NME Front Cover Analysis

This magazine looks to me as an indie rock, as the band ‘Muse’ is the direct image of NME. The issues/articles that are going to be in the magazine are Muse as they are on the front cover. The puffs also highlight what articles will be in this issue of the NME magazine. As this is an indie/ rock magazine I can tell that this magazine is aiming at teenagers and young adult because these are the main people who enjoy reading about them.

The central image is a low angle shot of the rock band Muse; they are giving a direct look as they want to engage with the reader. The type of relationship they want with the reader is personal, as they want the reader to know more about them. The rock band ‘Muse’ is on the front cover as they have a new album, which they are promoting. The anchorage text says ‘Welcome to our new space ship! MUSE.’ They are inviting/welcoming the reader to their new tour, and their new album being released. This implies that the artists are friendly and what to let their fans know of their upcoming tour and album release. The overall message the artist is giving is that they care about their fans by welcoming them to their tour and album release.

The magazine represents them as a serious, as they have blank facial expression shown in their face. They are also represented as masculine as they are wearing leather; making themselves look cool and mysterious as they are looking at the camera.

There are buzz words like ‘Courtney, Kurt, drugs and me’ that catches the reader’s attention as it says drugs; does this reveal an indie rock artist taking drugs? It makes the readers think that they should read this article to find out. Another buzz word is ‘the world's most insane band unveil their most ridiculous tour ever’. The words ‘insane’ and ‘ridiculous tour ever’ catch the reader's attention as it is talking about ‘Muse’ the rock band’s tour. It will not be a normal tour they have made it fun for the fans as they are welcoming the fans to their 'spaceship' meaning something they have never been before. Any Muse fans would love to read more about their ridiculous tour ever as they want to know more about it. 

The title block of the magazine is presented in a straight forward font, nothing fancy. But it is in bold and in capital letters. That tells us that the magazine gets to the point with their news and stories and does not want to bore the readers with unwanted excessive news. The bold and capitalised font of the title shows that it wants to be noticed and heard from by the readers with the knowledge and latest news of rock music.

The colours used on the front cover of the magazine are orange, black and white. As the black and white grabs the attention of the magazine articles and the magazine title itself, the orange catches the reader’s eyes with its bold and brighter colour.

NME’s strategies to attract the audience are that NME features a lot of iconography associated with indie/rock and the scene that surrounds it. They also get the well known indie/rock bands as that attracts many of the readers with their interesting article stories.