''Melodic'' is an international daily Internet publication devoted to

music criticism '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on

independent music Independent music (also commonly known as indie music or simply indie) is music that is produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording a ...

. However, the range of musical genres covered extends to rock, pop, folk,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

, heavy metal,

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

, and

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

. The site, which was established in 1999, concentrates on new music, but ''Melodic'' journalists also review reissued albums and box sets. The site also publishes "best-of" lists as annual features detailing the best albums of each year.

History

The website was created in Skogås, Sweden in 1999 with the name of Midwestern Skies. It was founded by the music industrialist Pär Winberg, which had been an A&R executive and had worked for

EMI Music Sweden EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...

and

Lionheart Music Group Capitol Music Group Sweden is a Swedish music company which forms part of Universal Music Sweden. The company was formed following Universal Music Sweden's full ownership acquisition of Lionheart Music Group. The company consists of several recor ...

. He also worked with several artists, including

The Real Group The Real Group is an a cappella group from Sweden. Members are Emma Nilsdotter, Lisa Östergren, Anders Edenroth, Anton Forsberg and Jānis Strazdiņš. The group's members compose and arrange most of their songs. They sing in English and Swedi ...

and Robert Wells. ''Melodic'' publishes content from contributors located around the globe, based in different continents and countries. In May 2002, Midwestern Skies moved to the domain Melodic.net. The following year, the site expanded to competitions, features, and columns. In 2006, several features began to be provided by the site's staff writers, including live reviews, interviews, exclusive MP3 streams, and year-end features. In 2011, ''Melodic'' presented readers choice awards in ten categories. Swedish rock band The Pusher received three awards for their debut album ''The Art of Hit Music''. Other winners were The Anix, Miss Behaviour,

Nickelback Nickelback is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adai ...

, Coury Palermo, Sixx:A.M., Infinita Symphonia, and Brad Byrd. In January 2012, ''Melodic'' announced a new chart which is based on readers' vote. Charts are announced on Monday mornings and feature fifteen tracks. The website had a complete make-over in 2020 and currently features the latest music news, interviews, record reviews, live shows, music videos as well as competitions.

Rating system

''Melodic'' operates a simple 5-star rating system, starting at 1, that allows .5 intervals. Each of these values is assigned a word, ranging from "Terrible" (1.0) to "Essential" (5.0). As well as showing the score a reviewer has given to the album, a review page will also show the average rating given by the readers. Should enough users have rated the album, a bar chart will also be shown indicating how many votes each rating has.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Melodic (magazine) 1999 establishments in Sweden Magazines established in 1999 Music review websites Swedish-language magazines Swedish music websites Online music magazines