Analysis of NME and Kerrang! magazine

The two magazines; NME and Kerrang, both familiarise in their represented genre. However they both have a very different approach at targetting there market. NME classify themselves as a laid back and unpretentious magazine which differentiates from the impression we recieve from the front cover of Kerrang. Kerrang present a very busy/messy style which reflects the stereotypical unoraginsated lifestyle which we would expect of their target market.



I first looked at the cover of NME. I felt that their colour scheming and the consistency in their layout was very eyecatching and consumer grabbing. The red and the black contrast made every element of the magazine prominent. The artist featured on the front cover had noticably green eyes which stood out in comparison with the conistet red and black and captured your attention. NME placed the cover stories on the left hand side which I believe to have been another eyecatchiong effect, as naturally we all tend to notice things on the left hand side more efficiently. I felt the cover for this magazine reflected its genre well with use of image. The artist looked very serious and careless. I feel this impacts the confident message which NME represent themselves to be. NME are known to be a ruthless magazine who are unconcerned with the viewpoints of critics and those who do not wish to read the magazine. I felt this message was reflected well through the image.

I liked the cover of NME and felt that they expressed there genre well through th front page. However I was then asked to further analyse the contents of the magazine and I was disappointed. I felt that the inside of the magazine did not cooporate well with the cover. They seemed to be representing two very different music genres and I found this to be confusing. The cover showed a confiednt careless genre with its tidyness and consitent style, however the inside reflected a wreckless mess with no consistency or composure. I did not feel that two went well together. The inside however did offer the stories promised on the front page and I did like the fact that these articles were very detailed and effective. The inside o the magazine consisted of a lot of text on some articles and lot of images on others. I felt that this off balance technique replicated its ruthlessness.

My innitial impressions of Kerrang! primarily from their front cover were very different. I saw the same uncaring aspects I did prviously in NME, however it was approached in a more obvious manner. The cover was messy as text and images overlapped, sizes and styles of text differed and the colour scheme was not consistent. My original perception of Kerrang! magazine has since changed after my analysis of the front cover. I stereotypically assumed that harsh, dark colours would set the theme of the magazine. Nevertheless, bright blue's and pinks were used throughout the cover to pinpoint certain areas of the page and draw your attention to them. I felt that this colour scheming was so unexpected that it was used to represent the rebellious side of the magazine as they did not stick to the stereotype and followed there own rules. The images for this cover were all very posed for and had been designed for this specific magazine. The scruffy clothes tied in well with the genr and representation of the mgazine.

I found the contents of Kerrang! magazine to be more suited to its genre than I found with NME magazine. Kerrang! kept a consistent style thorughout the magazine which familiarised with the front cover. Images and text were used more equally and therefore there was more of a balance between the two, which set more of a neutral tone.