LIIAR of NME and Mojo

NME
Front Cover

In the top left hand corner there is the masthead of the magazines name, NME, which stands for New Music Express. It is conventionally at the top because it is eye catching and easily viewable on a shelf.

The colouring the magazine has chosen for this issue is a light blue which connotes tranquillity and calm which could suggest this issue is more toned down than other previous issues. Above the masthead in smaller writing it says “Libertines:” in blue then “New album revealed?” in black which when people look at the masthead and see that they could be more persuaded to buy the magazine.

At the top right hand corner there is a splash in a blue rectangle and inside says “Free…Posters” in black and in between the words it names bands “The Clash, Ramones, Sid Vicious” in white. Two out of the three pictures of what the posters look like in a Polaroid style, this makes the audience want to buy it even more to see what the other poster would look like as well as being in a vintage style appearance. With this being at the top corner it is eye catching, interesting and free with the magazine which would further persuade the audience to buy it.

In the middle of the page there is a banner headline with “The Vaccines” written in light blue which is the main article. With a medium shot of the band behind the text this is appropriate as it identifies the band, below that on a strapline in white it says “Clean up!” This in music terms means editing an album. The blue theme on the front t cover could connote water as in the picture of the band you can see water drops and some of the members a bit wet. It is appropriate for the words “Clean up” to be in white because white connotes cleanliness and the band members seem to be getting wet.

There is a cover line above the band’s name laid out in between some of the band members which says “On the bus and into the arenas with the bands of 2012” which is an exclusive to this magazine, this would persuade people to buy it because you won’t hear about some bands tours.

There are some information decks at the bottom that are all related to music events that are happening. These are placed on the front cover to attract people to buy it to find out about these events and possibly buy the tickets. The text is placed in a white box, with key words such as the band’s name in blue to stand out and other information in black.

Conventionally  there is a barcode, price and issue date section at the bottom left of the page which is out of the way yet still viewable for readers to be aware of what issue it is or of the price.

The ideas portrayed are that The Vaccines are a newly popular up and coming band, this is expressed by the text saying “clean up” and them being in a shower in the picture, this connotes idea that they are ‘fresh’ and new. Conventionally rock bands want to appear slightly messy and unusual in society, this front cover is breaking the stereotype because they are having a ‘clean up’.

Contents page

On the contents page is has the main article of The Vaccines in the middle of the page with a larger image. They have the page number in the corner of the picture as a caption then below it a quote from the band’s article then other information. Then below and to either side of The Vaccines’ article there are other articles that aren’t as important as The Vaccines but still have importance. They are all laid out in a similar way, and then at the bottom there is a “Plus” column which contains the page numbers for the less important articles.

They have the main articles bigger because they are what the readers most likely bought the magazine for which shows the importance of the articles. The contents page colours are plain; it has a plain white background with black text. In every separated grid where there is a main article, they have captions in the boxes below where the picture is and also they have numbers within the boxes to inform the audience of the magazine what page the article is on. The only colour on the page is from the images which makes them stand out. You can see that the colours are related to the house style although there is no blue colour in the contents page; you can tell it is the same magazine because the same bold font is continued from the cover page to the contents page.

The idea of the contents page is that it informs the reader what pages the different articles are on. This is expressed in a grid format with a caption of the article to hint to the audience what it is about, making them want to read on, and then the page number next to the caption. Conventionally the contents page is simply just a list of article titles and page numbers, NME is breaking that convention to make the magazine look newer and modern.

Double Page Spread

The double page spread of The Vaccines is split into two pages. On the first page on the left hand side there is an image that occupies the full first page. The picture is of the band if of them in the shower with the water coming down which connotes the fact they are a newly popular fresh band. The picture is taken in a spotlight as you can see the shadows coming of the band members, this could connote the idea that the spotlight is on them now, publically.

On the second page on the right hand side is the beginning of the article about The Vaccines and in the colour the blue that is on the front is continued to the double page spread and the title of the article is written in the colour. Also it is written in a similar style to hand written, the title says “soap and glory” which supports the connotation that they are a newly popular fresh band gaining success. The page has a plain white background and the title takes up half of the second page. There is a three line introduction, of which the text is in black with the important words like the band’s name and a band members name in the consistent light blue colour to make them stand out. In the large paragraphs of text at the bottom of the page there is a quote in a box which relates to the article, although the text is black, the box around it is the consistent blue colour.

The idea of the double page spread is to simply present the information of the article; conventionally there is a large picture of the article then a few paragraphs of text with a quote from the band in larger font. The idea of having a random quote in a larger, more noticeable font size is so that if the reader is flicking through the pages and they see the highly noticeable interesting quote they would be tempted to read further within the article to understand the happenings of the quote.

The institution of NME magazine is a company called IPC media which stands for the International Publishing Corporation. They have a well-established magazine brand which has turned into a music channel, website, award ceremony and much more.

The audience of NME is very diverse due to the popularity of the artists released, on the one hand they appeal to the mainstream audience of 16-24 year olds if bands like Two Door Cinema Club, Ed Sheeran and Kasabian were featured. Whereas if music like The Smiths, The Ramones and Blondie that could possibly appeal to the ‘indie’ styled mainstream audience, as well as the crossover audience of people possibly in their 30s when such bands where at the peak of their careers.

The way the band are in a shower is representing them as clean, which not only connotes them as being ‘fresh’ but also clean as in clean cut, because it isn’t often you find an alternative band that appear spotless.

Mojo
Front Cover

 Across the top page there is the masthead of the magazines name, Mojo. It is conventionally at the top because it is eye catching and easily viewable on a shelf. 
The colouring the magazine has chosen for this issue is red which connotes passion and desire which could suggest this magazine is for a passionate audience. Above the masthead is a skyline with a red splash in the top left corner, the splash reads "Free CD!" in white and the skyline adds more information about it explaining "John Lennon" in red and "his final masterpiece" in black which when people look at the masthead and see the skyline above it they could be more persuaded to buy the magazine.
In the middle of the page there is a banner headline with “The doors” written in their iconic trademark font in grey with red outline which is the main feature. With a long shot of the main singer, Jim Morrison behind the text this is appropriate as it identifies the artist, below the banner headline in the same iconic font it reads "And the 60 Greatest Elektra Albums" this is relevant because The Doors we're signed to Elektra Records.  Below this; there are some extra information of bands and articles that would be featured in the magazine, these are cover lines. These are conventional to magazine front covers as they show extra information to persuade the audience to buy it.

On the bottom right hand side of the page there is a barcode containing a date, issue number and a price. This is a conventional place to put a barcode because it is out of the way from all other information on the page yet still is visible.

There is a large deck of information varying in red and black, for example; In a large font at the top it reads "Plus!" as an exclamatory sentence. The use of the red on the white background makes the text stand out and appeal to the audience.
Below this, in a smaller font reads "Marvis Staples & Jeff Tweedy" in red which are two artists who have a deep passion in music making it appropriate because red shows connotations of passion. Below where it reads "Marvis Staples & Jeff Tweedy" in an even smaller font in black, this is to make it stand out on the white background in a small font.


Contents Page


 On the contents page, there is a black and white image which dominates the whole of the page of Edwyn Collins whose name was featured on the front cover. Towards the bottom right hand corner is a quote from the article about Edwyn Collins in white to stand out on the black and white image. There is a caption below this in red to also make the text stand out but also represent the passion for music the artist has.

There is the main article of The Doors in the bottom part of the contents which shows all the main articles on the front cover so people who were attracted by the content on the front cover can quickly find the articles that attracted them.

The page numbers are written in red to stand out from the black and white background image because at the top there is a cloudy sky which could imply that he’s taking the world by storm, whereas the bottom is a black forest which could also imply he has a wild personality. Also the page numbers are written without the word “page” or letter “p”, I have found this to be conventional of a music magazine because the audience would understand this means the page number.

Towards the bottom of the page where it is dark the font colour changes to white which makes it stand out on the dark background. Throughout the contents page there is the artist’s name then some added information about what the article is about of the artist, I have found that this is conventional for a music magazine.

At the top of the contents page is reads “features” to show what pages what articles are on, I have found it’s not conventional to write “contents” at the top of the page because people would see the numbers which they will associate with this being the contents page.

The contents page of Mojo reads the date and issue number, I have found that it’s not conventional to do this therefore I won’t include this in my music magazine. Another feature contained on the contents page is the logo of Mojo which helps us establish that it’s from the same magazine. Instead of doing this, to ensure people can be certain that my magazine pages are all from the same magazine I would maintain to a consistent house style. 
 Double Page Spread

The double page spread of The Doors is split into two pages. On the first page on the left hand side and occupying a third of the right page there is the main image. The image is of the band in low lighting which shows connotations of them being mysterious. The lead singer is shirtless; this is a representation of the hipster stereotype which establishes the target audience of the magazine.

 

The dominant colour on the page is black which connotes mysteriousness and power which associates the band with these feelings, making it appeal to its target niche audience (hipster).

On the second page on the right hand side is the beginning of the article about The Doors and in the colour white “Unforgettable” is written then “Fire” in a red bold font that is on the front is continued to the double page spread of the article being written in white then when an eye catching word would be written in red such as “Fire” or the name of the artists which interest the audience and stand out from the black background and white text.
The idea of the double page spread is to simply present the information of the article; conventionally there is a large picture of the article, a main headline then a few sentences explaining what is going to be featured in the article which interests the audience.

The institution of Mojo magazine is a company called Bauer media. They have a well-established magazine brand who have lots of experience with this musical genre.