Magazine Analysis- NME

The main image is close up picture of the indie singer ‘Gerard Way’ from the band ‘Chemical Romance.’ His facial expression appears to be very intense. Thus, his face is slightly leaning down but is also looking up, gazing at the reader. This expression and posture reaches out to the reader because it is almost as if the singer was having a conversation with them due to the eye-to-eye contact. Therefore, this attracts the reader’s attention, and makes the magazine seem more personal, as the viewer feels as if they are actually with the music celebrity who they admire. Subsequently, this method engages the reader to pick up the issue and want to find out about the person on the front cover. By contrast, if the singer was looking in a completely other direction, there would be no eye-to-eye contact so the ideal reader would not feel as much of a connection and would not be pulled into the magazine as much.

His left hand is brushing back his red hair attracting more attention to the celebrities eye line, again reinforcing the connection with the music magazine. Similarly, his eyes are actually almost in the centre of the front cover capturing the expression and pulling the reader in.

His clothing is plain black relating to the red hair and fashion style of the singer. However, his body and clothing appear to be slightly blurred attracting the reader’s to the singers face rather than the body. This also emphasises the point about making the magazine more personal. It also contrasts with the light blue background making them him stand out as fully as possible. Furthermore, this colour contrasting technique also makes the writing on the front cover stand out as well, subsequently; it can be easily read and navigated round the page.