.jpg) | |
| Frequency | Weekly |
|---|---|
| First issue | January 1926[1] |
| Final issue | December 2000 |
| Company | IPC Media |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London, England |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 0025-9012 |
Melody Maker was a British weeklymusic magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher,IPC Media, the earliest.[2] In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival"[2] (and IPC Media sister publication)New Musical Express.
It was founded in 1926 by Leicester-born composer and publisherLawrence Wright as the house magazine for his music publishing business, often promoting his own songs.[3] Two months later it had become a full scale magazine, more generally aimed at dance band musicians, under the titleThe Melody Maker and British Metronome. It was published monthly from the basement of 19Denmark Street in London[4] (soon relocating to 93Long Acre), and the first editor was the drummer and dance-band leader Edgar Jackson (1895-1967).[5][6]
Jackson instigated ajazz column, which gained in credibility once it was taken over bySpike Hughes in 1930. This was later developed into "Jazz Corner", edited bySinclair Traill and thenMax Jones, one of the leading British proselytizers for jazz. There were regular reports on jazz happenings in the United States, and the magazine secured the first British interview withLouis Armstrong in July 1932 while he was over for a visit.[4]
Odhams Press took over the magazine in 1928, and the format was changed to a 16 page weekly newspaper in 1933.[7]Ray Sonin joined the staff in 1939, progressing to news editor and then 10 years as managing editor until 1951. Sonin subsequently joined theNew Musical Express.[8]
The Melody Maker (MM) was slow to coverrock and roll and lost ground to theNew Musical Express (NME), which had begun in 1952.MM launched its own weekly singles chart (a top 20) on 7 April 1956,[9] and an LPs charts in November 1958, two years after theRecord Mirror had published the firstUK Albums Chart.[10] From 1964, the paper led its rival publications in terms of approaching music and musicians as a subject for serious study rather than merely entertainment. Staff reporters such asChris Welch andRay Coleman applied a perspective previously reserved for jazz artists to the rise of American-influenced local rock and pop groups, extending the reach ofmusic criticism.[11]
On 6 March 1965,MM called forthe Beatles to behonoured by the British state. This duly happened on 12 June that year, when all four members of the group (Harrison,[12] Lennon, McCartney,[13] and Starr[14]) were appointed as members of theOrder of the British Empire. By the late 1960s,MM had recovered, targeting an older market than the teen-orientedNME.MM had larger and more specialised advertising; soon-to-be well-known groups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages devoted to "minority" interests likefolk and jazz, as well as detailed reviews of musical instruments.
A 1968Melody Maker poll namedJohn Peel best radio DJ, attention whichJohn Walters said may have helped Peel keep his job despite concerns atBBC Radio 1 about his style and record selection.[15]
Starting from the mid-1960s, critics such as Welch,Richard Williams, Michael Watts and Steve Lake were among the first British journalists to shed an intellectual light on such popular music artists asSteely Dan,Cat Stevens,Led Zeppelin,Pink Floyd andHenry Cow.[citation needed]
By the early 1970s,Melody Maker was considered "the musos' journal" and associated with progressive rock. However,Melody Maker also reported on teenybopper pop stars such asthe Osmonds,the Jackson 5, andDavid Cassidy. The music weekly also gave early and sympathetic coverage toglam rock. Richard Williams wrote the first pieces aboutRoxy Music, while Roy Hollingworth wrote the first article celebratingNew York Dolls in proto-punk terms while serving as theMelody Maker's New York correspondent.[citation needed]
Andrew Means started writing forMelody Maker in 1970. During his time, he was prolific and had the responsibility of covering folk music. He was with the paper until 1973. He later wrote forThe Arizona Republic. He was also a freelancer and wrote forSing Out!,Billboard,Jazziz,Rhythm andSonglines etc. In later years he was a fiction writer.[16]
In January 1972, Michael "Mick" Watts, a prominent writer for the paper,[17] wrote a profile ofDavid Bowie that almost singlehandedly ignited the singer's dormant career.[18] During the interview Bowie said, "I'm gay, and always have been, even when I was David Jones."[19] "OH YOU PRETTY THING" ran the headline, and swiftly became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed his success to this interview, stating that, "Yeah, it wasMelody Maker that made me. It was that piece by Mick Watts."[20] During his tenure at the paper, Watts also toured with and interviewed artists includingSyd Barrett,Waylon Jennings, Pink Floyd,Bob Dylan, andBruce Springsteen.
Caroline Coon was headhunted byMelody Maker editor Ray Coleman in the mid-1970s and promptly made it her mission to get women musicians taken seriously. Between 1974 and 1976, she interviewedMaggie Bell,Joan Armatrading,Lynsey de Paul, andTwiggy. She then went on to make it her mission to promote punk rock.[21]
In 1978, Richard Williams returned – after a stint working atIsland Records – to the paper as the new editor and attempted to takeMelody Maker in a new direction, influenced by whatPaul Morley andIan Penman were doing atNME. He recruitedJon Savage (formerly ofSounds), Chris Bohn andMary Harron to provide intellectual coverage ofpost-punk bands likeGang of Four,Pere Ubu, andJoy Division and ofnew wave in general.Vivien Goldman, previously atNME andSounds, gave the paper improved coverage ofreggae andsoul music, restoring the superior coverage of those genres that the paper had in the early 1970s.[citation needed]
Internal tension developed, principally between Williams and Coleman, by this time editor-in-chief, who wanted the paper to stick to the more "conservative rock" music it had continued to support during the punk era. Coleman had been insistent that the paper should "look likeThe Daily Telegraph" (renowned for its old-fashioned design), but Williams wanted the paper to look more contemporary. He commissioned an updated design, but this was rejected by Coleman.[citation needed]
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In 1980, after a strike which had taken the paper (along withNME) out of publication for a period, Williams leftMM. Coleman promoted Michael Oldfield from the design staff to day-to-day editor, and, for a while, took it back where it had been, with news of a line-up change inJethro Tull replacing features aboutAndy Warhol,Gang of Four andFactory Records on the cover. Several journalists, such as Chris Bohn and Vivien Goldman, moved toNME, while Jon Savage joined the new magazineThe Face. Coleman left in 1981, the paper's design was updated, but sales and prestige were at a low ebb through the early 1980s, withNME dominant.
By 1983, the magazine had become more populist and pop-orientated, exemplified by its modish "MM" masthead, regular covers for the likes ofDuran Duran and its choice ofEurythmics'Touch as the best album of the year. Things were to change, however. In February 1984,Allan Jones, a staff writer on the paper since 1974, was appointed editor: defying instructions to putKajagoogoo on the cover, he led the magazine with an article on up-and-coming bandThe Smiths.
In 1986,MM was invigorated by the arrival of a group of journalists, includingSimon Reynolds andDavid Stubbs, who had run a musicfanzine calledMonitor from theUniversity of Oxford, and Chris Roberts, fromSounds magazine, who establishedMM as more individualistic and intellectual. This was especially true after the hip-hop wars atNME, a schism between enthusiasts of progressive black music such asPublic Enemy andMantronix and fans of traditional white rock ended in a victory for the latter and the departure of writers such as Mark Sinker and Biba Kopf (as Chris Bohn was now calling himself), and the rise ofAndrew Collins andStuart Maconie, who pushedNME in a more populist direction.
WhileMM continued to devote most space to rock andindie music (notablyEverett True's coverage of the emerginggrunge scene inSeattle), it coveredhouse,hip hop,post-rock,rave andtrip hop. Two of the paper's writers,Push and Ben Turner, went on to launch IPC Media's monthly dance music magazineMuzik. Even in the mid-1990s, whenBritpop brought a new generation of readers to the music press, it remained less populist than its rivals, with younger writers such asSimon Price andTaylor Parkes continuing the 1980s tradition oficonoclasm and opinionated criticism. The paper printed harsh criticism ofOcean Colour Scene andKula Shaker, and allowed dissenting views onOasis andBlur at a time when they were praised by the rest of the press.[citation needed]
In 1993, they gave a French rock band calledDarlin' a negative review calling their music "a daft punky thrash".[22] Darlin' eventually became the electronic music duoDaft Punk.
Australian journalistAndrew Mueller joinedMM in 1990 and became Reviews Editor between 1991 and 1993, eventually declining to become Features Editor and leaving the magazine in 1993. He then went on to joinNME under his former boss Steve Sutherland, who had leftMM in 1992.[23]
The magazine retained its largeclassified ads section, and remained the first call for musicians wanting to form a band.Suede formed through ads placed in the paper.MM also continued to publish reviews of musical equipment and readers'demo tapes, though these often had little in common stylistically with the rest of the paper, ensuring sales to jobbing musicians who would otherwise have little interest in the music press.
In early 1997, Allan Jones left to editUncut. He was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly ofNME andSmash Hits, who thus "fulfilled [his] boyhood dream"[24] and stayed on to edit the magazine for three years. Many long-standing writers left, often moving toUncut, with Simon Price departing allegedly because he objected to an edict that coverage of Oasis should be positive. Its sales, which had already been substantially lower than those of the NME, entered a serious decline.[citation needed]
In 1999,MM relaunched as a glossy magazine, but the magazine closed the following year, merging intoIPC Media's other music magazine,NME, which took on some of its journalists and music reviewers.[25]
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