Bye-Bye NME, Hello NDE!

and besides, what the hell's wrong with nu-metal?! it's fun to get beaten to death in a moshpit dammit, and besides, it shocks your parents. the music press have to throw themselves after a scene that teenagers are into, otherwise their readership will get progressively older and older with no fresh blood.

Nu-metal is just awful. To stupid to be taken seriously, to pretensious to be taken with a pinch of salt. It's metal without the skill but at the same time Punk without the wit and decent tunes, also (and this sounds like a criticism your dad would make) all the bands sound the bloody same!

I see what you mean about the press and having to stick to certain "scenes". Though I can't see the logic in them diving straight into the same scene which killed their sister mag.

I also note that the NME is trying to sell mail-order copies to the USA (offer publicised through its website and daily emails). Another indication that a financial crisis is looming?

Nu-metal is the lowest form of music. Ever. I was forced to go to a high school where Nu-metal was the most popular choice of music. No wonder I was sucidial in high school. No other music got through.

And even today, I shall not rest until Nu-metal is killed off and buried far far way in the desert.

And, remember, that was written way pre-Blair; the process Selzer identified has accelerated dramatically, especially since 1997. The NME will now do anything to stay alive; its embrace of nu-metal cannot save it in the long term (nothing can) but it makes sound commercial sense in the short term, in a way that indie never will again.

Mind you, if you really want an NDE, then Emap's thinking of you!!! According to this article (via DJ Martian) Emap are going to be launching "Kingsize", a mag catering to the very same niche market that was so, erm, successful for Melody Maker!!!

(Actually, I have to say that article linked to above is complete crap!!!! It's contains the usual unimaginitive rock-centric line, that not only completely ignores the continuing success of pop and dance publications, but it keeps promoting nostaligic visions of byegone bands with "character" and "attitude" and similar egotistical bollox over musical and stylistic innovation- which is exactly what brought the UK indie scene to it's present sorry state in the first place!!! A little less mouth and a little more trousers next time, please...)

Old Fart!!!!

"MC4, Ned's AD, the Wedding Present weren't about 'defining an English experience' at all"

Not strictly speaking, but that particular sound has always seemed desperately parochial to me. There is no other music that does more to evoke a restricted, small-town life, and I was thinking that perhaps the increasing cosmopolitanisation of such environments is a factor in the decline of indie and, therefore, of the NME.

"Also, if Selzer was writing that in 1993 he must have had egg on his face when Britpop rolled around and explicitly nationalist indie pop dominated the charts."

Maybe, but no more so than those who believed that Britpop had eliminated the uncertainties and doubt of the era and had returned us to a simplistic environment of national certainties (the 60s, basically) had egg on their faces by 1998.

Compare that to the wave of techno hardcore hits between 1991-1992- at one point (Nov-Dec 1991) almost a quarter of the UK Top 40 was techno hardcore, most of which had little or no radio airplay or music mag coverage. Certainly not compared to the tub-thumping coverage given to Britpop at the time and since. (Which to be honest, is what's given it an importance which is perhaps overstated a little.) But the wave of 91-92 is still influencing cutting-edge music even now- note the amount of UK garage with references to "hardcore" and other ravey artifiacts. Even flipping Craig David and the "Rewind" single includes references to "doing it real hardcore", pirate radio namechecks, and even a couple of ravey sirens!!!!

Erm, wot were we talking about again? ;)

Old Fart!!!!

Robin: I still don't agree. The lyrics of those bands very rarely strayed outside well-worn personal themes (I actually think Gedge was a very good lyricst, but not a terribly original one to be certain). As for the 'sound' of them, often it wasn't exciting but in fact those bands were less parochial than you think, taking inspiration and dynamics from a lot of American indie and putting a British spin on it. I still maintain that Selzer didn't like the music and shoved in a lot of socio-cultural generalisation to bolster his argument and turn it into a fun clash of genres.

The idea that indie was being beaten creatively and culturally by dance music has very little to do with the stuff he was saying about parochialism and conservatism. Dance music was more sociable, more novel and had better drugs, was about the size of it. And the conservatism stuff is in itself a bit silly - the idea that guitar bands de facto make the best or only music is dated, but it does not follow that guitar bands themselves are.

The decline of the music press is very little to do with dance music. In the late 80s and early 90s there was a division in the rock press between the mags like Q who covered 'mainstream' rock and the weeklies who covered 'indie'. The 90s saw that division collapse and the NME has been looking for an underground ever since.

Nu-metal and associated musics (and remember in Britain nu-metal is linked with At The Drive-In and QOTSA in ways it's not in the US) can easily sell a regular mag: Kerrang! is doing very well for itself. But Kerrang! had the initial cred in terms of covering that kind of thing and Melody Maker didn't.

As I said up above, alt.pop is as much about annoying the generation just above you as it is your parents. The outraged squawks on FT and the forum - some of them mine - proves that nu-metal is doing the job very well!

They're hilarious to look at. But only at a distance. When I went to school not too long ago, I think I was the only student that wasn't a nu-metal saddo. Of course, when you get a bunch of nu-metal boys who think they're dangerous and see someone rather more different and hateful of nu-metal like my good self, it's "oh, look at da pooftah!".

Fools. I'm straight and a lot more dangerous then they'll ever be.

So basically, I keep saying this: their music and "culture" is shite. And I'm scared these "people" will grow up and we'll have Limp Bizkit retrospectives in twenty year's time. Even if all their fans will be unemployed or working in factories. Ha!

"Dance Music" didn't really exist before House. What existed before was mostly classified as "Black Music" and had a different appeal. "Dance Music", as it has developed since c1988, offers a new aesthetic which is attractive to large numbers of white people who would otherwise have gravitated towards Indie. I'm not sure of the sales figures of magazines like 'DJ' & 'Mixmag' but I'd guess them to be a lot more bouyant than those of the NME. As for the NME looking for an underground, it had one - British Indie (but this is now no more than a rump, and far too small to sustain the NME, MM, Select etc).

Tom, I get your point about Selzer attempting to internalise his simple dislike of British indie, and make it seem like a socio- cultural battle which it actually wasn't. I can't help thinking that he was left with egg on his face *and* was prophetic; you can be both. In this case, he was left with egg on his face in the short- term (the development of indie, and a form of it which was as you say *far* more nationalistic and parochial than David Gedge could ever have been, into the mainstream sound of the mid-90s) but was prophetic in the long term (the decline of indie after the collapse of Britpop into a rump which seems unlikely now ever to seriously resurge again).

Some of the points in that article (www.vanguardonline.f9.co.uk/00541.htm)are very well-made, though; I like the dissection of the difference between Ultramarine's agrarian progressivism to Ozric Tentacles' drug-addled crusty boredom.

"the difference between Ultramarine ... to Ozric Tentacles ..."

should of course read:

"the difference between Ultramarine ... *and* Ozric Tentacles ..."

And they also seem to get the girls too-god life is so unfair....

Anyone know if there's any truth in the rumour that the inky version of NME will disappear very soon leaving only an online presence, much like 'Straight No Chaser' have done?

conor is still mooting 'new durst express' as a rebranding exercise.

"Now I know y'all be lovin' this shit right here" would be a good vision statement for the NME

Billy - here's a hint, the rumour was in Popbitch.

a year left. we've heard that before but hmm feel more logical lately. seeing OASIS on the front of the paper in 2007 is a worry.

Circulation figures don't suggest it's going anywhere soon

the NME communicated to Popbitch that the rumours were false, this was clarified in a subsequent apology statement.

Pity

I don't think NME could ever get good again.
Surprised there hasn't been a poll on the future of NME yet.

i think they need to get some better beats and get some better rhymes.

Jonesin' for a fix of that Mark Beaumont mix

Billy - here's a hint, the rumour was in Popbitch.

I heard the rumour from SOMB, not that it will be much more reliable.

i'd wager the majority of the NME's profit still comes from the ads in the papery version. that profit won't be what it was, but it'll be way more than the website makes.

unless it's managed to buck the ENTIRE FUCKING NEWSPAPER TREND :/

Grimly for NME editor!

nu metal had comedy value at least, more than you can say for the view.
(ok, the singers dopey face is quite funny)