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just as the news that group co-founders Michael Giles and Ian McDonald were leaving.]] ''Melody Maker'', published in the article It was Founded In 1926 as a magazine targeted at Musician s; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publication) '' New Musical Express ''. 1950S-1960S With its focus on website By the late 1960s, ''MM'' had recovered its momentum, targeting an older, more sophisticated market than the teen-oriented ''NME'' (which sometimes poked fun at the earnestness of its rival, dubbing it 'Monotony Maker'). Considerably more bulky than its competitor, it had a much larger and more specialised advertising section, in the pages of which many Soon-to-be Well-known Groups would advertise for musicians to join them, and ran pages devoted to "minority" interests like Folk and jazz, as well as detailed reviews of musical instruments. A 1968 ''Melody Maker'' poll named website 1970S Its circulation continued to increase, and by the 1970s , under the editorship of Ray Coleman , ''MM'' was selling 250,000 copies a week. Critics such as Richard Williams , Chris Welch and Steve Lake were among the first British journalists to write seriously about popular music, shedding an intellectual light on such artists as Steely Dan , Led Zeppelin and Henry Cow , while the veteran Max Jones continued the paper's coverage of jazz. In 1976 came punk, and ''Melody Maker'' lagged behind rivals '' Sounds '' and ''NME'' in embracing the upheaval; of MM's staff, only Caroline Coon was strongly positive towards the new music. It took some years for the paper's sales and prestige to recover. 1980S By 1983, the magazine had become more populist and pop-orientated, exemplified by its modish "MM" masthead and its choice of on the cover, he instead led the magazine with an article on up-and-coming band The Smiths . In 1986, ''MM'' was further invigorated by the arrival of a group of journalists, including Simon Reynolds and David Stubbs , who had previously run a music Fanzine called ''Monitor'' from the University Of Oxford , and Chris Roberts , an exile from '' Sounds '', who established ''MM'' as the more individualistic and intellectual of the music weeklies. This was especially true after the "hip-hop wars" at ''NME'' - a schism between enthusiasts of progressive black music such as Public Enemy and Mantronix and fans of traditional white rock - ended in a victory for the latter faction, the departure of writers such as Mark Sinker and Biba Kopf , and the rise of Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie , who pushed NME in a more populist direction. 1990S While ''MM'' continued to devote most space to Rock and Indie Music (notably Everett True 's coverage of the emerging Grunge scene in Seattle ), it was willing to cover Dance Music , Hip Hop and less commercial genres such as Post Rock and Electronica . Even in the mid-1990s, when Britpop had brought a new generation of readers to the weekly music press, it remained less populist than its rivals, with younger writers such as Simon Price , Taylor Parkes and Neil Kulkarni continuing the 80s tradition of iconoclasm and subjective, opinionated criticism. The paper printed harsh criticism of the likes of Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker , and allowed dissenting views on Oasis and Blur at a time when they were universally praised by the rest of the music press. The magazine retained its large classified ads section, and remained the first port of call for bands seeking musicians, and musicians seeking bands. Many of the groups covered in ''MM'' (most famously Suede ) had originally been formed through ads placed in the paper itself. It also continued to publish a section featuring reviews of musical equipment and reader-submitted Demo Tapes - though this often had little in common stylistically with the rest of the paper - ensuring sales to the kind of jobbing musicians who would otherwise have had little interest in the music press. In early 1997 Allan Jones left ''MM'' to edit websiteby editing the magazine for three years. Many long-standing writers left, often moving to ''Uncut'', with at least one writer, Simon Price , departing specifically because he objected to a new edict that all coverage of Oasis should be positive. Its sales, which had for some time been substantially lower than those of the NME, entered a serious decline. In 1999, ''MM'' was relaunched as a glossy Magazine , a move which in retrospect hastened its demise. It folded in 2000, officially merging with the ''NME'' (long published by the same company, IPC Media ), which took on some of its Journalist s and (initially) its musical instrument reviews section. BANDS USING MM ADVERTS Advertisements in ''Melody Maker'' helped assemble the lineups of a number of major bands, including:
TRIVIA The name of the French band Daft Punk was inspired from a lukewarm ''Melody Maker'' review, branding their first efforts under the name Darlin' "a bunch of daft punk". REFERENCES |
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