Analysing music magazine

Analysing music magazines

Contents page analysis:

In this NME magazine there is one page used for the content which includes different storylines about music artists.

The editorial items are listed in just some of the pages in the magazine, as for the rest their titles have not been mentioned in the contents page.

 There nine sections in the contents page which all include music artists that are in that genre of rock/indie music, this is noticeable by the pictures used at the front.

The sections have been divided in 3 parts which are all aligned to make it clear and understanding for their target audience.  Furthermore the pages go in order of how it’s written on the content page, this makes it easy for the audience to follow and know where everything is.

The textboxes and captions go along with the picture used which shows that it’s all in order of how it’s arranged and how it looks on the page which is presentable for the audience to look at.

Pictures of different music artists are used on the page and there are different ways of how the pictures are shot. There are various ways of the ways the pictures have been shot, in the middle of the page there’s the use of long shot of two men in mud which also includes their surroundings. This would pull the audience’s attention because its caption says “Festival survey” the word festival does not match with the picture so therefore people would want to know what it’s about.

Another shot that’s been used is mid-shot this is a shot taken from above the waist to the head. This is seen on the bottom left corner, this picture includes three men standing close together. There is also another type of shot which is a close up shot on the right hand side; a close up shot is taken from above the shoulder to the head top.

The connotations used are pictures of music artists who are all male, also in one of the pictures there is a use of a guitar used which if to denotate would suggest that it links with the whole genre of rock, its more cost effective to if they used for example a trumpet which wouldn’t link with the whole purpose of its look to their audience.

In the contents page the listings mentions the artists or about the artist in the images so therefore this creates a link between the two.  For example image 27 talks about John Lennon and it includes his image with it too so the audience familiarise themselves with him.

The front cover reflects the contents page as it includes what was said in the contents page, we know this because the images used on the front cover have also been used in the contents page for example John Lennon is highlighted as a figure on both pages.

The article talks about John Lennon’s career and becoming a protest leader. The profile of John Lennon’s autobiography in sectored in four parts. The first sector is shown to be the beginning, the second and third is middle and the last section is the end.  There’s also a caption used in the article to clearly present Lennon’s quote between the second and third sections of the autobiography. 

The sort of tone and mood used in this article is very low as though a man is speaking, moreover it also sounds like a story which is being told by a lady/woman. This article suits the target audience effectively because it uses terminology which other people who are not the target audience wouldn’t understand for example Lennon quotes “I’m happy- The only blots are violence….”  The word “Blots” would only be understood by the intended audience, people such as me wouldn’t know what the meaning is as I don’t listen to such music.  Also with that it could be said that the words that have been used is sociolect meaning only a specific group of people which is their targeted audience.  The colours used in this DPS are very dull, this helps compliment the article to make it look old.  John Lennon is an old man who makes money through his music; he has also been through a lot such as trying to bring people together through his music and being a protest leader. Using dull colours makes the article look old which work well together.