Magazine Analysis

What type of magazine is it?



- Rolling Stone Magazine is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published bimonthly.

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom which has been published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart which first appeared in the 14 November 1952 edition. The magazine's commercial heyday was during the 1970s when it became the best-selling British music magazine. It includes mostly rock bands and hard metal artists.

From the front cover what kinds of issues/articles are going to be inside?

From the front cover of Rollin Stones Magazine the issues/articles that are in the magazine are first of all, an article on Jennifer Lopez as she the main person on the cover. The special report on this specific issue is on the Best Bands of 2001. It also has articles on the performance of Gun n’ Roses live, TOOL and Shaggy. They cover stories such as “The Orphan Wars”, which are about the battle over adoption rights, which is not related with music.
NME magazine has issues/articles on interviews from the Manics, The Enemy, The Cribs, Billy Clyro, We Are The Scientists and MGMT plus a lot more. The main person on the cover is a singer from the Killers, and cover articles on when their new album is released. They have articles on Metallica another rock band and Babyshambles. At the top left of the magazine they have two places written “Reading and Leeds 2008”, that NME is suggesting to its consumers these two places will be the best to visit for concerts and performances as there, their favourite artists will be performing there.

NME magazine target young aged boys around the age of 17 who are into Heavy Metal- Indie/ Nu Rave/ Alternative and covers a lot of articles on new bands and new upcoming artists. From the cover of this issue it is easy to identify the target audience of this magazine as it has cover lines on all the rock /heavy metal bands performing or releasing a new album. From the dark color of the magazine, black which is connected with hard metal and rock artists, show the likes of the magazine’s target audience interests.

Who is on the front cover and why?

On Rolling Stones Magazine they have Jennifer Lopez photographed as a woman warrior, she is appearing in a very seductive dress code to attract a younger age group who will find it more appealing to them. Also after 2000 results show that this magazine tried to offer a more oriental content, in my opinion that is the reason they chose J-Lo for this photo shoot as she delivers well this type of look they are going for, the reason they changed their content is because they had to compete with young men magazine’s such as FHM and MAXIM which target a lower age group.

On NME cover they have a picture of the singer from the band THE KILLERS, which is a rock band. The reason why they have chosen The Killer’s singer to be on their cover is because at that time this issue was published they were up coming artists and NME is a magazine that covers stories and articles on new bands and artists , so they are trying to promote them more and also because they are a rock group , which is what NME target group mostly listen to .

What does the main cover line say? What does this imply about the artist/band?? What overall message is the artist/band giving?

The main cover line in Rolling Stones Magazine is “Jennifer Lopez Rules”. In 2001 ,when this issue of this magazine was published , Jennifer Lopez was one of the top artists and that is the reason why they have that article line on there , it attracts peoples attention as well and also promotes the specific artist.

NME’s main article line is about THE KILLERS and is about their new album release that will be finished for Reading and Leeds. By including in their cover about the artists new album release they are directly promoting the specific artist and also attracting the target audience’s attention. Also by mentioning Reading and Leeds NME is encouraging and influencing its consumers to visit those places when they are singing their, for the specific artist its straight away a big promotion for his work as most readers will be willing to go and visit as it mentioned in NME.

Are any (social/ethnic/political) groups being represented? How does the magazine represent them?

Although Rolling Stones Magazine once published an ad that features an African-American man, it is targets upper and middle class white male demographics. It represents them because they cover stories on Obama and in one of their issue they had George Bush and had a cover line , that said Worst president of America so this represents people with a specific political view.

What does the design of the mast head tell you about the magazine? What does the title of the magazine tell you about:
1. the readership
2. its image
3. its style

From the design of the masthead in Rolling Stones Magazine , it shows that its target audience are from an upper class as it is more sophisticated, not a lot though because it still wants to keep its hippy look and rock type of writing. In every issue they tend to change the colour of their mast head to match the main picture that is in each cover. This shows that the magazine is concerned for its image as its target audience is demanding which shows there is style added to the magazine cover each time as the masthead needs to match every time the colours on the cover.