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187-453: New Musical Express ( NME ) is a British music , film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "rock inkie", the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication, before becoming an online brand which includes its website and radio stations. As a "rock inkie", NME was the first British newspaper to include

374-457: A doo-wop group, had the number four hit of the year with " Crying in the Chapel ". Fats Domino made the top 30 of the pop charts in 1952 and 1953, then the top 10 with " Ain't That a Shame ". Ray Charles came to national prominence in 1955 with " I Got a Woman ". Big Bill Broonzy said of Charles's music: "He's mixing the blues with the spirituals   ... I know that's wrong." In 1954

561-401: A singles chart , adding that feature in the edition of 14 November 1952. In the 1970s, it became the best-selling British music newspaper. From 1972 to 1976, it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism then became closely associated with punk rock through the writings of Julie Burchill , Paul Morley , and Tony Parsons . It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward

748-807: A "rawer" or "grittier" sound than the more popular " beat groups ". During the 1960s, Geno Washington , the Foundations , and the Equals gained pop hits. Many British black musicians helped form the British R&;B scene. These included Geno Washington , an American singer stationed in England with the Air Force. He was invited to join what became Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band by guitarist Pete Gage in 1965 and enjoyed top 40 hit singles and two top 10 albums before

935-591: A "scrum in rugby", in that "[e]verybody pushes against everybody else, and we move forward in a huge blob of vehement opinion and mutual judgment". Music critic and indie pop musician Scott Miller , in his 2010 book Music: What Happened? , suggested, "Part of the problem is that a lot of vital pop music is made by 22-year-olds who enjoy shock value, and it's pathetic when their elders are cornered into unalloyed reverence". Miller suggested that critics could navigate this problem by being prepared "to give young artists credit for terrific music without being intimidated into

1122-434: A "slap at the establishment, at publications such as the hippie homestead Rolling Stone and the rawker outpost Creem ", adding that the "1980s generation" of post-punk indie rockers had in the mid-2000s "been taken down by younger 'poptimists,' who argue that lovers of underground rock are elitists for not embracing the more multicultural mainstream". Powers likened the poptimist critics' debates about bands and styles to

1309-470: A 2010 interview, stating, "Most of us [critics] begin writing about music because we love it so much. We can't wait to tell our friends and neighbors about what we're hearing." According to McCall, even over the course of a long professional career, the enthusiastic impulse to share "never fades". McCall expressed his interest in "examining why people respond to what they respond to. I hazard guesses. Sometimes I'm wrong, but I hope I'm always provocative." In

1496-534: A Dream ". Faye Adams 's " Shake a Hand " made it to number two in 1952. In 1953, the R&;B record-buying public made Willie Mae Thornton 's original recording of Leiber and Stoller 's " Hound Dog " the year's number three hit. Ruth Brown was very prominent among female R&B stars; her popularity most likely came from "her deeply rooted vocal delivery in African American tradition". That same year The Orioles ,

1683-528: A United States embargo that still remains in effect today, the island nation had been forgotten as a source of music. By the time people began to talk about rock and roll as having a history, Cuban music had vanished from North American consciousness." At first, only African Americans were buying R&B discs. According to Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, sales were localized in African-American markets; there were no white sales or white radio play. During

1870-532: A bimonthly release. NME was acquired in 2019 by Singaporean music company BandLab Technologies , which put all of its music publications under the NME Networks brand in December 2021, when the company was restructured. The paper was established in 1952. The Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn for £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It

2057-475: A blues progression. Ike Turner recorded "Cubano Jump" (1954) an electric guitar instrumental, which is built around several 2–3 clave figures, adopted from the mambo. The Hawketts , in " Mardi Gras Mambo " (1955) (featuring the vocals of a young Art Neville), make a clear reference to Perez Prado in their use of his trademark "Unhh!" in the break after the introduction. Ned Sublette states: "The electric blues cats were very well aware of Latin music, and there

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2244-615: A boogie-woogie with a tresillo bass line, and lyrics proudly declaring the adoption of Cuban rhythm: Harlem's got a new rhythm, man it's burning up the dance floors because it's so hot! They took a little rhumba rhythm and added boogie-woogie and now look what they got! Rhumboogie, it's Harlem's new creation with the Cuban syncopation, it's the killer! Just plant your both feet on each side. Let both your hips and shoulder glide. Then throw your body back and ride. There's nothing like rhumbaoogie, rhumboogie, boogie-woogie. In Harlem or Havana, you can kiss

2431-629: A booklet called "Jungle to Jukebox" that used racist, exotic tropes to illustrate the dangers of rock music to white youth. In the 2000s, online music bloggers began to supplement, and to some degree displace, music journalists in print media. In 2006, Martin Edlund of the New York Sun criticized the trend, arguing that while the "Internet has democratized music criticism, it seems it's also spread its penchant for uncritical hype". Carl Wilson described "an upsurge in pro-pop sentiment among critics" during

2618-486: A challenge "for those of us concerned with historical memory and popular music performance". Simon Frith said that pop and rock music "are closely associated with gender; that is, with conventions of male and female behaviour". According to Holly Kruse, both popular music articles and academic articles about pop music are usually written from "masculine subject positions". Kembrew McLeod analyzed terms used by critics to differentiate between pop music and rock, finding

2805-526: A challenge to taste hierarchies, and has remained a pugilistic, exhibitionist business throughout pop's own evolution". Powers claimed that "[i]nsults, rejections of others' authority, bratty assertions of superior knowledge and even threats of physical violence are the stuff of which pop criticism is made", while at the same time, the "best [pop criticism] also offers loving appreciation and profound insights about how music creates and collides with our everyday realities". She stated that pop criticism developed as

2992-461: A concert at Finsbury Park where Morrissey was seen to drape himself in a Union Jack . The series of articles (starting with Fadele's one) which followed in the next edition of NME (featuring the story on the front cover) soured Morrissey's relationship with the paper, and this led to Morrissey not speaking to the paper again for the next 12 years (i.e., until 2004). Later in 1992, Steve Sutherland, previously an assistant editor of Melody Maker ,

3179-553: A considerable amount of criticism from conservative Christian communities within the United States. This criticism was strongest throughout the 1960s and 70s, with some of the most prominent Christian critics being David A. Noebel , Bob Larson , and Frank Garlock . While these men were not professional music critics, they often claimed to be qualified rock critics because of their professional experiences with both music and religion. For example, Larson tried to assert his authority as

3366-579: A decade and a half before. Some commented at this time that the NME had become less intellectual in its writing style and less inventive musically. Initially, NME writers themselves were ill at ease with the new regime, with most signing a letter of no confidence in Lewis shortly after he took over. However, this new direction for the NME proved to be a commercial success and the paper brought in new writers such as Andrew Collins , Andrew Harrison , Stuart Maconie , Mary Anne Hobbs and Steve Lamacq to give it

3553-505: A feeling of real adventure. We also set out to beat Melody Maker on its strong suit: being the serious, responsible journal of record. We did Looking Back and Consumer Guide features that beat the competition out of sight, and we did this not just to surpass our rivals but because we reckoned that rock had finished its first wind around 1969/70 and deserved to be treated as history, as a canon of work. We wanted to see where we'd got to, sort out this huge amount of stuff that had poured out since

3740-425: A few weeks after they had taken place. In the mid-1960s, the NME was primarily dedicated to pop while its older rival, Melody Maker , was known for its more serious coverage of music. Other competing titles included Record Mirror , which led the way in championing American rhythm and blues , and Disc , which focused on chart news. The latter part of the decade the paper charted the rise of psychedelia and

3927-653: A figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists also appeared at the NME Poll Winners' Concert, an awards event that featured artists voted as most popular by the paper's readers. The concert also featured a ceremony where the poll winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners' Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972. From 1964 onwards, they were filmed, edited, and transmitted on British television

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4114-559: A frame of mind where dark subject matter always gets a passing grade", stating that a critic should be able to call a young artist "a musical genius" while "in the same breath declaring that his or her lyrics are morally objectionable." Reacting to the state of pop music criticism, Miller identified a major issue as critics' failure to "credit an artist with getting a feeling across", specifically pointing out critic Lester Bangs as "a ball of emotion at all times", who nonetheless "never really related to his favorite artists as people who develop

4301-688: A free title, featuring Rihanna. Editor in Chief Mike Williams received the Editor Of The Year Award at the BSME Awards 2016, the judges stating that under Williams' leadership, NME had "bounced back from an uncertain future and established itself confidently and creatively in a new market." In March 2018, The Guardian reported that the NME was to cease publication in print after 66 years. The online publication would continue. In 2019, TI Media,

4488-459: A gendered dichotomy in descriptions of "'serious,' 'raw,' and 'sincere' rock music as distinguished from 'trivial', 'fluffy,' and 'formulaic' pop music". McLeod found that a likely cause of this dichotomy was the lack of women writing in music journalism: "By 1999, the number of female editors or senior writers at Rolling Stone hovered around a whopping 15%, [while] at Spin and Raygun , [it was] roughly 20%." Criticism associated with gender

4675-490: A graduate degree. One critic of the study pointed out that because all newspapers were included, including low-circulation regional papers, the female representation of 26% misrepresented the actual scarcity, in that the "large US papers, which are the ones that influence public opinion, have virtually no women classical music critics", with the notable exceptions of Anne Midgette in the New York Times and Wynne Delacoma in

4862-656: A local editor, and would instead be controlled by a team in London and Singapore, with content from Australian contributors. A print edition was announced in April 2020, beginning with issue #5, following their online covers numbering. Tash Sultana became the first cover artist for the print edition, which have gone on to feature artists such as The Avalanches , Jaguar Jonze , Tkay Maidza , and Lorde on future covers. Music journalism Music journalism has its roots in classical music criticism , which has traditionally comprised

5049-451: A magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s, changing from newsprint in 1998. The magazine's website NME.com was launched in 1996, and became the world's biggest standalone music site, with over sixteen million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector in the early 21st century, the magazine's paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In September 2015,

5236-404: A mainstay in rock and roll. At the urging of Leonard Chess at Chess Records, Chuck Berry reworked a country fiddle tune with a long history, entitled " Ida Red ". The resulting " Maybellene " was not only a number three hit on the R&B charts in 1955, but also reached into the top 30 on the pop charts. Alan Freed , who had moved to the much larger market of New York City in 1954, helped

5423-583: A more authoritative tone. The first issue of the redesign featured a free seven-inch Coldplay vinyl single. Krissi Murison was appointed editor in June 2009, launching a new redesigned NME in April 2010. The issue had 10 different covers, highlighting the broader range of music the magazine would cover, and featured Jack White , Florence and the Machine , LCD Soundsystem , Rihanna , Kasabian , Laura Marling , Foals , M.I.A. , Biffy Clyro and Magnetic Man . Murison

5610-466: A more straightforward and populist style. The paper also became more openly political during the time of punk. Its cover would sometimes feature youth-orientated issues rather than a musical act. It took an editorial stance against political parties like the National Front . With the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, the paper took a broadly socialist stance for much of the following decade. In

5797-529: A non-African American artist into a music category known for being created by blacks. Nat King Cole , also a jazz pianist who had two hits on the pop charts in the early 1950s (" Mona Lisa " at number two in 1950 and " Too Young " at number one in 1951), had a record in the top five in the R&B charts in 1958, " Looking Back "/"Do I Like It". In 1959, two black-owned record labels, one of which would become hugely successful, made their debut: Sam Cooke 's Sar and Berry Gordy 's Motown Records . Brook Benton

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5984-524: A number of high-profile international pop stars on the cover such as Coldplay , Taylor Swift , Lana Del Rey , Kanye West and Green Day alongside emerging talent like Zara Larsson , Years & Years , Lady Leshurr and Christine and the Queens . The free, pop-oriented NME magazine was praised for reconnecting NME with its target audience, and was awarded a silver at the 2016 Professional Publishers Association Awards for its historic first-ever cover as

6171-668: A number of other major newspapers "still have full-time classical music critics", including (in 2007) the Los Angeles Times , The Washington Post , The Baltimore Sun , The Philadelphia Inquirer , and The Boston Globe . Music writers only started "treating pop and rock music seriously" in 1964 "after the breakthrough of the Beatles ". In their book Rock Criticism from the Beginning , Ulf Lindberg and his co-writers say that rock criticism appears to have been "slower to develop in

6358-405: A perspective previously reserved for jazz artists to the rise of American-influenced local rock and pop groups, anticipating the advent of rock critics. Among Britain's broadsheet newspapers, pop music gained exposure in the arts section of The Times when William Mann , the paper's classical music critic, wrote an appreciation of the Beatles in December 1963. In early 1965, The Observer ,

6545-419: A political symbol. The NME was generally thought to be rudderless at this time, with staff pulling simultaneously in a number of directions in what came to be known as the "hip-hop wars". It was haemorrhaging readers who were deserting NME in favour of Nick Logan 's two creations The Face and Smash Hits . This was brought to a head when the paper was about to publish a poster of an insert contained in

6732-497: A primarily African-American clientele. Freed began referring to the rhythm and blues music he played as "rock and roll". In 1951 Little Richard Penniman began recording for RCA Records in the jump blues style of late 1940s stars Roy Brown and Billy Wright . However, it was not until he recorded a demo in 1954 that caught the attention of Specialty Records that the world would start to hear his new uptempo funky rhythm and blues that would catapult him to fame in 1955 and help define

6919-489: A quintet consisting of a vocal quartet with accompanying guitarist, sang a distinctive-sounding combination of blues and gospel. They had the number five hit of the year with " Don't You Know I Love You " on Atlantic. Also in July 1951, Cleveland, Ohio DJ Alan Freed started a late-night radio show called "The Moondog Rock Roll House Party" on WJW (850 AM). Freed's show was sponsored by Fred Mintz, whose R&B record store had

7106-430: A rise of music critics who used YouTube and social media as their platform. According to Vice magazine's Larry Fitzmaurice in 2016, Twitter (X) is "perhaps the last public space for unfettered music criticism in an increasingly anti-critical landscape". In 2020, The New York Times described YouTuber Anthony Fantano as "probably the most popular music critic left standing." Fantano's channel, The Needle Drop,

7293-560: A rock critic by stating: "As a minister, I know now what it is like to feel the unction of the Holy Spirit. As a rock musician, I knew what it meant to feel the counterfeit anointing of Satan". Christian criticisms of rock music in the mid 20th century often centered around arguments that rock was both sonically and morally bad and physically harmful to both the body and soul. Using these central arguments, Noebel, Larson, Garlock, and other Christian critics of rock music wrote extensively about

7480-415: A saxophone-section riff) on his own 1949 disc "Country Boy" and subsequently helped make it the most over-used rhythmic pattern in 1950s rock 'n' roll. On numerous recordings by Fats Domino , Little Richard and others, Bartholomew assigned this repeating three-note pattern not just to the string bass, but also to electric guitars and even baritone sax, making for a very heavy bottom. He recalls first hearing

7667-424: A skill of conveying feelings. You don't feel that he comfortably acknowledged being moved as a result of their honest work. Artists in his writing were vaguely ridiculous, fascinating primitives, embodying an archetype by accident of nature." Jezebel ' s Tracy Moore, in 2014, suggested that one of the virtues of writing about how music made one feel, in contrast with linking it to the sounds of other artists,

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7854-680: A sold-out performance with 8,000 seats. Roads were clogged for seven hours. Filmmakers took advantage of the popularity of "rhythm and blues" musicians as "rock n roll" musicians beginning in 1956. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner, the Treniers , the Platters , and the Flamingos all made it onto the big screen. Two Elvis Presley records made the R&B top five in 1957: " Jailhouse Rock "/" Treat Me Nice " at number one, and " All Shook Up " at number five, an unprecedented acceptance of

8041-515: A song", in the way that working musicians might discuss "the A-minor in the second measure of the chorus". Stevie Chick, a writer who teaches music journalism at City University London , said, "I think more than any other journalism, music journalism has got a really powerful creative writing quotient to it." Tris McCall of the Newark Star-Ledger discussed his approach to music criticism in

8228-440: A strand embodied by the [Arctic] Monkeys, Babyshambles and Muse – bands who you don't need specialist knowledge to write about and who are just "indie" enough to make readers feel they're part of a club. Like everything else in publishing, this particular direction must be in response to reader demand, but it doesn't half make for a self-limiting magazine. In May 2008, the magazine received a redesign aimed at an older readership with

8415-407: A strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but when DJ Alan Freed referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid-1950s, "the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing". The great migration of Black Americans to the urban industrial centers of Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and elsewhere in

8602-468: A stronger identity and sense of direction. Lewis prioritised readership over editorial independence, and Mark Sinker left in 1988 after Lewis refused to print his unfavourable review of U2 's Rattle and Hum ("the worst album by a major band in years"), replacing it with a glowing Stuart Baillie review intended to be more acceptable to readers. Initially many of the bands on the C86 tape were championed as well as

8789-476: A sympathetic readership, given the nature of his publication, Goldstein's task was to win over a more highbrow readership to the artistic merits of contemporary pop music. At this time, both Goldstein and Williams gained considerable renown in the cultural mainstream and were the subject of profile articles in Newsweek . The emergence of rock journalism coincided with an attempt to position rock music, particularly

8976-419: A time when "rocking, jazz based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of a piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, one or more saxophones, and sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American history and experience of pain and

9163-531: A tradition of writing about rock since the 60's" has been "largely hidden in American culture". Brooks theorized that perceptions of female artists of color might be different if there were more women of color writing about them, and praised Ellen Willis as a significant feminist critic of rock's classic era. Willis, who was a columnist for the New Yorker from 1968 to 1975, believed society could be enlightened by

9350-473: A triplet or shuffle feel to even or straight eighth notes. Concerning the various funk motifs, Stewart states that this model "...   is different from a time line (such as clave and tresillo) in that it is not an exact pattern, but more of a loose organizing principle." Johnny Otis released the R&B mambo "Mambo Boogie" in January 1951, featuring congas, maracas, claves, and mambo saxophone guajeos in

9537-478: A version of " Stagger Lee " at number one and " Personality " at number five in 1959. The white bandleader of the Bill Black Combo, Bill Black , who had helped start Elvis Presley's career and was Elvis's bassist in the 1950s, was popular with black listeners. Ninety percent of his record sales were from black people, and his " Smokie, Part 2 " (1959) rose to the number one position on black music charts. He

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9724-408: A week, although its then-publisher Time Inc. UK claimed to have more than 13 million global unique users per month, including 3 million in the UK. In March 2018, the publisher announced that the print edition of NME would cease publication after 66 years and become an online-only publication. However, this decision was reversed in 2023, with NME announcing that it would revive its print magazine as

9911-544: A wider context. It referred to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues , as well as gospel and soul music . By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" had changed once again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk . In the late 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as " contemporary R&B ". This contemporary form combines rhythm and blues with various elements of pop , soul, funk, disco , hip hop , and electronic music . Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine

10098-575: Is 'Longhair's Blues Rhumba,' where he overlays a straightforward blues with a clave rhythm." Longhair's particular style was known locally as rumba-boogie . In his "Mardi Gras in New Orleans", the pianist employs the 2–3 clave onbeat/offbeat motif in a rumba boogie " guajeo ". The syncopated, but straight subdivision feel of Cuban music (as opposed to swung subdivisions) took root in New Orleans R&;B during this time. Alexander Stewart states that

10285-455: Is an attempt to blend African American and Afro-Cuban music. The word mambo , larger than any of the other text, is placed prominently on the record label. In his composition "Misery", New Orleans pianist Professor Longhair plays a habanera-like figure in his left hand. The deft use of triplets is a characteristic of Longhair's style. Gerhard Kubik notes that with the exception of New Orleans, early blues lacked complex polyrhythms, and there

10472-526: Is called "popism" – or, more evocatively (and goofily), "poptimism". The poptimism approach states: "Pop (and, especially, hip-hop) producers are as important as rock auteurs, Beyoncé is as worthy of serious consideration as Bruce Springsteen , and ascribing shame to pop pleasure is itself a shameful act." In 2008, Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times argued that pop music critics "have always been contrarians", because "pop music [criticism] rose up as

10659-440: Is centered on a perception that rock critics regard rock as "normative ... the standard state of popular music ... to which everything else is compared". At a 2006 pop critic conference, attendees discussed their "guilty pop pleasures, reconsidering musicians ( Tiny Tim , Dan Fogelberg , Phil Collins ) and genres " which rock critics have long dismissed as lightweight, commercial music. Rosen stated that "this new critical paradigm"

10846-570: Is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a musical term in the United States in 1948, the term had been used in Billboard as early as 1943. However, the company's first list of songs popular among African Americans was named Harlem Hit Parade ; created in 1942, it listed the "most popular records in Harlem ," and is the predecessor to the Billboard RnB chart. “Rhythm and Blues” replaced

11033-410: Is his main outlet, but he also streams music commentary on Twitch and posts on X. In an article published in 2024, Jessica Karl, a Bloomberg News columnist, opined that "the way we critique music is broken". She argues that the current culture of consuming new music, particularly with the release of Taylor Swift's album The Tortured Poets Department (2024), is unhealthy. While she found some of

11220-585: Is often cited as a precursor to rock and roll or as one of the first records in that genre. In a later interview, however, Ike Turner offered this comment: "I don't think that 'Rocket 88' is rock 'n' roll. I think that 'Rocket 88' is R&B, but I think 'Rocket 88' is the cause of rock and roll existing". Ruth Brown , performing on the Atlantic label, placed hits in the top five every year from 1951 through 1954: " Teardrops from My Eyes ", "Five, Ten, Fifteen Hours", " (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean " and " What

11407-551: The Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (founded by Robert Schumann in 1834), and in London journals such as The Musical Times (founded in 1844 as The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular ); or else by reporters at general newspapers where music did not form part of the central objectives of the publication. An influential English 19th-century music critic, for example, was James William Davison of The Times . The composer Hector Berlioz also wrote reviews and criticisms for

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11594-586: The Buzzcocks and Ian Dury . A second tape titled C86 was released in 1986. From 1981 to 1988 the magazine released 36 cassette compilations. The NME responded to the Thatcher era by espousing socialism through movements such as Red Wedge . In the week of the 1987 election , the paper featured an interview with the leader of the Labour Party , Neil Kinnock , who appeared on the paper's cover. He had appeared on

11781-539: The Chicago Sun-Times . In 2007, The New York Times wrote that classical music criticism, which it characterized as "a high-minded endeavor that has been around at least as long as newspapers", had undergone "a series of hits in recent months" with the elimination, downgrading, or redefinition of critics' jobs at newspapers in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and elsewhere, citing New York magazine's Peter G. Davis , "one of

11968-514: The Dead Kennedys ' album Frankenchrist , consisting of a painting by H.R. Giger called Penis Landscape , then a subject of an obscenity lawsuit in the US. In the summer and autumn of 1987, three senior editorial staff were sacked, including Pye, media editor Stuart Cosgrove , and art editor Joe Ewart. Former Sounds editor Alan Lewis was brought in to rescue the paper, mirroring Alan Smith's revival

12155-533: The NME magazine was relaunched to be distributed nationally as a free publication. The first average circulation published in February 2016 of 307,217 copies per week was the highest in the brand's history, beating the previous best of 306,881, recorded in 1964 at the height of the Beatles ' fame. By December 2017, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations , average distribution of NME had fallen to 289,432 copies

12342-455: The NME , and was replaced as editor by 26-year-old Melody Maker writer Ben Knowles. In the same year, Melody Maker officially merged with the NME , and many speculated the NME would be next to close, as the weekly music-magazine market was shrinking - the monthly magazine Select , which had thrived especially during the Britpop era, was closed down within a week of Melody Maker . In

12529-579: The New Musical Express "started to champion underground, up-and-coming music....NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world. First came glamrock , and bands such as T. Rex , and then came punk ....by 1977 it had become the place to keep in touch with a cultural revolution that was enthralling the nation's listless youth. Bands such as Sex Pistols , X-Ray Spex and Generation X were regular cover stars, eulogised by writers such as Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons , whose nihilistic tone narrated

12716-611: The boogie-woogie rhythms that had come to prominence during the 1940s. Jordan's band, the Tympany Five (formed in 1938), consisted of him on saxophone and vocals, along with musicians on trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Lawrence Cohn described the music as "grittier than his boogie-era jazz-tinged blues". Robert Palmer described it as "urbane, rocking, jazz-based music ... [with a] heavy, insistent beat". Jordan's music, along with that of Big Joe Turner , Roy Brown , Billy Wright , and Wynonie Harris , before 1949,

12903-408: The conga drum , bongos , maracas and claves . According to John Storm Roberts , R&B became the vehicle for the return of Cuban elements into mass popular music. Ahmet Ertegun , producer for Atlantic Records , is reported to have said that "Afro-Cuban rhythms added color and excitement to the basic drive of R&B." As Ned Sublette points out though: "By the 1960s, with Cuba the object of

13090-544: The guitar shop , and now social media : when it comes to popular music, these places become stages for the display of male prowess", and adds, "Female expertise, when it appears, is repeatedly dismissed as fraudulent. Every woman who has ever ventured an opinion on popular music could give you some variation [of this experience] ...and becoming a recognized 'expert' (a musician, a critic) will not save [women] from accusations of fakery." Daphne Brooks, in her 2008 article "The Write to Rock: Racial Mythologies, Feminist Theory, and

13277-633: The "ecstatic experience" of visions expressed through music's rhythm and noise and that such joy would lead people to different ways of sharing. Brooks wrote that "the confluence of cultural studies, rock studies, and third wave feminist critical studies makes it possible now more than ever to continue to critique and reinterrogate the form and content of popular music histories". In Brooks' view, "By bravely breaking open dense equations of gender, class, power, and subcultural music scenes", music journalists, activists and critics such as Ellen Willis have been "able to brilliantly, like no one before [them], challenge

13464-443: The 1800s with the popularity of the Cuban contradanza (known outside of Cuba as the habanera ). The habanera rhythm can be thought of as a combination of tresillo and the backbeat . For the more than a quarter-century in which the cakewalk , ragtime and proto-jazz were forming and developing, the Cuban genre habanera exerted a constant presence in African American popular music. Jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton considered

13651-545: The 1920s and 1930s created a new market for jazz, blues, and related genres of music. These genres of music were often performed by full-time musicians, either working alone or in small groups. The precursors of rhythm and blues came from jazz and blues, which overlapped in the late-1920s and 30s through the work of musicians such as the Harlem Hamfats , with their 1936 hit "Oh Red", as well as Lonnie Johnson , Leroy Carr , Cab Calloway , Count Basie , and T-Bone Walker . There

13838-442: The 1980s, the NME became the most important music paper in the country. It released the influential C81 in 1981, in conjunction with Rough Trade Records , available to readers by mail order at a low price. The tape featured a number of then up-and-coming bands, including Duran Duran , Aztec Camera , Orange Juice , Linx , and Scritti Politti , as well as a number of more established artists such as Robert Wyatt , Pere Ubu ,

14025-440: The 2008 NME Award nominations, Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian criticised the magazine's lack of diversity, saying: "NME bands" fall within very narrow parameters. In the 80s, the paper prided itself on its coverage of hip hop, R&B and the emerging dance scene which it took seriously and featured prominently – alongside the usual Peel-endorsed indie fare. Now, though, its range of approved bands has dramatically shrunk to

14212-531: The 2010s, some commentators noted and criticized the lack of negative reviews in music journalism. Saul Austerlitz from the New York Times Magazine noted that unlike other art forms, "music is now effectively free. Music criticism's former priority — telling consumers what to purchase — has been rendered null and void for most fans." He argued that this and " click culture " causes music critics to act as "cheerleaders" for existing stars. The 2010s saw

14399-605: The American south among black populations. Early conservative Christian criticisms of rock music had strong footings in racism. Most white conservative Christians in the mid 20th century understood that rock started among black populations and feared what the success of the genre implied for the church, segregation, and racial equality. When critiquing rock music, Christian critics commonly portrayed rock music with "primitive and exotic imagery to convey [its] African-roots". For example, The American Tract Society in New Jersey released

14586-581: The Asian music scene and acts such as The Itchyworms, SEVENTEEN, Voice Of Baceprot, Sponge Cola and I Belong To The Zoo from countries such as South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia. On 20 July 2023, NME announced that it would be relaunching its print magazine that summer. Starting with a July/August issue featuring D4vd , each bimonthly issue will showcase a rising musical talent. NME Networks' chief operating and commercial officer Holly Bishop explained that

14773-491: The Beatles' work, in the American cultural landscape. The critical discourse was further heightened by the respectful coverage afforded the genre in mainstream publications such as Newsweek , Time and Life in the months leading up to and following the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album in June 1967. Within this discourse, Richard Meltzer , in an essay for Crawdaddy! in March, challenged

14960-655: The CEO of LaFace Records , was responsible for some of R&B's greatest successes in the 1990s in the form of Usher , TLC and Toni Braxton . Later, Reid successfully marketed Boyz II Men . In 2004, 80% of the songs that topped the R&B charts were also at the top of the Hot 100. That period was the all-time peak for R&B and hip hop on the Billboard Hot 100 and on Top 40 Radio. From about 2005 to 2013, R&B sales declined. However, since 2010, hip-hop has started to take cues from

15147-589: The Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor saw the paper dip to a sales low, and Sutherland later stated in his weekly editorial that he regretted putting them on the cover. For many, this was seen as an affront to the principles of the paper, and sales reached a low point at the turn of the millennium. From the issue of 21 March 1999, the paper was no longer printed on newsprint, and more recently, it has shifted to tabloid size with glossy colour covers. In 2000, Steve Sutherland left to become brand director of

15334-542: The Chords ' " Sh-Boom " became the first hit to cross over from the R&B chart to hit the top 10 early in the year. Late in the year, and into 1955, " Hearts of Stone " by the Charms made the top 20. At Chess Records in the spring of 1955, Bo Diddley 's debut record " Bo Diddley "/" I'm a Man " climbed to number two on the R&B charts and popularized Bo Diddley's own original rhythm and blues clave-based vamp that would become

15521-585: The Cleftones , and the Spaniels with Illinois Jacquet 's Big Rockin' Rhythm Band. Cities visited by the tour included Columbia, South Carolina; Annapolis, Maryland; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, New York; and other cities. In Columbia, the concert ended with a near riot as Perkins began his first song as the closing act. Perkins is quoted as saying, "It was dangerous. Lot of kids got hurt". In Annapolis, 50,000 to 70,000 people tried to attend

15708-517: The Jewish writer, music publishing executive, and songwriter Arnold Shaw , during the 1940s in the US, there was generally little opportunity for Jews in the WASP -controlled realm of mass communications , but the music business was "wide open for Jews as it was for blacks". Jews played a key role in developing and popularizing African American music, including rhythm and blues, and the independent record business

15895-581: The Manics, some new British bands were beginning to appear. Suede were quickly hailed by the paper as an alternative to the heavy grunge sound and hailed as the start of a new British music scene. Grunge, however, was still the dominant force, but the rise of new British bands would become something the paper would focus on more and more. In 1992, the NME also had a very public dispute with Morrissey due to allegations by NME ' s Dele Fadele that Morrissey had used racist lyrics and imagery. This erupted after

16082-461: The New Orleans sound. Robert Palmer reports that, in the 1940s, Professor Longhair listened to and played with musicians from the islands and "fell under the spell of Perez Prado's mambo records." He was especially enamored with Afro-Cuban music. Michael Campbell states: "Professor Longhair's influence was   ... far-reaching. In several of his early recordings, Professor Longhair blended Afro-Cuban rhythms with rhythm and blues. The most explicit

16269-514: The Paris press of the 1830s and 1840s. Modern art music journalism is often informed by music theory consideration of the many diverse elements of a musical piece or performance, including (as regards a musical composition ) its form and style, and for performance, standards of technique and expression. These standards were expressed, for example, in journals such as Neue Zeitschrift für Musik founded by Robert Schumann , and are continued today in

16456-517: The Pleasures of Rock Music Criticism", wrote that in order to restructure music criticism, one must "focus on multiple counter narratives" to break away from racial and gender biases as embodied in "contemporary cultural fetishizations of white male performative virtuosity and latent black male innovations". Brooks focused on "the ways that rock music criticism has shaped and continues to shape our understandings of racialized music encounters, and what are

16643-474: The R&B sound, choosing to adopt a softer, smoother sound that incorporates traditional R&B with rappers such as Drake , who has opened an entire new door for the genre. This sound has gained in popularity and created great controversy for both hip-hop and R&B as to how to identify it. In 2010, the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame was founded by LaMont "ShowBoat" Robinson . According to

16830-737: The Strokes , the Vines , and the White Stripes . In 2002, Conor McNicholas was appointed editor, with a new wave of photographers including Dean Chalkley , Andrew Kendall, James Looker, and Pieter Van Hattem, and a high turnover of young writers. It focused on new British bands such as the Libertines , Franz Ferdinand , Bloc Party , and the Kaiser Chiefs , which had emerged as indie music continued to grow in commercial success. Later, Arctic Monkeys became

17017-428: The U.S. than in England". One of the early British music magazines, Melody Maker , complained in 1967 about how "newspapers and magazines are continually hammering [i.e., attacking] pop music ". From 1964, Melody Maker led its rival publications in terms of approaching music and musicians as a subject for serious study rather than merely entertainment. Staff reporters such as Chris Welch and Ray Coleman applied

17204-444: The US, mainly from Seattle . These bands would form a new movement called grunge , and by far the most popular bands were Nirvana and Pearl Jam . The NME took to grunge very slowly ("Sounds" was the first British music paper to write about grunge with John Robb being the first to interview Nirvana. Melody Maker was more enthusiastic early on, largely through the efforts of Everett True , who had previously written for NME under

17391-410: The United States "the emergence of a 'serious' rock press and the rock critic" began in 1966, presaged by Robert Shelton , the folk music critic for The New York Times , writing articles praising the Beatles and Bob Dylan , the last of whom had just embraced rock 'n' roll by performing with electric backing at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival . Paul Williams , an eighteen-year-old student, launched

17578-523: The World Music Institute interviewed four New York Times music critics who came up with the following criteria on how to approach ethnic music: A key finding in a 2005 study of arts journalism in America was that the profile of the "average classical music critic is a white, 52-year old male, with a graduate degree". Demographics indicated that the group was 74% male, 92% white, and 64% had earned

17765-425: The alternative stories that we might tell". Brooks pointed to Christgau's statement that, after the Beatles' arrival in America, "rock criticism embraced a dream or metaphor of perpetual revolution. Worthwhile bands were supposed to change people's lives, preferably for the better. If they failed to do so, that meant they didn't matter." Unsurprisingly, according to Brooks, "the history of women who've been sustaining

17952-494: The art. Applying critical theory ( e.g. , critical gender studies and critical race theory ) to music journalism, some academic writers suggest that mutual disrespect between critics and artists is one of many negative effects of rockism . In 2004, critic Kelefa Sanneh defined "rockism" as "idolizing the authentic old legend (or underground hero) while mocking the latest pop star". Music journalism "infected" with rockism has become, according to Yale professor Daphne Brooks,

18139-439: The article said that rock and roll combined R&B with pop and country music. Fats Domino was not convinced that there was any new genre. In 1957, he said, "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone , "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B,

18326-401: The backbeat (two-side). The " Bo Diddley beat " (1955) is perhaps the first true fusion of 3–2 clave and R&B/rock 'n' roll. Bo Diddley has given different accounts of the riff's origins. Sublette asserts: "In the context of the time, and especially those maracas [heard on the record], 'Bo Diddley' has to be understood as a Latin-tinged record. A rejected cut recorded at the same session

18513-526: The band split up in 1969. Another American GI , Jimmy James , born in Jamaica, moved to London after two local number one hits in 1960 with The Vagabonds, who built a strong reputation as a live act. They released a live album and their studio debut, The New Religion, in 1966 and achieved moderate success with a few singles before the original Vagabonds broke up in 1970. White blues rock musician Alexis Korner formed new jazz rock band CCS in 1970. Interest in

18700-437: The beats used in rock music could cause rebellion in younger generations due to their hypnotic and influential nature. Drawing from styles like rhythm and blues and jazz music, rock and roll was first innovated by black communities, but was soon appropriated by white populations. This aspect of rock's history has been overlooked by historians and the media, but music experts now widely agree that rock's true origins lie in

18887-463: The black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties". In 1956, an R&B "Top Stars of '56" tour took place, with headliners Al Hibbler , Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and Carl Perkins , whose " Blue Suede Shoes " was very popular with R&B music buyers. Some of the performers completing the bill were Chuck Berry, Cathy Carr , Shirley & Lee , Della Reese , Sam "T-Bird" Jensen,

19074-698: The charts. Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use (in some contexts) to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands usually consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass, drums, and saxophone. Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow, lilting, and often hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound. While singers are emotionally engaged with

19261-454: The columns of serious newspapers and journals such as The Musical Times . Several factors—including growth of education, the influence of the Romantic movement generally and in music, popularization (including the 'star-status' of many performers such as Liszt and Paganini ), among others—led to an increasing interest in music among non-specialist journals, and an increase in

19448-410: The common term " race music ", a term coined by Okeh producer Ralph Peer based on the common self description by the African American press as “people of race.” The term "rhythm and blues" was then used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles". Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name

19635-475: The company was "inspired by the resurgence we've seen in vinyl and cassette tapes" to bring a physical edition back for music fans. In December 2018, BandLab Technologies announced the launch of NME Australia . Initially a website only, new interviews were given covers and numbered as issues, with Amyl & The Sniffers on the inaugural cover. At the time BandLab announced the Australian edition would not have

19822-473: The continued dominance of British groups of the time. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock. The paper became engaged in a sometimes tense rivalry with Melody Maker ; however, NME sales were healthy, with the paper selling as many as 200,000 issues per week, making it one of the UK's biggest sellers at the time. By the early 1970s, NME had lost ground to Melody Maker , as its coverage of music had failed to keep pace with

20009-413: The country's highbrow Sunday newspaper, signalled a reversal of the establishment's cultural snobbery towards pop music by appointing George Melly as its "critic of pop culture". Following Tony Palmer 's arrival at The Observer , the first daily newspaper to employ a dedicated rock critic was The Guardian , with the appointment of Geoffrey Cannon in 1968. Melody Maker ' s writers advocated

20196-426: The cover once two years before, in April 1985. Writers at this time included Mat Snow , Chris Bohn (known in his later years at the paper as ' Biba Kopf '), Antonella Gambotto-Burke (known by her pseudonyms Antonella Black and, because of her then-dyed orange hair, Ginger Meggs ), Barney Hoskyns , Paolo Hewitt, Don Watson, Danny Kelly , Steven Wells , and David Quantick . However, sales were dropping, and by

20383-405: The cover price and becoming a free publication. This was confirmed in July 2015. The free NME launched on 18 September 2015, with Rihanna on the cover. Distributed nationwide via universities, retail stores and the transport network, the first circulation numbers published in February 2016 of 307, 217 copies per week were the highest in the brand's history. Since relaunch the magazine has featured

20570-430: The development of rock music, particularly during the early years of psychedelia and progressive rock . In early 1972, the paper was on the verge of closure by its owner IPC (which had bought the paper from Kinn in 1963). According to Nick Kent (soon to play a prominent part in the paper's revival): After sales had plummeted to 60,000 and a review of guitar instrumentalist Duane Eddy had been printed which began with

20757-453: The differences between 'good' and 'bad' music. In The Beatles: A Study in Drugs, Sex and Revolution , Noebel explained why rock music was 'bad' by contrasting it with qualities of 'good' music. In The Big Beat: A Rock Blast , similar arguments were posed by Garlock, with the additional argument that 'good' music must come from distinguished and educated musicians. Additionally, Larson argued that

20944-751: The early 1950s, more white teenagers started to become aware of R&B and began purchasing the music. For example, 40% of 1952 sales at Dolphin's of Hollywood record shop, located in an African-American area of Los Angeles, were to whites. Eventually, white teens across the country turned their musical taste toward rhythm and blues. Johnny Otis , who had signed with the Newark, New Jersey–based Savoy Records, produced many R&B hits in 1951, including " Double Crossing Blues ", "Mistrustin' Blues" and " Cupid's Boogie ", all of which hit number one that year. Otis scored ten top ten hits that year. Other hits include " Gee Baby ", "Mambo Boogie" and "All Nite Long". The Clovers ,

21131-491: The early 2000s, the NME also attempted somewhat to broaden its coverage again, running cover stories on hip-hop acts such as Jay-Z and Missy Elliott , electronic musician Aphex Twin , Popstars winners Hear'say , and R&B groups such as Destiny's Child . However, as in the 1980s, these proved unpopular with much of the paper's readership, and were soon dropped. In 2001, the NME reasserted its position as an influence in new music, and helped to introduce bands including

21318-406: The early 2000s, writing that a "new generation [of music critics] moved into positions of critical influence" and then "mounted a wholesale critique against the syndrome of measuring all popular music by the norms of rock culture". Slate magazine writer Jody Rosen discussed the 2000s-era trends in pop music criticism in his article "The Perils of Poptimism". Rosen noted that much of the debate

21505-574: The emergence of Crawdaddy! Lindberg et al. say that, while Williams is widely considered to be the first American rock critic, he "nevertheless looked to England for material". According to Gendron, Goldstein's most significant early pieces were a "manifesto" on rock 'n' roll and "pop aestheticism", and a laudatory assessment of the Beatles' Revolver album. Published in late August, the latter article provided "the first substantial rock review devoted to one album to appear in any nonrock magazine with accreditory power". Whereas Williams could be sure of

21692-408: The figure – as a bass pattern on a Cuban disc. In a 1988 interview with Palmer, Bartholomew (who had the first R&B studio band), revealed how he initially superimposed tresillo over swing rhythm: I heard the bass playing that part on a 'rumba' record. On 'Country Boy' I had my bass and drums playing a straight swing rhythm and wrote out that 'rumba' bass part for the saxes to play on top of

21879-561: The foundation for R&B in the 1940s, cutting one swinging rhythm & blues masterpiece after another". Other artists who were "cornerstones of R&B and its transformation into rock & roll" include Etta James, Fats Domino , Roy Brown, Little Richard and Ruth Brown. The "doo wop" groups were also noteworthy, including the Orioles , the Ravens and the Dominoes . The term "rock and roll" had

22066-580: The highbrow aesthetic of rock proposed by Goldstein. The latter's mixed review of Sgt. Pepper in The New York Times was similarly the subject of journalistic debate, and invited reprisals from musicologists, composers and cultural commentators. Among other young American writers who became pop columnists following Goldstein's appointment were Robert Christgau (at Esquire , from June 1967), Ellen Willis ( The New Yorker , March 1968) and Ellen Sander ( Saturday Review , October 1968). Christgau

22253-460: The intellectual and political activism and agency" of the entire music industry. Rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues , frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B , is a genre of popular music that originated within the African-American community in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans, at

22440-766: The late 1980s and early 1990s, hip-hop started to capture the imagination of America's youth. R&B started to become homogenized, with a group of high-profile producers responsible for most R&B hits. It was hard for R&B artists of the era to sell their music or even have their music heard because of the rise of hip-hop, but some adopted a "hip-hop" image, were marketed as such, and often featured rappers on their songs. In 1990, Billboard reintroduced R&B to categorize all of Black popular music other than hip-hop. Newer artists such as Usher , R. Kelly , Janet Jackson , TLC , Aaliyah , Brandy , Destiny's Child , Tevin Campbell and Mary J. Blige enjoyed success. L.A. Reid ,

22627-475: The likes of Mick Farren (whose article "The Titanic Sails at Dawn" called for a new street-led rock movement in response to stadium rock) were published by the NME that summer, it was felt that younger writing was needed to credibly cover the emerging punk movement, and the paper advertised for a pair of "hip young gunslingers" to join their editorial staff. This resulted in the recruitment of Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill . The pair rapidly became champions of

22814-404: The logo still used on the paper's masthead today (albeit in a modified form) – this made its first appearance towards the end of 1978. Spencer's time as editor also coincided with the emergence of post-punk acts such as Joy Division and Gang of Four . This development was reflected in the writing of Ian Penman and Paul Morley . Danny Baker , who began as an NME writer around this time, had

23001-424: The lyrics, often intensely so, they remain cool, relaxed, and in control. The bands dressed in suits, and even uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate. Lyrics often seemed fatalistic, and the music typically followed predictable patterns of chords and structure. R&B lyrical themes often encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and

23188-459: The magazine jumped by 50%. The first of these singles charts was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was " Here in My Heart " by Al Martino . During the 1960s, the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray (editor 1957–1972) with

23375-565: The media. At that time, leading newspapers still typically employed a chief music critic , while magazines such as Time and Vanity Fair also employed classical music critics. But by the early 1990s, classical critics were dropped in many publications, in part due to "a decline of interest in classical music, especially among younger people". Also of concern in classical music journalism was how American reviewers can write about ethnic and folk music from cultures other than their own, such as Indian ragas and traditional Japanese works. In 1990,

23562-421: The mid '60s. Everyone on the paper was into this. Led Zeppelin topped the " NME Pop Poll" for three consecutive years (1974–76) under the category of the best "Vocal Group". In 1976, NME lambasted German pioneer electronic band Kraftwerk with this title: "This is what your fathers fought to save you from ..." The article said that the "electronic melodies flowed as slowly as a piece of garbage floating down

23749-417: The mid-1980s, NME had hit a rough patch and was in danger of closing. During this period (now under the editorship of Ian Pye, who replaced Neil Spencer in 1985), they were split between those who wanted to write about hip hop , a genre that was relatively new to the UK, and those who wanted to stick to rock music. Sales were apparently lower when photos of hip hop artists appeared on the front and this led to

23936-421: The most respected voices of the craft, [who] said he had been forced out after 26 years". Viewing "robust analysis, commentary and reportage as vital to the health of the art form", The New York Times stated in 2007 that it continued to maintain "a staff of three full-time classical music critics and three freelancers", noting also that classical music criticism had become increasingly available on blogs, and that

24123-405: The name "The Legend!"). For the most part, NME only became interested in grunge after Nevermind became popular. Although it still supported new British bands, the paper was dominated by American bands, as was the music scene in general. Although the period from 1991 to 1993 was dominated by American bands like Nirvana, British bands were not ignored. The NME still covered the indie scene and

24310-406: The new forms of pop music of the late 1960s. "By 1999, the 'quality' press was regularly carrying reviews of popular music gigs and albums", which had a "key role in keeping pop" in the public eye. As more pop music critics began writing, this had the effect of "legitimating pop as an art form"; as a result, "newspaper coverage shifted towards pop as music rather than pop as social phenomenon". In

24497-457: The number of critics by profession of varying degrees of competence and integrity. The 1840s could be considered a turning point, in that music critics after the 1840s generally were not also practicing musicians. However, counterexamples include Alfred Brendel , Charles Rosen , Paul Hindemith , and Ernst Krenek ; all of whom were modern practitioners of the classical music tradition who also write (or wrote) on music. Women music journalists in

24684-665: The old Savannah. It's a killer! Although originating in the metropolis at the mouth of the Mississippi River, New Orleans blues, with its Afro-Caribbean rhythmic traits, is distinct from the sound of the Mississippi Delta blues. In the late 1940s, New Orleans musicians were especially receptive to Cuban influences precisely at the time when R&B was first forming. The first use of tresillo in R&B occurred in New Orleans. Robert Palmer recalls: New Orleans producer-bandleader Dave Bartholomew first employed this figure (as

24871-420: The paper being criticised for not supporting rock or indie music. The paper did attempt to return to its highly politicised 1980s incarnation by running a cover story in March 1998 condemning Tony Blair , who had previously associated himself with Britpop bands such as Oasis, and this received a certain level of attention in the wider media. Sutherland did attempt to cover newer bands, but a 1998 cover feature on

25058-470: The paper suffering as the lack of direction became even more apparent to readers. A number of features entirely unrelated to music appeared on the cover in this era, including a piece by William Leith on computer crime and articles by Stuart Cosgrove on such subjects as the politics of sport and the presence of American troops in Britain, with Elvis Presley appearing on the cover not for musical reasons but as

25245-505: The pattern is only half a clave ). Tresillo is the most basic duple-pulse rhythmic cell in Sub-Saharan African music traditions , and its use in African American music is one of the clearest examples of African rhythmic retention in the United States. The use of tresillo was continuously reinforced by the consecutive waves of Cuban music, which were adopted into North American popular culture. In 1940 Bob Zurke released "Rhumboogie",

25432-456: The plaudits and criticism. She condemned the Paste review for making "a litany of petty, exclamation-pointed digs" at Swift, and dismissed the rave Rolling Stone review for calling the album a classic within a day, as well as criticizing articles by "reputable publications" like Time and The Philadelphia Inquirer for catering gossip to the masses and fandom instead of serious journalism of

25619-455: The poll. In October 2006, NME launched an Irish version of the magazine called NME Ireland . This coincided with the launch of Club NME in Dublin . Dublin-based band Humanzi was first to appear on the cover of NME Ireland. The Irish edition of the magazine could not compete with local competitors such as Hot Press therefore it was discontinued after its fourth issue in February 2007. After

25806-576: The polluted Rhine ". The same year also saw punk rock arrive on what some people perceived to be a stagnant music scene. The NME gave the Sex Pistols their first music press coverage in a live review of their performance at the Marquee in February that year, but overall it was slow to cover this new phenomenon in comparison to Sounds and Melody Maker , where Jonh Ingham and Caroline Coon respectively were early champions of punk. Although articles by

25993-563: The pop journal Crawdaddy! in February 1966; in June, Richard Goldstein , a recent graduate and New Journalism writer, debuted his "Pop Eye" column in The Village Voice , which Gendron describes as "the first regular column on rock 'n' roll ... to appear in an established cultural publication". Rock journalist Clinton Heylin , in his role as editor of The Penguin Book of Rock & Roll Writing , cites "the true genesis of rock criticism" to

26180-420: The popular feel was passed along from "New Orleans—through James Brown's music, to the popular music of the 1970s," adding: "The singular style of rhythm & blues that emerged from New Orleans in the years after World War II played an important role in the development of funk. In a related development, the underlying rhythms of American popular music underwent a basic, yet generally unacknowledged transition from

26367-432: The punk scene and created a new tone for the paper. Parsons' time at NME is reflected in his 2005 novel Stories We Could Tell , about the misadventures of three young music-paper journalists on the night of 16 August 1977 – the night Elvis Presley died. In 1978, Logan moved on, and his deputy Neil Spencer was made editor. One of his earliest tasks was to oversee a redesign of the paper by Barney Bubbles , which included

26554-450: The punk years perfectly." By the time Smith handed the editor's chair to Logan in mid-1973, the paper was selling nearly 300,000 copies per week and was outstripping Melody Maker , Disc , Record Mirror and Sounds . According to MacDonald: I think all the other papers knew by 1974 that NME had become the best music paper in Britain. We had most of the best writers and photographers, the best layouts, that sense of style of humour and

26741-488: The quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships, economics, and aspirations. One publication of the Smithsonian Institution provided this summary of the origins of the genre in 2016. "A distinctly African American music drawing from the deep tributaries of African American expressive culture, it is an amalgam of jump blues, big band swing, gospel, boogie, and blues that

26928-430: The quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of societal racism, oppression, relationships, economics, and aspirations. The term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was frequently applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music had contributed to the development of rock and roll , the term "R&B" became used in

27115-514: The rawer Memphis soul sound for which Stax became known. In Jamaica, R&B influenced the development of ska . In 1969, black culture and rhythm and blues reached another great achievement when the Grammys added the Rhythm and Blues category, giving academic recognition to the category. By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" was being used as a blanket term for soul , funk , and disco . In

27302-614: The realm of rock music, as in that of classical music, critics have not always been respected by their subjects. Frank Zappa declared that "Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read." In the Guns N' Roses song " Get in the Ring ", Axl Rose verbally attacked critics who gave the band negative reviews because of their actions on stage; such critics as Andy Secher , Mick Wall and Bob Guccione Jr. were mentioned by name. Rock music received

27489-495: The record become popular with white teenagers. Freed had been given part of the writing credit by Chess in return for his promotional activities, a common practice at the time. R&B was also a strong influence on rock and roll . A 1985 article in The Wall Street Journal , titled, "Rock! It's Still Rhythm and Blues" reported that the "two terms were used interchangeably" until about 1957. The other sources quoted in

27676-414: The reviews of the album were "well-considered", she opined others were pre-written and "daft". She explained that critics are "staying up until dawn to finish listening to an album as if it's a college paper we're cramming to complete by the morning" and long albums like the 31-track Tortured Poets frustrate them. Karl also felt that reviews appearing online within hours of an album's release discredits both

27863-599: The rise of gothic rock bands but new bands such as the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses were coming out of Manchester . One scene over these years was Acid House which spawned " Madchester " which helped give the paper a new lease of life. By the end of the decade, Danny Kelly had replaced Lewis as editor. By the end of 1990, the Madchester scene was dying off, and NME had started to report on new bands coming from

28050-457: The rise of a new group from Manchester called Oasis , Britpop would continue its rise for the rest of 1994. By the end of the year, Blur and Oasis were the two biggest bands in the UK, and sales of the NME were increasing thanks to the Britpop effect. In 1995, NME covered these new bands, many of whom played the NME Stage at that year's Glastonbury Festival , where the paper had been sponsoring

28237-410: The second stage at the festival since 1993. This would be its last year sponsoring the stage; subsequently, the stage would be known as the 'Other Stage'. In August 1995, Blur and Oasis planned to release singles on the same day in a mass of media publicity. Steve Sutherland put the story on the front page of the paper, and was criticised for playing up the duel between the bands. Blur won the "race" for

28424-408: The sound of rock 'n' roll. A rapid succession of rhythm and blues hits followed, beginning with " Tutti Frutti " and " Long Tall Sally ", which would influence performers such as James Brown , Elvis Presley , and Otis Redding . Also in 1951, the song Rocket 88 was recorded by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm at a studio owned by Sam Phillips with the vocal by Jackie Brenston . This song

28611-417: The standard-bearers of the post-Libertines crop of indie bands, being both successfully championed by the NME and receiving widespread commercial and critical success. In December 2005, accusations were made that the NME end-of-year poll had been edited for commercial and political reasons. These criticisms were rebutted by McNicholas, who claimed that webzine Londonist.com had got hold of an early draft of

28798-451: The study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of music that has been composed and notated in a score and the evaluation of the performance of classical songs and pieces, such as symphonies and concertos . Before about the 1840s, reporting on music was either done by musical journals, such as the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (founded by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz in 1798) and

28985-507: The successor to IPC, sold NME and Uncut to Singaporean company BandLab Technologies . In 2021, the NME became the main brand for the music publishing division of Caldecott Music Group, when BandLab Technologies was reorganised. As well as publishing print magazines in the United Kingdom and Australia, NME Networks is responsible for a trio of online music publications and the main NME.com website, which now also has an area devoted to

29172-461: The swing rhythm. Later, especially after rock 'n' roll came along, I made the 'rumba' bass part heavier and heavier. I'd have the string bass, an electric guitar and a baritone all in unison. Bartholomew referred to the Cuban son by the misnomer rumba , a common practice of that time. Fats Domino's " Blue Monday ", produced by Bartholomew, is another example of this now classic use of tresillo in R&B. Bartholomew's 1949 tresillo-based "Oh Cubanas"

29359-483: The term "R&B" as a synonym for jump blues . However, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences. Lawrence Cohn , author of Nothing but the Blues , writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience. According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music , unless a gospel song sold enough to break into

29546-405: The top of the charts, and the resulting fallout from the publicity led to the paper enjoying increased sales during the 1990s as Britpop became the dominant genre. After this peak, the paper experienced a slow decline as Britpop burned itself out fairly rapidly over the next few years. This left the paper directionless again, and attempts to embrace the rise of DJ culture in the late 1990s only led to

29733-484: The traditional high / low culture split, usually around notions of artistic integrity, authenticity, and the nature of commercialism". These review collections, Shuker continues, "became bibles in the field, establishing orthodoxies as to the relative value of various styles or genres and pantheons of artists. Record collectors and enthusiasts, and specialisation and secondhand record shops, inevitably have well-thumbed copies of these and similar volumes close at hand." In

29920-471: The tresillo/habanera rhythm (which he called the Spanish tinge ) to be an essential ingredient of jazz. There are examples of tresillo-like rhythms in some African American folk music such as the hand-clapping and foot-stomping patterns in ring shout , post-Civil War drum and fife music, and New Orleans second line music. Wynton Marsalis considers tresillo to be the New Orleans "clave" (although technically,

30107-652: The twentieth century who covered classic music performance include Ruth Scott Miller of the Chicago Tribune (1920-1921), Henriette Weber at the Chicago Herald-Examiner , and Claudia Cassidy , who worked for Chicago Journal of Commerce (1924–1941), the Chicago Sun (1941–42) and the Chicago Tribune (1942–65). In the early 1980s, a decline in the quantity of classical criticism began occurring "when classical music criticism visibly started to disappear" from

30294-484: The two-celled timeline structure was brought into the blues. New Orleans musicians such as Bartholomew and Longhair incorporated Cuban instruments, as well as the clave pattern and related two-celled figures in songs such as "Carnival Day", (Bartholomew 1949) and "Mardi Gras In New Orleans" (Longhair 1949). While some of these early experiments were awkward fusions, the Afro-Cuban elements were eventually integrated fully into

30481-530: The words "On this, his 35th album, we find Duane in as good voice as ever," the NME had been told to rethink its policies or die on the vine. Alan Smith was made editor in 1972, and was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure. To achieve this, Smith and his assistant editor Nick Logan raided the underground press for writers such as Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent, and recruited other writers such as Tony Tyler , Ian MacDonald and Californian Danny Holloway . According to The Economist ,

30668-457: The world of pop music criticism, there has tended to be a quick turnover. The "pop music industry" expects that any particular rock critic will likely disappear from popular view within five years; in contrast, according to author Mark Fenster, the "stars" of rock criticism are more likely to have long careers with "book contracts, featured columns, and editorial and staff positions at magazines and newspapers". Author Bernard Gendron writes that in

30855-427: Was a "very specific absence of asymmetric time-line patterns ( key patterns ) in virtually all early-twentieth-century African American music   ... only in some New Orleans genres does a hint of simple time line patterns occasionally appear in the form of transient so-called 'stomp' patterns or stop-time chorus. These do not function in the same way as African timelines." In the late 1940s, this changed somewhat when

31042-624: Was a very nasty dance". Also in 1949, a new version of a 1920s blues song, " Ain't Nobody's Business " was a number four hit for Jimmy Witherspoon , and Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five once again made the top five with " Saturday Night Fish Fry ". Many of these hit records were issued on new independent record labels, such as Savoy (founded 1942), King (founded 1943), Imperial (founded 1945), Specialty (founded 1946), Chess (founded 1947), and Atlantic (founded 1948). African American music began incorporating Afro-Cuban rhythmic motifs in

31229-463: Was also increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone . R&B originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. In 1948, RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name "Blues and Rhythm". In that year, Louis Jordan dominated the top five listings of the R&;B charts with three songs, and two of the top five songs were based on

31416-400: Was at the top of the R&B charts in 1959 and 1960 with one number one and two number two hits. Benton had a certain warmth in his voice that attracted a wide variety of listeners, and his ballads led to comparisons with performers such as Nat King Cole , Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett . Lloyd Price , who in 1952 had a number one hit with " Lawdy Miss Clawdy ", regained predominance with

31603-453: Was being called soul music , and similar music by white artists was labeled blue-eyed soul . Motown Records had its first million-selling single in 1960 with the Miracles ' " Shop Around ", and in 1961, Stax Records had its first hit with Carla Thomas 's " Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes) ". Stax's next major hit, The Mar-Keys ' instrumental " Last Night " (also released in 1961), introduced

31790-570: Was brought in as the NME ' s editor to replace Danny Kelly . Andrew Collins, Stuart Maconie , Steve Lamacq , and Mary Anne Hobbs all left the NME in protest, and moved to Select ; Collins, Maconie and Lamacq would all also write for Q , while Lamacq would join Melody Maker in 1997. Kelly, Collins, Maconie, Lamacq and Hobbs would all subsequently become prominent broadcasters with BBC Radio 1 as it reinvented itself under Matthew Bannister . In April 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain

31977-413: Was criticized by the media. The Guardian pointed out that Features Editor Laura Snapes included, in her top 5 "greatest albums of all time", four albums from the same band which was The National . Consequence of Sound similarly observed that "if Laura Snapes had her wish, the top four would all be The National albums". In February 2015, it was reported that the NME was in discussions about removing

32164-422: Was definitely such a thing as rhumba blues ; you can hear Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf playing it." He also cites Otis Rush , Ike Turner and Ray Charles , as R&B artists who employed this feel. The use of clave in R&B coincided with the growing dominance of the backbeat , and the rising popularity of Cuban music in the U.S. In a sense, clave can be distilled down to tresillo (three-side) answered by

32351-482: Was dominated by young Jewish men who promoted the sounds of black music. British rhythm and blues and blues rock developed in the early 1960s, largely as a response to the recordings of American artists, often brought over by African American servicemen stationed in Britain or seamen visiting ports such as London, Liverpool, Newcastle and Belfast. Many bands, particularly in the developing London club scene, tried to emulate black rhythm and blues performers, resulting in

32538-511: Was found dead, a story which affected not only his fans and readers of the NME , but would see a massive change in British music. Grunge was about to be replaced by Britpop , a new genre influenced by 1960s British music and culture. The term was coined by NME after the band Blur released their album Parklife in the month of Cobain's death. Britpop began to fill the musical and cultural void left after Cobain's demise, and with Blur's success and

32725-465: Was graphically discussed in a 2014 Jezebel article about the struggles of women in music journalism , written by music critic Tracy Moore, previously an editor at the Nashville Scene . Moore described how another female music blogger, an "admitted outsider" who threatened no stereotypes, was greeted with enthusiasm by men, in contrast with Moore's own experiences as a self-described "insider" who

32912-419: Was initially developed during a thirty-year period that bridges the era of legally sanctioned racial segregation, international conflicts, and the struggle for civil rights". The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame defines some of the originators of R&B, including Joe Turner 's big band, Louis Jordan's Tympany Five, James Brown and LaVern Baker. In fact, this source states that "Louis Jordan joined Turner in laying

33099-448: Was instated, various record companies had already begun replacing the term "race music" with the term "sepia series". "Rhythm and blues" is often abbreviated as "R&B" or "R'n'B". In the early 1950s, the term "rhythm & blues" was frequently applied to blues records. Writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music that was made by and for black Americans". He has also used

33286-414: Was involved with a war of words with a new band called Manic Street Preachers , who were criticising the NME for what they saw as an elitist view of bands they would champion. This came to a head in 1991, when, during an interview with Steve Lamacq , Richey Edwards would confirm the band's position by carving "4real" into his arm with a razor blade. By 1992, the Madchester scene had died and along with

33473-446: Was nevertheless expected to "prove" or "earn" her way into a male-dominated journalism scene. According to Anwen Crawford, music critic for Australia's The Monthly , the "problem for women [popular music critics] is that our role in popular music was codified long ago"; as a result, "most famous rock-music critics – Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus , Lester Bangs , Nick Kent – are all male". Crawford points to "[t]he record store ,

33660-519: Was once told that "a lot of those stations still think you're a black group because the sound feels funky and black." Hi Records did not feature pictures of the Combo on early records. Sam Cooke 's number five hit " Chain Gang " is indicative of R&B in 1960, as is pop rocker Chubby Checker 's number five hit " The Twist ". By the early 1960s, the music industry category previously known as rhythm and blues

33847-580: Was referred to as jump blues . Then, Paul Gayten , Roy Brown, and others had had hits in the style now referred to as rhythm and blues. In 1948, Wynonie Harris's remake of Brown's 1947 recording " Good Rockin' Tonight " reached number two on the charts, following band leader Sonny Thompson 's "Long Gone" at number one. In 1949, the term "Rhythm and Blues" (R&B) replaced the Billboard category Harlem Hit Parade . Also in that year, " The Huckle-Buck ", recorded by band leader and saxophonist Paul Williams ,

34034-457: Was relaunched as the New Musical Express , and was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint . Under the editorship of Ray Sonin , the paper began publishing artist interviews, industry gossip and, on 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard , it created the first UK Singles Chart , a list of the Top Twelve best-selling singles. Sales of

34221-524: Was replaced as editor in July 2012 by Mike Williams, who had previously been the magazine's deputy. Williams is now Editor in Chief, with full responsibility for NME's cross platform output. Under Williams, NME has launched the NME Daily app, a new career focussed event called Lifehacks, and successfully relaunched both the NME magazine and NME's website, NME.com. In 2013, NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

34408-431: Was the "originator of the 'consumer guide' approach to pop music reviews", an approach that was designed to help readers decide whether to buy a new album. According to popular music academic Roy Shuker in 1994, music reference books such as The Rolling Stone Record Guide and Christgau's Record Guide played a role in the rise of rock critics as tastemakers in the music industry, "constructing their own version of

34595-523: Was the number one R&B tune, remaining on top of the charts for nearly the entire year. Written by musician and arranger Andy Gibson , the song was described as a "dirty boogie" because it was risque and raunchy. Paul Williams and His Hucklebuckers' concerts were sweaty riotous affairs that got shut down on more than one occasion. Their lyrics, by Roy Alfred (who later co-wrote the 1955 hit " (The) Rock and Roll Waltz "), were mildly sexually suggestive, and one teenager from Philadelphia said "That Hucklebuck

34782-459: Was titled only 'Rhumba' on the track sheets." Johnny Otis 's "Willie and the Hand Jive" (1958) is another example of this successful blend of 3–2 claves and R&B. Otis used the Cuban instruments claves and maracas on the song. Afro-Cuban music was the conduit by which African American music was "re-Africanized", through the adoption of two-celled figures like clave and Afro-Cuban instruments like

34969-467: Was to avoid excluding readers who may not have musical knowledge as broad as that of the writer. In contrast, Miller believed that analytical readers would appreciate "more music talk in music criticism", suggesting that "sensitively modest doses" of musical analysis would provide helpful support for a conclusion "that great melody writing occurred or it didn't". For example, Miller noted that critics rarely "identify catchy melodies as specific passages within

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