NME Analysis

Blog 5

Hello Everyone,

                   Over the next 5 days I am going to be analysing some official magazine front covers to get ideas for my own. I will be looking at 3 NME’s, 1 Q and 1 MOJO. I am looking at a range of magazines in the same indie genre to get inspiration for my own.

Today I analysed my first NME which was an Arctic Monkeys edition. This issue included a large NME red title which is bold and recognisable and a large picture of Arctic Monkeys which are a popular band. Alex Turner, the lead singer or Arctic Monkeys, is positioned in front of the other members as he has a larger constituency since he is the lead singer and in 'Last Shadow Puppets' I like this cover because it’s quite sparse there isn't loads of text; the title is only 2 letters but it doesn't need to be anymore than that as The Arctic Monkeys are a famous band and don't need a large introduction. The sparse look makes the photo stand out and everything just looks simpler and I like that. The use of minimalistic text is affective as it makes the band stand out a lot more and all the band members are looking into the camera appearing to be staring at the reader. This is affective as it draws the reader in as they feel like its personal to them.

The conventions I would consider using from this cover would be the idea of a large bold titles with minimal text because I think it looks neater also it’s a lot clearer.

I also like the idea of having the bar code in a convent place not just anywhere, if the bar code was coving anything the page wouldn't look as ordered. The conventions I wouldn't use from this cover would be the use of a plug. The yellow plug in the bottom right stands out, but doesn't fit the house style of the rest of the cover, as it doesn't fit the colour scheme as there is nothing else yellow on the page and everything else is square, I think it looks messy and looks like its been placed there to fill up space.