Comparative Analysis and Evaluation of Music Press Front Page

                                                    

The generic music convention code employed by NME suggest the target audience are young males from 16-24. You are made aware of the older ages as the bands that are mentioned are all bands that have been around for a long time and 24 year olds would have been listening to them when they were teenagers. This magazine is predominantly male as all bands mentioned and shown are male icons, however this will attract a small amount of girls/women who admire them for their looks. The fonts used are also a reflection of the stereotypical male; bold and strong and the front cover as a whole doesn’t looks as pristine as other music magazines such as Q. This gives a younger fresher feel.
KERRANG!’s key conventions suggest a similar target audience, young males from the ages of 16-30. However, It is evident from the font cover that although they derive from the same music genre KERRANG is heavy metal/rock. Its masthead is a reflection of this. It’s been given a shattered effect which suggests rebellion, something which the heavy metal/rock scene seems to promote. The word KERRANG! Also sounds like the sound a guitar makes when it has been distorted, an instrument which is very important within this genre.

The mode of address suggests that the audience is not of a very high education level. All features are written in short sharp sentences. With little to no expansion on what the feature also contains. For example on the NME front cover there is just a list of bands with little explanation of what will be contained within the article 

  

Comparatively it is clear that both magazines have different intentions, purpose and target audience. NME may appear to be for a younger more mainstream audience however, both magazines are targeting different audiences from different genres of music

Here is an example of the two bands featured on the front pages of these music magazines