a deconstruction of the magazine

1. NME
A british weekly music journalism publication.

2. NME
NME is a weekly music journalism magazine
that started publication in March 1952. Its
original form was a weekly music newspaper
but has gradually progressed and developed
into the magazine it is today.

3. Its History
NME was the first magazine to publish the
singles chart, in the 14th November 1952
edition.

4. ...
For many years, the magazine has been
associated with Punk and Rock music
however has branched out to other genres
of music, to appeal to a larger market. It
started as an alternative music magazine
and in some ways is still an alternative
magazine, but features more mainstream
music more frequently.

5. Bands Featured
Over the years many very famous bands
have featured on the cover of the magazine
or featured in an article within the
magazine, including; The Beatles, The
Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols and more
recently; The White Stripes, Arctic
Monkeys, and the Kaiser Chiefs.

6. Freebies In The Magazine
The magazine offers many freebies in their
issues, to increase interest. In May 2008 the
magazine underwent a redesign to re-aim
the magazine at an older readership, with
a less ‘poppy’ tone. In this edition, the
magazine featured a free seven-inch
Coldplay vinyl single.

7. ...
Further more the magazine has free A3
posters, in the center pages of the
magazine. This attracts further audiences,
as fans of the features bands on the
posters, would often buy the magazine,
purely to get the poster.

8. NME Awards
The Company also hosts an award ceremony,
in some ways very different to conventional
award ceremonies. Awards such as ‘Worst
Record’ and ‘Villain of the Year’ awards. For
many of the nominees, receiving awards for
such categories is all a laugh and part of the
fun of being famous. They all receive an award
the is design to resemble and middle finger
gesture.

10. There are positive awards given too; in
2006 The Arctic Monkeys won the ‘Best
New Band’. Oasis has won over 9 NME
awards, with a mix of positive, and bad
awards.

11. The NME Award Tours
As part of advertising the Awards, NME
have created an Awards Tour, which tours
the world with nominated bands headlining
the tour, including Crystal Castles, The
Vaccines and The Arctic Monkeys.

12. ...
Although people attend the tour to listen to
the music and enjoy it, it is an effective form
of advertising, as audiences at the tour
become interested to see which of the bands
they saw win awards. And the word of mouth
generated following the tours is an effective
form of below the line advertising and a key
example of two step flow.

13. Genre
The genre of music displayed and used for
NME although originally very heavily
directed to one or two genres; rock and
punk, the range of music used has changed
and broadened.

14. Audiences/Genre
This is 20 April 2013, featuring David
Bowie, prior to his breakthrough back
into music. As you can imagine an
edition all about a classic, ground
breaking artist like David Bowie
attracted generally an older audience
that used to listen to Bowie in their
younger years. This edition was extra
special as it was a 100 page edition,
all about David Bowie and nothing
else.

15. ...
As well as classic artists, NME
also features new, up and
coming, pop bands such as Lana
Del Rey in this January 2012
edition. Using an artist such as
Lana Del Rey, attracts the
younger audiences, more
interested in pop, mainstream
music.

16. ...
In between these two genres of
music, NME also covers the mixes
or hybrid genres of music
nowadays and feature bands
such as Fall Out Boy and Foo
Fighters. This wide range of
bands features allows the
magazine to cater their
magazine to every type of
audience, and music taste.

17. Conventions of Magazines
As you can see
I have pair he
the conventions
of a magazine
to its part on the
cover.
You can see the clash stands out against it all as its straight in
orientation or bigger.

18. ..

19. Conventions not included on the
cover
There are a lot of other conventions that are not included on the cover of the NME magazine, mainly as
they are conventions of the inside of the magazine;
● By-Line- Name of the reporter
● Credits- in the form a beeline the author is usually credited, some photographers may have the name
of the photographer below it.
● Crosshead- A subheading that shows in the body of the test is centred above the column of text, if it
is set to one side then it is called a side-head.
● Exclusive- This means that newspaper and no one else solely cover the story, the paper will pay their
interviewees, buying the story so it cannot be used by another newspaper, or a ‘special’, a one off
interview of a famous band giving the readers a little insight into their unreleased albums etc.
● Lead Story- Usually a splash, it’s the main story
● Menu- The list of content inside the paper
● Pugs- to catch the reader's eye they are well places, a pug to the top left and right hand corner of a
magazine, the price, logo, position are places here.
● Sidebar- an additional box next to the main feature of the magazine.
● Spread- A story that covers more than one page
● Stand First- Sentence a after a headline and before and article begins that’s ‘sells; a feature to the
reader.

20. Intertextuality and borrowed
interest
The whole idea of this magazine and the whole company,
relies on borrowed interest and intertextuality. All the
articles, and freebies and posters from particular bands
are how the magazine is sold and becomes successful. The
audiences will have a particular band or genre they like,
and as previously referenced the magazine caters to many
music genres. Further more, the magazine references the
movies and new albums, and videos.

21. Distribution
NME is widely available in most shops,
including many smaller corner shops for a
reasonable price of only £2.40. The tickets
for the tours are available across many
online ticketing websites such as Live Nation
or Ticketmaster. In terms for the awards
they are broadcasted on ITV every year.