Research Into Music Magazine Front Covers - 1.

NME - Front Cover Analysis.

The magazine is glossy which makes it look expensive, but the pages inside are like newspaper which suggests they are old, which NME is. That is a style they haven't lost over the many years NME has been published. On a whole the picture is what caught my eye to this magazine because I want to read about Arctic Monkeys. Also 'The final chapter' caught my eye because as a fan I want to know what it means. 

This shot type is a medium long shot. This picture has the whole band on it but the front man; Alex Turner is stood a little more forward than the rest of the band which indicates he is more important than them. The band are represented as clean cut but they also look very edgy, like bad boys which links with their new album as it is very grown up. Most rock stars are represented as quite dirty and sleazy but these ones are going a bit against the trend. They follow the 'bad boy' style with the skinny jeans, slicked back hair and the moody expression, but you can see each member has a certain individual style. Their facial expressions are moody and sulky but none threatening which isn't what you'd expect from a 'bad boy'. The background makes them look well off because the tall trees and sunshine reminds me of Beverly Hills.

The masthead is a sans serif font making it very clear and easy to read. It is a very bold, bright red which catches the buyers eye. It also connects with the reader because the readers of NME are usually quite bold people. It is positioned in the top left corner and isn's as big as some other music magazine mastheads. The masthead follows the codes and conventions of NME because the colour scheme of NME is white, red and black which gives the magazine anchorage and makes it easy to recognize amongst the other magazines.




The strap line is 'From the LA boulevards to their London rehearsal room' which is suggesting they are a very widely spread band. The 'AM' to their fans has 2 meanings; the abbreviation of the band name; Arctic Monkeys, and the name of their new album. There is also kerning between the two letters which makes them stand out. But 'The Final Chapter' suggests that this new album could be their last which catches their fans eyes because they want to find out what 'The Final Chapter' actually means. The style of this writing is still very sophisticated but easy to read as well as being bold and fitting with NME's house style.




This is one of the secondary leads on the magazine which follows the house style of NME because it is black and red. The band name is in red and it is underlined so it catches the audiences eye. It is positioned in the top right corner in between the trees of the main image so nothing is covering it at all. There is also a bit of kerning which makes the small statement look bigger so it looks important. Also the choice of quote 'The press got everything wrong' is good because it is slamming the press for being wrong which appeals to the reader because by nature young people like to read about things that are wrong.




This is the pug on the magazine, it states the price in Pounds (£), Euros (€) and Dollars ($) which shows the magazine is sold in many different countries. It also has the date it was released on and the website. The pug is in the bottom left corner so it isn't very noticeable because in the audiences eye it isn't very important because if you like what is on the front cover the price doesn't matter too much.

This little puff is in the bottom right corner and the brightness of it draws the readers eye very well, but it doesn't follow NMEs house style of colours but the writing does. What it is saying is very appealing to Arctic Monkeys fans because it is asking them if AM is the 'greatest record of the decade?' The rhetorical question eye catching because magazine front covers usually do not have them on the front of it, they don't usually interact with the readers, they just tell them what is in the magazine.