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| Scot Rocks |
Poll
Tue Apr 16, 7:56 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Angst-ridden Mancunian rock quartet The Smiths have beaten off competition from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to be declared music bible NME's most important rock group of the last 50 years.
The band, renowned for its fatalistic lyrics and fronted by the misery-wallowing Morrisey, have not troubled the pop charts for more than a decade, but NME -- the fanzine formerly known as New Musical Express -- ranked them as more important than Elvis, the Sex Pistols and Madonna (news - web sites).
Bands were assessed on the number of front covers, letters and features they generated as well as end-of-year polls.
Beatle fans can take some consolation that the Fab Four came in second, followed by the Stone Roses and David Bowie.
Fellow Manchester band Oasis were the highest-ranking modern day band, at number six in NME's 50th anniversary survey. Self-styled Queen of Pop Madonna scraped in at number 42, eclipsed by controversial American white rapper Eminem (news - web sites) at 40.
Unsurprisingly, modern manufactured chart toppers like "Pop Idol" TV show winner Will Young and runner-up Gareth Gates failed to make an impression.
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| Maxlugar |
Is this the third or fourth sign of the Apocalypse? I forget.
That's some set of criteria too. Number of covers and articles and emails.
All hail our new overlords! The Smiths!
Friday Night just won't be the same!
Maxy, Internet Legend. |
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| Gazza |
At the end of the day,its another absolutely meaningless poll filling column inches in a slow news day in the UK papers - it'll be in good company!
Rating a band/artist's importance by the number of front covers and letters received? Great criteria!!
Since the punk era,the NME has always championed a more "alternative" and indie -orientated musical direction.Each to their own - personally,I stopped buying it about 20 years ago (even though,yeah I DID like the Smiths...!). If youre looking for a UK music publication featuring anything on the more "established" artists like The Stones,Dylan and the like,youre gonna find it in monthly magazines like Q,Mojo,Uncut etc - certainly NOT in the NME!! |
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| Scot Rocks |
I have never liked NME and its love of bland boring wailing bands. I used to get Q but I became sick of its growing similarity with NME, the Spice Girls were even on the cover!!!!!I beccame sick of its absolute love of Radiohead and any new band that could pick up a guitar, every week, meanwhile the best British band ever stones barely got a mention, maybe something about tour antics in 72 or something about Mick on the prowl again in the top corner of p.38 but that was about it. However Uncut did have that fine piece on the stones a couple of months ago, while I think it was Classic Rock magazine had a cool Ronnie interview a few months back as well. Therefore the conclusion is that there is hardly any decent coverage in music magazines of the Stones, I wonder is this the same case in the States?
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| Honky Tonker |
Another ration of shit from NME. |
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| Martha |
The states rock mags 9if you can call them that) have hits and misses. I recently subscribed to the RS and to your Mojo and the comparisons are staggering. I breeze throught the RS to catch bits of info and to stay updated on tours etc. And they have great political (left-wing) articles...that have nothing to do with music directly, anyway.
I loved the issue they (RS) put out regarding John Lennon's 20th year passing. The letter Yoko Ono wrote to the parole board was intense. That madman was up for parole but didn't get out as we all know. Anyway, the issue included other musicians speaking about their feelings of John's death and it was really moving for me. I have been forever transformed by this horrible tragedy.
So, the Rolling Stone has its moments. With all the new crap they call music out there making so much money it certainly overshadows our real true blue musicians...this is the unfortunate conditions of living in a capitialist economy.
Keep the faith and comb the heap for the nuggets of golden moments!
peace to you all |
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| Gazza |
Scot - maybe part of the problem is that its a bit hard to give topical coverage to the Stones as for the last 3 years theyve been a band in name only. They havent recorded any new material for FIVE years either dont forget,and on the last two world tours theyve spent a combined total of 19 days in the UK giving only ten concerts.
If they dont work together,we cant seriously expect the music press to write about them (that of course will change in the coming months..) Thankfully the band DO have a glorious and fascinating history which means that every so often magazines like Uncut or Mojo can remind people of what the fuss was all about in the first place. The Stones themselves should work on a more regular basis than what they do now. Otherwise,its no wonder coverage on them is so limited. |
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| stonedinaustralia |
sad it is about the nme as it used to be the home of the heavyweights Messrs. Shaar Murray and Kent...if you haven't checked out Kent's two Stones stories in his anthology "the dark stuff" you should , you'll love it... by turns hilarious and heartbreaking and always well written with a wit matched only by shaar murray (& perhaps lester bangs)...
if you haven't read shaar murrays "cross town traffic" you are definitely missing out on something... don't be misled its about a whole lot more than just jimi hendrix...
i also stopped taking much pleasure from the nme over twenty years ago...but back in the heady days of '76 & '77 it really carried the news...
and the smiths!!.. well i'm sorry (not really) but i could never work out what all the fuss was about... |
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