Sales were dropping, and by 1985 "NME" had hit a rough patch and was in danger of closing again. During this period, the editors at the magazine were split between those who wanted to write about hip hop, a genre that was relatively new to the UK, and those who wanted to stick to rock music. Sales were apparently lower when photos of hip hop artists appeared on the front and this led to the paper suffering as the lack of direction became even more apparent to readers.