The cover

The cover- NME magazine Analysis

The masthead of the magazine is NME which stands for New musical express. This is a short yet catchy title which draws attention to the reader due to its bold contrasting font and short initals. The use of the colour white contrasts with the males bright red hair and works well with the light blue background. There is not a visible strapline on the magazine however there is a bordered frame in which all pictures/text is kept within. The main image is of the lead vocalist from 'My chemical romance' Gerard. It is a medium close up of the male- His gaze is focused towards the camera with a glaring stare which creates an ominious sense. The photo has been edited to make it brighter and the males skin looks very pale which goes together well with the background and creates an even more distinctive contrasting view due to the colour of his hair. As a reader we can not see exactly what the singer is wearing however his clothing is not busy- I can see a dark top with a simple chain around his neck which adds effect to the overall picture. His eyes are very dark and almost gothic-like which reinforces the type of music inside the magazine. The magazine talks to the reader by various ways- one of which is the picture as it is gazing to the reader. In addition one of the coverlines that is directed in the corner claims "NME awards tour 2011 Amazing line-up revealed". This encourages the audience to read the magazine as they would no doubt want to find out who is at the NME awards. In addition, similiarily to Kerrang- NME promotes the coverline "FREE MICK ROCK POSTERS". It also gives the reader a preview of the free posters that they will be given with the magazine- Additionally this could mean that some readers buy the magazine just because of the posters that are given. In addition the main coverline is the band My chemical romance and an actual quote has been placed centre to the magazine which reads "We loath what Goth has become". This emotive language captures the readers attention as we want to find out what they mean by the Gothic change. This also reinforces the genre of music in NME. As well on the cover there are 3 other photographs- the coverline above states "FREE MICK ROCK POSTERS" and under each photo it reads the bands name. This does not look like a busy cover and the photos to the side are kept very small and defined- This works well due to the simplicity of the magazine cover. If there were too many photos on this cover I think it would look too corrupt and busy.

I have used the grab tool to highlight the masthead of the magazine. As you can see it is presented in a bold font which is white. This reflects and contrasts well with the main picture and also looks very simplistic towards the background. No graphic features have been placed on the font style however I believe this works well with the unified house style.

Similiarly to Kerrang; NME uses the symbol "+" to reinforce the extra bands which are presented in the Magazine. The is a list of bands as you can see from the grab shot. They read; Damon Albarn, Rihanna, Pete Doherty, These news puritans, Magnetic Man, Tame Impala and Foals. As you can see from these lists of bands they are very much male orrientated, except from Rihanna. Rihanna is an rnb female artist which opens larger audience than just focusing on Males. The text for this is all placed in the same font under the same colour. However after every over band they are placed in bold to simply seperate them from the chronilogical order. The symbol + is placed in black which immediately draws your attention due to the white text around it and also the pale blue background.

This coverline has been placed to the left hand corner of the magazine in a unified columist form- Similiarly to Kerrang. The word "FREE" almost jumps out to the reader as it is placed in a bold font- also the black colour forces the reader to look at the pictures which are shown. The photos have been placed in a unified form which the bands name underneath them- which Is similar to Kerrang. A white border has also been placed round this which makes the layout look more professional and structered.








The main image is of the lead vocalist from 'My chemical romance' Gerard. It is a medium close up of the male- His gaze is focused towards the camera with a glaring stare which creates an ominious sense. Additionally his gaze also seems intentisied due to the darkness around his eyes- This also reinforces the genre of the music. The photohgraph itself is kept very simplistic without the use of props and additonal coloured clothing. This however works well due to the unified house style