|
|
The New Musical Express has been the backbone of the music press for over 50 years now, and one of the most influential and important British music periodicals in that time. But while I’ll admit to the old rag having reinvented itself recently in quite a successful fashion; it’s not what it was. The NMEs descent into mediocrity in the late ‘90s was a sad sign of the times. There are no new Julie Birchills offering a spiky commentary on all that is new and loud. Who knows, maybe I should start bothering their mailbox, but I’d feel seriously uninspired. There’s very little in the likes of Coldplay that I find remotely interesting. No rock n’ roll heroes to be found there, my friends, just competent rock music. Nothing wrong with that of course, but what have we lost along the way? By the late ‘70s the youth were becoming a bit dissatisfied with the musicians that had once been singing songs like “My Generation”. Overbloated on booze and drugs, some of them were a shadow of their former selves. Or dead. Those that survived had morphed into a great lumbering herd of Jurassic embarrassment. The meteorite of Punk didn’t wipe out those dinosaurs altogether, but it made things much more interesting for a while. The NME changed it’s editorial staff almost overnight and this signalled a radical new direction. Blaring out of CGBGs in New York and out of the very suburbs of middle England, came a new sound. But what about now? There’s certainly hope, and this piece of writing will forever be dated by the mention of these (now) new hopefuls. Mind you, I can’t stand The Distillers, personally, and The Strokes are, frankly, rather bland, but they’re better than most. Yet The White Stripes have all the hallmarks of a classic band, even down to having a fantastic dress sense. The problem is that the likes of the NME (and the pop and rock music scene in general) is youth driven. That makes sense, as they are the ones buying the bulk of the records. They are usually the ones making them too. But what if the present youth have found something else to occupy their passions? The Pistols are long over with, but perhaps the new Rock n’ roll swindle is going on under our very noses. The NME has been selling itself on past glories, as has the record industry in general. Love or loathe it, the NME has been a vital part of the British music scene for so long, but now it’s run out of things to say in the way it used to say them. But that could be slowly changing for the better. A matter of opinion, of course, but in recent years the paper has had to remind us of rock’s great past, rather than presenting a new act as ‘just’ being great. It’s good to know your history, but not so good if nobody is making it. Also, we live in a world were the youth are now more likely to be turned on by computer games- a market which is now coming of age. Add to that the continued dominance of pop’s other rival- the cinema- and there is a problem. The music industry is in danger of collapsing under the weight of it’s own mediocrity, with product like Hear Say and the latest Westlife-alike being examples of their earners in recent years. Many people will welcome the death of ‘pop’ and the music charts and applaud the lack of need for a band or singer of the moment. But ultimately that will mean no music permeating the consciousness of a future generation. I think that’d be a crying shame. After all, who wants to get excited over a pixelated character when they can scream at a real rock n’ roll idol? Pop needs feeding with your support, before it eats itself.
|
