Melody Maker

After 74 years in circulation, one of Britain's finest music magazines has finally been forced to bow to the pressure of the competition, and cease publication. As a music fan, it was sad to hear that Melody Maker magazine will no longer be adorning our newsagents' shelves. I have never been a regular buyer of this magazine, although like its main competitor, the New Musical Express, it managed to persuade someone with mainstream tastes, such as myself, to buy the occasional copy - which was quite a feat. It has been obvious for some time that Melody Maker has been feeling the pinch. In fact, recent pressures had forced the 'Maker' to ...  Read the complete review

It was announced earlier this week that Melody Maker was too fold after 75 years of existence. The reason given was an ever decreasing circulation, a rot which had been settling in way before the relaunch as a glossy magazine earlier this year. Many people will see this as a bad thing, I however am glad to see Melody Maker disappear into the great recycling bin in the sky. My major problem with MM was then throughout the 1990's it had become increasingly poor and irrelevant. However at one point MM was the best music magazine published. The golden age of MM for me was in the late 80's/early 90's. MM was then a paper not afraid to take risks with the ...  Read the complete review

Lumping Melody Maker in with the NME would be to do the former a disservice because it performs better on all fronts. Primarily a guide to all things independent, guitar based and new it is indispensable for anyone interested in the alternative scene. It is divided up into 4 main sections, news, live reviews, single/album reviews and the features section. Generally the reviews are spot on, although the personality of the reviewer is often given too much latitude. Recently it downsized itself to glossy magazine size, which was a bit of a shock at first, but the content has not lessened in the slightest. My favourite section is each issues soundtrack which describes the ...  Read the complete review

Since it's transformation into a shiny, glossy magazine "Melody Maker" seems to have improved. I wasnt a big fan of the old newspaper-style format, mainly because it was a nuiscance to read if not at home and a pain to carry around. Nevertheless "Melody Maker"'s sales have gone up since it's new look. The magazine focuses on a range of alternative music: indie, metal, hip-hop, dance among other genres. It gives the reader a refeshing break from the "Smash Hits"esque music, and fights to get less mainstream music recognised, which lets face it, is what the charts need right now: something that isnt boy/girl band, so-called ...  Read the complete review

It's quite sad to see what the Melody Maker has become. Instead of being a rival to NME it now seems to aimed more at Smash Hits readers, particulary with the silly poster pull-out in the middle. Although they do still feature some good up and coming bands they also seem to waste a huge amount of space on whatever seems to be 'trendy' at the time. Fair enough but reading the same stuff about the same nu-metal bands over and over gets tiresome. Also the way they review the singles is a bit odd. They get a band to come in and review them. Seems like a good idea until you start getting people like Daphne & Celeste reviewing them. Generally though, ...  Read the complete review