Front cover analysis








This is a music magazine and the genre is indie music as there is an indie band on the front cover. It tells us that magazine will issue articles that are about music and the music business including new upcoming artist and featuring articles.

The target audience is an average of 25 but the magazine is mainly targeted at men ages 17-30 and is predominately male with 73%. It contains articles that interest them and include bands that they are familiar with. Their interest would be that they would be interested in music but mostly indie music. The audience that would read it would be people to be aspiring musicians and truly believe in their music. They are people that are quirky and edgy people that like to experience different new things.

The anchorage text is ‘ARE YOU READY FOR US THEN? On the road and on the run with the new-look’ it gives the audience previews of the article making them engage with it because they ask them a rhetorical question. Since the text is across the magazine and is bold and the colour white makes it easier for the audience to read and to continue on reading. The text also questions the audience which makes them interact through the magazine. The magazine represents them that they are involved in all types of music but mainly the indie genre as they are on this magazine.

The colours that are used are red, white and black which make the house style consistent and make it contrast well with the magazine. It is also easy to read because it stands out of the magazine. There is also the colour yellow but that is for extra information to give out to the audience and it is a buzz word to make the audience interact with the magazine. I like the colours as it makes it look attractive so it catches the audience’s attention. The layout is a good strategy as it makes it clear to read for the audience and makes them read it without any hassle as it is not placed all over the page and not in variety of colours which makes it easier to read. They also added a new band that has a comeback which makes the magazine more interesting.

The buzz words are ‘WIN!’, the effect that it has is that it is eye catching so the audience will automatically look to see the information on what do they win. The buzz words also want the audience to interact with the magazine as they include them to be part of the magazine and will allow them to buy more magazine as they would lie to know what else they could win or get things that are or ‘free’.  It will also make them more excited and this way they can buy more magazines as they can get more freebies.

The puffs that are used are ‘Drama queen, Sicko and Pretty Mouth!’ these are the subheadings to tell the audience that there is more articles inside the magazine but it will purely be about what shows they have got around to or who has been singing with each other and a bit of gossip of each bands or singers. All the puffs give them an insight of what the magazine contains. The puffs words are in row which makes it easier to read as it is not messy. They are spaced out to know what each puff is clearly about. It tells us the magazine is expected to find the target audience to red only about music news.

The central image is Arctic Monkeys and they are spread across the magazine to show the magazine is mainly about them. They wear laid back clothes that are not fancy because they want to show that they are focused only on their music career.  The mode of address is a direct contact with the camera to show that they are engaging with the audience, the main singer is wearing sunglasses witch kind of hides in identity but when the audience reads the article it will show his true colours. It shows that it wants an intimate relationship as they want them to read about how they are and how feel about certain things.

The Arctic Monkeys are on the front over as they have released a new album as there is more information about the band rather than any other musician.  Their facial expressions are serious and probably serious about music and their career. They look very firm and the camera shot is kind of low angle which makes them look confident and self- assured. This also relates to their body language as they are standing steady which gives them character of strong musicians and look very controlled and look like they are in control of the audience.  The message that artist are trying to give out is that they are trying to express their new music that they have released. They are not being represented as a cheesy boy band but are being portrayed as a group that only enjoys being part of the music. They represent as that by making them look really normal by making them put a normal costume that is not over dressed. They have also not added so much make up which represents them as a classic group.

The title block on the left hand side and is smaller than the anchorage text suggesting that the main article is more important than the actual music magazine; however since the title block is in red it makes it easier to know what music magazine it is. Also the anchorage text is red which links to the title block and you can identify the magazine. The design of the title block is bold and red which could relate to the main bands as they are suggesting that the band are also bold (confident). The style of the title block is very simple which can also relate to bands that NME have their front cover as they could suggest they are simple as they are not interested in other types of genre but bold at the same time.