Was it the decline of the music industry that led to the decline of the music press? Where did the good writers go? There was a time when the NME was essential weekly reading, full of wit and invention. Danny Baker, Paul Morley. Paul Du Noyer, Adrian Thrills, Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons, Roy Carr, Tony Tyler, Barney Hoskyns, etc etc. The publication was amusing, informative, maddening, eccentric and passionate. Was it the music that got bad, or the writers? It's all woefully poor these days, there's not one music writer I make an effort to read, much like the managers and PR people who swan about soulessly through the biz. A sad thing. The only interesting stuff is in the nostalgia magazines for ageing musos. The NME is now below the 15,000 mark and looks completely dead in the water. There are no writers now who alert you to music, who excite and intrigue you into seeking it out.

Good question Pru. It was ghastly when I bought it a few weeks ago. But the same week Billboard was superb; not so much in the writing but in the layout, information, humour and approach. I just read Record of the Day - also dreadful with a lousy article on Eurovision (Popbitch is a million times better but it/they are fans, not denigrators).

Music was so exciting until the greed factor killed it off.
Back in the 70s/80s it was not unusual to buy 3/4 music papers,plus a few glossy mags if the pennies were available.That said with the net making info so up to date,and free I doubt there would be any interest like before,even if the music scene was still exciting.

Pattaya wrote:
with the net making info so up to date,and free I doubt there would be any interest like before,even if the music scene was still exciting.

That's not really so relevant, as there are plenty of other genres - films, showbiz, tv, sport, etc - that still sustain a fairly healthy magazine market in spite of the immediacy of the Internet.