Analysis of NME magazine

Analysis of a music magazines

We can firstly establish that the magazine is a music magazine due to the fact that many familiar band names are being shown upon the page; the genre of music is rock due to the main image being a famous rock band. The magazine issues will contain separate stories of the bands and will contain articles on what the reader wants to know for example ‘What they are up to next’.

The target audience for this magazine will be around middle aged men ranging from 17-25 due to the bright colours and the interest of the genre, another reason for the target audience to be at them ages is because people around that age begin to take on hobbies and interests such as reading magazines or listing to new and interesting music.

The Central image is pretty direct with the audience as the group are all huddled together are staring down the camera lens, this shows that the group are trying to engage with the reader. As the group want to engage with the reader the group want to show that they acknowledge them and that they have some kind personal relationship.

The indie rock band known as Muse are in the main image all huddled together kneeling down at the camera, this group may be on the front cover due to the fact that they are publishing their new tour ‘Welcome to our new spaceship’.

The anchorage text mentions that “The world’s most insane band unveils their most ridiculous tour ever”, this text already tells us what is to come in the article about the main image, the artist are trying to invite the reader to ‘their most ridiculous tour ever’.

The artists are trying to give the impression that they want to reader to come and watch their new tour, it is almost if their watching and waiting for something, this shows that they may be waiting for you to come with them to listen to their music. The band is also quite serious due to the fact that their facial expressions are plain and have no such emotion upon them. They are masculine men as well due to the clothing that they wear, the leather jacket often being used to show the boldest of men.

The only group which is being represented is rock due to the main stereotypes being across the page, these stereotypes are the words “Drugs and me” also the word “Insane” can also relate to the genre of rock and roll, this further adds to the stereotypes of rock and roll.

“Courtney, Kurt, Drugs & Me” this buzz word shows the stereotype further as it drags the attention to the words Drugs, as this is an indie rock magazine we get the impression that the stereotypes must be kind of real.

The title block is plain and bold, but this also engages with the main image as all of the members wear a black leather coat, the title block shows that it is very masculine due to it being bold, this will relate to the target audience as the magazine mostly is aimed at Men from the age of 17-25. The boldness may also indicate that the music is very bold as the words NME stand for New Musical Express.

The title of the magazine correlates with the image this is shown as the colour of the title is the same colour of the leather jackets which the group wears, this is because it is a masculine colour and that it is trying to show the maleness within the magazine.

The puffs of the magazine suggests that within the magazine that stories of new ambitions and reviews are to be seen as example “Spike island movie: The first review” this shows that the magazine is going to have some kind of review within it.  There is no slogan upon the magazine front cover so there is nothing to really say on the matter, but this may show that the magazine is masculine due to the fact it doesn’t need one to publish itself.

The background colour is bright and eye catching; it’s definitely made so that a potential buyer would take a longer look just to concentrate upon the magazine.  The font is made to contrast with the bright background as the white bold font stands out from the orange. The puff linking to the image is in bold white font while the rest of the writing is black, which is either contained by a white box.

The magazine uses the sense of direct contact to connect with the reader as the group muse are all staring straight towards the camera, another thing is that the magazine use the bright colours to actually catch the eyes.