Magazine analysis Front Cover

Key Brand Values - Teenage audience, alternative/new music promotion.

Publisher - Kinn (1952- 1872) IPC (1972 - present)

Masthead - NME

Tagline - New Music Express

Price -  £2.30

House Style - Red and White, Yellow for banner headline, Bold colouring

NME was launched in March 1952 by IPC. written by Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill,  NME is a weekly magazine, featuring a variety of artists which ensures wide appeal and circulation which is evident in the circulation figures (38,486). 'In our pages recently you'll have read about Klaxons meeting God via drugs, Bombay Bicycle Club unsuccessfully busking in Ibiza, Jack White's war on the Internet, Arcade Fire's financial woes, Liam Gallagher revealing his Beady Eye. This stuff happens every week.' This quote is taken directly from http://www.nme.com/magazine and shows that their aim as a magazine is to provide every aspect of an artists life.

Since the 1960's, the magazine has strived to feature the most popular bands of the era, for example in the 1960's it championed artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Up to this day NME aims to champion forthcoming artists such as Florence and The Machine (featured on the above cover).

At first glance the magazine seems to appeal to a female audience as Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the Machine, is the prominent figure. However the sell lines and accompanying images indicate the audience is mixed gender. Also the Ear on this particular issue '50 years of Motown' suggests the targeted age range is wide as well. This Ear is particular useful in understanding the target audience as at the time of the magazines initial publishing, Motown music would be popular. It also suggests that a variety of music genres are featured in NME. The masthead is in a unusual position for a music magazine as you would expect it to be the first thing to appear in the top left hand corner of the page. However on NME magazines, the position of the masthead breaks conventions as a kicker appears at the top of the page. This break in conventions also suggests that NME is popular enough as a magazine to allow another headline to appear before the masthead. The main image of this particular image is Florence Welch however conventions are again broken here as her image is not entirely prominent.

 It is the norm on NME magazine that a single image takes up the majority of the front page (see above) however due to the fact this is a January issue, music magazines tend to produce a issue that advises on the year to come. All the smaller features or sell lines are used to promote new artists featured within the magazine. On this particular issue the sell lines are used alongside the images of the bands. They are position around the more prominent image of Florence. The Banner headline 'The New Music Issue/ NME's 10 tips for 2009' is used as anchorage for these images as it suggests that they are the bands to look out for in 2009. The tag line 'New Music Express' connotes individuality as it claims to be the original promoter of new music for the UK. This is a regular feature on the front cover which entails familiarity with the magazine. The barcode, price, issue number and website all appear in a similar area at the lower righthand corner of the magazine. This is another regular feature of the magazine which entails familiarity.