Saturday, May 7, 2011

Keep Abreast With The Latest Music News

By Katherine Martina


Latest music news as we know it today developed out of the early magazines that caught onto the growth of the popular music industry early on in the 20th Century. Melody Maker was one of the first, introducing itself in 1920s around the same time that the first electric guitars and amplifiers began to emerge and targeting musicians. However, as music became more and more popular the music magazines of the day began to target the general public and the introduction of new, rival magazines hit the shelves.


Formerly people today are additional interested in jazz, Melody Maker was a late convert to the advent of rock and roll, but as the sixties swung in favour of bands like the Beatles as well as the Rolling Stones, the earth was set for major readership figures for both publications.



The 1960s also saw the coming of a lot more politicised voices to the publication of music news with the launch of the Berkley Barb in 1965 and Rolling Stone in 1967. Criticism of the Vietnamese war, the publication of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas along with the counterculture emerging trend of the 1960s sat next to The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix and Jim Morrison cover stories.



This political side to music publication didn't reach the British music news until the late 1970s together with the dawning of the time of punk. On the other hand, the early 70s saw the introduction of a new opponent, Sounds, which quickly became among the 3 music weekly magazines to create superior levels of readership. It is edge came from its capability to see the credibility of new musical movements like Punk early on.



The 1980s would see a mixed bag of journalism within the music industry, with the hip-hop wars affecting the NME as well as a far more populist standpoint reigning at Melody Maker until its intellectual renaissance in 1986. On the other hand, it could be the 90s that is going to view the story of contemporary British music journalism come to a head. The rise of Britpop along with the introduction & success of monthly magazines Q and Mojo left Melody Maker without getting a clear crowd or direction, and so in 2000 is gave up on publication, merging with its long time rival NME, while Sounds bit the dust nearly a decade earlier in 1991.



The 2000s were left to NME and despite its ropey start to the decade, it would eventually find its footing again with bands like White Stripes, The Strokes along with the Libertines.



With the entrance of a new decade, it's hard to say that any of the remaining latest music news magazines are doing anything particularly trailblazing, although then neither is the music business in general.




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