This is a music magazine cover, known as NME, which stands for New Musical Express. I am going to analyse this magazine cover, and state the conventions and look at the things which make up the magazine so it suits it's audience.
The first thing which stands out on this magazine cover is the main image, which is the band members of 'The Last Shadow Puppets,' which are presented as very sophisticated men. They are both wearing black coats, and have very pale faces, which makes their faces stand out to the audience. Overlapping the image is the main piece of text on the front cover. There is 3 different parts to the text, the first one states the band members names, and is presented in two different colours which are red and white. Red is one of the main colours commonly used in the NME magazine which is a factor as to how people recognise the magazine and know it is the NME magazine. The names are placed directly underneath the band members in the correct order allowing the audience to know who is who in the image. The second piece of the text is the band name which is put in a slightly larger font than the rest of the piece of text so that it stands out to the audience and is in a red font to stand out from the image which it is placed on top of. The third piece is then written in italics and a white font which separates it from the rest of the piece of text and is part which encourages the reader read the article. The camera angle used is medium close up and the characters have been made to look like they are looking directly at the audience which will grab their attention when looking at which magazine to buy. Usually NME have a consistent look and style to all their magazine, and they do this by placing their main cover line in the centre of the magazine and their masthead is always placed in the top left hand corner, because this is the first place the audience will look when reading the front cover.
All of the sub headlines in the magazine are placed down the left hand side, which benefits the magazine because it's the first place as to where the audience will look and also when the magazines are stacked they are placed so that is the only part of the magazine visible. If the sub headlines are on show and look interesting, more people will want to read the magazine. The sub headlines don't vary in colour very much, but enough to make it clear that they are all on different subjects. The only colours used at black and red, which are common colours in NME magazines and allow the text to stand out from the pale white coloured background.
A puff is used in the magazine, and a generally used at least once in all NME magazine covers. The puff in this magazine is black in colour, and again has been made to stand out from the background of the magazine which is a very simple colour and has been made that colour so that the texts could be made to stand out. The puff is stating 'JACK WHITE'S SHOCK NEW ALBUM Out this week!' which is giving the reader information that a new must have album is out this week.
At the top of the magazine is a banner, which is used to present more information which is included within the magazine. Again, it's main colour is red, which is the colour of the background of the banner, and the font is coloured yellow and white, which follows the style of the rest of the magazine and is the commonly the default colour scheme in magazine designs.
Many various different languages are used in the magazine so it attracts the magazines target audience, for example the style of the magazine cover. It's style is very individual and has been created to suit the music genre presented in the magazine. The camera angle which has been used for the front cover image is medium close up and the band members have been made to look at the camera which will attracts buyers attentions and therefor lure them into buying the magazine. The main colours in the magazine are red and white, as mentioned before, these have been used to allow the text to stand out from the rest of the front cover. The layout of the magazine had been made to look very full and clustered, making it look as though the magazine contains a lot of information which will again lure the audience into considering to buy the magazine if they think it contains a lot of information which they want to know. The main characters in the image are presented quite confident, just like the rest of the characters in the NME magazine issues, which is usually done to reflect the target audience or to inspire them.
The institution's which created and publish the magazine covers are very large businesses. The institution's are chose as to which one suits the magazine best, and in NME's case they chose IPC, which is the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher, which suggest it's a successful business which the magazine are able to rely on.
The ideology of this magazine has been presented to inspire the target audience by the type of people which are presented on the front of the magazine as well as the genre of music. The chosen music genre for this magazine is indie, and you can tell this just by looking at the front cover because of the way the band members look and also because of the music which is mentioned in the magazine.
The target audience for this magazine is people between the ages 16 to late 30's depending on the audience's music choice. But the audience would have to like indie music in order to enjoy reading the magazine. The magazine is mainly aimed at those of a working or lower class, mainly due to the fact the magazine is very low in price and the music is as good at those in the more expensive magazine such as Q. The magazine also doesn't look very sophisticated like the more expensive ones would, but this look is generally the one which the NME producers are aiming for.
The representations made in the magazine are very positive, and in all the sub headlines they mainly aim to have a positive benefit on the audience and what they want to know and have purely been written for the audiences' entertainment. The images and text all represent the magazines target audience because of it's style.
Overall, the magazine has been produced in a very good way to represent it's target audience and contain all the informaiton on the front cover which would encourage people to read it, and this is usually one of the main aims of a magazine producer.
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