NME COVER ANALYSIS

One typical cover convention which the NME cover adheres to is the inclusion of a masthead displaying the magazine brand. As the screen shot shows, the masthead is a large, bold font in white, layered on top of a bright red background. This contrast between the red and white allows the text to stand out vividly, but use of the colour red itself adds vibrancy to the cover, making it stand out. This is important in terms of the context of reception, as all music magazines will be displayed in stores together meaning NME will need to instantly capture potential consumers’ attention stand out against the other magazines to maintain sales. The actual brand name itself is an initialism, standing for New Musical Express. By shortening it to an initialism, the name of the magazine becomes more catchy due to it being shorter and physically quicker to say. ‘NME’ also has an analogy with the word ‘enemy’, making it quick to say as we’re already used to the phonetics and pronunciation of that word. This ‘catchy-ness’ will help sell the magazine as consumers will remember the name easily from advertisements and hearing other people talk about it.

The masthead is quite isolated and you can see the whole title of the magazine, and this suggests that the magazine itself is important and holds the most iconic power, rather than the band itself. IT may also suggest the music magazine is less well known than others, meaning producers want the whole title to be seen so consumers can become familiar with the branding and font of the magazine.

The colour scheme as a whole follows closely to conventions found in market research, as it utilises 3 main colours- red, white and black. These are the house style colours around the time this issue was published. The use of white space around the main splash photo creates a more sophisticated feel over all, as does the use of clean, rectangular boxes around cover lines in black and white.

This gives the reader a distinct first impression about the type of magazine and what they can expect from it. This idea of sophistication follows through into the language used within the sell lines, such as “Something to prove at every single show…do we have a deal”. This is more sophisticated as it’s subtle in implying that the pixies have been signed up for a record deal, rather than explicitly stating it on the cover like some other music magazines do. This subtlety will appeal to a certain band of potential consumers, and they will be intrigued and want to read the rest of the magazine to find out more- a successful persuasive technique.

The splash image is, like most music magazines, taken in a studio. The backdrop used is plain white, creating a clean image and allowing the band members to stand out in their darker clothing. This monochrome colour scheme is very minimalist and draws attention to the actual language used in the cover lines and the interesting content of the magazine, rather than presenting the audience with a really busy, loud magazine which may focus more on the band’s appearance and the connotations which certain bands portray.

Once again, the medium shot of the band reflects this idea of subtlety as the band member at the front is shaking hands with, presumably, the “new bassist” highlighted in one of the few cover lines. The expressions on the band members faces draw your focus as a reader down toward the outstretched hands, and the excited expression of the band member in the stripy top reflects the exciting prospect of a record deal and new band member, again foreshadowing what the article about them will hold. This reflection of the actual text within the image shows a level of sophistication again.

The focus of the magazine, from what the cover displays, seems to be very concentrated on music itself and what artists are doing and how they’re doing it, as opposed to magazines like Kerrang which throw posters, freebies, celebrity gossip and other persuasive techniques at you in order to draw you in. This suggests that the target audience for the magazine are those who are interested in the making of music and stripping it down to the authenticity of the industry.

All of these aspects which focus on a sophisticated, musically natured audience are almost a use of synthetic personalisation, as they will make the receiver feel as though the magazine is perfectly suited to them. The use of the inclusive pronoun ‘we’ also infers a sense that the reader is being directly addressed, again persuading them to purchase the magazine because they’re part of it.

As well as this, due to it being print based media, when we hold the magazine we effectively become that outstretched hand, causing an interaction between the reader and the magazine. This adds to the sense of being part of the magazine.

NME CONTENTS ANALYSIS

The masthead of this contents page reads ‘Inside this week’. Again, this implicit use of language shows continuity from the cover as instead of simply stating ‘contents’ it suggests what the magazine contains with the word ‘inside’. It also states that the magazine is weekly, giving a date in smaller print underneath.

Similarly to Kerrang, NME utilises photographs in a ‘thumbnail ‘style to give a visual representation of what each page contains. This seems to be a typical convention of music magazines, helping readers pinpoint specific articles they wish to read as pictures are easier to recognise at a glance than words are. In this case there are 6 smaller images and one slightly larger one, suggesting that the larger one contains a more entertaining story. The caption underneath the image for page 21 continues to suggest this, asking readers a rhetorical question and including somewhat ‘taboo’ or suggestive language such as ‘fetishizing’ and ‘sex’. The rhetorical question acts a persuasive technique making readers want to read the article as it engages them directly with the magazine. This is important as often potential viewers will turn to the contents page to decide whether the content of the magazine appeals to them and makes it worth buying, as magazines are a luxury good these days due to the plethora of media sources online.

Once again, like in Kerrang, the clean layout of the page and use of white space and pale grey lines separating the different pages make the page visually very accessible, allowing you to clearly see the information on the page and not feel overwhelmed. All the images have a slightly muted, unsaturated look to them as well, adding to the sophisticated feeling that the magazine upholds.

NME DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD ANALYSIS

Typical conventions of a double page spread displayed here include a main image which is dominant in size in comparison with the overall article, smaller secondary images used as visual reference to the textual part of the article and enlarged quotations picking out specific quotes of interest.

The masthead on this page reads ‘IN GOOD HEALTH’ and is positioned over the image of Pete, sitting over his chest area. The font itself is large and printed with exaggerated spacing between letters. This has the effect of making the title stand out, and the spacing between the letters allows them to line up in columns, creating a neat, powerful image- again showing continuity throughout the magazine of a sharp, sophisticated look, helping to determine the audience of the magazine. ‘IN’ and ‘health’ are written in white, standing out well against the deeper autumnal colour of Pete’s jumper. However, ‘good’ is written in a brighter orange, and is framed by the two white words. This difference in colour, again in a rather subtle way, suggests an element of irony because the brighter orange colour matches the colour of the beer in his hand, and alcohol consumption generally isn’t linked with the idea of good health.

The rest of the colour scheme pulls together well, using white and shades of orange and brown throughout the spread, with the orange used in initial cap and quotation on the opposite page, showing a link between the two pages. Again this use of a few select colours keeps it simple and aesthetically pleasing.

This enlarged quotation is what readers will look to first when skimming the page, due to it’s size in comparison to text around it. Emboldening is used to emphasise key words which the writer deems most important or interesting, and this again will make the quotation stand out on the page. By including a quotation, this is effectively giving a snapshot of the article which readers will use to gage what it’s about, what kind of style it’s been written in and whether they’d like to read more based on whether it seems interesting or not. In this example, the language such as ‘I’m like’ and the exaggerated use of punctuation suggest a very colloquial, personal feel, which will most likely persuade those who are fans of Pete’s to continue reading the article, as it suggests that it contains personal detail and conversation which they may be interested in.

The image itself is quite dark and ‘grungy’, showing him holding two alcohol drinks, one in each hand. In terms of appearance he looks quite rough, but in a purposeful way, almost giving of a ‘bad boy’ persona. This links to the idea of ???, which suggests readers will engage in magazines which surround a certain version of society which they’re interested in, in order to learn about what they’re role models are wearing, how they’re behaving, where they’re going etc. As a result, readers follow these examples . In this case, the image of a male celebrity looking a little rough and drinking will signal to readers that these traits result in you being more highly valued in society or around people of a similar ideology to you..

As a result, by stating in the stand first, written below masthead, that NME magazine were intrigued by his personal life and ‘tracked him down’ in order to find out the gossip, readers who aspire to mirror Pete’s version of masculinity will be inclined to read the article in order to find out anything they can which might help them close the gap between him and themselves, which this article suggests it can help them do. This is because anything that the magazine finds intriguing must be worth reading, as the magazine holds an element of power in that particular music genre (indie) which is built up through it’s house style and the type of bands and singers featured.

In terms of the actual discourse structure of the piece, it’s written in three columns with an initial cap marking the beginning of the article and a drop cap showing a shift in topic area part way through. The quotation appears in the centre of the middle common (again, it’s positioning making it more prominent), and a smaller image in the bottom right hand side in the third column. This layout shows conventions which we automatically associate with newspapers and magazines. The use of columns allows a large piece of solid text to appear less overwhelming and more reader friendly, and the use of white space between columns breaks it up further and gives the reader ‘thinking space’, intimidating them less and making them more inclined to read it through.