A NME case study for my indie rock music magazine

1. NME
Case Study

3.  The paper's first issue was published on 7 March 1952
after the "Accordion Times and Musical Express“ for
£1000 just before it was abut to close.
 It was relaunched as the New Musical Express.
 The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently
featured on the front cover.
 New Musical Express has played a central part in the
British love affair with pop music. Snotty,
confrontational, enthusiastic, sarcastic: the NME landing
on the doormat every Wednesday was the high point of
any music fan's week, whether they were listening to
The Beatles, Bowie or Blur. The Sex Pistols sang about
it, Nick Hornby claims he regrets not working for it
History

5.  1960-NME would featured new British groups emerging at that
time. The magazines rival magazine was “Melody Maker”. Some
pop music was turning into rock.
 1970- NME had lost ground to Melody Maker, as its coverage of
music had failed to keep pace with the development of rock
music, particularly during the early years of psychedelia
and progressive rock. However after a switch of editors and style
by mid-1973, the paper was selling nearly 300,000 copies per
week and was outstripping its other weekly rivals, Melody
Maker, Disc, Record Mirror and Sounds.
 1980- Sales were apparently lower when photos of hip hop artists
appeared on the front and this led to the paper suffering as the
lack of direction became even more apparent to readers. NME
also started to feature non musical topics like politics and sports.
 1990-NME started including more American bands like Nirvana.
 Today- NME's major factual blunders, both in print and on its
website, such as using a photo of Alanis Morrissette for a Fiona
Apple review in 2012, and referring to George Harrison as the
Beatles bass player in 2014, have been criticized by both its
readership and the press
Background

6. Strong colours of
black, white, red
and yellow
It includes sell
lines with
images
revealing what
is inside
Indie Rock is
represented
though the
band and
artist names

7.  The magazine is sold weekly for £2.50 an
issue.
 It is based in Southwark, London, England
 It includes 50 colourful pages
 Follows the layout conventions including
with main image, has full colours and has
images that relate to the text in the
article.
 As well as a magazine NME has its own
website and a radio station in progress.
NME Today

8. NME targets men usually between the ages of 17-
30, it targets people between the lower middle
class, skilled working class and working class.
They are devoted music listeners especially to
indie rock
Target Audience

10.  The majority of this content for NME
magazine is based around indie music
 It tells the readership latest gigs, singles,
albums and news related to the best indie
Content
artists.
 Bands that are commonly featured are
Arctic Monkeys, The 1975 and Kings of
Leon

12.  NME magazine includes iconography
associated with rock e.g tattoos, piercings
and dark make-up
 The magazine features Red and black
most strongly, along with primary colours
like yellow and blue suggesting a male
readership. These colours are also
conventional colours throughout the indie
rock genre
Style

13. Mode of Address