Music Magazine Essay

I am writing about the front cover of a music magazine called NME, NME stands for New Musical Express. The Magazine’s first issue was published on the 7th March 1952. It was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On the 14 November 1952 it created the first UK single chart. The institution that owns NME is IPC Media, it is a national institution and one of the United Kingdom's leading magazine publishers selling over 350 million copies each year. It was formed as International Publishing Company in 1963. NME itself goes out on a weekly basis reporting and reviewing on the latest bands, gigs, singles and albums. its circulation according to sales figures between Jan-Jun 08 is approximately 56,284.

Other forms of media the NME has is a website called www.NME.com which was set up in 1996 and offers the latest up to date news, tickets for gigs, merchandise, free downloads such as mp3s, wallpaper and screen savers and a chance to e-mail in letters to be published in the magazine. I recently went to an Iglu and Hartly gig in Bristol and one of my friends that I went with sent an e-mail that was published in the 8th October issue. NME.com was awarded Online Magazine Of The Year in 1999 and in 2001 Anthony Thornton was awarded Website Editor Of The Year on three occasions. The NME also have an awards show held every year to celebrate the greatest new music over the past year. The nominations and eventual winners are voted for by the readers of the magazine before the awards. There is also an NME tour across Britain where they tour some of, if not all of the bands up for nominations.

NME’s target audience are teenagers of both genders but according to NME.com their readers are approximately 65% male. It is clear that the producers are trying to appeal to teenagers because the content, language and writing style is very modern. The writers use lots of slang, swear words and jokes aimed at teenagers when reviewing, and the advertisements are of products for younger people. The percent of 16-24 year olds who read NME is 50% with just 23% for 25-34 year olds, again according to NME.com.

It is obvious by the front cover itself that it is aimed at a teenage audience. In the cover of the 16th February 2008 issue there is a big picture of The Wombats that takes up the page. The Wombats are very animated, the three band members are all striking different poses, one is jumping in the air, another is saluting and one is holding up his hair. The caption below the band’s name, “The Wombats” is in a large font, colourful and on a slant to catch attention, is the sentence “Why Britain’s gone silly for the lords of the indie dance floor”. This in itself is a rhetorical answer and you want to read it to find out why Britain has gone silly for the lords of the indie dance floor, but this also represents the band because in the picture they are doing silly things. The word “lords” also implies they are royalty so you automatically make the connotation that because they are being referred to as royalty they must be good, which may also make you want to read on. The word “silly” is a denotation, it signifies an image in your mind of fun
and wildness. This band are not boring and this could be aimed at young people because young people are often referred to in this way, and young people often think adults are serious and boring. Another connotation is the column along the top of the cover that says in big bold letters “GLASTO”, then bullet points the headliners, then has a statement that says “FANS REACT TO SHOCK 2008 HEADLINERS”. The connotation is the word Glasto that means Glastonbury festival but the slang version of the name could be associated with a younger audience, because it makes the name sound hip and cool. Also the sentence with it makes the reader want to find out more, especially a reader who is interested in the festival or is going to it. The representation of this cover is a positive one showing a fun and wacky magazine cover and possibly a fun and wacky content. The only stereotypes being made are the ones that this band looks as if to be aimed at a younger audience and that this band isn’t for adults but over all this is an effective magazine. The large font and colourful text all around the cover attracts the reader and the text written on further inspection makes the reader want to find out more. This particular cover if definitely an eye catcher!


This is an essay i wrote just before starting the music magazine course work, this essay is on the music magazine NME. I chose to write it on NME because i was sure from the start that i wanted to write my music magazine on the music i like which is indy rock music and NME writes about indy rock so NME is what hopefully my magazine is going to be closest at looking like. This essay is good research because it gives me an insight into what my magazine may roughly look like obveusly my magazine will be my own work and nothing like NME but will still use the same sort of style as it is the same genre.