Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was (until its closure in 2000) the world's oldest weekly music newspaper.

Founded in 1926, it was initially aimed squarely at musicians, and soon developed a focus on jazz. In the 1950s, it was slow to cover rock and roll, and increasingly took second place to the New Musical Express (NME). However, by the late 1960s, it was seen as appealing to a rather older, more sophisticated market than the more teen-oriented NME (which sometimes poked fun at the earnestness of its rival, dubbing it 'Monotony Maker'). Considerably more bulky than its competitor, it had a much larger and more specialised advertising section, and devoted pages each week to more minority fields like folk, jazz and also musical instruments. Nonetheless, its circulation continued to increase, and under the editorship of Ray Coleman, by the 1970s it was selling 250,000 copies a week.

The magazine continued to feature rock and indie music, at the expense of covering emerging dance music, and included reviews of musical equipment and reader-submitted demo tapes, two things which set it apart from the otherwise very similar NME. It lost sales, and by the late 1990s was relaunched as a glossy magazine. It closed in 2000, officially merging with the NME (long published by the same company, IPC Media), which took on some of its journalists and its popular features on musicianship.

The name of the French band Daft Punk was inspired from a lukewarm Melody Maker review, branding their first efforts under the name Darlin' "a bunch of daft punk".

Journalists who worked for the magazine include David Toop, Simon Reynolds and Colin Irwin.

1926 establishments | 2000 disestablishments | Music magazines | British magazines | British music media

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