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NME called "the new Morrissey"

posted by davidt on Tuesday November 27 2001, @10:00AM
Hairdresser on Fire writes:

OK, here goes. NME recently (27/10/01) produced a 'Guitar Britain' issue. This featured a (ugh!) Union Jack cover, and a feature containing 10 bands, all with only caucasian male members. This letter was printed as the main letter in 'Angst' the following week:-

'NME is the new Morrissey!'
You vile, po-faced hypocrites. So given a 'blank canvass' the best 'new rock bands' you can come up with are ten bands comprised exclusively of white blokes (NME, October 27). Not very artistic is it? In none of the photos was there any evidence of ethnic minority representation or, God forbid, a female band member.

By a 'Spray-Paint Manifesto for Guitar Britain' I can only assume that you're suggesting this is the way forward - a declaration of aims - that's what a manifesto is. Hardly a representative sample of the population. I'm sure there must be other up-and-coming guitar bands out there that don't fit the 'white males with guitars' mould, but I suspect that finding them might have involved some investigative journalism.

I can only conclude given this evidence (the article, and the lovely Union Jack cover), that NME should be christened 'This Alarming Mag' and people should be free to come round to King's Reach Tower and give you all a good bricking (Steven Wells, Banging On, November 1999).
MATT, VIA E-MAIL.

Oh, came NME's reply....

I've just had a long hard look at last weeks NME Matt, and it doesn't look remotely like a police station to me. Or a local council establishment, or a large accountancy firm. As far as I'm aware there are no govenrment regulations forcing us to make sure our nation's rock bands are a 'representative sample of the population'.

When choosing the bands to cover our first question was 'does this recod rock?' and not 'are they 12.7% Irish?' Our line up is a 'representative sample ' of the people playing guitar rock music in Britain in 2001; ie the monumental majority are skinny, rat's nest haired, dressed-in-the-dark-by-Travis white boys with ridiculously overweight drummers, and none of the fuckers can draw. But hey, if it'd been a Garage Britain issue then almost all of the artists would've been black! Go figure!

Um, except we're not allowed to like garage any more, apparently. They're very bad boys - MB.

Comments please.....has anyone seen the NME I refer to or any subsequent issues?
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  • Yeah.. but there's not only that. In every NME I've read in the past few months there are a good five or six references to Morrissey in it. Especially in the letters page. I think they're becoming a bit softer on him since they realised a) Hey, the racism story was bollocks! and b) All the bands that are coming out are citing him as an influence.

    The humble pie I'm sending to the NME office is baking in the oven as I write.

    LMC
    Little Miss Curious -- Tuesday November 27 2001, @06:25PM (#21860)
    (User #112 Info)
    [Insert amusing Morrissey lyric here]
  • in a way they do have a point. you can't automatically take a cross section of the entire musical population and start putting people in the role of "here is our token black person" role or that gets demeaning in itself as you are going out of your want to hunt down someone who meets a criteria.

    However...

    in the end, it's all value judgment. whose work is more important and why. as most of you know, there are bands that get little radio play but generate a huge turnout at their shows. you think the two equivilate, but they don't. someone decided that their songs were radio friendly. who determines that? people just like you and me, but belonging to a small group who just so happens to work at newspapers and radio stations selected to decide if it's something the public would be interested in. they are the ones who "can help it" even if they pass themselves off as slaves to trends. they just found it more convenient to frame this year as the year of the Radiohead knockoff band.

    kinda like when you're reading coverage of the "war on terror". It kind of reads like you are getting coverage of the NFL playoffs. The Freedom Fighters vs. the Holy Rollers. They just don't like adding other things in to potentially complicate the story and cause thought.

    suzanne -- Tuesday November 27 2001, @11:33PM (#21864)
    (User #36 Info)
    I scare dead people.
  • God do i loathe the weasely, self regarding crap that a bunch of public school boys and lunatic comprehensive drop outs from the sticks pump out every week in that shit rag.
    What sort of pathetic degenerate actually aspires to be a music journalist? Live in a flat the size of a toilet? Get paid less than a street sweeper? Think you half baked trend hopping opinion counts for anything (try adding capitals and exclamation marks maybe?- oh wait)? Why not join the lowest strata of society (way down below grave robbers and paedophiles) and become an NME journalist?
    Bunch of frustrated fuckwits who don't have the ear to write songs or the intelligence or attention span to write a book (ok a book worth being read -notable exception Tony Parsons who should be given immunity for Julie Burchill loathing above and beyond the call of humanity).
    Too many people liked Moz and you can't be a pitiable little music snob if you like popular music can you? (unless your trying for po-faced 'oooh isn't pop really good I bet you didn't expect me to think that did you?' or 'shit we only sold four copies last week what's a number one? Oooh how exciting rough Batersea darkies let's get them on the cover')
    I fucking hate those guys.
    Anonymous -- Wednesday November 28 2001, @06:16AM (#21869)
  • What a bunch of crap, why doesnt he write that about U2 or Wu tang clan? Waste of life.
    javelin <www.whateverulike.com> -- Monday December 03 2001, @11:10AM (#22022)
    (User #1848 Info)
    "I never wanted to kill,Iam not naturally evil"

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