NME Front Cover Analysis

By Jac Colton

Analysis

• The Masthead is big and bold so that is the target audience can clearly see it. It is stylized with a modern font is coloured in red and white to make it stand out to people. The modern font and bright colours indicate that this magazine is targeted towards an younger adult audience. Previous and future issues will have the masthead styled and (nearly all of time) coloured in the same way every issue so that is becomes a brand that people will remember and recognise

Masthead

Main Coverline (as a grab quote)Coverlines are used to attract the target audience into buying the magazine by advertising the main story (usually featuring a famous or interesting person or a shocking story). This particular Coverline is presented in the form of a grab quote. The grab quote is a line or a phrase from the main article, giving the target audience a preview of the articles content. If the target audience is interested by the grab quote, they may pick up the magazine to find out the whole story

Analysis continued Main imageThe Main Image is a full body shot of Dizzee Rascal. It shows that the Target Audience for this issue of the magazine is younger rap loving people or Dizzee Rascal fans as older generation will most likely not be listening to modern rap music. He is directly addressing the target audience so that a connection is made between the target audience and the magazine, increasing the likelihood of magazine purchase. He is wearing a white with white and red shoes and white and red elements on his jeans, this links Dizzee to NME magazine as the main colours of NME magazine are white and red. The image is anchored to the Main Coverline so it doesn’t look out of place with the rest of magazine. StraplineThe Strapline is present to advertise more of the content of the magazine so that people who may not like the main Coverline story may buy the magazine from seeing a certain person’s name or band/artist name in the strapline. This particular strapline includes names such as Jay Z, Paramore and Ian Brown. All of which are musicians of different musical genres (Rap, Pop Punk and Rock). From this information I can conclude that this magazine is directed at people who like a wide range of musical genres and not just modern rap music

Analysis continuedSmaller Coverlines/Sell linesthe Smaller Coverlines are very similar to the Strapline as they advertise other people/artists/stories that also appear in the magazine along side the main Coverline. These particular Coverlines feature names of bands/artists of different musical genres, further proving that this magazine is targeted towards people who enjoy multiple genres of music. They also follow the same colour scheme as the Masthead (Red and white),therefore reinforcing the brand element of the magazine

Barcode/Date and Issue NumberThe barcode is a legal requirement on a magazine as it allowed the magazine to be legally sold to a consumer. The date and issue number make it easier for the Target Audience as it tells them the release date of the magazine and the number of the issue so if they are buying them weekly, they will know which issue to buy each week

Analysis continued Rule of Thirds Rule of thirds has been used on this magazine. Dizzee Rascal’s face and the main coverline “DIZZEE RASCAL” are placed on the points where the Target Audience is going to look at, therefore increasing the likelihood and someone will buy the magazine if they like Dizzee Rascal , Rap Music, Music in general or are a monthly reader of NME Magazine