This my chosen photo to put on the front cover of my magazine. 
I have used photoshop to plan the front cover of my magazine.
URBAN MUSIC consists of many different categorises, however the main one is R&B MUSIC, which I will include in my magazine to appeal to my target audience. c
History:
Rhythm & blues music was one of the most popular genres of music in the African-American community from the 1940s to the 1960s. This was because of the huge job growth that took place during World War II, a younger black audience rapidly moved from rural towns to urban communities. In 1949, Billboard magazine renamed its "race records" chart to "rhythm and blues," as the social and economic landscape began to change for African-Americans. From then on, this music continued to develop into one of the most largest music industries in the world. However, URBAN music we have to day differs from the original in many ways. The modern day music has a much more upbeat rhythm including mixtures of singing and rapping within
the same song, where as originally, URBAN music mainly consisted of music genres such as REGGAE.Consequently,
R&B music broke away from the more traditional "big band formula" of earlier years, and
R&B artists began performing in small, musical combos. The music tended to emphasize blues-style vocals and song structures. Like in the bands of the big band era, saxophone and piano were still present, but electric guitar and bass started to add a different power and electricity to the music, which translated well to radio and jukebox play.
For example this double page spread is about Ushers rise and fall of his life. There are similar stores to this every issue. There are also not many advertorials in the magazine.
This magazine achieves a unified house style by continuously using rather colloquial language throughout the entire magazine. This is used to create a sense that the magazine is almost talking to the reader, thus articles are seen as being interesting for the targeted age to read, unlike a complex articles that can be seen as being more of a boring chore to read rather than a relaxing and enjoyable. Furthermore, the same layout is continuously published consisting of boxes for interviews with pictures organised in columns. Where as, within stories of music celebrities, only small amounts of large pictures are used taking up a large majority of the pages.
The text is always laid out always three columns of writing.
Similarly, the font is the same throughout the whole magazine and colours differ as well. This house style is appropriate to the target audience as it is laid out in a relaxed and easy going manner. The continuous house style also creates a rhythm coordinating with the title and the target market of urban music fans.
The main image is a medium long shot of the R and B singer, Usher. He is wearing vintage pilot uniform standing in front of a U.S.A aeroplane. His facial expression appears to be looking ‘relaxed’ corresponding with the title. Sun glasses are the main feature of his face adding to the vintage pilot look as well as the badges, back pack, gloves and helmet he is holding in his right hand. This gives the impression that he ‘means business’ which accustoms the font lines matching the picture ‘Usher. There is no competition.’ Consequently, the look of a U.S.A army pilot creates an image of respect and dominance in which he can beat other music artists in the industry. Similarly, the army uniform accustoms the name of the singer ‘Soulja Boy’ thus, he is seen as a threat which creates tension upon the front cover of the magazine encouraging the viewer to buy and read it.
slightly smaller than the two main cover lines corresponding to the main image. Furthermore, just above the title at the top of the page there are names of famous urban music artists advertised in the magazine. The fact that a lot are mentioned informs the reader that there is a lot of content in the magazine and that they will get their moneys worth. Similarly, despite that they do not have describing words with them create suspense in which the reader wants to find out why they are mentioned and what is mentioned about them in the articles. As a consequence the cover is almost talking to its reader.
About the Magazine
Inside:
There are 66 pages in 
the NME in which 18 of them are adverts (27%), however, there are continuously adverts throughout the entire magazine covering up to half a page. There are a range of types of advertisement which consist of mainly music gigs, electricals involved with music such as headphones, and clothes.
NME achieves a unified house style by continuously using very chatty and informal language. This is done to sound as if the magazine is communicating with the reader in person as if someone was actually talking to them. This is appropriate to the target audience because most 17-30 year olds prefer to read as if they were being speaking to by their friends. Therefore, it is written this way so the reader is more likely to read and find out all about the gossip in music and buy the next weeks issue. Furthermore, NME has a unified house style by splitting text into three columns on every page. Black lines are sometimes used to do this. Similarly the font and font size is continuous throughout the whole magazine other than sub sub
titles and titles of the articles.
The cover does look quite similar to other music magazines such as ‘KERRANG’ Both titles are at the top of the page with a main image of a close up picture of a music artist. Free posters are being given away which is written at the left hand side of the page as well as large cover lines at the bottom of the page matching the picture. ‘KERRING’ has a similar target market, however it includes more rock music which matches the font and name of the title. 
There are three other images of ‘free posters’ on the bottom left hand side of the page. This reveals some of the content of the magazine therefore, the reader knows what they can find out if they buy the magazine. The fact that they are ‘free’ makes the reader believe they are getting more out of the magazine than just news stories on famous singers. The name ‘Mick Rock’ is highlighted red matching the red hair and also standing out from the writing as this is a very well known artist that the target market would love to read about, thus it helps to sell the magazine. 
formation within this weeks issue. This short phrase almost builds up tension upon the reader, as they feel they must read it especially due to the fact that it’s a ‘comeback.’ Like the name advertised with the free posters, the name ‘Suede’ is also made to stand out. However, this was by making the writing bigger rather than a different colour. This is most likely because it is at the top of the magazine near the celebrities red hair so it wouldn’t stand out as much. Also, it reduces to much repetition making the front cover as admirable as possible.
some of the main things the viewer can see on the front cover. This is as if the magazine is actually talking to the readers mind as everything fits together.
Consequently, the text has been laid out around the main image to create a frame around the artists face to draw attention to him.
The main image is close up picture of the indie singer ‘
The Cover:The title of the magazine is ‘NME’ which stands for ‘New Musical Express.’ This connotes the content in the magazine, which is all about new music. Therefore, the audience know the information in the magazine, which can appeal to them. The short abbreviation of title ‘NME’ is short and sharp, which can easily be remembered publishing the magazine and making a big name for itself despite the short title. This remembrance is reinforced by the bold capital letters that stand out. The title/logo is written in a simple way which is very basic and matches the simple short title.
Furthermore, the white title also contrasts the red and blue background making it stand out as fully as possible. However, there is not a strapline, most likely due to fact that NME are already abbreviations of the content of the magazine.
According to the publisher the target audience for NME are men 17-30 year olds with a general keen interest in music. However, the magazine does mainly contain alternative music specifically attracting late-teens, early twenties interested in that topic. Consequently, NME statistically shows that their readership are 74% male and 26% female with a median age of 23 years. Despite, this age average range it is no surprise that students make up 42% of the buyers.
According to NME’s media pack, ideal readers are young male men obsessed with music. The readers rely on the editorial and the adverts to keep them with the latest music and styles.
The magazines cost £2.30 and publish weekly. Incidentally, its circulation is approximately 38,500 copies every 6 months where as its readership is about 325,000 people a year.
Therefore, despites NME’s relatively narrow target audience it still believed to be one of the most successful music magazines at present time.
style of the text from the front
