No Rock And Roll Fun

QUICK! CORRUPT THEM FAST: The NME is starting vote-taking for its meaningless list of most voted-for records ("exciting new interactive chart") that it's sharing the revenue stream from ("presenting in association with") MTV2. We're a little amused by current NME editor Conor McNicholas*' quote: NME invented the original music charts so it's totally appropriate that we should take them back in 2003 by introducing the definitive chart for fans of great music. Over many beers with our new friends at MTV2 we discovered we share a passion for brilliant bands and brilliant tunes now we want to get music fans involved. Well, actually, NME invented the singles chart rather than "the original music charts" - there were lists of best-selling sheet music around when the Musical Express was still merged with the Accordian Times. And ios it perhaps a little disappointing that he doesn't see anything slightly shaming about his little "lots of beers" scenario, in that it basically implies that reading the nme, you wouldn't guess that the paper had a passion for bands and tunes? It's like the editor of Cage and Aviary Bird saying "it wasn't until I went to dinner with the team from Trill that they realised our magazine had any interest in budgies at all..."

* - Conor McNicholas is a brilliant name, because it's not easy to say - you've got that double 'c' thing going on which makes it the name equivalent of extreme sports.