Music journalism has a long tradition of making and breaking careers (Brennan 2006). Favourable reviews are beneficial for musicians if they come from the right publication (Brennan 2006). One music journalist's personal opinion can became the view of the masses and change the discourse of a musician's career (Brennan 2006).
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| Nirvana's Kurt Cobain reading Melody Maker - 1993 (Source: Pattonism) |
The Inkies
The British music press was first launched in 1926 by Melody Maker (Fraser 2013). It was predominately concerned with jazz and music criticism (Fraser 2013). The changing face of society and the rise of consumerism heralded a new generation which brought with it a new market (Toynbee 1993; Shukar 2006; Fraser 2013). Melody Maker's rival, the New Musical Express (NME) was launched in 1952 to cater to this new teenage market (Toynbee 1993; Shukar 2006). During the early 1960s Melody Maker editor, Jack Hutton, repositioned and redesigned the publication with the aim of beating the NME's high sales (Welch 2008) which peaked at over 200,000 copies a week (Fraser 2013). Scotsman Hutton became Melody Maker's editor the month that the Beatles hit the charts with 'Love Me Do' in 1962 and he realised the importance to the paper of forming friendships with bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones (Welch 2008). Although the NME continued to have higher sales throughout the 60s (Toynbee 1993), Melody Maker became known as the 'musician's bible' (Welch 2008).
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| Melody Maker - 14th March 1962 |
The music press became known as the 'inkies' due to the cheap ink used to print them with that marked the hands of their readers (Toynbee 1993 p. 291; Shukar 2006 p. 87). They became 'gatekeepers' of popular music in Britain (Toynbee 1993 p. 290; Shukar 2006 p. 86). From the early 1950s, the NME printed the UK record sales charts quickly followed by Melody Maker (Toynbee 1993). During this time and the 1960s, radio played a minor role in popular music culture. The BBC had a monopoly on radio and there were no commercial stations until the 1970s therefore music fans became reliant on the weekly music press for information (Toynbee 1993).
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| NME chart - 29th June 1966 |
However, the beat music popular in the early 1960s was beginning to change towards the end of the decade and both publications were slow to respond to the change (Toynbee 1993). The music press underwent a rebranding exercise in the 1970s (Fraser 2013) with a change of journalism style (Toynbee 1993). Melody Maker overtook the NME's previous high sales with circulation figures of 300, 000 (Welch 2013). At the end of the 70s, both papers were quick to promote punk (Toynbee 1993; Fraser 2013) which was loathed by the mainstream press (Fraser 2013). However, at the start of the 1980s, the face of music journalism was changing again with the advent of glossy pop magazines, like The Face and I-D which were fixated on the musician's image as much as their music (Toynbee 1993; Fraser 2013).
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| NME - 8th January 1981 |
Sales declined at the end of the 1980s and changes were made in journalistic style (Toynbee 1993). More journalists appeared who had an academic background (Toynbee 1993) although the music press had chosen high academic journalists such as Ian MacDonald and Jon Savage for a long time (Reynolds 2009). As Simon Reynolds (1990) points out, much of the readership was either former students, current students or teenagers who were about to become students (Toynbee 1993). However, by the 1990s there was a move away from theoretical based writing (Reynolds 2009). After an initial boom period in the 90s led by a strong alternative and indie music scene, Melody Maker was merged with the NME in December 2000 (BBC 2000). Despite being repostioned as a glossy music magazine before its closure, the world's longest running music weekly was no longer sustainable (Hodgson 2000) as circulation had fallen 26% and it failed to prosper with the emergence of the internet (BBC 2000). However, its legacy remains unrivaled.
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| The last issue of Melody Maker - December 2000 |
Grunge and the Music Press
The music press can create music scenes as quickly as they can kill them off (Toynbee 1993). They make genres fashionable for larger audiences (Brennan 2006). Although usually ignored as a marketing function, the music press has proved to be important in helping sell music as an 'economic commodity' (Shukar 2006 p. 86). The British music press, particularly Melody Maker, functioned as a narrative to the early 90s movement termed 'grunge' (Strong 2011). Melody Maker is considered fundamental in helping popularise the genre in the UK due to the continual coverage provided mainly by journalist, Everett True (Henderson 2010).
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| Everett True and Kurt Cobain - 1992 |
Grunge generally refers to a US music scene which emerged from Seattle, WA, USA in the late 1980s and was prominent during the early 1990s (Strong 2011). The scene is considered to have been started by independent record label owners, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman (Hornby and Bjartmarsdottir Sveinbjornson 2008). Founded in 1988, their label, Sub Pop, was responsible for releasing records by bands which would later go on to be grunge pioneers such as Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Nirvana (Strong 2011). Pavitt and Poneman knew the key to success was gaining prominence in the UK as they understood the British music press role in popularising genres (Henderson 2010). In 1989, Pavitt and Poneman paid for True to fly out to Seattle to see their roster of bands perform (Lamestain 2009; Strong 2011). On his return to the UK, True wrote what is considered to be a 'gamechanging' article (Lamestain 2009).
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| Everett True's article on Sub Pop - Melody Maker, 18th March 1989 (Source: Archived Music Press) |
True spent the following years living on and off in Seattle and documenting the scene for Melody Maker (Henderson 2010). He remained a champion of the bands and formed friendship with them, most notably with Nirvana's Kurt Cobain (Lamestain 2009; Henderson 2010). The American Billboard magazine did not report on the Seattle scene until August 1990 (Henderson). The NME were not as favourable towards Nirvana as Melody Maker until January 1992 which they defined as the start of grunge (Strong 2011).
Sub Pop 200 compilation album - 1988
The Commercialistion of Grunge
Grunge cannot be defined as one definite music style; bands drew on alternative, punk, garage and metal influences (Strong 2011). Prior to grunge becoming a commercial commodity, many bands such as Soundgarden and Nirvana had signed to major labels due to Sub Pop's growing success (Strong 2011). However, grunge did not exploded commercially until after Nirvana released their seminal 1991 album, 'Nevermind' (Strong 2011). 'Nevermind' was hoped to match the success of Geffen label mates, Sonic Youth's album, 'Goo' which sold 250,000 copies, a considerable amount for an alternative band at the time (Strong 2011). 'Nevermind' smashed all expectations selling millions and knocking Michael Jackson off the top of the American Billboard chart (Strong 2011). Nirvana were then considered to be the leaders of the movement (Hornby and Bjartmarsdottir Sveinbjornson 2008).
'Nevermind', Nirvana - 1991
By 1992, grunge was a cultural phenomenon (Henderson 2010) and commercially success despite the ideology of the movement being anti-commercial with punk ethics (Strong 2011). Once grunge hit the mainstream, it became marketable and the fashions worn by the bands and their fans became popular outwith the scene (Strong 2011). Typically, the scene's fashion consisted of flannels shirts, torn jeans, boots or sneakers and was often second hand (Strong 2011). Flannel shirts became the key item of the look and were favoured by the bands to protect them from the cold, wet weather of Seattle (Hornby and Bjartmarsdottir Sveinbjornson 2008).
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| Kurt Cobain - early 1990s |
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| Soundgarden - 1990 |
By December 1992, grunge had caught the attention of Vogue who split grunge into two camps; 'band grunge' and 'fashion grunge' (Vogue 2014). The December 1992 issue featured their first grunge themed shoot by Steven Meisel (Vogue 2014). However, not all the high fashion set appreciated grunge. Jean-Paul Gaultier described it as the way people dress when they are poor (Vogue 2014) whilst Suzy Menkes, the fashion editor at the International Herald Tribune handed out 'grunge is ghastly' badges to other fashion editors at Milan Fashion Week in 1993 (Madsen 2011).
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| Naomi Campbell and Kristen McMenemy, Steven Meisel Vogue shoot - December 1992 |
Marc Jacobs was the high fashion grunge pioneer (Vogue 2014). Whilst Creative Director at Perry Ellis, he created a grunge themed collection in November 1992 (Vogue 2014). WWD called Jacobs the 'guru of grunge' and he was awarded Designer of the Year by CFDA in 1993 (Madsen 2013). However, the collection was never produced as it was not favoured by his employers and Jacobs was sacked in early 1993 (Vogue 2014). Although the high fashion interest in grunge was surreal for most people in the scene, Jacobs was friends with Sonic Youth and his show for the fated collection features in their 'Sugar Kane' video (Madsen 2013). Whilst not from Seattle, Sonic Youth were often put under the grunge label and were an influence on Nirvana (Sonic Youth 2009). Jacobs famously sent the collection to Kurt Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love who burned it as they were too 'punk' for high fashion, something which Love has stated she now regrets (Madsen 2013; Vogue 2014).
'Sugar Kane', Sonic Youth - 1992
For many of the bands and the grunge fans, the commercialisation removed a lot of the appeal of the movement with bands being stuck in an artistic conflict between credibility and commercial success (Strong 2011). By the mid-90s the movement was through to be over although many of the bands are still performing and successful to this day (Strong 2011). However, grunge changed the face of music and remains to have a lasting impact (Strong 2011). Whilst it never belonged to high fashion, its legacy can still be seen today on the high street and by designers such as Saint Laurent's Hedi Slimane (Vesilind 2013). Jacobs says that he loved that grunge represented a newness in the stale early 90s (Madesn 2013). Jacobs states that people still continue to be influenced by its fashion legacy (Madsen 2013) as the 'moment hasn’t passed.
It’s morphed into different things but it really hasn’t passed' (Jacobs 2013).
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| Advertising campaign for Saint Laurent featuring Courtney Love and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon - 2013 |
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