Analysis of magazine front coversCover 1.NME Sept 2009

Dizzee Rascal Edition

JERMAINEMILLER

THE MASTHEADOften red , white & black colour scheme representing the seriousness of the magazine but is contradicted by Dizzee Rascals face expression to show that life can be fun.

THE HEADER/STRAPLINEBlack font standing out in white background “Autumn Page Special” is more bold than “16 Page” to suggest the wildness of the front cover linking with Dizzee rascals face expression and gesture also giving interest to the reader.

COVER LINESMixture of red & black words attract the target audience/reader

THE MAIN IMAGEFlamboyant face expression and gesture aiming at its target audience as Outgoing and expressive through music making them feel closer to the celebrity “Dizzee Rascal” Main image also relates to content and background.THE MAIN COVER LINE“DIZZEE RASCAL” telling us who the celebrity is and the use of slant on words suggest his crazy life also relating to the language of other content used and main image.

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USE OF A PULL QUOTELinking with the main image the pull quote seems full of joy and achievement and it links with Dizzee Rascals gesture of wide open arms - Around The World Man”

BACKGROUNDThe graffiti symbolising Dizzee Rascals childhood growing up in London influenced by grime music which originated from those streets and has that theme.

USE OF A FLASHERSuits the story of this magazine special “Wowee zowee” very bubbly language suiting the main image of Dizzee Rascals face expression and gestures and caption giving the target audience the same excitement

TARGET AUDIENCEThis magazine special suggests that the target audience are part the urban community with musical interests such as: rap, Hip-hop, Grime or Street Garage. Their favourite artists might be British due to the use of language used and how it is presented.

Mainly male aged 15 - 20 due to the theme of the magazine and background, also Dizzee Rascals lifestyle and gesture in this magazine shows a sense of male flamboyance and physicality.

Main methods used to attract the audience are: the language used, very expressive and flamboyant “Around The world man!”. The font sizes and structure and how the main image takes up the whole background. All of these methods link to Dizzee Rascals face expression and gesture giving the target audience a sense that the magazine get the theme/point across to the reader.

Layout

This contents page has quite a simplistic layout using a Rule of Thirds column structure with a banner taking up 2 sections of that. There is 1 main image in the middle of the page with small text underneath; the border around those separates it from either sides. The subscription box in the corner shows it is not an important section in the magazine but still must be noticeable for it to be on the contents page. Sub headings on the right side tell the reader the different sections in the magazine giving them a chance of faster research also with the index and page numbers on the left side taking up the whole column.

House Style

The masthead from the front cover is placed on this page also: Red, black and white showing that this gives recognition of NME keeping the same house style of the masthead through out. All the headings are bold, the ones on the right side have a background to them which is black and the white font stands out in this. In the index section the page stories are in red and the numbers are in black all in a white background; this al relates to keeping the same house style to match the masthead keeping that theme. A drop cap is used in the middle section with the text under the image to tell the reader that that is the main story on that page being under the image also.

Subscription

The subscription box stands out on the contents page because it separates itself from the house style using yellow font, a different font style and size. There is also 2 images of previous NME front covers to let the reader know that it still relates to NME. Words such as “Subscribe” “An Issue” are big and bold to show the reader that they need to be seen by them due to it not being very direct.

Layout

A very simple layout: the 1st page is filled with one image of Dizzee Rascal letting the reader know the article is about him. On the 2nd page there is the by/headline which takes up half of the page, under it is an introduction to the article and then the article is split into 4 columns. All of this content on the 2nd page is on a watermarked image. There is also a Tag in the top right corner of the 2nd page which says “Dizzee” – not very formal.

House Style

Headline – Very bold and some of the words have different font sizes such as “Tags” and “Riches” being bigger to represent the life of Dizzee rascal also relating to the images shown how he is tagging but wearing very stylish clothing at the same time. Text – A drop cap is used to start the article keeping the same whole style as the contents and the rest of the font is very small.

Tag – The tag in the top right corner of the 2nd page says “Dizzee” this informally tells us that the article is about him other than the main image, Being informal it also shows us that Dizzee doesn’t always have to be a serious person

Main Image

This image relates to Dizzee Rascals life majorly. He’s sneaky look and action of head turning over the shoulder is suggesting the target audience being quite young, also with the wall background of all the taggings relating to street youth. Dizzee is wearing a red jacket, this suggests that he had a dangerous life. This makes the reader feel much closer with Dizzee Rascal giving them an idea of his childhood and showing how he has matured through music.

http://www.nme.com/magazineNEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (NME)

The New Musical Express (NME) is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952, when it was first published by Maurice Kinn. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. Over the years it has changed in structure, colour usage and image quality improving as the years of technology pass on. This is due to the target audience change in different issues and the influence of different musicians attracting that target audience. It aims at its target audience through the celebrity used for main image and the action/gesture that they are pursuing, the text used and the colours which all relates back to the main image and its background. Current musicians it uses nowadays are from a variety of different genre’s such as Rock (Kiss), Indie (Oasis), HipHop (Jay-Z) and even country (Taylor Swift) This shows how the history not just in NME, but in music has changed and has grown.