Melody Maker
 |
|
| Frequency | Weekly |
|---|---|
| First issue | January 1926 |
| Final issue | December 2000 |
| Company | IPC |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London, England |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 0025-9012 |
Melody Maker was a British weekly pop/rock music newspaper, one of the world's earliest music weeklies (according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest). It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright; the first editor was Edgar Jackson. In 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publication) New Musical Express.
Originally the Melody Maker (MM) concentrated on jazz, and had Max Jones, one of the leading British proselytizers for that music, on its staff for many years. It was slow to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the New Musical Express (NME), which had begun in 1952. MM began its Melody Maker LP charts in November 1958, two years after the Record Mirror published the first UK Albums Chart. On 6 March 1965, MM called for the Beatles to be honoured by the British state, which happened on 12 June that year when all four were appointed as members of the Order of the British Empire (Messrs Harrison,Lennon, McCartney& Starr)
By the late 1960s, MM had recovered, targeting an older market than the teen-oriented NME. MM had larger and more specialised advertising; soon-to-be well-known groups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages devoted to "minority" interests like folk and jazz, as well as detailed reviews of musical instruments.
A 1968 Melody Maker poll named John Peel best radio DJ, attention which John Walters revealed may have helped Peel keep his job despite concerns at BBC Radio 1 about Peel's style and record selection.
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