Music Journalism in the UK

Music journalism in the UK - as we know it - began to flourish in the early 1960s just as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones came to prominence. However, this article looks at the current leaders in music news and reviews journalism/media in the UK.

NME

The New Musical Express (or the NME) is a weekly music news magazine in the United Kingdom and is the best known (and oldest) music publication in the UK, which was started March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine was in a regular battle with Melody Maker for readership until Melody Maker was merged into the NME in 2000. Respected journalists like Nick Kent, Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill have previously been on the writing staff.

Q Magazine

Q is a music magazine published monthly. It was founded in 1986 by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth who felt that older music buyers were being ignored. However, the magazine developed into a monthly version of the NME and Melody Maker (in terms of their target audience) and The magazine is renowned for it's reviews section, but the magazine revamped their traditional album review and band interview scheme to become "broader" to include several new sections on travel and film to books and gadgets. This revamp has caused critics to sneer that it has lost it's edge.

Kerrang!

Kerrang! is a rock music magazine, founded in 1981, aimed at the Rock/Metal end of the market, which is now published by Bauer Consumer Media. The magazine's unusual name is actually an onomatopoeic and is basically the sound that is made when a loud power chord is played on a guitar. The magazine is in an on-going battle with the NME for the UK's biggest selling weekly music publication. The website is http://www.kerrang.com.

Drowned In Sound

DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine. The site (not a magazine) has marked a change in music journalism as it is an editorially independent music website featuring a collection of mainly unpaid contributors from right across the world. This new style has seen the rise of bloggers in music journalism and has seen articles appearing online questioning if music journalism can still be a paid career.

Clash

Clash is a popular music and fashion magazine launched in 2004 by the Clash brand, which extends to live events around the country and festival partnerships (such as RockNess and Get Loaded in the UK, and Dour in Belgium). The magazine's online presence appeared in 2008

The Fly

The Fly is a music magazine that is published monthly and is available for free in HMV stores (as the magazine is published by HMV owned Mama Group) and has developed from a guide for Barfly venues (Brighton, Cardiff, London & York are the remaining venues) to become the largest free music magazine in the country.