[rbautz]

Originally Posted by J6ngo1977

NME is a joke. Just like Radio 1. Awful so called 'music' journalists who write reviews. Here is my tip to a music journalist...actualy pick up an instrument, try to write a song and then judge. I cannot stand music journalists.

This is the review of Adele's 21

Look up what he writes about usage of Auto-Tune

http://www.nme.com/reviews/adele/11814

[MiresiaVerteta]

Curiously picked up a copy once when on a coach ride to Bristol last year.....Never again. It was like playground tittle-tattle with them slagging acts off left, right and centre.

[Semierotic]

Originally Posted by J6ngo1977

NME is a joke. Just like Radio 1. Awful so called 'music' journalists who write reviews. Here is my tip to a music journalist...actualy pick up an instrument, try to write a song and then judge. I cannot stand music journalists.

And all film critics should be able to make blockbuster movies, I suppose.

Ironically music critics are far more likely to have dabbled in their medium than other art commentators.

[Scratchy7929]

Originally Posted by DRAGON LANCE

But they are the biggest voice for the Indie/Alternative scene in the UK and if they go I think it would be extremely damaging for that scene.

But they do get cross media support for Indie music. Someone slates them for their links with the BBC (you can add C4 to that too), but that is getting a lot of bands noticed by the BBC and C4 that wouldn't get noticed otherwise.

They're not the biggest voice for 'Indie' though.Their the voice of Commercial Rock that has been influenced / exploited the sounds of '80's Indie / alternative bands (which also borrowed sounds from mid '60's popular & less popular ('so called' garage rock) bands) - 'Corporate Indie'.Oasis were never an Indie band.Only 10% max of Oasis's influences could be considered Indie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_(band)#Musical_style - NME's favourite band.Britpop was never Indie.Madchester was never in the forefront of what could be considered Indie.
Didn't you read what I said about above also - NME is now part of one of the biggest media conglomorates Time Warner.How could the NME be considered as driving force in Indie if it's part of that empire.
C4 can do what they like.They are a commercial organisation.The BBC is supposed to be impartial.Having a link up with NME such as having BBC/NME introducing stages at FOUR major festivals so they can GROOM listeners onto Corporate Indie type bands is not being impartial - BTW it's not working very effectively at the moment it seems anyway.Even you mentioned 'Indie' (replace with Corporate Indie) is not very popular at the moment - that gives me some faith in the listening habit's of left leaning music fans - they haven't been conned by this commercially exploitative racket it seems.There seems to be less & less Corporate Indie bands being formed as well - they can see there's nothing in it for them as well.

To go back to what you said above.If NME go, yes it will damage the Corporate Indie scene - good ridance I say along with their awful NME awards (C4).If these Corporate Indie bands don't get the coverage perhaps they will go away - I'll be the first one to rejoice if that happens.

[rbautz]

Corporate Indie scene - good ridance I say along with their awful NME awards (C4).If these Corporate Indie bands don't get the coverage perhaps they will go away - I'll be the first one to rejoice if that happens.

Is there someting remotely successful of non Corporate Indie bands in England besides of perhaps P.J Harvey in the last 20 Years?

[DRAGON LANCE]

Erm, I read the NME at the time Oasis were at their peak and they hated them. They liked them a bit when they started then famously hated Morning Glory, they preferred Blur. Bizarrely, when Oasis became a bit crap, they started liking them then.

If anything it shows they are consistent, they just hate whatever is popular at the time. They even admit this themselves. "We build them up and break them down." Hey at least they are honest.

Like I say, I don't agree with everything they say, but at least they do have an opinion, which is a rarity these days. Some of their "journalism" is embarrassing and badly researched at best. Example; in the latest edition they slate Lana Del Rey for "covering" Cheryl Cole's Ghetto Baby. Accept it was LDR that wrote the song for Cheryl, and its Lana's demo that has leaked out, not a "cover."

But on a plus side, they do big up a few bands most people wont have ever heard of, and probably in truth wont hear of again because they are crap. But at least they are doing that. Nobody else on the news stands is, and you might sneer at that, but at least they are giving those people a chance. Well until next week when they slag them off.

Put it this way, I got into electro act Sleigh Bells this year, because I saw them on the NME website. Now yes, if I wasn't so lazy I could have got into them from some other source no doubt. But the truth is the NME's big up made me interested in them. Sorry if that's lazy and shallow of me.

The NME has always been a contradiction, but its part of the musical landscape. If it dies I doubt anything better will replace it.

And I honestly doubt listeners are that clever to have rumbled some "corporate indie" conspiracy. The truth is they don't buy it because:

1) Most Indie bands are sadly pants these days.
2) The few good ones never get any airplay on anything. Even on Radio 1 (the NME's evil co-conspirator)!
3) Indie is typically bought by students-most of whom think its ok to illegally download the record without buying it, meaning that most Indie acts are screwed in terms of sales before they've even started.

[Eric_Blob]

Originally Posted by rbautz

This is the review of Adele's 21

Look up what he writes about usage of Auto-Tune

http://www.nme.com/reviews/adele/11814

Adele probably actually does use autotune on the album.

I'm starting a producing course at University next month, and I've been reading the text books for the course, and it turns out that pretty much everybody in the charts (that sings) uses autotune. And it says that if you're producing for an artist that refuses to be autotuned, the best thing to do is to tell them you're not going to autotune them, but do it anyway (this would explain why a lot of singers think they're not autotuned when they are). It also teaches that producers even autotune musical instruments. Like if a band is playing, they might autotune the guitars just incase they're not tuned 100% perfectly.

But, on the other hand, a lot of the bands which NME praise and orgasm over constantly also probably have their songs autotuned.

Originally Posted by MiresiaVerteta

Curiously picked up a copy once when on a coach ride to Bristol last year.....Never again. It was like playground tittle-tattle with them slagging acts off left, right and centre.

That's what I hate about it the most. I often stumble across NME sometimes, since they publish news articles on their website, and I'm always looking for news, reviews, etc. about my favourite rappers. EVERY time that I get linked to NME, it's ALWAYS criticism. The only rapper they ever praise sometimes is Tyler the Creator, and it's obvious that the only reason they like him is because he and his crew got famous without getting signed to a major record label. There's plenty of other hip hop artists out there with music just as good, or even better than Tyler's who they just constantly criticize for no reason. They just come across like overly-conservative elderly people when they write articles like that, which they might not realize, but it probably hurts their image.

[Dizagaox]

Adele does use Auto-tune, but it's for effect.

Anyway, back to the OP's point, I think they'll just become a music website. Have to say, I read their website quite often, but I've never bought an issue of NME.

[Adamsk]

I picked up recent one and was disappoint becuase it had mick jagger on the front.And I thought it was NME finale returning to the rock and roll root.But the interview was set back in the 70,s and thought it was brand spanking new.It was all alien to me it did not know the bands,And all I got was a full page of Kate Nash talking about how she love Courtney love and some people she was hang out with,and feminism.And I thought to myself this magazine mean nothing anymore,what happen to fun time rock and roll NME we once known.And like someone already said people will,forget these people in a month or two and they won,t be heard of agian and they are unfun and are rubbish.

[Tiger Rich]

I haven't bought NME for years but I still use the site occasionally to keep tabs on who's touring, releasing etc. As a source of information like that, it's not too bad but I don't care much for the opinions coming out of it. I can't see it disappearing completely, but I reckon it's only a matter of time before it's an online only thing and they've got a lot to do before that.

[Scratchy7929]

May I add alot of the bands that get onto to the Introducing stage are not Corporate Indie type bands.A fair % of them are though - it's hard out there for genuine Indie bands (some are good, some are poor), doesn't help when they have to compete with fake Indie bands though, which NME has been known to endorse for some strange reason ££££
Not a big Indie follower myself even.But the odd band does come along now & again which catches my ear - wouldn't expect NME to feature them though, especially now they are a small part of a very big Corporate structure - Time Warner.

[Rich Tea.]

I was 26 when I first bought a copy of NME for the first time, during that Blur v Oasis hype from August 1995 that looks so daft now. I stopped buying it at 28, never to do so again.

Suppose I was a bit late for a first time buyer!

[Rich Tea.]

Originally Posted by Tiger Rich

I haven't bought NME for years but I still use the site occasionally to keep tabs on who's touring, releasing etc. As a source of information like that, it's not too bad but I don't care much for the opinions coming out of it. I can't see it disappearing completely, but I reckon it's only a matter of time before it's an online only thing and they've got a lot to do before that.

It lost a lot of it's character by simply reducing it's cover size to a more glossy, magazine feel, rather than its bigger papery entity that it was. Regardless of what was inside it, the whole product came to look somewhat diminished in my eyes.