1. FRONT COVER OVERVIEW
All of these front covers are from the music magazine NME; they have all
been designed for a purpose of attracting Indie rock fans and light rock. By
analysing them and comparing, it is possible to establish features which each
of them share which create “brand identity”.
From looking at these six front covers there are easy to identify typical
features of conventions which are shown on magazine front covers. Such as
the main image which dominates the whole page of a relative artist whom
the audience can recognise, sell lines which are presented around the main
image, small pictures taken from distinctive articles inside the magazine, and
of course the masthead which is presented in a appropriate font for the
magazine.
In NME there is no consistency whether a band features as the main image or
a solo artist does. However there are bands which the magazine does keep a

2. loyalty to certain bands by presenting them with double page spreads and
appointing them to large features of the magazine for whatever addition
they may appear in. In NME, there are a range of artists who appear, such as
sometimes a band will appear on the front page, then on another edition a
solo artists will feature, this shows the readers that NME caters for both
people who are in a band and those who are doing it on their own, they
support artists who feature in their magazine and show encouragement by
putting them into big articles and surrounding them on the magazines front
page. Sometimes the leader of the band will feature on the front page of the
magazine without the rest of the band mates to show that he is the leader
and he dominates the band.
However, most artists who feature in NME are male; excluding the odd
female which will rarely appear. If a woman does appear on the front cover,
she will not be the feminine type and could supposedly be described as a
“tom boy” or purely an “indie rock chick”. This represents and shows how
males dominate the front covers of NME and most of the smaller feature
articles too. Indie rock songs vary from being completely rock n roll to a more
smooth and mellow tune such as the Verve, Bittersweet Symphony. Males
that appear on NME are reflective of the target audience, attracting them to
buy the magazine as they would be seeing the type of man they would
respect and have an interest reading in, rather than reading about a female
artist who the reader may have no association with.
Other similarities which are presented on each front cover would be the
costume that the artists wear. The artists are joined together by the fact that
they all mostly consistently wear dark, muted and low key colours that
represent their relaxed and “go with it” nature, examples of these clothing’s
would be plain and simple t-shirts, Harrington jackets, etc. This look is
associated with most males who are in this genre of music, such as Oasis,
Arctic monkeys; they all dress similarly as their style coordinates with the
type of music that they produce. Regardless of the costume that is commonly
used on NME, there are some artists which break away from that by wearing
something more noticeable such as one of the magazine front covers shown
at the top of the page, Noel Gallagher features on his own wearing a white
suit and holding a cup of tea, this could have been a sure sign of Oasis

3. breaking up, Noel featuring himself and wearing something that breaks the
conventions of his usual clothing style, this shows him doing it by himself,
however by holding the cup of tea presents a cool look for him, as if to say he
isn’t bothered. The strap line beneath him says “Noel is at boiling point...”
this could be a sign that he may mean business, and is on the verge of
rebelling against Oasis. On the other copies of NME all the men are dark
haired with moody expressions and are wearing simply yet dark and
mysterious coloured clothing, this represents the type of man who would
read NME, therefore attracting him towards the magazine.
Although NME do have feature article photographs they rarely have more
than two, and when they are on the front cover they are set in a structured
way either on top of one another or at the other side of the page. Mostly
they are smaller pictures than usual, this could be because NME have quite
crowded front covers as their headlines are large and are crowded, though
this adds to the “rock n roll” theme of the magazine and makes it look
slightly more “crazy” looking, which instantly grabs the attention of a reader
who is looking for that type of music. Also, the use of smaller feature article
photographs shadow that the devoted readers of this magazine may tend to
hang posters up on their wall of their favourite artists.
Every magazine front cover the NME masthead appears in the exactly same
bold and stand out font and colours and in the exact same positioning every
magazine, excluding any bonus magazines such as Eminem’s article, however
as that front page is dedicated to Eminem and the headline “from rehab to
recovery” this is presented in the magazine as it is representing a new
Eminem which ultimately NME and its loyalty to the artists that feature,
make this statement very clear as they completely disobey the mise-en-scene
that almost every front cover has. Every time a magazine is published the
famous NME will be filled with a bold and outstanding red, this represents
the artists which feature as they are all well known and established, they
produced outstanding music and each have bold personalities which suit
their “rock n roll” lifestyle. Sometimes the artist will be positioned either in
front of NME and blocking a little bit of the title, but as NME is so well known
and the brand identity is familiar, there is no worry that the target audience
won’t be able to recognise it. Being shown in front of NME possibly tells us

4. that this artist “is taking over NME” which shows their power and the playful
nature most men have. This alternates between the artist being put behind
NME this though does not suggest that NME is ruling the artist but perhaps
makes a better positioning for the rest of the strap lines etc that will be
featuring on the front page. A feature which is consistently shown in the
form of a strap line above the NME masthead, will be a short snappy line
giving the readers a bit of information about their favourite bands which will
instantly make them want to read the magazine due to NME cleverly giving
enough to get their attention but not enough to give it away.
Usually there is only a maximum of three sell lines, which is shown with the
six front covers on the top of the page. Most of them are headlines of typical
indie rock bands and artists. Such as on the third magazine below the
headline there is a list of bands that will be featuring in the magazine, as
NME is the only magazine which has a band index featured in it, this will be
appreciated by the audience as they will recognise that NME cater for their
needs. A main factor would be that the male target audience is male, and
using a more visual aid rather than word base would possibly attract more of
the aimed target audience.
According to colours NME tends to stick to three main colours schemes, red
white and black, however if any other colours are shown they tend to be
yellow. These being primary colours they instantly attract your attention
making it a very clever technique.
The layout is also very consistent across the eight from covers too, NME is
always headlined in the same position, also the main headline is mostly going
across the artist featured on the front cover, this is where the audience’s first
instinct to look will be. Although strap lines are not seen as important as the
headlines, it assures the readers there is more to the magazine than what the
main headline has to offer which can sometimes be the point where the
reader will decide to buy the magazine.
This overview has evidentially identified that NME has its own brand identity
and mise-en-scene that any of the target audience could recognize. This is
maintained by the repetition of style and layout structure that occurs from
issue to issues, and which quite clearly works for NME due to its success.