NME front cover analysis

The music magazine I have chosen to analyse is titled, “NME”, which stands for “New Musical Express”. This has been chosen as a pun as it pronounced ‘enemy,’ which is a persuasive technique to lure the reader in. The word “new” indicates that the music is the most latest and recent so it’s more or less “in fashion” and “in trend”. “Express” represents how fast the music news will get to the reader and that it is up to date. NME is Europe’s most successful music magazine, with 16 million consumers worldwide and is published by IPCMEDIA.
The masthead is always done in bold blood red writing which contrasts with the background, which consists of dark monotonous colours; black and grey, so that it stands out to the human eye. The colour choice also fits in with the genre of the magazine as NME’s target audience is for those late teens/young adults who are interested in the indie rock genre and the colours red and black (which are on the cover) are associated with the rock and roll theme. The cover line and key articles on the cover are also made to stand out, by the use of colour. The masthead always uses a more striking colour, in this case red, which symbolizes its importance so that it is made recognisable and can be easily remembered by the purchaser. To continue, the magazine has stuck to only using 3 main colours; red, black and yellow, which refines the magazine and makes it appear to be more stylish and sophisticated. This informs the reader that the magazine maybe fairly expensive.
The main image on the front cover is of an alternative artist called La Roux. The image is a close up and La Roux is directly addressing the audience (direct mode of address) as she is using eye contact to involve the reader, to make them feel that she is addressing them personally and that each reader is her main focus. The picture conveys La Roux to be ice cold, as her make up is very wintery and she appears to have icy pale skin and light blue eye makeup which also represents coldness and ice. The two gems on the side of her cheek almost look like rain drops, or ice, which also adds to the wintery feel of the image. This portrays La Roux to be a very serious person, as she is pouting and does not appear to show any emotion. The way her makeup has been done, also makes her look futuristic, yet her outfit (from what we can see of it), seems to be from the Victorian times. This suggests that perhaps La Roux feels that she is trapped in the wrong period of time.
On the magazine, the significant words are printed in large bold fonts which makes it clear to the reader what is going to be included in the issue and grabs the reader’s attention. “THE FUTURE 50” (the main cover line) captures the audience’s interest as it is very “in your face” and we know that it is a core feature/article in the magazine as it is featured yellow and is the largest text on the cover.