Bring back the music press

What ever happened to the music press?

Well – we kinda know what happened to them but we miss them and want them back!

Anyone of a certain vintage who was a music fan knew the thrill of Wednesday mornings when you would head into your local newspaper purveyor and pick up the latest copy of your music bible of choice. There was that frisson of excitement in the anticipation around which act was going to have been given the hallowed cover. Then you would pour over the contents, lapping up the often-uproarious interviews and gleaning every little bit of information about the latest releases and live gigs, hoping to pick up on that exciting new band that no one else has heard of yet.

The kings of the inkies were the Melody Maker and New Musical Express (NME). At their peak both sold 200k+ copies a week. There were also the pretenders, most noticeable of which being Sounds which could also pull in 150k+ at its peak, along with a range of other titles that came and went.

But it was the two mainstays that defined the musical tastes of a nation.  It was here that careers were made, and scenes created. As an artist you knew you had made it when you were awarded your first front cover of either organ. It really did rank alongside the fabled appearance on Top of The Pops which for most bands that featured in the inkies pages was a pipedream too far.  NME and MM were a place where the wilfully uncommercial could find their home (and often fulsome praise) and through that they could build an audience of likeminded souls. The UK indie scene had never been so vibrant.

But then printed media began to fall out of fashion as the internet took hold. Why bother shelling out for a printed music paper when you could get the info you needed from a free web page.  Then social media came along and drove the final nails into their coffins.  Sales dwindled and advertising revenue dried up and the papers became unsustainable and folded.

But we still miss them. And we miss the chance for artists to get that fabled front cover. We miss it so much that we made our own covers. Just for the hell of it. Maybe they will be the start of an ongoing series.  Or maybe we are just sad cases with too much time to kill.  The answer is up to you…