Front Cover Analysis (NME)

This is the front cover of an ‘NME’ magazine. NME is a rock/indie magazine. Their target audience is 16-19 year old meals interested in this genre of music. They attract their target audience by use of colour, style of writing, eye capturing photographs, the headlining stories and freebies.

Most magazines have 3 main colours, this is to avoid being too plain and boring with one colour and also so that the colours stand out and the magazine cover is not too busy with more than 3 colours. The three colours that ‘NME’ have chosen are red, white and black. These colours are bold, strong and share a masculine element.

The ‘NME’ logo is in all of the colours, however the red is the most dominant colour, which is the strongest and most attention grabbing out of all the colours. Red is a colour that is associated with anger and danger. The logo has got both colours surrounding it, this means that it still stands out on the same colour background. Below the title in a small font it says what the letters stand for ‘New musical Express’.

The main story is about ‘Mossissey’, an English singer and songwriter. The name is in the largest font to make it stand out, and to show his significance. A quote from the interview is underneath the name; this is to entice the reader to read the rest of the interview. The quote is political minded and to do with immigration and the national identity, this is why he is wearing a suit jacket, to symbolise a businessman. However he is not wearing a shirt and tie, this shows it to be informal, which is to attract their target audience of rock music fans. The black t-shirt under the suit jacket is an outfit that is often wore in film by the ‘bad man’. This is the image that the magazine is trying to convey of Mossissey.  The background is of high-rise buildings, which is associated with London and other main cities where many important decisions to do with politics take place. The buildings are white, whilst the man is in black, while also he is very close to the camera, with a mid-shot photograph, whilst the buildings are in the background. These factors make the man stand out and seem very important and influential. He is looking directly into the camera, denoting power over the reader; it portrays him as strong, powerful and masculine, very much like the colours of the magazine. This also goes with how in the public eye he is seen, this is because he has been quoted as "one of the most influential artists ever”. The camera is at a low angle which means the reader is looking up at the man, this re-enforces his significance. ‘Bigmouth strikes again’ is underlines and in bold, this is to draw attention towards it. It is not in a straight line, but on the slant to show that it is informal. ‘Oh dear. Not again.’ Is also underline and in bold. These statements are very short and snappy. There is a full stop at the end of each line; this shows a break in the sentences, this could show frustration. Morrissey is well known for being politically outspoken and often getting slated for it in the media. All the writing for the main story is in white, this is so you can tell they are all from the same story and also so they stand out against the man’s dark clothing.

There are three ‘puffs’ on the left hand side of the magazine, these show the potential buyer what else is in the magazine. In order to make the magazine attractive these will be the most interesting stories. The images of the ‘puffs’ are in a Polaroid style, this shows that it is a ‘snapshot’ to what is inside.  ‘NME’ have got a story on

Gerard Way

and his new comic book as well as his life outside of My Chemical Romance, the band he has recently left. There is a close up of Gerard and a separate photograph of his comic book. His name is written in the same font as the main story about Morrissey. This shows continuity. The story underneath the one about

Gerard Way

is about the Artic Monkey’s meeting QOTSA. Beneath this quote of informative information is a quote from one of the band members. This attracts the reader to reading the rest of the interview inside, especially as the quote of ‘I like the angle of your jangle’ seems to be very un-usual, the audience would want to see why he would say this and in what context. The third ‘puff’ is about Pete and his new album. NME are showing off how a year before its launch they have managed to listen to his new solo album. Fans of Pete’s will be very excited about this as they can find out about the album before anyone else and this will encourage them to buy it even more. From these ‘puffs’ you can get a very clear idea of the type of target the magazine expects to get. They will be interested in these certain artists which the magazine is advertising. These three performers have a range of audiences, which together make up NME’s. This is because they will attract a wider target audience if show a variety of artists, who are different yet similar at the same time. The fact that all of the artists on the front cover are male shows that males are dominative in this genre of music. This also gives their target audience role models to look up to.