Sounds was a UK weekly pop/rock music newspaper, published from 10th October 1970 to 6th April 1991. It was known for giving away posters in the centre of the paper (initially black and white, then colour from late 1971) and later for covering heavy metal (especially the new wave of British heavy metal and punk and Oi! music in its late 1970s–early 1980s heyday). i
A legacy of Sounds however, was the creation of the Heavy Metal/Rock magazine Kerrang!, which was originally issued as a supplement before being spun-off as a separate publication
Sounds was produced by Spotlight Publications (part of Morgan Grampian), which was set up by John Thompson and Jo Saul with Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left Melody Maker to start their own company.
It was their first project, a weekly paper devoted to progressive rock and described by Hutton, to those he was attempting to recruit from his former publication, as "a left-wing Melody Maker".
Sounds was intended to be a weekly rival to titles such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express (NME).
In 1987, Morgan-Grampian had been acquired by United News and Media (later to become United Business Media), first as part of the United Advertising Publications (UAP) division and later as part of the then CMP Information portfolio.
Sounds was one of the trinity of British music weeklies, along with NME and Melody Maker, that were colloquially known as 'The Inkies'.
Sounds finally folded in 1991 due to falling circulation. and after the parent company, United Newspapers, decided to concentrate on trade papers like Music Week and so sold most of their consumer magazines titles to EMAP Metro.
Sounds was closed at the same time as its sister music magazine, the more chart and dance music oriented Record Mirror.