NME - Magazine Reasearch

NME magazine, just like with Uncut and Q has the basic ingredients of a magazine: The Masthead NME, main coverline 'Florence takes America', smaller coverlines such as 'Pete on life support' and 'Jack White, Gerard Way... Joe Lean?". There is a barcode, price for the magazine, date and issue number.

Most imprtantly, there is the main image. This particular image is of Florence from Florence and the machines. This makes the magazine attractive, especially is you like Florence from Florence and the machines. Whether you like them or not, they are well known and very new and cool.

The yellow cab she is exiting from works with the title 'Florence takes on America' because a yellow cab represents in a way, America, more specifically, New York. NME are representing America through the yellow cabs.

Florence's pose, is set to look a little weird. The bottom part of her body, which also emphasises her fantastic legs, makes her legs look a little bit drunk and weak. The top half of her body s pushing out of the cab and she appears determined. The whole pose looks rather sexy, but I think NME magazine is having a joke; I think they are trying to say 'she can try, but I doubt she'll succeed'.

This is Q magazine. It has the normal language that a typical magazine will have: bar code, masthead, coverlines and a main coverline.

The main image, of Matt Bellamy from Muse, is a medium shot of him smashing his guitar on the Q logo. It's rather effective because it shows Matt as a rebel and it's quite cliché because it's well-known for people to smash their guitars - especially if you're a rocker. Q magazine represents Matt as rocker this way. It makes him seem cool and a hardcore angry musician. This fits in with Q's ideology; to make rock and alternative seem cool and important.

The main coverline relies on the fact that people like and want to read about Muse. Then the smaller part of the main coverline says, "I bought 50 tins of beans and an axe." For me, personally, that is a little bit weird and intriguing. I would want to know more and I'm sure others would too.

'200 things you didn't know about The Beatles' is very attracting for the reader because if you like the Beatles (which many do) you'd want to read it, and two hundred things is a rather big number, and quite surprising. This might also be why it's in red; to make the reader see the 200 first and think 'wow - 200?'

The selling line 'The UK's biggest music magazine,' is very attractive for a buyer. If it's the UK's biggest music magazine, then it's value for money.

Music Magazine research - Uncut

The magazine, Uncut, had the normal ingredients: a coverline !I'm a survivor. Paul Weller", smaller coverlines such as, "Fleetwood Mac Reunited! The band reveal all." The selling point being the free CD in the front. Then, there's a barcode, date, issue and website.

The ideology behind Uncut magazine is that rock, particularly older rock, is important and therefore, it's audience is older people (twenties to thirties). Possibly because when these artists were younger, especially Paul Weller when he was in The Jam, the audience will have been younger too and the music would have been "cooler" back then.
However, it's not just 'older' rock either. Uncut features newer bands like The Arctic Monkeys which keep the magazine new and fresh.

The main image, of Paul Weller, is a medium close up. He's not that young anymore(actually in his early fifties) and this represents the audience that will read this. But, they still make him appear cool. He's wearing sunglasses and has his shirt unbuttoned showing a bit of chest hair. I think this comes back to ideology; they are presenting old rock stars as cool, as if they are trying to reinvent old rock, which could be one of it's purposes.

The institution, Uncut, appears to be owned by the corporation IPC IGNITE, which only a few years back was called IPC MEDIA. This could suggest a possible merge. The Institution relies on money from people buying the magazine and advertisements within it.

Apart from the main image, the rest of the front cover has to attract buyers. The masthead is bold and red which also happens to be the colour of the main coverline. Both are huge selling points and therefore are made to stand out. Sometimes the masthead is covered by a model perhaps. This usually tells the audience that they are so well-known that only part of the masthead has to be shown because people will still recognise the magazine. Uncut doesn't do this, possibly because it is not that well known.

The Main Task

Main Task:
The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you - minimum of four images.