History of UK Music Press
Representation
Artists in music magazines are represented in all different ways –
depending on the context. It is all dependant on the way that the artist
wants to appear to their audience, but also on the way that that
particular music magazine wants to portray that artist. Q magazine
came under criticism once because they featured Lady Gaga on the
front cover, and some people said that the photo was too revealing. The
magazine wanted to sexualise the image and portray Lady
Gaga in a certain way. It is relatively common for female
artists to pose for magazines half dressed because not only
does it portray the artist in a sexual way, it could essentially
attract a larger audience. Some bands have images that they m want
to maintain and therefore have a say in how they are represented and
wouldn’t want to do everything that the magazine tells them too. If a
band has quite a serious image, they would want to reflect that in their
appearance in that magazine. Again – it all depends on the context.
