Melody Maker's problems towards the end were several. They mostly stemmed from its
ridiculously over-zealous campaign to destroy all pop music and replace it with eighty shades of
grey indie wank (ie: promoting
worthy guitar bollocks like
Toploader and
Embrace over genuinely
thrilling pop music).
The problem was compounded by an
inflammatory cover based on a
parody of a
Craig David album sleeve which featured a lookalike sitting on a
toilet with a
constipated facial expression, next to the words "
UK garage?
My arse!". The cover was rightfully attacked for its borderline
racism and probably helped alienate a sizable proportion of its readership.
Thirdly, MM
editor Mark Sutherland's
sinister re-invention as a kind of
indie fascist proved to be the final straw for many, with his policing of the
letters page every week by putting down all dissenters, praising those who slated
chart pop and generally saying suspect things about "our music" and "the struggle" continuing as if his readership was some kind of
Hitler Youth he was trying to motivate. Towards the end it only appealed to people whose idea of "
alternative"
music was a
Jamie Oliver compilation, anyway. It was good for so long, but just before the end, it really deserved to die.