NME front cover and contents analysis

Analysis of Front cover and Contents of Magazine The magazine that I have chosen is a music one called the NME. It is a music magazine with that tells the readers about all different types of music not just one type I think that is why it is so popular to the British public. The front cover of this edition of the magazine I have chosen has a rather large picture of the band the Killers. It has a very big name of the band along with the picture to tell the reader who the band is and makes the reader know who this edition is focussed on. Along with the picture and title there is a tiny piece of writing again letting the reader know what the article on that band is about? There is a little quote at the top saying “15 page guide to the world’s greatest rock festival. I think this is put in a obvious place to entice the reader especially those interested in rock to want to read it. Next to the title in a place to be seen there is the names of other bands that will be focussed on in this magazine, the writing is also very bold and in a different colour from the rest to make it stand out. The way the front cover is set out is very well thought out and is set out in a way where there is enough information to make the reader want to look further inside and read on. The title is very well placed and displayed, the colour is bright and attractive, not to bright and it is very bold and big. Also the name of the main band in this edition is big and stands out very well against the colour of the background. The picture of the lead singer of the killers is placed right slap bang in the middle of the page and it is a very interesting photograph of him as there seems to be three sides to him and the caption to go with it that reads “Can Brandon find the plot in time for Reading & Leeds”. This would make readers want to know what the caption means and want to find out about possibly one of their favourite band members or lead singers. The contents page from NME magazine is very eye catching along with the front cover because of the use of colours and its bold writing. It has a lot of information in it but it still looks organized and the text is situated very well. The page is separated under different headings; news, radar, reviews, live and features, these are all down the right hand side of the page. Down the left hand side of the page is a ‘band index’ which helps readers find a specific band inside of the magazine. To find something that had a place on the front cover there is a small red arrow pointing at the stories that are mentioned on the cover. The title of the article and the page number are clearly separated by two different colours used to write each of them in, red for the page number and black for the title. The NME logo is kept in the top left hand corner to keep the contents page also similar to the front cover. At the top of the page it says ‘this week’ in a large bold font, this reminds the audience that this is a weekly magazine. It is also a more informative title than ‘contents page’ because it gets the point across that it is a weekly magazine. In-between the two contents columns are two large pictures with a small story underneath, this is a taster to give the reader an idea of what the rest of the magazine will be like. This doesn’t make this page a strict contents page as it also has a small story about Oasis who is one of the most recognizable artists in Britain. Adding the story makes the page more interesting and fills the gap in-between the two columns, the fact that a story was used about Oasis makes the story more appealing as they will be recognized amongst the British audience. If the story wasn’t there then the writing would have to be bigger which would go against the common conventions in NME that it is a weekly magazine. The red, whites and blacks that are used on the front cover are continued onto the contents page keeping the magazine looking familiar throughout the issue. The fonts and font sizes are also kept the same.