Research and Planning - Magazine Conventions - NME The Strokes cover

My Investigation in magazines

Today in class we have been learning new media terminology in regards to newspapers/magazines. We have learnt key terms such as house style, mast head, brand identity, mode of address and anchorage text etc. We then used our new terminology to evaluate a magazine cover of a popular magazine. In our group we were given NME (see below cover)

NME:

                                                            

From this we established NME's usual house style, they have kept a constant mast head and the heading is the same size, position and font they usually use on all their covers. However NME's house style is usually a red heading however on this cover it is in a striking white in contrast to the dark background.

The other fonts on this magazine is in a shocking pink colour which is quite a bold statement from a music magazine such as NME. The cover story of this magazine is about a band called the strokes a full page picture is dedicated to them on the front and so the sale of this magazine is NME relying on the fact that their readers know the band. This is part of the mode of address which also contains other bands from the target audience's genre of music and also quotes from musicians. The mast head as merntiomed previously is white and also overlapped by a picture of the strokes highlighting their importance in this magazine issue.

The front cover also features anchorage text, accompanying the strokes is 'WORLD EXCLUSIVE' this captures the reader as they won't be able to see this interview/feature on the strokes anywhere else. Also the  'world exclusive' is in white writing which makes it stand out and highlights the impoirtance such as the mast head in white too.

In regards to the shocking pink writing which is frequently used on this front cover i did some research on previous nme magazines which featured the strokes. i found these two other covers;

                                      

If you notice both covers main cover story involves the strokes and both use a bright pink font which is unusual fro NME so we can see that the pink may be a frequent feature with the strokes and NME.