1. Ideology essay
In this essay I will be discussing how the music magazine NME communicates messages and values
through its articles and how do they correspond with the magazines ideology. NME is largely
associated with rock, alternative and indie music. The article that I will be analysing is about a French
pop band called The Teenagers, and I will analyse the way they are being presented by the media.
The article is on a double paged spread and on the first page there is a photograph of the band that
takes up the whole page. In the photograph they are sitting on a bed in what appears to look like a
teenage boy’s room. The pictures stuck on the wall behind the bed give us the ideas that it is a
teenage boy’s bedroom because of the pictures are of girls wearing limited clothing. This is symbolic
of the boys being rebellious towards their parents and this also suggests that the media believe all
teenage boys bedrooms to look like this. Another idea that the media are trying to symbolise is the
idea of all boys being untidy we get this idea from the photos which are not stack on the wall in a
neat and orderly fashion. It also tells us the way the media view the band, for example they have
dressed them and put them in this environment because they want people to think of the as
mischievous young men.
Bellow the headline on the second page it reads ‘young, dumb and filthy tunes’ this reflects the
stereotype about teenagers being stupid and always making the wrong choices in life because they
are too young. This representation is in line with the common ideology. The magazine is
predominantly about indie and alternative music. The fans of this sort of music like to think they
have avoided being part of the mainstream society and are ‘hipsters’ (who are out of the
mainstream of society).