The Music Press

1950s -1960s 

- Magazines: Melody Maker (1952), New Musical Express (1926) and Rolling Stone.

- In the 1960s there were changes in society.

- Arrival of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

- Drug culture in the 60s changed the nature of music and music writing.

1970s

Early 70s

- Youth Sub Culture was 'Glam Rock'.

- Bands and Artists such as Sweet, Mud, Slade and T Rex.

Mid 70s

- NME embraces punk.

- NME starts writing about politics and philosophy etc.

- The music press becomes divided into Musicians' papers and Political papers.

Later On

- Youth Sub Culture became 'Prog. Rock'.

- Bands and Artists such as Pink Fylod, Emmerson Lake Palmer and Yes.

- Until the 'Prog Rock' bands became known the music papers were still largely uncritical of groups. This changed as 'Prog Rocl' began to spend too much money on staging, lighting and lasers etc.

Late 1970s - Early 1980s

- The style became Pop.

- Music becomes more important than content.

NME

- It changed its style to meet the Youth Sub Culture 'Punk'.

- Writers were recruited from the magazines own readership.

- Late 70s early 80s readers abandon NME as it no longer writes about 'normal' bands.