NME Cover Research

Brief History

In 1961, New Musical Express (as it was known before the magazine title was abbreviated) was released every Friday and cost 6d (approximately 2.5 pence today). Nowadays NME is very much known for being an ‘indie’/‘alternative’ music magazine often featuring very niche artists, but during the 1990s the bands and artists featured in NME were much more mainstream and of a wider genre range (such as Robbie Williams, Korn and Cypress Hill). One of the main reasons for this change was the progression of the different music genres, and the increasing popularity of genres, like indie, with the magazine’s target audience. In the earlier years of NME’s existence, most of the artists featured were males, it was only in the early ’90s that NME began to feature more female artists. For example Madonna was the main cover image on a 1995 issue of NME, in the same issue Courtney Love and Nicolette were some of the main features.

Conventions

• Masthead
• Gig info - "x Gigs Listed"
• Institutional information - bar code, issue number, price etc
• Banner at top near masthead
• Small images to go with coverlines
• Website name
• Quotes from interviews
• Coverlines about recent news
• Lots of band names mentioned on the cover
• Some competitions
• Central image - often quirky poses, direct address
• Colour scheme - red, white, black and yellow

Differences

• Bands/artists on the front - some indie pop, some more indie rock
• 'Studio reports' on Pete Doherty cover
• Scarlett Johansson cover has a lot more empty spaces