I sure the annual family argument isn ' t that unusual . <| sep |> SStand up to Hiyoko ? ! can ' t possibly do ssomething like that ! I . I don ' t have the courage . II ' m sorry , Togami . !<| sep |> The NME are the reason I ducked out of my Journalism degree and nearly got kicked out of university . As part of a module we had to do an investigation into an area we were interested in . I met and asked an artist I was and still am a very big fan of if I could get in touch later to talk about the recordmusic industry . He agreed , obviously I was very excited . A short while later we arranged the chat and the things he told me left me with such a harsh distaste for music journalism and the industry as a whole I decided I didn ' t want to be part of it anymore . Apparently from the moment he uploaded a few demo ' s to his Myspace getting some slight buzz on the internet the NME were asking him for not only an interview , but a cover feature and double page spread I remember at the time they hyped him massively despite the fact he had put out one relatively under the radar 7 ''. Probably one of those '' THE 10 NEXT BIG THINGS YOU ' VE NEVER HEARD OF '' things . He politely declined telling them he wasn ' t as much a fully fledged musician as a guy figuring out what he was doing with the project . It would be like me or you putting our first demo on the internet then being asked for photoshoots the next day . Hyperreality stuff . The NME then began to inform him in pretty straightforward terms that if he didn ' t fulfill the interviewcover they would blacklist him from the publication , never review his work and spread word to other publications to do the same . At this point his '' manager '' stepped in . His '' manager '' at the time being the artist himself replying from an alternate email account . Thankfully the musician in question has gone on to have a more than succesful career whilst seemingly circumnavigating the tedious '' interviewpromotion '' cycle of silly publications like NME . I ' ve since heard similar practices from other sources too . To think I used to hold this rag to such a high regard in my teenage years . No wonder they literally can ' t give it away anymore . Good riddance