NME Analysis

NME is one of the most iconic magazines in the music industry. It is clearly a well know magazine as it can afford to put the cover star partially blocking the masthead.

The cover star is the world famous Julian from The Strokes, and he is gazing directly outwards at the reader. This not only will attract people because the cover star is well known, but also because the reader is being directly looked at.

The main coverline is clearly "Julian goes solo". This is clearly the main coverline because it is in bold writing and in a very prominent place on the page. The main coverline is so prominent that it almost rival the masthead for superiority  over the page.


The masthead of the magazine is slightly bigger than the main coverline, which is unusual as the masthead is normally far larger. This said the bold red writing, and positioning of it make it impossible to miss and very attention grabbing.









Apart from the main coverline there are also other coverlines across the magazine. These are smaller in size, b ut still give the reader a good idea of what is in this edition of the magazine. And finally there is an advert on the cover to "Win a piece of signed stone roses artwork". This type of advert will really appeal to the MWE's target audience as they are interested in music.

I used my headline because I believe it would appeal to my target audience as it directly addresses them. It also uses the technique of alliteration which makes it more catchy, and memorable. The title “Lad Life” suggests that music is an essential part of the everyday lads life. 

My cover picture was used  as it depicts two teenagers who are clearly dressed in the indie style. This is the type of audience I want to appeal to, so I believe they will be able to relate to my magazine. The picture itself is two indie males, posing against a yellow background. After the picture was taken I decided to edit out the yellow background and put them on a clear blue and white background. This made them stand out more, and draws more attention to their clothing. The shot itself is a medium shot, this includes their whole body, and again highlights their dress sense, as there is no background to look at. My contents page picture is....

The costumer my cover stars are wearing give off a very specific image. The clothes worn suggest that they belong to a certain group in society, this one being the “Indie” group.  I did some research and asked people what social group they though my cover stars belonged to, and the overwhelming majority stated Indie. This is good as people will take a brief look at my magazine and see what style and genre it is, which will hopefully attract my indie target audience. During my research I came across many indie style magazines and used them as style models, and used similar clothing for my cover stars.

I used a variety of shots for the pictures in my magazine. As I said earlier I used a medium shot for my cover stars. This is in contrast to the type of shot I used for my contents page. Here I used a medium close up, as this picture was of a single indie man, and this shot was the best choice for highlighting the clothes worn. Also this type of shot made the picture fit perfectly into the space I had left for the image.

I chose the name “Lad Life” for my magazine as I believe it will appeal to my target audience. The word lad is used by in the indie social group as a compliment, and combined with my cover stars gives a very indie look to my magazine.