A​lex Newell-Media Studies

The magazine I will be analysing is called NME (New Musical Express) which is a music magazine focusing primarily on rock, alternative and indie music. Its target audience encompasses younger music fans, predominantly males aged from late teens to early thirties.

NME sells for £2.50 per issue which is a reasonable and fairly low price in comparison to other magazines such as Q (£3.99) and Mojo (£4.50) which means it appeals to the educated, middle income target audience. However in the long run NME will cost more if you purchase each issue, due to it being released on a weekly basis instead of Q for example which is released on a monthly basis.

It once had a circulation of over 300,000 during the peak of its popularity, but that figure has dropped to under 20,000 as a result of declining popularity and the availability of music related news online. To fight this decline in physical sales, there is a need for exclusive articles which are more likely to attract customers as they will be reading information that is unavailable anywhere else.

NME stands for New Musical Express, starting out as a music newspaper it later adopted the format of a magazine during the 80’s and 90’s. The word ‘New’ relates to the rising artists and bands it features along with news on the latest songs and hits, as NME boasted the first singles chart to be included in a British paper.  Additionally the word ‘express’ can be linked to the magazine’s weekly publication, implying that it keeps up to date with the latest news and readers will be able to read articles before they appear in magazines that are published monthly. To keep up with this transition to a digital world, NME publishes a digital copy of each weeks magazine on their website, www.NME.com.

The masthead of New Musical Express is based at the top left hand corner of the magazine cover, it’s very simple in design yet very effective at standing out amongst other magazines due to the contrast in colours between the white ‘NME’ and the background. NME has a strong brand identity because it stands out so well amongst other music magazines through the use of its bold white letters. However there is no strapline on this edition of NME.

The main image on the cover of the magazine is a picture of Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins, with Taylor Hawkins in the background looking over to the left of the page, whilst Grohl holds a permanent marker in his hand and smiles awkwardly. The marker in his hand and the position at which he holds it gives the illusion that Grohl wrote the coverline (made to look like it is written with a permanent marker). His long hair and casual clothing works well in matching the style of music he represents and enables potential buyers to recognise the music genre covered by the magazine.

On the front cover NME has a number of articles mentioned, and a small plus sign to the right hand side of the page, which indicates articles featured within the magazine that are not necessarily related to the cover image. These are just simple headings to inform the reader of other articles they can read, such as ‘La Roux’, ‘TV on The Radio’ and ‘DFA 1979’. However the primary focus of the front cover is on the Foo Fighters who will also become the spotlight band for the week’s edition of NME, clear by the cover line ‘Foo Fighters Takeover’. At the bottom of the page it states ‘New album. New TV show’ which with the use of the word new links in to the idea of the magazine being up to date and containing the newest information. Therefore encouraging the target audience to buy each issue as they become loyal customers due to the desire for the latest news on artists and the musical world.

NME only uses two different fonts on its cover, to keep things simple and ensure customers don’t become overwhelmed with text, fonts and varied colours. Unlike Q magazine which has an emphasis on using exclamation marks to highlight the exciting articles included within the magazine, there is a distinct lack of exclamation marks, instead relying on attention grabbing titles and quotes from interviews such as ‘The Scope Of This Thing Is F**king Crazy’. By including such powerful quotes from artists, it draws the reader’s attention and pushes them to want to read more and find out what it refers to.

Kerrang has a very different approach to the fonts used and the overall layout of its front cover, which is very loud and bold giving the magazine an attitude, this idea compliments the particular style of music it relates to. The whole design of the Kerrang magazines screams rock, with its cluttered cover lines and varied colourings and fonts.