Music Magazine Front Cover Analysis'

The masthead on the front of this music magazine cover is big, bold and in red.

It is in the top left hand corner and can be seen clearly. It does not take up the full width of the top because it is short and snappy. Also NME is a very well-known music magazine and does not need to fill up space informing people who they are, as they already know.
The music magazine is aimed towards young people and the colour red could signify rebellion.
The photograph is the whole front cover, and gives off an ‘I’m not bothered what you think look’ this is appealing to young people as they want to appear the same way and get the same look. This will attract young people to purchase the magazine as they will want to get involved and gain role models for themselves.
Beside the photograph is ‘MIA’ also big, bold and red. This is to attract the audience by telling them that within their magazine is going to be information about someone important. They will see it is someone important when looking at the magazine as she appears in the photograph.
At the top right hand corner of the magazine cover it says ‘INTRODUCING THE NEW NME,
8&10 SPECIAL EDITION COVERS’. It isn’t as clear to see the top line but informing the audience that there is going to be special edition covers will encourage people to purchase the magazine. In the bottom right hand corner of the magazine are some sub-headings of important names after the heading ‘THE STATE OF MUSIC TODAY by’ this emphasises the importance of this magazine and that it is a well-known magazine. It must be a popular choice of magazine to have a lot of important people featuring in it.

This magazine cover also features a barcode to scan and a price to inform the audience how much they’re going to have to pay for this magazine. These are done at the bottom of the page as they are less important and have no effect on the readers opinion.

The institution of NME music magazine is IPC Media and is a popular magazine; it has been published weekly since 1952. It was the biggest selling music magazine (then newspaper)
The masthead on the front cover of this magazine is in the top left hand corner and is bold. This is done to help the audiene recognise which magazine it is.
Underneath the masthead shows a black circle that reads ‘JACK WHITE’S SHOCK NEW ALBUM’ this is very eye catching and immediately attracts the audience to the magazine. It appears as though it is covering something else which gives it the effect that it is too important to miss.
Just above to the right hand side of the masthead is the studio news: selling line. This would straight away attract their target audience because the selling line has the names of popular bands, with the same type of genre. This magazine would attract a lot of people as it has included popular bands that people would listen to.
There are many cover lines, going down the left third of the front cover. Most of the cover lines relate to the type of genre that is studied within the magazine. ‘ROLLING STONES’ and PANIC AT THE DISCO ALBUM’. This is to help the reader in understanding and not getting confused. It instantly informs the reader about what is going on, who is featured in it and the type of genre. This is good because it is direct and gets straight on with selling the magazine to their audience.

The main image on the front cover is of ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’. This immediately tells the audience that they are going to be one of the bands featured within this magazine. They both give off a serious expression. This suggests that their story is going to be important for the reader, it could also link with the line below ‘I was worried the monkeys…’ This will entice the reader to buy the magazine as they will want to know what it going to happen.
At the bottom right hand corner, there is a barcode, issue number and price. These are the less important features of then magazine and are therefore placed at the bottom. The website is also placed underneath; this is so the reader can access more information about the magazine if they really enjoy reading it.

VIBE is a popular music magazine and one they constantly use the large, bold and thick title VIBEt to specificically show it's them. Also this form of title is one that is used with other music magazines such as ‘NME’ this clearly demonstrates that a large title must be a lot more appealing to the audience . Also VIBE will most likey have more famous artists on the front cover, generally being hip-hop, rap and RnB. This immediately shows to the reader what type of magazine it is just from it’s front cover, making it very clear from the front that the magazine is based on music, specifically in the Hip-Hop, Rap & RnB area. On the front of this music cover, they have made the main picture bigger than everything else this demonstrates that they want to make it clear to the reader what the magazine will specify in for its best and main story. The purpose in doing this is that VIBE believe in they promote their most interesting story on the front cover and give the reader just a taste of what is inside,  making them want to purchase the magazine.

Vibe has the idea to entertain rather than inform people, this could be a possible good idea reviewing the new realeases as it coul be more informative than if it was trying to be informative. VIBE includes articles such as stories from Eminem, who is a large Hip-Hop artist. He's put articles such as this in not to inform the reader but entertain them with his conversation, the magazine is publicised in a fashionable way with slang and a hip hop feel to it. It creates its genre of music by having artists famous in the genre all over the magazine.

I feel this magazine would be aimed at the 16-27 age group. I think this is because, Eminem is an artist of recent times which shows us that the magazine is going to be based around that genre in general. Everybody knows what genre of music these artists perform. I think this magazine could be targeted more towards the male market, this could be because of the certain look of Eminem. It is too intimidating and is more suited for the male side. The magazine has inside information for fans interested in the hip-hop / rap genre. As Eminem is on the cover, it instantly tells us the genre of the magazine, the style and the information inside.