Analysis of Magazine front covers

Analysing NME Magazine - Rock Genre

Colours

The colours used on the magazine front cover follow a red, white and black house style. Using these colours, readers are attracted to the magazine as it’s bold, exciting and stands out. They are attracted even more so as these colours are stereotypically associated with rock and heavy metal and are therefore, more aesthetically pleasing to their target audience and regular readers. The colours used also mean that the magazine is not gender specific as it hasn’t got any stereotypical colours associated 

with girls or boys, E.G pink and blue.

Design + Images

The design of the magazine consists of a large, bold masthead situated at the top in the left corner. The location, size and font of the masthead means that it is very eye-catching and stands out to readers. The design of the front cover is quite plain with a mast head, feature headline, feature image and cover lines. Although it is simple, it means that the reader can take in all the information on the front page without being distracted by other, not as necessary, information. The huge feature headline is located directly in the middle of the page with the band’s name in big bold white letters and the rest of the story in a bold black background. This means that the reader’s eye goes directly to the story to interest them in the magazine. All the cover lines are situated at the top of the page or at the bottom, in white letters, meaning they’re close to the masthead and feature headline so you can’t miss them. The feature image is used over the whole page to capture attention directly to the feature headline making readers more interested.

The image used is of the band ‘Vampire Weekend’, on a blue background with hundreds of multi-coloured confetti falling around them. All the bright colours draw the readers in, even when seen from the corner of their eye. The excitement of the image portrays the idea that there’s going to be a really good story inside and lots more excitement along with it. However, the use of multi-coloured confetti gives off the idea that it is a ‘pop’ genre and not a rock magazine which is the wrong impression for the target audience. However, the idea of ‘pop’ changes when you read the feature headline...

Language and Words

The feature headline is quite formal in the way it’s spoken, and the image isn’t very rock-like but the last line, “Redefining the rock star”, clues together why the words used and the image, haven’t followed a rock style. The band are quite regular and normal, but extremely successful in the rock band world and there for have re-shaped the image of rock. The words on the cover lines are all quite regular and formal as well. This means that the magazine can attract new readers to it as the original rock style has changed a bit.

Overall Impression

The magazine cover is effective in that it attracts its main target audience and more. This is due to the rock like colours, fonts and headlines and also the none-rock like images. The popular band make it clear it is still rock based but the colours of the image show elements of other genres and therefore, more audiences.