MM asks: "Should UK Garage be outlawed?"

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Melody Maker (Which seems to have been going rapidly downhill ever since I bothered to take out susbscription on it) asked on it's website "Should UK Garage be outlawed?", and got a "decisive vote against UK Garage". It's now saying: "we want you to nominate ways that the Alternative Nation is fighting back.". This weeks issue contains the front page headine "UK Garage my arse!" and contains a CD "Born to Do it Better" (Featuring a parody of Craig David- on the bog) with various indie non-enties and *their* arse! ;)

Is it me or is MM perhaps taking this issue a little too far? Is this the equivalnt of the "Disco Sucks" debacle for a new millenium?

Michael.

― Old Fart!!!, Friday, 13 October 2000 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought this was a complete disgrace. MM more than anything else was a paper that inspired me in the early 90s. Now admittedly its music coverage back then wasn't the most open-door in the world (the fanfare when it started a dance section in *1994* was a bit embarrassing) but I thought the attitude was sound.

It's not so much that UK Garage is great, though some of it I think is very good (not "7 Days", I'll admit), but if the best - the very best - that Melody Maker can muster against it is Coldplay and Toploader then really, what IS the point? Their attitude now seems to be that music is just something you 'do' in sixth form, like taking an embarrassing pull on a spliff or two. Which is fine, but the people who think like that don't buy music mags, surely.

― Tom, Friday, 13 October 2000 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, it's a typical example of what the MM has become, isn't it? Extraordinarily musically conservative and nastily tribal to boot.

I agree with Tom that the fuss they made about the "Orbit" section in - I think - February 1994 was ridiculous, at least five years too late. But as someone who probably wouldn't be writing this now were it not for that MM, it saddens me. The sort of people Tom describes - people who "do" music in the sixth form without being at all interested in it or stimulated by it for one moment - bought music papers sporadically during the Oasis era depending on whether or not their heroes were on the cover (at least the ones I knew did). They are most definitely not the people around whom you build a long- standing following for a music paper, but then the MM long since gave up on such concerns ...

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 13 October 2000 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What we want, what we REALLY REALLY want, are Garage mixes of Coldplay et. al.

I can see it now...

"You're skin [ker-chink!] You're skin and bones [boom-chink!] turning in [ker-chink!] to something bea-bea-bea-beautiful! [boom-boom-boom-chink!]" (Cue descending bassline)

MC Neat or Richie Dan: I like da yellow, for da mind, body, soul-ah!/It be all so yellow on da Moet and Chandone-ah! When da DJ rewind it will all be so yellow-ah! Coldplay and da massive will be takin' it so low-ah!

― Tim, Friday, 13 October 2000 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Horrible, but predictable enough. MM hasn't been worth reading for about 4 years.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 18 October 2000 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd love to be able to say, in all honestly, that the day Reynolds went I went; unfortunately I stuck around far too long in the vain hope that past glories might return (once Mark Sutherland had taken over it was absolutely obvious that they never would, granted). I still bear the shame ...

― Robin Carmody, Wednesday, 18 October 2000 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

its true mm is an indie ghetto.......

enjoyed it at same time as other people posting here sometimes afraid that its old fart syndrome and that maybe young gods/arkane/mbv /big black/sonicyouth werent that great.....................but of corse they were-

as for them denouncing uk garage- pure marketing hype- they probably looked at a demographic and decided it was a good idea............eeks

― Matthew, Sunday, 19 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, let's ban it. I personally can't stand UK garage at all.

But what does the MM have up against it? Coldplay? Oh dear.

― Phil Paterson, Sunday, 19 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What IS the MM demographic these days? That's what I want to know. I opened up MM recently to find out who topped some "Who's The Sexiest?" poll - the most important thing the music press does after analysis and 'changing your life' (oh, really?) - and this pasty Polly Garter from a band called JJ72 had been voted sexiest girl...in the world! Which makes her sexier than Cameron Diaz, and Irene Jacob, and all of Destiny's Child. It's all in the libido of the beholder, I suppose, but: what's happened to severe clear b-e-a-u-t-y anyway?

I used to like MM when some writers would get anxious about HOW RIDICULOUS THEIR LIVES WERE. I mean, if I was in my late thirties and having to interview Sugarbabes, like some dull hack in the Guardian last week...

― oliver, Wednesday, 22 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, indie girls are sexy, it's a natural fact. I probably prefer this to when it used to be "oh, top of the band poll is New Model Bleedin' Army as per usual, and yet Madonna is the Object Of Desire" (do they still call it that? good heavens). At least it's honest. The demographic now is sixth form, pure and simple, as I learned last Sunday in the pub.

― Tom, Wednesday, 22 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I love some of the UK garage stuff...lot more interesting than bloody Toploader or Stereophonics...and MM IS SMASH HITS...

― Michael Bourke, Monday, 4 December 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five months pass...

What the hell does mc in mc neat stand for. Its doing my brain in.Someone help please.mrgangoolie@hotmail.com

― Sean Baskerville, Tuesday, 15 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Master of Ceremonies

I think this is true. Kind of great if it is.

― mark s, Tuesday, 15 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

With all this MM bashing recently, I'm beginnning to miss the damn thing...*MUST RESIST*

― DG, Tuesday, 15 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

seven years pass...

Yes, let's ban it. I personally can't stand UK garage at all.

But what does the MM have up against it? Coldplay? Oh dear.

― Phil Paterson, Saturday, November 18, 2000 8:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

1st usage of "ban" on ilx

― 'lop chalpagne (and what), Friday, 27 February 2009 20:16 (sixteen years ago)

and suggested by esteBAN too!

― Pfunkboy in blood drenched rabbit suit jamming in the woods (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 27 February 2009 20:18 (sixteen years ago)

MM really went downhill so fast didn't it? I looked forward to getting MM every weds, it really was a great mag, then it just became the worst piece of shit mag ever. All starting with giving Catatonia album of the year in 1996. Fucking britpop.

― Pfunkboy in blood drenched rabbit suit jamming in the woods (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 27 February 2009 20:20 (sixteen years ago)

Did Old Fart!!! SIGN HIS POST LIKE IT WAS A FREAKIN EMAIL there???

― Luka ModReq (DJ Mencap), Friday, 27 February 2009 20:38 (sixteen years ago)

Wasn't that how he always posted?

― Pfunkboy in blood drenched rabbit suit jamming in the woods (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 27 February 2009 21:08 (sixteen years ago)

eight years pass...

http://i.imgur.com/ETT4tC6.jpg

― Odysseus, Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:31 (eight years ago)

lol should poll this
https://www.discogs.com/Various-Born-To-Do-It-Better/release/2665202

― devvvine, Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:33 (eight years ago)

that was a brilliant version of Qotsa best ever song on that cd

― Odysseus, Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:37 (eight years ago)

Shall I?

― Odysseus, Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:41 (eight years ago)

Best Track on Melody Maker's 15 Garage Busting Alternative Anthems aka that racist "craig david" cover issue

― Odysseus, Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:45 (eight years ago)

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