NME Case Study

The New Musical Express, or NME as it is better known is one of the most successful, long lasting music magazines to ever exist. Originating in March 1952 as a music tabloid newsprint, it has gone on to become an up market glossy publication informing their readers on musical news and gossip, aswell as offering reviews of albums and live performances.

During the sixties NME rose to prominence amongst British music fans, showcasing the music of popular bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. NME also organised the NME Poll Winners Concert, an event that featured the most popular bands of the mags readers, decided by a vote. These shows were then edited and screened weeks later on national television with many companies advertising during commercial breaks. NME also featured the rise of psychedelia rock, which quickly became a popular genre of pop music, and still influences bands today, for example, Primal Scream.

An early edition of NME featuring The Beatles

The rise of rock music occurred in the early 70's and NME lost ground in the market to its main competitor Melody Maker, who chose to feature rock music on a regular basis. In 1972 the magazine was almost shut down until a new editor was brought in, and within a year they were selling 300,000 copies a week. In the mid 70's NME began to highlight punk music, and helped support up and rising band, The Sex Pistols aswell as Led Zeppelin. The NME also took a socialist stance during the election of Maggy Thatcher, often displaying young people, and not musical acts on their covers.


The magazine decided to go for a more political stance during the 1980's and lost many readers and again almost went through closure. Readers began to complain that NME had lost its sense of direction, with the editors undecided whether to stick with rock music as their main theme or involve the new and emerging Hip-Hop genre. During the late 80's the paper began to champion goth music and after the success of The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays the paper went on to frequently cover the Madchester scene.

Cover of NME, featuring the battle of the heavywieght
bands, Blur and Oasis, during 1994.

By late 1990 the Madchester scene had fizzled out and NME began to write about acts coming from America. NME became particularly interested in grunge after the success of the Nirvana album Nevermind and along with most magazines covered more American music than ever before. However, the paper did not ignore British music and began covering the indie scene, especially bands such as Suede and The Manic Street Preachers. After the death of Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain, the British music industry changed, with Britpop coming to prominence. Britpop, influenced by music from the sixties, featured bands like Oasis and Blur who quickly became the 2 biggest bands the UK for the next four or five years. In 1995, NME covered both bands as they were releasing singles on the same day. NME enjoyed vast sales due to the popularity of Britpop throughout the late nineties.


In March 98 the paper was transformed from a tabloid newsprint to a more glossy magazine. After the millennium, NME attempted to broaden its horizons by featuring many genres of music. Once again they tried to coer the hip-hop scene, by covering Jay-Z and Missy Elliott and they even wrote a piece about Popstars winners Hear'Say. This was very unpopular and it was speculated the magazine would close down, instead it was merged with long standing competitor Melody Maker. In 2001, the mag went back to its old ways, championing new music, this time that of the Indie genre. NME helped to kickstart the success of The Strokes and The White Stripes and in 2002 chose to focus on the British music scene, with Pete Doherty's Libertines rapidly becoming a popular act not only to the mag, but to music fans too. After The Libertines came The Arctic Monkeys who were successfully championed by NME and who have enjoyed much success, both critically and commercially. However, circulation figures are down dramatically in the last ten years, and are continuing to fall. In the first part of 2010 the magazine was down 53% from 2003.

The Libertines on the cover of NME, after the revealed
they would get back together for Reading + Leeds in 2010.

The emergence of new technology, aswell as the financial crisis has meant people are less inclined to buy magazines now, and the NME has been hit hard. However, they now have a long standing website, aswell a radio station. NME also sponsors many festivals and still organises a tour one a year, showcasing the best new music across small venues in Britain.


Over the last 50 years NME has become one of the most popular music magazines about, and despite the fall in sales, i strongly believe the paper will survive, due to the respect from musical artists and more importantly, due to the loyalty of its readers.