NME Front Page and Double Page Spread

The foundation portfolio main task requires me to include a double page spread for my music magazine. Here is an example taken from the NME.

The NME is a British weekly music magazine. Featuring 'agenda setting' news, the UK's most comprehensive gig guide with definitive reviews of the weeks hottest gigs, tours, artists, tracks and albums making it the weeks essential guide to the music industry.

It is Also well known for its content of fiery commentary from the nations most opinionated writers, as seen in this double page spread featuring commentary from Beth Ditto. I have displayed both the front cover and the issues double page spread to show the links made between the two.

Punk band, 'The Gossip' are the main feature in this issue of NME. Beth Ditto dominates the photo over her other band members suggesting she is the main singer. This band is well known for being differnt to the other stereo typical bands that are out there and taking the music industry by storm, this is emphasised by the sub headline, 'How three punks smashed the mainstream' this indicates the content of the article.

In the double page spread, although the group photo of 'The Gossip' is situated on the right hand side and the main body text on the left hand side by expanding the love heart background to overlap onto the other page and like wise with the main headline this brings them together giving it a sense of being all in one instead of two separate articles.

On the cover 'standing in the way of control' is in the main headline and has been used as a play on words as it could be indicating literally but is also the name of one of their well known songs. In the double page spread the first line of the headline reads 'standing in the way of... ' and then instead of simply writing control it is written what the band stand up to. For example 'body fascists' as Beth Ditto is not the stereotypical female band member (thin and attractive) but in actual fact is proud of who she is which is what the headline is getting across. Amongst the text a pull quote is displayed in a love heart of which the main body text is made to wrap around this. Also the big background is a love heart on the next page and therefore a link can be made to make it appear more as all one page. The fact that the love heart appears in black also represents 'The Gossip' is different from the 'norm' as a love heart would be expected to be coloured red or pink.

There is a cd type symbol in the middle of the background love heart which re-enforces the music side of things. In the conventional way it is made up of three dominant colours, black, pink and white. Beth is wearing a pink and black outfit and the men are wearing black with one of them wearing white framed glasses, these choices have been made to tie in with the music genre. Pink is a colour normally associated with girls which is why pink has been used to reinforce the Beth's gender. If you notice a drop cap has been used on the beginning letter of the article. This is a common feature used in all types of articles used to stress where the article begins, this particular one been in pink to emphasize further.

The explicit language used it the headline, 'bullshit' shows the strongly opinionated attitudes of the band and by including this type of language the magazine shows it feels confident its audience will not be offended by this but rather on the same wave length. In both pictorials on the front cover and double page Beth is situated in front of her other band members suggesting she plays the most important role. More effectively on the double page spread she is holding his face with the back of her hand facing the reader, indicating that she is more in control and has more dominance within the group.

After analysing both the front cover and double page spread I was able to make key links between the two. I realise that many of the key conventions are similar between the two and I now know how to create a double page spread without it looking like two separate pages and this will help me when it comes to designing my own.

Analysis of Classical Rock/Metal/Grunge Magazines

The magazines below are representative of the classical rock/ heavy metal type music genre.

Mojo's team had originally been involved in the launch of Q Magazine but MOJO's outlook immediately differed. While Q catered for the contemporary pop-culture scene, fitting music into a world that contained film, television, celebrity. Mojo is a magazine that has always been about music pure and simple. Since its first issue it has focused on music old and new and has always favoured the lost classics and ambitious artists, over the fads, starlets and best-sellers pored over by other magazines.

Kerrang! is one of the biggest selling weekly rock magazines. It was initially published as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper devoted to the current New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of other hard rock acts such as AC/DC, who appeared on Kerrang!’s first cover. During the early days of the magazine placed many thrash and glam metal acts on the cover eg Bon Jovi, but later discarded them when grunge acts rose to fame. Kerrang! features new musical trends that become popular focusing on a current emphasis of emo and metalcore music genre. The title 'Kerrang' is onomatopoeic resembling the sound of a guitar being smashed, this is suggested by the cracks amongst the text as if it had been smashed by something.

Both magazines employ a colour scheme made up of the three dominant colours, red, black and white to represent the nature of the music genre. By putting these colours together it gives the magazine a more dramatic outlook. The content represented in this magazine is simply music and artists that are popular in the rock/metal genre. For example on the cover of Kerrang is, '25 extreme metal anthems' and on the cover of Mojo reads, ' Rodger Waters the dark side revisited'.

Mojo is magazine that caters for those who have an interest in classic rock. It was first noted for featuring artists such as Bob Dylan and this particular issue has coverage on Bob Dylan. Also Mojo regularly includes a cover mount CD which ties in with a current magazine article or theme, in the issue above this is shown by a CD which inspired Bob Dylan.

The band 'Trivium' is the main image focus of the cover suggesting the main article inside will be about them. The band member third from the left is dominating the photo as he appears the biggest and is placed over the end of the masthead. This indicates he is the lead singer and also shows how popular and well recognised the magazine is. They are all dressed and appear in similar colour to the colour scheme of the rest of the cover to re-enforce the nature of the magazine itself. This is displayed in 'Mojo' magazine also as all men are looking directly at the audience therefore attract the readers attention as they can feel more involved already.

The music represented in these magazines have a big impact and this is emphasized by such features as the bold and strong words used in both headlines, 'Dylan blasts back' and 'new album will blow you away' and in Kerrang's slogan, 'Life is Loud'. Moreover Mojo's slogan is 'The music magazine', by using a definite article 'the' it suggests that Mojo is the best and the only one you need to read. In addition this is also portrayed through the big and bold text which is used throughout the cover.

In conclusion all the above features of these magazines work together to reinforce and represent the particular music genre of rock/heavy metal and grunge.

Analysis of Mainstream Music Magazines

The Rolling Stone magazine is the 'number one pop culture reference point for over 12 million young adults'. In addition to its high status in music, Rolling Stone’s also features in entertainment, movies, television, technology, and national affairs. Rolling Stone covers everything that’s important, trend-setting, and newsworthy to young adults.

Blunder magazine is of similar nature and it sees itself as 'the ultimate guide to music and more'. Also it is known for its sometimes steamy pictorials of female artists. It is a very in depth music review magazine featuring reviews of an artists full body of work, songs, albums and both best and worst playlists.

These magazines represent a range of different music genres to cater for most types of music lovers. They feature general news about the music industry and include all genres and a range of different artists and bands. This is represented by the range of content displayed on the page. For example Rolling Stone represent Slipknot to Christina Aguilera to Eminem, likewise to Blunder who represent Leona Lewis to 'Grunge madness' such as Nirvana. Also general news young readers would be interested in such as Blunder's '165 songs you need to know' and Rolling Stone representing the 'Olympic style'.

Each magazine follows the conventional style of using three dominant colours which are followed through by dressing the people that take place as the main image to match the covers colour scheme. The covers main pictorials are well known music artists, Christina Aguilera (rolling stone) and Leona Lewis (Blunder) this immediately attracts the audience as they will be more likely to want to read the magazine if they feel they know and like the featured artist. The pictorials on each magazine over-lap the masthead, this shows how well known the magazines are.

Christina Aguilera is the main image focus of Rolling Stone magazine. In the earlier days of her career Christina was seen as a young, fresh sex symbol and this is portrayed in the way she is licking her lips in a seductively cheeky way. She is portrayed as stereotypical 'beach babe' with blond hair, blue eyes and a cheeky smile this emphasises the stereotype and ideology of 'blonde's have more fun' . This is also shown in the way she has her top rolled up and her skirt undone to reveal her bikini bottoms, the bikini bottoms reflect on the 'beach scene' location of the blue sea and sky background to create verisimilitude. Also she is holding a Walkman in her hand, this is brought to our attention as the earphone wires fall across her body and our eyes are drawn to wear the wires are leading, this re-enforces that it is a music magazine.

Leona Lewis is a well known new and up-coming artist who is considered as classy, stylish and inspirational, this is reflected in the classy and sophisticated outfit she is wearing and she is posed stylishly seductive rather than trashy. She also fits in to the stereotype of 'the brunette' who is seen to be more down to earth and sexy in a sophisticated way. The colours that she is wearing are matched to the black and white textual colour scheme of the cover. Moreover the way she is posed leaning down to the right with her arm bent and raised to her mouth suggests she is singing with her arm acting as a microphone, also used to re-enforce that it is a music magazine.

Overall these magazine covers give an insight into what is expected of a magazine of this music genre and all the features come together to emphasise and reinforce the dance/club music culture.

Analysis of Dance/Club Music Magazines

Rave and Mixmag are a good example of a music magazine representing the genre of dance and club music. Each week Rave publishes interviews with international, national and local artists, together with the most up-to-date information on live gigs, tours, dance events and music festivals.

Mixmag is the dance music market leader and has maintained its reputation as the most influential title in the dance sector. This is shown in the sub-masthead at the top of the cover, 'the world's biggest dance music and clubbing magazine'. It created the words "superclub" and "trip hop", released the first legal DJ mix tapes and CDs and is one of the most trusted voices in dance music.

The mastheads of each of the magazines are representative of the music genre, 'Rave' is a commonly used word used to describe a dance party indicating the clubbing scene. Above the mats head reads, 'where to party this new years eve' this backs up the content of the magazine. 'Mixmag' suggests the idea of mixing different music tracks of the dance/club/trance genre together by dj's played in clubs. The content displayed on each cover are representative of what might be expected by the 'rave' and 'clubbing' scenes, for example they both have an article about ecstasy. Also both advertise the best party places to be. Moreover both represent music artists who are popular in the genre of music.

The colour schemes are bright, bold, colourful and busy. For 'Rave' the masthead is bright blue and is the biggest and boldest piece of text on the cover. Also this colour is not used in any other text on the cover in order for it to draw attention to itself to recognise the magazine. Putting aside the masthead the textual colours consist of yellow/green, white and red which are very colours creating a very dramatic effect. The background looks similar to that of flock wallpaper design, this is very unusual of the 'normal' magazine cover background. All of these unconventional features of this magazine cover come together to re-enforce the music genre it is representing.

Mix mag follows the conventional textual colour scheme of keeping to three colours which are white, yellow and red. The yellow reflects sun as it is a warm colour and this is why Ibiza is written in yellow as it is a hot country. The colour red is a sign of danger or prohibited activities etc which reflects on the word 'sin' in the headline. Although this magazine displays some conventional features, the background looks as though it is lots of leaves, maybe palm tree leaves to support the idea of Ibiza, however looks as though it has been placed behind after the photo had been taken. By mixing conventional with unconventional features this represents the title 'Mixmag'. By illustrating the dot on the 'i' as a compact disk this reinforces that it is a music magazine.

Rave's main image focus is 'Fergie', she is a well known music artist, this guarantees that the majoity of readers will know and like her, immediately attracting the audience. The word 'Rave' is associated with wild and out of the ordinary parties. This is reflected in the main pictorial and accompanying headline. As it is very out of the ordinary for a famous music artist to appear out of a huge layered cake, however written across the bottom of the cake is, 'The Holiday Issue' this indicates that it is a special issue that will feature extra content that does not ordinarily appear, reflected by the image. Fergie is dressed in what appears to be a fancy blue swimsuit, the blue has been chosen so that a link can be made back to the blue masthead. Moreover the way she is posed with her body lent to a side and her hands in the air, with her fingers positioned in a particular way that suits the dance style you would be likely to see at a rave. The accompanying headline reads, 'The Duchess of Debauchery Fergie'. The word 'debauchery' translates as a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity, this is what can also be stereotypically described as the 'rave scene'. By saying that Fergie is the 'Duchess' of this it indicates she is regular goer of wild parties etc. This all comes together to emphasise the music sub-genre it is portraying.

The main headline in Mixmag reads 'sun! sex! sin! Ibiza The Real Story', this is reflected in the main photo. Firstly she is wearing a bathing suit, a necklace, a pair of earrings and has a pair of sunglasses, this relates to Ibiza which is a well recognised as the clubbing capital holiday resort. By adding the accessories this suggests she is going to party instead of just going on holiday to sunbathe. Everything she has on is white and yellow which makes a direct link to the heading as the text is the same colour. The woman's body language is very open as she is lent slightly back with her head tilted and is looking down at the reader as if she is almost inviting them to read Mixmag. Her bathing suit is very exposed and she is posed seductively indicating the 'sex' and 'sin' part. As the headline reads 'the real story' by placing the tip of the frame of her glasses in her mouth between her teeth suggests that she knows 'the real story' about Ibiza as if it was a secret and she can't tell. However by taking the glasses away from her eyes whilst still being on her face this creates the effect that she has revealed some of her identity to the audience. This reflects the idea that she is going to reveal 'the real story' about Ibiza to the reader in the magazine article.

On the whole, after analysing thoroughly all the features of each of the magazines above I have found that they all work together to create a magazine which represents the dance/clubbing music culture.

Foundation Portfolio-Main Task

The foundation portfolio main task involves producing the front page, a double page spread and a mock-up of a contents page of a new music magazine. As this is the beginning of the task i have started by looking at how the media key concepts can be applied to produce a music magazine cover using the acronym LIIAR;

Language: The language used will be light, fun and entertaining and appealing to those who are interested in the music industry. The textual colour and image focus will depend entirely on the type of music audience the magazine is aimed at, for example a magazine based around Kerrang would probably use colours such as red and black, whereas a magazine based around a mix-mag theme would use bright, aluminous and eye catching colours.


Ideology: The purpose of my music magazine will be to inform and entertain the target audience. I will do this by including articles about new and upcoming music events the latest music releases and artists and the most recent showbiz/music gossip to make sure I include something for both the general and sophisticated reader. It will promote the music genre i decide to base my magazine upon.


Institution: A music magazine publisher. There are a number of different publishing companies. I have researched the main publishers to see which one my magazine would fall under, considering the music audience they cater for;

Ipc Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher and offers a wide range of different magazines that are suited to almost every reader. These include the very popular music magazine, NME. The NME is a British weekly music magazine featuring latest music news, UK's most comprehensive gig guide, reviews, gigs,tracks and albums and comments from nations most opinionated writes and gives an essential guide to music.

Emap is the publisher of the kerrang magazine, the UK's premier multi-platform music destination and is the worlds biggest selling weekly rock magazine. The six music magazines in the Emap Performance stable - Sneak, Smash Hits, Kerrang!, Mixmag, Q, Mojo - cover a wide spectrum of tastes and age groups but all stand by a reputation of quality and passion. emap Performance also has a variety of websites supporting the music magazines and radio stations.

Future: This publisher is a trusted editorial service and magazines are just one of the media types they publish, to inform, entertain. Future produces over 4 million magazines each month. In addition, Future exports its publications to 90 countries internationally, making them the UK's number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines. These include, Classic Rock, the UK’s fastest growing rock music magazine and this publisher is the global market leader in guitar magazines.


Audience: Each magazine and magazine publisher have a different target audience for the different genre they chose to represent.

IPC: Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read an IPC magazine. That's almost 27 million UK adults. Also the publisher of NME which has earned worldwide respect for its rock music news and features, which are updated around the clock. It offers unlimited access to an affluent young audience and a unique opportunity to communicate with them in an environment that they relate to and return to frequently, Statistics look like this: 65% Male*, 50% 16-24*, 23% 25-34*and 79% ABC1*

The audience profile for Kerrang magazine states that this magazine is read by, individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced, an audience defined by attitude, passion and loyalty.

The Mixmag reader has a median age of 26 and are 72% male, 28% female, who tend to be urban and single. Mixmag has a certified circulation of 37,139 and a readership of 276,000.
The reader tends to have a high disposable income and a high propensity to spend it on:
· Nights out
· Clothes
· Tunes
· The latest mobile and MP3 player
Nearly 80% do not read another music magazine and they spend little time watching TV, especially at weekends.


Representation: This all depends on the music genre the magazine has chosen to represent. For example Kerrang caters for a fan of the heavy metal/rock genre, where as Mixmag caters for a fan of a music genre of the complete opposite, this being clubbing music and represents today's 'clubber'. Whereas Kerang would chose to represent a band member on the front cover, Mixmag would rather opt for an attractive, young female.
NME has chosen to represent the news side of music and after ten years NME has earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading sources for music news.
As my aim is to create a new and upcoming magazine i would probably choose to represent either a dance/hiphop/rnb music genre as these I am most interested in.