NME Magazine Front Cover Analysis

This is a music magazine. From the front cover, we can tell that issues related to the Muse and other artists are going to be inside.

The target audience for this magazine are music fans. It might be mostly aimed for teenagers and the interest of the audience is most likely rock.

The central image reveals to us that the mode of address used by the mag is direct. We know this as the three men are staring directly at the camera.

The purpose of this is to try and engage with the reader. This tells us that it wants more of a personal relationship with the reader.

The Muse are on the front cover. This is because they are going on a ‘ridiculous’ tour.

The anchorage text says ‘welcome to our new spaceship!’ this might imply that the artists are quite strange as they are referring to spaceships which are fictional. However, it also implies that they are very welcoming as they are welcoming us to their ‘new spaceship’. The overall message that the artists are trying to give out is that they are waiting for us to come and watch them.

In this magazine, the Muse are being represented. The magazine represents them as quite cool through the way in which they are dressed and posing. Additionally, they are all wearing the same colours to signal equality. Furthermore, their facial expressions indicate that they are a serious band.

There are a couple of ‘buzz’ words in the front cover. Examples of this are ‘Muse’ and ‘NME’. The effect that this has on the reader is that it is the words which we notice the most as they are bold and big and so stands out to everything else.

The design of the title block is black and bold, which reflects the genre of music and also the fact that the magazine is aimed more at a male audience.

The title of the magazine, NME, tells us that it is a simple magazine as the title is not hard to read for anyone. Also, it doesn’t give much away about what the magazine is about, or in fact the image or its style.

The puffs suggest that a review of the spike island movie will be contained in the magazine, as well as information involving the band ‘pussy riot’ and an interview from Bobby G. This tells us that the audience the magazine wishes to get is one which is heavily in to rock music, as these puffs relate to rock bands. (I think)

The slogan of the magazine is ‘New music express’, which tells us quite simply that this magazine is about brand new music. This helps to attract readers as there are a lot of people who want to know about the latest and freshest music.

The main colours used are black and orange. These make the magazine stand out from the rest as orange is a very bright colour and the black contrasts it very well. The fonts used are quite bold to, again make the magazine stand out. The fonts are made clear by this and so it is easy for people to read.