New Musical Express

"If you can't get hold of a copy, why not just get some paper and cover it in your own preposterous lies. Simon Amstel"

Originally known as the New Musical Express, the NME is one of Britain's best known and most divisive music magazines. Launched in 1952 as a newspaper, the NME picked up many fans by being one of the earliest proponents of bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. While slow to follow musical trends, the paper acted as a vanguard for punk and later socialist movements under the Thatcher government, and released several influential mixtapes for then-underground acts such as Scritti-Politti.

Today, the paper focuses mostly on the indie and dance rock scenes. It has, however, become notorious for hyping nearly every band featured in its pages to near-messianic levels. Sometimes the bands that it hypes become stars (like Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs), other times they don't (anyone remember Shitdisco or Pull Tiger Tail?). It also has extremely close ties with youth television - most notably, The Mighty Boosh and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. And its own spin-off music TV channel.

Has nothing to do with the Big Bad of Kirby Right Back At Ya.


 * Hype Aversion - The unfortunate fate of many bands featured.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness - The NME's review style often uses the same colourful, psuedo-Dickensian style that Russell Brand would later be famous for.
 * Shout-Out - The NME is often mentioned in songs (almost always as a Take That), from The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK" to Scroobius Pip's "Thou Shalt Always Kill".