Analysis of a Music Magazine Front Cover #1

This particular music magazine cover displays many conventional aspects. Firstly, its main image. The image presents ‘The Gossip’, a well-known ‘punk’ band. Not only is the image as a whole the first thing to catch the readers eye, and therefore the most prominent aspect of the cover, but the lead singer of the band is also the most visible of the three members; this is due to the camera angle at which the image was shot. She appears to be closer to the camera, the two males behind her being merely part of her background. This suggests she is of higher importance within the band than the other members. The angle of the camera is tilted slightly upwards, suggesting that the band are bigger, and therefore more powerful, than they actually are. The way in which the female is stood also suggests that she holds power and importance, as well as portraying that she is self aware; she is looking down upon the reader, over the top of her sunglasses. The members of the band represent the typical stereotype that all members of a rock/punk band are tattooed, with the males sporting long fringes and the females wearing slightly heavy makeup, particularly around the eyes. This is evident in the image of this magazine, as two of the three band members appear to have tattoos upon their arms, and both of the males are sporting this type of hair style. The female has bright red lips, and from what we can see beneath her sunglasses, appears to be wearing thick black eyeliner. The main coverline is also in relation to this main image, and therefore to the band being displayed; it states the name of the band and an insight into the content of the spread, based upon ‘The Gossip’, inside of the magazine, using the selling line ‘How Three Punks Smashed the Mainstream’.

The institution of this particular magazine is ‘NME’, which is clearly a very well-known and popular institution, as the logo is partially hidden behind the main image, yet is still recognisable; it is also a commercial institution, providing entertainment. The banner at the top of the cover is used as a selling technique, for when a variety of magazines are all stacked upon a shelf within a shop, and only this banner is visible. This particular magazine states content about a possible band reunion, which will be attractive to all previous fans of ‘Blur’, and it also states that upon page 10 of the magazine, the full line-up of V festival is revealed. As V festival is a very popular event, with tickets in high demand, this is likely to appeal to a very wide range of people and therefore help to sell the magazine.

Furthermore, the cover lines of this magazine are situated around the main image, again somewhat covered by the image, which is of more importance. Each of these cover lines contain short, snappy sentences on different, well-known bands that relate to the content of the magazine, often containing short quotations from something that a band member has previously stated. Within the bottom, right-hand corner there is a bar code with the price of the magazine and the dateline. The NME website is also displayed here. The price of this certain magazine is £3.99, and therefore fairly expensive. Its target audience must ultimately be those of medium to high class. Additionally, as each of the bands presented upon the cover fit into the rock/indie genre, the magazine must also aim to target fans of this type of music. As the magazine contains contents about both new and slightly older bands, I would say that the age group in which the magazine is possibly targeting is of a wide range, from around fifteen year olds to thirty year olds.