Front Cover

The NME (New Musical Express) is a popular well established music magazine company which advertises different genres of music to a wide target population.

The main focus point of the NME magazine is the image of Beth Ditto naked, which is portrayed as a wide shot, including eye level references however with a slight low angle. The slight low angle encourages a strong persevere and illustrates attitude and strength. The naked imagery and strong make up contrasts with the usual representation of woman; women are usually; or in the past have been portrayed with elegance, they have not been represented as a dominant figure or as a publicised role model this emphasises confidence and attitude, which allows the genre of indie/rock music to stand out.

Confidence is highlighted repeatedly the language “KISS MY ASS” and the red nail varnish show attitude, and connote a strong attitude, an attitude with the magazine want to convey. The attitude also reflects the audience targeted, the harsh language lexis and colloquial terms highlight a younger audience, where taboo language doesn’t take offence and is used in ordinary everyday language; in my opinion I would say the audience would be aged seventeen up to thirty.

The harsh make up, lipstick marks and tattoos on Beth Dittos body attract an instant sex appeal, as well as a cheeky and flirty approach. This attracts a neutral sex audience, as the dominance and attitude attract a woman as well as the confidence which contrasts with the size 0 theory, woman will see Beth as a role model.

The bright orange background enhances a warm image and encourages the audience to read the magazine, the bright orange encourages the type of audience the magazine wish to attract; for example the orange want a lively and excited audience, this also highlights the type of music which the magazine advertises, the genre is expressed through the vibrant colours and attitude from the illustrations.




Q magazine is an established popular institution; the Q magazine logo is portrayed in a bold red square the simplicity of the Logo makes it stand out and because the magazine is a well known institution it turns it into so much more then what it actually is, additionally the red logo will stand out amongst any background. Two factors which highlight the popularity of the magazine are firstly the large image of Madonna which slightly covers the Q Logo, and secondly the “bumper issues” information which also covers the logo. The covering up of the label establishes the popularity and shows that an audience already knows the features of the magazine; this enables the magazine to be creative and to do whatever they want as an established audience has already been created.

Madonna has been used as Qs main imagery, the image is a close up medium shot, the imagery uses wide eyes which encourages a sex appeal which is appealing for the audience as well as looking friendly, this shows the audience a warmth to the magazine, and encourages them to read the magazine further. The medium shot shows Madonna looking directly at the reader which again enhances the sex appeal, however in contrast the picture isn’t to seductive therefore welcomes a larger niche of market. Madonna isn’t a new member within the music industry; she is mature and sexy which will encourage a larger audience. In my opinion I would say that the magazine would target an audience of 18 to 45 year olds, which for a music magazine is extremely large.

The colour scheme mainly consists of black and red, the black adds mystery to the magazine where as the red could be represented as a sex symbol or in fact danger. Capital letters are used on the anchorage “MADONNA” the large red font corresponds with the picture and anchors readers to go straight to the Madonna page, this is an advantage for Q magazine, as the storyline will get them hooked which will encourage them to read and buy the magazine. Q magazine also features cover lines again in the red font, the red font enhances an instant recognition for readers as the Q logo which is surrounded by the red square.

The Ideology of the magazine is based around differential music genres, therefore will have a large target audience, due to the different types of music genres Q relates to it will be able to attract more than a niche market and may in fact have the largest target audience than any other music magazine. Another convention in which the magazine contains is a bar code and date however in contrast to a usual magazine the bar code features next to Madonna’s head. This gives the magazine a unique quality. However when making my own magazine I will keep the bar code in the bottom right as it will not be a established magazine.