Editing NME (section)

===1970s===
[[File:New Musical Express cover, 21.02.76 (Patti Smith).jpg|thumb|right|Cover featuring [[Patti Smith]] for the week of 21 February 1976]]

By the early 1970s, ''NME'' had lost ground to [[Melody Maker]], as its coverage of music had failed to keep pace with the development of rock music, particularly during the early years of psychedelia and [[progressive rock]]. In early 1972, the paper was on the verge of closure by its owner [[IPC Media|IPC]] (which had bought the paper from Kinn in 1963).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Obituary: Maurice Kinn {{!}} News |work=The Guardian |date=10 August 2000 |access-date=15 July 2019 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/aug/10/guardianobituaries}}</ref> According to [[Nick Kent]] (soon to play a prominent part in the paper's revival):

{{blockquote|After sales had plummeted to 60,000 and a review of guitar instrumentalist [[Duane Eddy]] had been printed which began with the words "On this, his 35th album, we find Duane in as good voice as ever," the ''NME'' had been told to rethink its policies or die on the vine.<ref>Kent, Nick, "The Dark Stuff" (''Faber'', 2007, p. xvi)</ref>}}

Alan Smith was made editor in 1972, and was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure.<ref>Nick Kent 'Apathy For The Devil', 2010, {{ISBN|978-0-571-23286-4}}, p81</ref> To achieve this, Smith and his assistant editor [[Nick Logan]] raided the [[underground press]] for writers such as [[Charles Shaar Murray]] and Nick Kent, and recruited other writers such as [[Tony Tyler]], [[Ian MacDonald]] and Californian [[Danny Holloway]].{{citation needed|date=July 2015}} According to ''[[The Economist]]'', the ''New Musical Express'' "started to champion underground, up-and-coming music....NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world. First came [[glamrock]], and bands such as [[T. Rex (band)|T. Rex]], and then came [[punk subculture|punk]]....by 1977 it had become the place to keep in touch with a cultural revolution that was enthralling the nation's listless youth. Bands such as [[Sex Pistols]], [[X-Ray Spex]] and [[Generation X (band)|Generation X]] were regular cover stars, eulogised by writers such as [[Julie Burchill]] and [[Tony Parsons (British journalist)|Tony Parsons]], whose nihilistic tone narrated the punk years perfectly."<ref name= "econ2015"/> By the time Smith handed the editor's chair to Logan in mid-1973, the paper was selling nearly 300,000 copies per week and was outstripping ''Melody Maker'', ''Disc'', ''Record Mirror'' and ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]''.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}

According to MacDonald:<ref>{{cite book |last=Paul |first=Gorman |title=In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Music Press |year=2001 |publisher=Sanctuary |isbn=1-86074-341-2 |page=189}}</ref>

{{blockquote|I think all the other papers knew by 1974 that ''NME'' had become the best music paper in Britain. We had most of the best writers and photographers, the best layouts, that sense of style of humour and a feeling of real adventure. We also set out to beat ''Melody Maker'' on its strong suit: being the serious, responsible journal of record. We did Looking Back and Consumer Guide features that beat the competition out of sight, and we did this not just to surpass our rivals but because we reckoned that rock had finished its first wind around 1969/70 and deserved to be treated as history, as a canon of work. We wanted to see where we'd got to, sort out this huge amount of stuff that had poured out since the mid '60s. Everyone on the paper was into this.}}

[[Led Zeppelin]] topped the "''NME'' Pop Poll" for three consecutive years (1974–76) under the category of the best "Vocal Group".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/poppoll.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060629131458/http://rocklistmusic.co.uk/poppoll.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=29 June 2006 |title=NME Pop Poll Results 1952 – 1996 |publisher=Rocklistmusic.co.uk |access-date=11 August 2014}}</ref>

In 1976, ''NME'' lambasted German pioneer electronic band [[Kraftwerk]] with this title: "This is what your fathers fought to save you from ..." The article said that the "electronic melodies flowed as slowly as a piece of garbage floating down the polluted [[Rhine]]".<ref>Miles. [http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/krautwerk-this-is-what-your-fathers-fought-to-save-you-from/ "Kraftwerk: This is what your fathers fought to save you from"]. ''NME''. 16 October 1976. Retrieved 8 August 2013</ref> The same year also saw [[punk rock]] arrive on what some people perceived to be a stagnant music scene. The ''NME'' gave [[the Sex Pistols]] their first music press coverage in a live review of their performance at the [[Marquee Club|Marquee]] in February that year, but overall it was slow to cover this new phenomenon in comparison to ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' and ''Melody Maker'', where [[Jonh Ingham]] and [[Caroline Coon]] respectively were early champions of punk. Although articles by the likes of [[Mick Farren]] (whose article "The Titanic Sails at Dawn" called for a new street-led rock movement in response to stadium rock) were published by the ''NME'' that summer, it was felt that younger writing was needed to credibly cover the emerging punk movement, and the paper advertised for a pair of "hip young gunslingers" to join their editorial staff. This resulted in the recruitment of [[Tony Parsons (British journalist)|Tony Parsons]] and [[Julie Burchill]]. The pair rapidly became champions of the punk scene and created a new tone for the paper. Parsons' time at NME is reflected in his 2005 novel ''Stories We Could Tell'', about the misadventures of three young music-paper journalists on the night of 16 August 1977 – the night [[Elvis Presley]] died.

[[File:NME logo.png|thumb|right|200px|The logo that has been used with slight variation since 1978]]

In 1978, Logan moved on, and his deputy [[Neil Spencer]] was made editor. One of his earliest tasks was to oversee a redesign of the paper by [[Barney Bubbles]], which included the logo still used on the paper's masthead today (albeit in a modified form) – this made its first appearance towards the end of 1978. Spencer's time as editor also coincided with the emergence of [[post-punk]] acts such as [[Joy Division]] and [[Gang of Four (band)|Gang of Four]]. This development was reflected in the writing of [[Ian Penman]] and [[Paul Morley]]. [[Danny Baker]], who began as an ''NME'' writer around this time, had a more straightforward and populist style.

The paper also became more openly political during the time of punk. Its cover would sometimes feature youth-orientated issues rather than a musical act. It took an editorial stance against political parties like the [[British National Front|National Front]]. With the election of [[Margaret Thatcher]] in 1979, the paper took a broadly socialist stance for much of the following decade.