Preliminary Research

The magazine I chose to look at was NME, which is a music magazine of the genre rock/indie. The magazine follows the same basic design which is continuously used for each issue. The title is situated in the top left hand corner is brightly coloured read to catch the attention of the customer. Another element of the front cover used to attract buyers is the centre image. This image is of the featured artist and also correspond with the masthead which is situated boldly to the left of the image, under the NME title. Puffs are also included on the front cover of the magazine to promote what features are included within the magazine.

This will help me in future when i create my music magazine as i can look at the cover and the layout and try to make mine similar to it so it looks more real. I listed the barcode, puffs, masthead, title of magazine, main article image, price and subheading. This is because I would be including these features on my magazine so that it looks like a real published magazine.

CONTENT ANALYSIS

Page 1
- Band index
- Date
- Contents [also mentions if it was on the front cover]
- Contents subtitles [e.g. news, radar, reviews, live and features]
- Offer on next issue of magazine
- Image of featured artist

Page 2-3
- ‘10 tracks you have to hear this week’
- Images of the artist mentioned
- Short review on each artist and their recent progress in their career

Page 4-5
- Masthead – ‘world exclusive interview!’
- Large image of Julian Casablancas
- Big heading of a quote
- Short article on the artist and his recent plans and decisions
- Editors name
- Photographers name

Page 6-7
- Interview with the featured artist – Julian Casablancas
- Images of the artists solo trailer
- Images of other artist and separate captions
- Short review on the featured artist’s new album and two of their singles.

After looking at all the advertisements and overall composition included in the magazine, it suggests this magazine is targeted at a younger generation that are mainly males. This becomes apparent as most, if not all, the advertisements featured in the magazine are aimed at males; adverts such as men’s hair products, deodorant and masculine alcoholic drinks. Other adverts can be aimed at both males and females, such as new mobile phones and their features, and also upcoming albums. Other features which may interest both genders in the magazine is upcoming gigs and concert information. This supports the target audience’s interests of a younger generation, mainly males, interested in a specific genre of music.