The NME @ 60

[historyman]

The NME's first issue was published in March 1952, and already I've come across a few articles by way of tribute.

They all pretty much say the same thing - it was once indispensible but now finds itself increasingly irrelevant thanks to technology and easier access to information.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...=ILCMUSTXT9384

I wondered though about this statement:

"Young fans really love these covers," she says. "Our focus groups get really excited when it's the Smiths or John Lennon. You used to be really limited in what you could listen to, but now you have access to everything – young readers don't think chronologically about music."

Would you say that's the case with young music loving people you know? I can think of several who dismiss anything from about 5 years back and more as 'old', but then maybe that's a sign that they don't really like music that much.

[Bored Of Education]

The NME @ 60

If anything needs putting out of its misery, it is the NME (Apologies for any OTFers freelancing there)

[Lucia Lanigan]

The NME @ 60

When I started reading it (early 90s) I was excited about old music. The NME put The Clash on the cover, ran features on Marc Bolan and so on - retro is nothing new, although it might take up a little more space now.

[Edie St Pierre]

The NME @ 60

When I started reading the MM and NME, there used to be features on - for instance - the 20th Anniversary of 1968, and they weren't talking about a list of albums released that year, and getting Elvis Costello or Jimmy Page or Elton John to say what 'Astral fucking Weeks' meant to him ad-bleeding-nauseum, but talking about the revolution in Paris, the SA, 'Leaving the 20th Century', the International Times, the counter-culture, the New Left and wondering what it all meant, what it all led to and what have you. It was genuinely interesting and thought provoking.

You wouldn't get that now.

[Gangster Octopus]

The NME @ 60

Not only the features, when I started the writers made it patently obvious that they didn't like the music taste of the majority of their readers. Learned a lot from that, I did.

[steveeeeeeeee]

The NME @ 60

Has anyone read the "100 great albums you've never heard" issue? I started reading it in the shop and after 20 minutes got so guilty I bought it. It's not brilliant, but it's a good read (that particular issue, not the NME as a whole) and I genuinely hadn't heard of a lot of the albums.

[Bored Of Education]

The NME @ 60

getting Elvis Costello or Jimmy Page or Elton John to say what 'Astral fucking Weeks' meant to him ad-bleeding-nauseum

Actually, when I was reading MM, I seem to remember they did exactly that, making me wonder what was so good about the album. Little did I know that I would marry someone who loves the album.

I seem to remember Astral Weeks was constantly in the MM and, maybe, NMA all time top 5 best albums

[Edie St Pierre]

The NME @ 60

Oh, I don't mind that kind of stuff. It just gets a bit irritating when that's almost all there is. Reading about music I have never heard of before and then listening to it is great. And it's a piece of piss now we've got the internet too obviously.

It was different in the 80's. I remember MM doing a retrospective piece on 'There's A Riot Goin On' by Sly & The Family Stone that completely blew me away. I was desperate to listen to it. It sounded like the best thing ever. Not a single shop in my provincial town had it in stock though. The bloke in Our Price that I spoke to thought I was after an album by Sylvester Stallone. Fuck, they were frustrating days.