NME Front Cover Analysis

NME music magazine is a weekly magazine published since March 1952. The initials stand for New Musical Express, however are also used to sound like the word "enemy." The word enemy has negative connotations of hatred and anger, so therefore expresses the genre of music of the magazine. The magazine became associated with punk rock between 1972 and 1976, and has continued to focus on this genre since.

NME has a colour scheme of black, white and red which is present in each issue of the magazine, however the title is often red with a white outline, against a colour background. It has been alternated for this issue to compliment the main image; there is a red background, with a black title. The red background often has connotations of anger and is commonly use to represent blood. This links in with the genre of the magazine, due to angry connotations of rock music. However, even though the colour scheme is reversed, it still represents the house style of NME as the colour scheme is still present and the placement and font of the title is the same as each other issue of the magazine.

The main image on the cover is the lead singer of the band Glasvegas. On his chest, he has written; "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. attack ships off the shoulder of Orion. i watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time! Like tears in rain! Time to live." A quote from Blade runner, referring to a character's death, however this image has been altered to say "time to live" as opposed to "time to die" of the original phrase. The writing on his chest if effective as this style is often used to represent blood and scars, again linking to the rock genre, as before. This ties in with the cover line: "Rock'n'roll returns "We're Bulletproof"." This not only shows that the band is back from a break, but also has connotations of death, linking back to the quote and the genre of the music. Overall, this is effective as the whole cover is associated together, therefore giving off an image to the viewer that represents the genre of music the magazine focuses on and seems dangerous and adventurous.

The cover also has other cover lines showing the contents of the magazine. This is done in order to encourage the reader to buy the magazine due to contents they will enjoy, therefore a range of contents has been shown on the cover. At the top of the page, states, "NME awards nominations revealed," this shows that the magazine will include features of the NME music award, which many readers may be interested in and want to find out more. Other cover lines include a list of artists that are featured in the issue. This is effective, as the artists listed are from a range of genres, making it more likely that a wider range of people will buy the magazine: Brandon Flowers/ Vampire Weekend/ The Vaccines/ Jon Lydon/ Cee Lo/ Everything. These are well known artists, and the use of the word "everything" suggests that there will be more content inside the issue from different artists, encouraging the reader to buy the magazine. This is all aligned to the left, and the colour of font alternates between black and white for each artist. This makes the page more visually dynamic, therefore looking more appealing to the reader.

There is a pug in the bottom right corner, showing the free posters included in the magazine. This will encourage the reader to buy the magazine if there are posters of the artists the reader enjoys. The images of the posters on the front are of Oasis and The Libertines, these are well-known artists so it is likely that the reader will enjoy their music and want a free poster of them.
Another of the cover lines state: "The Streets RIP" due to the band splitting up. This is a news item that may attract the reader in order to identify why the band has split up.
The majority of the font of the cover page, is bold capital letters, alternating between black and white font. This highlights the main features of the magazine, and stands out so that the reader can identify them easily and encourages them to buy it.