I wouldn't care a hoot if it folded. In fact, I'd be rather pleased. Today's NME indulges in the worst kind of musical elitism that I abhor, and is connected to the great paper of the 1970s by name only. I am bored stupid of gobby, grubby white boys scratching out fourth-rate riffs on guitars.

... Can't really comment on what it was like in the 70s or 80s outside of selected articles I've read, but at least one could name the likes of Nick Kent, Charles Shaar Murray et al. even if one doesn't agree with their opinions.

When it became a 'magazine' rather than a 'music paper'.

But, lest we forget, back in its day it was an essential part of the week.

Hugely opinionated, often unintelligible, but always massively entertaining. Home at one time or another for many of my (and your, or you wouldn't be here) favourite writers.

Nick Kent and Charlie Murray have already been mentioned, but add to that list the following:

Danny Baker
Danny Kelly
Stuart Maconie
Julie Burchill (oh yes)
Tony Parsons
Andy Gill
Paul Du Noyer
Roy Carr
Steve Lamacq
Ian Penman
Paul Morley
Barney Hoskyns
David Quantick
Stuart Cosgrove

...and various members of the Word parish.

The NME's slow death really began with the launch of Q (and then Mojo, Uncut and Word) as the home of in-depth, intelligent music writing became the monthlies rather than the weeklies.

Good riddance to it, too. It's a dreadful publication. It was my bible in the 80's and early 90's but the pace at which it has gone downhill is staggering. It's page count is about half of what it was at its height, and this is padded out with posters and half page vox pops on mobile phone ringtones. You only have to look at the letters page to see how far it has fallen. Where it used to feature stimulating debate on musical, social and political matters it has simply descended into "My favourite band is better than yours" juvenile mud slinging.

The last time I actually picked up a copy in a shop and flipped through it was the week that Radiohead announced their pay as much as you want download album. Reading through the article, you could almost hear the editor crapping himself as he realised that his publication was about to miss out on a pre release review on probably the the most important album release in several years as far as his readership were concerned. The album review appeared over a week after the recordings had been officially freely available via the interent to anyone who wanted them. It all looked a bit pathetic, really.

...there is no more chance of NME being gone in 18 months than of Manchester United doing the same thing. Believe me.

The amazing thing is that considering it sells only 64,000, it's so readily available everywhere. You can get it in my local Tesco Express, the tiny kiosk at Fenchurch Street etc etc. They must have a lot of returned copies or have 64,000 outlets all selling 1 copy each.

I never really had an NME phase, I've always bought the albums of the year one at Xmas time. But that's because I'm a total sucker for lists. I guess I started buying Select, Vox and then Q when I was about 12 so never really had any need for the NME. I guess the glory days were already gone when I came of age (1994-ish.)

I guess there will be a couple more rebrandings to go before the death knell. (A la Top of the Pops.)

At least I did from 1971 up until about 1977 when it wagged its finger in my face or, more likely, spat at me, to attract my attention so it could tell me that everything it had been telling me for years was so wrong as to be almost criminal. Not that any of it was their fault. There's no point getting wound up about the NME, it speaks to you up until a certain age and then it's time, when you realise you no longer have anything in common, to bid farewell to childish things. Long may it continue.

Just finished "reading" the copy I bought yesterday. I agree the letters page is terrible.The N.M.E does still have some uses though; I need some wrapping paper, so may use if for that, or my father needs some paper to make up the coal fire in the morning.

Readers may feel further depressed by the fact that as a GCSE Media Studies teacher, I set an assignment on NME for my 14 / 15 year old students. Most haven't ever read a copy of NME until I bring some into class. Most gravitate towards Kerrang! or (the much underrated lol ) Metal Hammer.
As I gently reminisce about "The Good Old Days" of Danny Baker and Julie and Tony, I can hear the sounds of snoring coming from the back of the classroom.

For those of an academic bent, the topics of discussion on a GCSE course assignment about the Music Press are: the falling sales of print newspapers / magazines; the rise of the music press website and the use of other "platforms" to get your music fix and the availability of "music news" in most popular newspapers these days.
Mr. Hepworth may be interested to know that I am about to use this month's article about the market positioning on The Word in class. Where do you put it on the shelves at WHSmith?

Toodle pip.

NME certainly isn't on it's death bed. While it has lost the largest share of readers in the music magazine sector, it seems to be part of a general downturn. 64,000 isn't really all that bad - especially when you consider that they sell that amount every week giving them a monthly sales of 256,000 - almost double what Q sell each month.

In terms of quality, I reckon it has lost the plot. But that's exactly what my elders were telling me about the NME I used to buy in the late 80s / early 90s. To my eyes it looks dreadful... More style than substance (and even the style isn't that impressive). The last issue I bought was the Morrisey crucifixion issue - the first time I had read it for about 4 years. The quality of the writing has more in common with the Sun than it does with the old NME, but it makes no difference to me whether it survives or not. I'm sure it will though.

..don't read it.

....but I was an avid reader in the 70s and early 80s - post - punk killed it for me.

There were loads of great writers - I used to love Brian Case on pretty much anything, Ian MacDonald - another excellent writer - and a Nick Kent lookalike called Pete Erskine who was a big Little Feat fan who I think came to a sad end - drugs, prison etc - anyone know what happened to him?

Those who also served;

Biba Kopf (crazy name, crazy guy!)
James Brown (not that one)
Susan Williams/Steven Wells
David Quantick
Barbara Ellen

And does anyone remember those great little cassettes they gave away around that time? If anyone has a MP3 version of the one with Billy Bragg doing 'Fear Is A Man's Best Friend', and a Scottish group doing a great version of 'Little Red Rooster' I'd be most grateful etc, etc, etc...

...and thought NME was read by oiks.

''The fashionista guard threw it from the rooftops...,''

and than

I felt compelled to wizz in the editor's tea.

...in 1995, and at that point I thought Melody Maker was better. But I've since realised that lots of the best NME writers (Collins, Maconie and Quantick in particular) had jumped ship the previous year. Every now and then I'll find a copy of the NME from between 1988 and 1993 in a second hand record shop, and they're always pure gold. It was always so funny.

Earlier I had a look at NME.com and was delighted to see that in response to a poor review of the new Young Knives album, some disgruntled fan has written a variation on the age-old NME staple "was the writer of this article listening to the same record as me?" Just knowing that such comments still feature in NME in some way is like knowing that - even though I will never listen to it again - The Archers is still on Radio 4...

EDIT

A weekly circulation of 64,000 with a cover price of £2.10? IPC are laughing all the way to the bank. They've also aggressively marketed the 'NME' brand, and produce a new, bright, shiny product that new generations of 'ver kids' will maybe buy.

Never mind that's there's no quality writing therein, or that they mostly cover interchangeable indie-schmindie bands like Razor Party or Bloclight for white, middle-class teenagers, it's all about continually reinventing themselves and attracting new and younger readers to keep things going.

I work in provincial daily newspapers, where the great unspoken worry is how older readers are dying off while younger generations just aren't taking their place. Don't be fooled by all those swish websites, they contain all the top stories for free and don't make much advertising money at all for newspapers. It's plain that within 20 years local newspapers as we know them will have gone the way of post offices or old-style British passports.

At least IPC are trying something to keep a traditional form of media going well into the 21st century at a time when the brands of my youth are dying left, right and centre.

Any popular form of media which lasts into a fifth decade is never going to remain relevant forever; be it NME, Radio 1 or Top of the Pops the one phrase you'll always hear is: "It's not as good as it was." I'm sure if this was a thread about Last of the Summer Wine, there'd be someone moaning: "It was never the same once Michael Bates left in 1975..."

... in that as long as the NME brand keeps making enough profit for IPC via its various revenue streams, the mag will still be there. The minute it's no longer profitable, the future of the title will be "under consideration". Might be a while yet, I reckon.

Mind you, I've not read NME for at least ten years, and it was already approaching awful by 1998. It WAS a must-read in the punk era, though, and it was always a dicey decision whether to spend my teenage pocket money on NME or Sounds, back in the day.

When it started championing the Oi! movement.

As well containing nothing at all of musical merit (only ROMO came close for utter worthlessness), it veered far too close to the right wing/NF politics of the day for my liking. Garry Bushell was the main plugger of the movement if memory serves.

Along with John Peel, and my older brother, the NME was a huge influence on me in so many ways than simply music. Every Thursday, from around 1972, I'd spend everything I had on NME, Melody Maker and Sounds. I'd get narky if I couldn't get a copy of the NME, such was the addictive qualities of their writers.
During '75 -'78 it was an essential part of my week, but began wane in the late '80s, and by then I was buying it out of loyalty more than anything else for the next few years.
And then that punk attitude I had imbued from the NME in 76 took over. I asked myself, if this magazine was a band would I still be buying their cds if they were as crap and as pale an imitation of themselves as this? Am I just being a completist? No and Yes to those questions, so I stopped buying it about at some point in the 1990s.
I'm now 50 and wonder if I was taken back in time, would i find the NME of my youth more interested in being part of a marketing campaign than a music paper that sought to inform and entertain? At the risk of sounding like another 50 year old telling everyone that things were better in their day, I'd say today's NME is pretty crap and maybe its reached the end of its life. Let it die and we'll mark its passing.
Just as we will with The Word (ho ho ho)
Dougie

In the massively changed music journalism environment, it's had to find itself a new niche. Which it has done so.

I'd much rather buy a copy of the 'old' NME than the 'new' NME, but then I'd much rather buy a copy of The Word than either the new or the old NME. So why should it worry me?

The NME is great for 'ver kids' as a bright, entertaining first step into the world of rock journalism. From there they'll quickly step up into the world of 'serious' music mags like The Word, and the wonderful world of online mucic journalism.

Fine. NME has its niche, for sure its a smaller niche than it used to have, but the kids that read it, like it. Job done.

NME used to have an attitude- this was a GOOD thing. Now it just has an attitude problem- this is a BAD thing. Worse- it doesnt know the difference which I think is half the problem. It used to have light and shade, subtlety and quality. Now it just SHOUTS AT YOU ABOUT HOW COOL IT IS AND HOW OLD YOU ARE!!!!!!!

Its like Smash Hits without the sense of fun, Kerrang with short hair and mistakes sneering for opinion and bluster for erudition.

Actually this is a sad tale and not one we should celebrate as NME has played a central and important role in the music history of this country but now it is a shambling irrelevant wreck. The fact that Morrissey still gives it the time of day only underscores my points.....

I was sad when Melody Maker folded. But the NME? I guess I am the sort of age market that it really tries and pitches to now, but I wouldn't read it in a million years now, I stopped reading it two years ago, when I used to be an avid reader. The way it is set out is just terrible, you can't read it. It's garish and it's awful.I feel that the range of music which it covers is woefully inadequate now aswell, it seems that if something isn't 'trendy' then they don't bother. As I said, I havn't brought it in two years, apart from when they had the White Stripes 7" giveaway, and if I could have gotten that another way I surely would.