Detailed class analysis of

music magazine on NME

By Leeroy Magaramiri
Denotation:
Denotation is everything we see. We see
the masthead NME on the top corner and
the main cover line that says Dizzee
Rascal, the first word is slanted. We see
the model kneeling down and his hands
are spread out wide while having a big
smile on his face. We see graffiti in the
background of the location that the
character is in. There is a quote from the
artist on the bottom. We can see a puff
right underneath the masthead. There is a
tagline and the top of the page. There is a
quote from the artist at the bottom. The
main colours seem to be black, red and
white. There is graffiti in the background of
the models location. The model is wearing
sneakers with red and white writing on,
Connotation:
jeans with red
Connotation is and white writing
the meaning on, a white
of everything
vestsee.
we andThe
a chain
model round
has his neck.
hands spread
out in the main image because it represents
his freedom and it shows his happiness
towards what he does. This will make the
audience feel as if they are being invited in
by the model and they are to let him please
them in what he does. The main cover line
word that says Dizzee is slanted in the
same direction as his hand which is pointing
upwards to show that his goal is to be at the
top. The graffiti in the background connotes
that the model can also be bad and he
breaks rules which tells us a little about
him. The quote from the artist Im
spreading joy around the world, man!
suggests that he is quite proud of what he
is doing and so this will also intrigue the
Model:
target
The audience.
model is the person or celebrity we see
on the front cover. The model is presenting
himself as a joyful character and through his
hand gestures of wanting to get involved with
his audience, it makes them adore him even
more and they will feel welcome.
Anchorage:
An Anchorage is how images are
referred to. Some of the cover lines Icon:
act as an anchorage towards the An icon is a picture or a person that is
main image of the model. The quote representative of something. The model
that says Im spreading joy around is an icon for his genre of music because
the world man! links in with the this is shown through his costume. He is
main image because we can see his wearing a vest with no arms to show his
hands spreading out and so the quote muscles because hip-hop singers usually
mirrors his hand gestures that he is present themselves as tough and that is
spreading the joy. what makes him an icon. The graffiti wall
also acts as an icon because it represents
that the model is badass which the
target audience will be expecting.
Rule of thirds:
Breaking the page into thirds(both horizontally
and vertically) so that you can see where the
hotspots are and the visual points of interest.
The models face and the masthead act as a
hot spot because they are directing the
audience where to look and where to go next
which can be the title Dizzee Rascal.
Masthead:
Genre: A masthead is the name of the magazine
A genre is a set of characteristics. which is usually found at the top of the
The model is wearing a chain round front cover. The masthead of this
his neck and that is popular in hip- magazine has got the theme colours of
hop music because usually in this the front cover so that it blends in well
type of genre, the artists will be and it is not hidden so that it blends in
wearing some sort of jewellery to well.
perhaps show their wealth. The
audience of this genre will find this Cover Lines:
appealing because all they will Cover lines are found on the sides of the
want to know is that if he is front cover and they usually tell you who
wealthy, then he is good enough. the target audience The cover lines are
The graffiti wall in the background featuring similar hip-hop artists such as
also meets the codes & Jay-Z which will intrigue the audience as
conventions of the artists genre well because they will want to know more
because the target audience will be about them as well.
assuming that he breaks rules
 Mise-en-scene:
Main cover line: Barcode:
Mise-en-scene is everything we see in the
The main cover line states the main story A barcode is a machine-readable
frame. The models costume is telling us
that will be in the magazine and it will be code that allows the magazine to be
that he is a gangster like character
in a bigger font size than the rest of the scanned when buying and it is
through his chain and his white vest with
cover lines. The main cover line is the usually found at the bottom of the
no arms and this is supported by the
name of the model. The way it is laid out magazine. The barcode can be
graffiti in the location that he is in. This
will be appropriate for the target found on the bottom right of the
was to give the audience a bit about his
audience because the drop shadow effect front cover and it means that this
personality that he is the person who
and the slanted words are informal which magazine can be purchased through
might do things that might get him into
describes the artists character. scanning the barcode therefore the
Camera: trouble. However the purpose of this front
audience will have no difficulty
The type of shot used was a mid-long Strap line: cover was to show the audience that he
buying it.
shot(MLS) and this is because we can The strap line can be seen at the is spreading joy and so this suspends
see the whole of the models body but bottom of the front cover and next the idea of them thinking of trespassing
not the hands fully. The purpose of this to the barcode. It consists of and misbehaving although it might be
was to show his body structure and to similar artists in the same genre some scheme:
Colour of the things that he does.
make him fill up the page to emphasise to such as Jay-Z in which the The main colours or the theme colours used.
the audience that he is actually audience might be interested in as The main colours used were re, white and
spreading the joy. well. black. These colours seem to be consistent
Target audience: through the whole of the front cover and that is
The target audience are people that the because those might be the theme colours of
magazine is aimed at. The target the magazine and so that that will make it
audience for this magazine are people easier for the audience to recognize.
who are into hip-hop music and this is
Mode of Address:
shown through the model who is a
The mode of address is the way the
famous hip-hop artist as well similar hip-
magazine communicates with the
hop artists in the cover lines. Moreover,
audience. The audience are being
the audience can also be people who are
invited in by the model and they are
big fans of Dizzee Rascal and they just
being told that he is the man of the
want to know more about him. This is
moment through the head line of his
shown through the large font text saying
name and his quote therefore the
Dizzee Rascal which will stand out to
Direct address: audience will gain adoration for him.
the audience.
Direct address is when the magazine or model is Representation:
communicating directly with the audience. In this Representation is the way in which the media constructs
front cover, direct address is present when the model aspects of real life such as people, culture, ethnicity, gender
is looking directly to the camera and to the audience e.t.c. The model is being as a person who loves his audience
which shows that he loves his audience and he wants through the way he is smiling at the camera which makes
to get involved with them. The audience will feel as if the audience adore him. The graffiti in the background and
they are being appreciated by their idol because if his costume are also presenting him as a gangster because
the model was not making any eye contact, it would the way he is showing off his arms and his muscles shows
show that he does not care about the audience that he will be doing things that will get him in trouble,
because he has everything he needs.
Layout: Fonts: Main image:
A layout is the way in which everything is arranged. The masthead and the The main image is the big picture. The
This contents page follows the codes and contents title are in a large
main image is a low angle shot of the
conventions of a contents page. This consists of bold font and the top of the page.
model with the travel coach behind
having the title NME Content at the top of the The Touring Special title is bold
her. This type of shot makes her look a
page and, it is highlighted in a black background text that is fairly big and then it
is followed by the smaller font bit smaller and the coach bigger to
so that it stands out to the audience. We can see show how big of an event this is which
the subheadings of the topics in the magazine size text description. We can also
see that the index has really adds excitement to the audience. The
on the right hand side and they have the page main image is not filling up a lot of the
small text fonts and this was to
numbers and the description at the bottom. The page but it has taken enough space to
fit a lot of the pages in the list.
index is also at the left side and it lists going show the amount of its importance.
The purpose of all this was to
down.
Mode of address: show the audience what is more Masthead & heading:
Mode of address is the way the magazine important and what is least The masthead and the heading
communicates with the reader. We can see the important. For example, the side Contents are at the top of the page.
model in the picture pointing a the coach and bar with the different They all include red, white and black
right underneath it is written Touring Special in subheadings is in a fairly large which are the theme colours for this
which us as the audience that will assume that font size which tells that it sis
magazine. This is done not to cause
she is wealthy and she can afford her own coach more important to look at than
confusion because the audience would
to travel with. The article is starting with thank the index which is in a smaller
expect the house style to be
god which is building a sense of relief towards text font.
continued.
the audience because they might understand that Date & issue number:
phrase more. The date of this magazine was 26
Columns: November 2009 and it has been
A column is the division of a page or a text. The page is placed right below the Contents
divided into three parts: the index, the top story and the
title.
side bar with different subheadings. The purpose of this
was to tell the audience where to look first and where to
Mise-en-scene:
go next. As the top story is in the middle and the image
stands, they will be drawn to that first. They will then be Mise-en-scene is everything we see in the frame. We can see
drawn to the side bar on the right hand side that has that the picture was taken in broad daylight and the lighting
subheadings of bold white text highlighted with a black of the sun was perfect and this makes the audience assume
background strip which then makes it stand out. Lastly, that she is enjoying life in a nice weather. If the weather was
they will then look at the index because that way, they a bit dull then the picture would seem unappealing. The
can then find a page they want to look at after they have coach also has the same effect on the audience because
seen they will think that she is enjoying her money. The model is
Pagethe recommended pages.
numbers:
wearing casual clothing with a necklace and a silver wrist
The page numbers are included on the index column
and they are highlighted in black where as the titles ring which shows that she dresses up to show her wealth
were in red. The purpose of this was to show that the which will make the audience envy her. The costume also
title colour was lighter than the page numbers which tells us that she does not want to show her money off too
shows that they were probably less important to look much because she is not wearing anything that is too shiny
at or they were following the house style of the or might see expensive.

Target Audience:
A target audience is the group of people that
the magazine is aimed at. The target
audience for this contents page would be
those that are big fans of her work because
they would be the ones interested in her tour.
Compare to the front cover, it might just be
those that are interested in music.
Borders:
There are borders around the image to
make it look like a photograph picture
and it looks as if it was attached to
something to make it look as if it was
hanging. The purpose of this was to make
it more creative and so the target
audience will find this satisfying.

Rule of thirds:
Breaking the page into thirds(both
horizontally and vertically) so that you can
see where the hotspots are and the visual
points of interest are. The main image also
acts as a hotspot because it is something that
the audience is going to focus on as they look
at this page. The subheadings on the right
hand side might also act as hotspots because
they are directing the reader where to look.

Captions in picture:
Captions in a picture could be any text that is
found in the picture. We can see a little bit of
captions on the coach that end with
cruiser.com. This could possibly be the
coach company or website. The fact that it is
not shown fully suggests that it might not be
that important.
Anchorage:
An Anchorage is how images are referred
to. The title Touring Special is acting as
anchorage of the image because it tells
that she will be touring with the coach
behind her.
Layout:
A grid layout is the way in which the text is
arranged. There is a grid in the text
because it is divided into four columns and
this type of grid is called Manuscript. The
purpose of this might have to fit in the
headline and the images below.
Font size and type:
Like a news article, the head line quite
large, bold and it stands out. The
subheading is however much smaller and
the text his not as thick. The article then
follows after which is much smaller in size.
They are all listed down in that order and in
the order of importance. The purpose of
that was to tell the audience what to read
first, what to read next and what to read
last.
Column width & positioning:
The four columns of the article can quite
short and they are not spaced out too much
so that it is easier to follow the script.
Caption:
There is a caption right below the title of the
article that describes what Dizzee Rascal has
been up to. This will come in helpful to the
audience because they will have a bit of
information what he has done previously.
Overall impression:
I think the double page succeeds in what it
was trying to achieve which was making the
audience get a glimpse of how he grew up
and this was shown through the images as
well as the graffiti.
Design:
The text seem to look as it is dropping
and the script seems to be avoiding going
over the radio and it just goes round it
and this technique is used to build a
sense of satisfaction to the audience.
Use of space:
How image and text are Everything is not squished together and
integrated: the text is quite spaced out. The radio and
The title says from tags to riches the bottles at the bottom do not go over or
and riches links in with the behind the text to show that everything is
models leather jacket because it is quite organised and this was to make the
shiny and bright to show that he is audience focus on one thing at a time.
quite wealthy. The text is also not
settled because some of the letter Colour:
seem to be sort of wavy. This links On the main image on the left, we can
in with the image because the see multiple colours of the graffiti but his
model is not settled and he wants bright red jackets stands out more. There
to break the rules which makes the is black text colour but there is also faint
audience see him as a risk taker. graffiti in the background of the page.
Use of images:
The images are used to represent the background
of the model and what sort of things they get up to
which informs the audience of what the model is
like. For example we can see the model on the left
hand side spray painting while looking behind him
as denoted. The connotation of this is that it
represents him as a criminal because he is doing
something wrong and so he is looking out for
possibly the police which tells us that these are
the sort of things he might sing about. We can also
see bottles of bear and a radio underneath the
article as denoted. This connotes that his music
might be associated with drinking.
Mode of Address:
Target audience: We are being told that the model might be
The target audience for this will a dangerous yet rich man. This is through
already know what his life must the images and the title. The image on the
have been like through the picture left is telling us that crime is dangerous
and so they just have to read the but if you have your money, then you can
article if they want to know more get away with it. The bottles and the radio
about their favourite model. As also communicate in the same manor
there is alcohol and graffiti because they are telling the audience that
present in the image, you can tell all this alcohol comes from the fame of
that this can not be suitable for producing hip-hop music. As the article is
children and so probably older about how Dizzee Rascal and how he grew
teens or adults. up, the bottles might connote that he used
The theme colours of the magazine
'red, white and black seem to be
used in all three pages.
All three pages have their
own way of communicating
with the audience
The fonts of the headlines in all
three pages stand out and they
all have a different way of
inviting the audience in.

They all excite the audience in a

way because they keep us
entertained and discover more
about the topic.
The models in all three
pages are doing something
that goes with their type of
genre and something that
their target audience might
enjoy.