Boards
Dinner with deltasound: The NME, hype, and bias
Shhh! Don't tell Prole!
As the man appears to be elsewhere today, i figure, why not ask a question I've been thinking about for a few days whilst disguising it as a rip-off of arguably the boards best daily 'feature'...
The debate is this. As a group of fairly discerning and intelligent consumers (I don't just talk about DiS here, although I imagine that we are a fairly good representation of the aforementioned section of the music-listening public), are we starting to view the stamp of NME-based hyperbole surrounding a new band as a black mark on them, regardless of their quality?
To put it another way: You're bored, you pick up a copy of the NME and you flick to page 17 where theres an article praising a band in typical NME fashion. Now, somehow in their rise to semi-stardom, this band has managed to completely bypass your ears. This is the first time you've ever taken any notice of them. At this point, does the association of this band and the NME go some way, even a little bit, to you forming a negative opinion on them?
Have we started to view the NME in such a bad light that any unproven quantity associated with them is 'tainted' by this association?