Originally known as the New Musical Express, the NME is one of Britain's best known and most divisive music magazines. Launched in 1952 as a newspaper, the NME picked up many fans by being one of the earliest proponents of bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. While slow to follow musical trends, the paper acted as a vanguard for punk and later socialist movements under the Thatcher government, and released several influential mixtapes for then-underground acts such as Scritti-Politti. Has nothing to do with the Big Bad of Kirby Right Back At Ya. The magazine has examples of: