Has The NME Got Good?

er white paper bag test

What does it matter anyway? If they are white, they are white, if they are black, they are black. What matters is what the music sound like. And if it sounds anything like Beatles or Beach Boys, then pop it is.

I looked at the cover, since I can get NME at home now (I don't feel like going downtown to get it)...looking at an NME would be just a nostalgia thing for me. Until their covers are more appealing, I'm not actually going to buy it.

In any case, I'm wondering what the 100 albums are?

Sorry, I missed the link to the list that was posted upthread. It is interesting, could still be more global. I mean, I understand young consumers' need to catch up. But do they really need the Electric Prunes?

http://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/top-ten-records-you’ve-never-heard-if-you’re-a-15-year-old-boy-who-reads-nme/

Milton Nascimento / Lo Borges – Club De Esquina Vol. 1
Brazil isn’t just about samba and Tropicalia; it can be about awesome, awesome, classic pop too. The melodies, tunes, and arrangements here are something else – even if the words are Brazilian Portuguese.

this is great yeah

the hiphop picks are what finally make me hate mark ronson. seriously, this guy needs to die. mecca and the soul brother! smif n wesson! etc. sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo obscure you guys.

infamous!!! lmao

Isn't the idea to recommend some records that yr average 17yr old NME reader hasn't heard? perfectly possible that someone of that age wouldn't have heard records recorded at about the time they were born.

not sure if a hoy hoy is being a sarcastic dick or not. smif n wessun are, to most people, pretty obscure. and as neil says, to nme readers, so is a mobb deep album from 15 years ago.

yeah but whatever bullshit is on the typical nme list is, to most people, 'pretty obscure'

i dunno seems silly to me to play dumb w/ your audience about given subgenres

nme isn't typically read by rap nerds, so even to nme readers, those are obscure acts -- but i mean, they have xtc on the list, so it isn't meant to be the most obscure records of all time, just stuff that college-age kids won't know about

also the go-betweens, felt and, um, black rebel motorcycle club...

Wot no Terris

I suppose the 100 albums you've never heard also means that you are supposed to like them, i.e. that they are not too unlike the stuff you already like.

No, you take your pick.

These were all recommended by (mostly) artists that NME readers probably already appreciate, as well as a few choices by NME journalists. The 5 Kurt Cobain choices were made nearly 20 years ago.

Feels more like one of the 'Originals' run than an actual issue. Still, features more good records than the NME normally would in a month or two.

These were all recommended by (mostly) artists that NME readers probably already appreciate, as well as a few choices by NME journalists

Artist are known to be much, much, much more openminded towards other genres than their fans are though.

Btw. I think this is the big mistake that Mojo are doing regarding present music too. They seem to try to open their readership's eyes towards new music but instead of finding new stuff that is stylistically related to what their readers already love, they tend to recommend stuff from completely different genres. Putting John Grant at the top of their list this year was an exception though - obviously if Mojo readers are likely to get into new, young acts, they are much more likely to get into John Grant than some hip-hop or R&B act. Because John Grant is much closer to the kind of music they have already known and loved for 40 years.

dunno why the fuck you'd wanna introduce the youth to XTC via White Music tho - it might tick the post-Strokes spiky guitars box but it's pretty fucken weak.

That is true. But if the youth are into rather tough sounding rock'n'roll, XTC's best work may feel too pastoral for them.

Artist are known to be much, much, much more openminded towards other genres than their fans are though.

Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person unconsciously denies their own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, such as to the weather, or to other people. Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that others have those feelings.[1]

i wd have gone drums n wires but ehh

Geir with all respect even the god-knows-whats that read Mojo have a bit broader range of interests than "all shit that sounds like the Kinks, all the time".

the c...the cu...the oh forget it, in 2k11 that term will have to be rationed

sort of admirable that the nme are giving this list to 15yr old proto-ilx types for whom it will only hasten the end of their nme buying days

The proto-ILX types have never started buying NME in the first place. They are content with hit magazines and hitlists.

how did you get into proper music?

if that story doesn't involve some kind of traumatic brain injury then I don't wanna hear it

Having never read the NME - why would they have a "non-music" issue as mentioned in the OP? They're a music magazine, right? What kind of content would a "non-music" NME have?

They are content with hit magazines and hitlists.

xpost

dunno what issue the OP was refering to but in the 80s the NME wd run occasional non-music cover stories about Youth Issues like drugs or suicide or voting for Neil Kinnock. any sense of this being a bold move was mitigated by yr suspicion that they couldn't face putting the Smiths on the cover because J. Marr hadn't farted in public that week.

aye, it'd have music shit in there too

at one point there was a big internal war over "that sort of thing" (cf. covering hip-hop) but the main player's name escapes me. stuart something, perhaps, who was styled "media editor" maybe.

Stuart Cosgrove. Ian Pye was the editor at the time IIRC

xxp I always thought those non-musical cover stories were a serious engagement with key issues. they didn't strike me as being tokenistic or whatever. nevertheless I remember reading somewhere (may even have been ILM) that the youth suicide issue was the lowest selling ever.

In reply, fuck that shit. When I was 17 me and my friends all read the NME and didn't have the awesome broadband every 17 year old has now. We all knew and loved TROY and Shook Ones Pt. 2. I remember getting drunk with a couple other friends jamming to Black Moon (about as close to Smif N Wesson as a group can get). Kids know how to download things, they aren't fucking ignorant of these super obscure records. No-one would have a problem with him putting in Da Dirty 30 or Bl_ck B_st_rds

The indie equiv of The Infamous is what, a Weezer record or Dookie or something? NME wouldn't dare stick something like that in this list but instead they and Mark Ronson are fucking stupid and ignorant.

When I was 17 me and my friends all read the NME and didn't have the awesome broadband every 17 year old has now. We all knew and loved TROY and Shook Ones Pt. 2. I remember getting drunk with a couple other friends jamming to Black Moon (about as close to Smif N Wesson as a group can get).

well you're an exceptional individual, clearly. i was a 17-y-o nme reader, Before The Internet, and knew plenty. and in my world of young nme readers, very, very few were familiar with hip-hop beyond stuff that got in the charts.

The indie equiv of The Infamous is what, a Weezer record or Dookie or something? NME wouldn't dare stick something like that in this list but instead they and Mark Ronson are fucking stupid and ignorant.

― irish xmas caek, get that marzipan inta ya (a hoy hoy), Monday, January 3, 2011 2:32 PM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark

that's because the nme is an indie mag not a rap mag derp

nah smif n wesson is a good pick for this sort of thing. black moon wld be too. the infamous and pete rock debut are too close to canon picks even for a teen rock mag tho

though as it goes mid-late 90s nme wasn't that big on weezer. from what i can tell neither the debut nor 'pinkerton' made its EOY so, yeah, brilliant example.

Kids know how to download things, they aren't fucking ignorant of these super obscure records. No-one would have a problem with him putting in Da Dirty 30 or Bl_ck B_st_rds

― irish xmas caek, get that marzipan inta ya (a hoy hoy), Monday, 3 January 2011 14:30 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you realise this post makes you look insane, right?

like if you can look over that entire list and the one thing you conclude is "Smif N Wessun are way to well known to be in this"... I don't know how to finish that sentence tbh

fwiw the Mobb Deep was one of I think three things in there I thought were maybe a bit 'canon' even for this readership, the other two being Love and The Zombies, but (a) I don't actually own any of those myself and (b) the fuck does it matter *really*

In reply, fuck that shit. When I was 17 me and my friends all read the NME and didn't have the awesome broadband every 17 year old has now. We all knew and loved TROY and Shook Ones Pt. 2. I remember getting drunk with a couple other friends jamming to Black Moon (about as close to Smif N Wesson as a group can get). Kids know how to download things, they aren't fucking ignorant of these super obscure records. No-one would have a problem with him putting in Da Dirty 30 or Bl_ck B_st_rds

― irish xmas caek, get that marzipan inta ya (a hoy hoy), Monday, 3 January 2011 14:30 (59 minutes ago)

every1 had dsl when i was 17 and i'm older than u iirc

and every1 has access to internet music journalism but some still buy nme, not just about 'access' to records/content, ppl like familiarity/recommendations

Maybe the problem is some people just cannot cope with the fact that many are actually still into white guys with guitars because they happen to like that kind of music best?

The perspective on US Hip Hop from the UK has always been weird and getting weirder I think. Most of the kids I know - who are admittedly not in the NME's demographic really - don't know about any of the 90s acts that were a huge fucking deal at the time. Broadband is one thing but having a map of the musical universe is another - most of the teenagers I talk to that give a shit about Hip Hop don't have much interest in history.

u still haven't told us how u got into music geir

Geir please give it a rest with white guys with guitars.

Maybe the problem is some people just cannot cope with the fact that many are actually still into white guys with guitars because they happen to like that kind of music best?

― You're Twistin' My Melody Man! (Geir Hongro), Monday, 3 January 2011 15:38 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol is this even a response to anyone's actual post

most of the teenagers I talk to that give a shit about Hip Hop don't have much interest in history.

― Shanty! Shanti! Shanté! (Noodle Vague), Monday, 3 January 2011 15:40 (13 seconds ago)

don't necessarily think this is a problem, i mean i'm not sure if the east riding ukhh scene is going to be the atlanta of the 2k10s, but a little less record-collector piety might be worth a try

like i'd guess those odd future etc reets are only selectively schooled in the lore -- a partial, misinformed history is maybe better than encyclopedism or ~eclecticism~