Populating and popularising the quality press: the emergence of a new voice for popular music in the English broadsheet press, between 1985 and 1990

The politically-heated newspaper publishing climate of the mid to late 1980s saw broadsheet arts editors dramatically rethinking the frequency, nature and style of music coverage which they presented.  Drawing upon as-yet unpublished interviews with several long-standing broadsheet music critics, the paper will at first highlight the tensions which journalists encountered in their struggle to embed a new lexicon for broadsheet popular music coverage which would both stand apart from the distinctive modes of discourse laid down by the specialist rock music press and also fit alongside long-established modes of criticism associated with the coverage of classical music.  Next, by applying a discourse analysis approach to a sample of broadsheet popular music reviews, the paper considers the role which this oft-overlooked body of writing has played in shaping audiences for popular music.  The findings are considered within the context of two longstanding oppositional critical positions, namely the rejection or celebration of popular culture, before the paper finally considers why the approaches adopted during this volatile period have since come to challenge the hegemonic status of classical music coverage and infuse broadsheet music writing across the full spectrum of genres.