Case study 1:Indie and Rock music

 NME Magazine Front Cover

I have chosen NME magazine because it does genre's like indie/rock,pop,classical .

NME magazine had featured a rock pop classical artist Paul McCartney,the image is a far captured shot and his clothing is black and white which is a typical colour for a rock genre.He is wearing a suit with his held up high fixing his tie which looks professional and showing authority and power. His facial expression looks serious,even though his head is not directly looking straight but his eye are still in contacted with the audience. This is important as is draws the attention to the reader in buying the magazine.

The masthead looks eye catching as it is presented in cap locks in bold red which makes it clear to the reader what sort of magazine it is,. Also it’s positioned on the left hand side of the cover to make it visible for the audiences as it is a typical place to place it and it does not clash with the main image even thought it is the biggest font size in the page therefore it makes it clear what sort of genre it is by just looking at it.

Below the masthead theirs pull quotes being used which relates to the artist on the cover (Paul McCartney). The way the font size are changing in few letters makes it looks very effective as it catches the attention of the reader from the start. Also pull quotes is a good technique as it makes readers read them first before reading anything else on the magazine.They also do not just include the author’s words and opinions, but also the artists’ which is more important for their fans.

There is a list of celebrities which gives an insight what artist are featured inside also other genres the magazine does. This is placed on the top right hand side because the readers would be able to see even if it is stacked behind other magazines in stores.

The language is used in Standard English as it clear to understand and the 3 colour scheme is red black and white this makes it simple and professional.

NME has placed their bar code and date on the bottom right hand corner.

NME Magazine Contents Page:

Their is one page used for the content page with 7 images of different artist and it has pull quotes underneath the image with a few lines of what the image is showing which gives a better understanding to the reader of what the page is going to be about. Next to the image there is the “plus” column, it is in a list format which makes it easier for the audience to navigate themselves to these articles also by including  plus shows the reader that they are getting more then what they had paid for.
 The page numbers are in bold which would make it easier for the readers to navigate themselves to the pages and it creates some sort of house style. 

The font style on the heading is that it is bold and it is used in cap locks.The font looks as if it presented like a newspaper which makes it appear more informative. NME have included the heading “Inside this week” which shows that is the contents page without following the convention of the heading saying “Contents” underneath this, NME have also followed the convention of having the issue date to show readers how recent it is.

NME have used a central image that is slightly larger than the rest of the images it could show how different pictures sizes depends how important the story is, although the front covers main focus is on the artist “Paul McCartney” the contents page only has a small section on him, which includes the page number the article is featured on.


Another eye catching feature NME have used on their contents page is the big red box in the bottom right hand corner, this box fits in with the colour scheme used in the in the page (numbers) Inside the box it says “Subscribe to NME today and save up to 38%”, also NME used a black font on their title “NME” in the sentence to make the title stand out and the readers are able to identify it and they have used this in order to gain new subscribers and for the magazine to get more futures sales.

Everyday language is used so that the magazine is not made out to be too complex or less understood by their audience this is because their target audience is between the age of 15-34.

NME Magazine Double Page Spread:

The double page spread is divided into one page of writing and one page covered with one enlarged image. This style of layout is very effective as the large image draws the attention of the reader to this article and how there is space on top of the heading which add more emphases to the headline. It says “ Return of the Macca ” this is clearly shown as it is the biggest font used in the page and it is a page for fans of McCartney and would want to find out why he has returned and what his "new" album is all about. The article includes a brief context underneath the heading of what the article would be based on. Paul McCartney is wearing the same clothes he had wore on the front cover but a different colour suit and this time he had direct contact with the reader which creates a connection. The image looks like a recent picture and it is a medium close up shot of him.

The way it is layered out is that it consists of 3 columns the beginning the first paragraph is enlarged with a red bold letter “I” which tells the reader where to start from. Between the second and 3rd column there is a pull quote which is a in a black font which grabs the reader’s attention first before reading the whole article while flicking through the pages. I prefer this sort of layout as it looks neat and organised this could relate to the front cover of looking professional and it clearly shows were to start from and which column to move on to next. The article is written in 1st person in Standard English and it is using lots of quotes,it is descriptive and easy to understand. The style of writing is very effective for their target audience because since it is descriptive it creates an image to the readers mind.

Also there is a little red arrow shows that there is more to read hints the reader to turn to the next page and the date and issue number of the magazine is also printed at the bottom below the arrow.

NME Press pack:

Press pack is a pack of information about the audience/reader of the magazine.

Only 34 percent are female readers therefore it would not be a good idea to advertise products directed to them. NME Audience is ages between 15-34 which suggest that there would be young artist featured in the magazine for the younger age.

The magazine is posted weekly this could be because they want core readership for their magazine as they do not want readers to wait for a long amount of time for the upcoming magazine.