NME:
Background and Ownership.
The weekly paper, the New Musical Express, was first published in 1952. The New Musical express was bought by Maurice Kinn. On the 14th November 1952 the fist magazine was first published, however it was a non-glossy tabloid format. At the beginning of the New Musical Express it was competing against other magazines like Melody Maker. However the magazine sales for NME were much healthier than Melody Maker as NME was selling 200,000 issues a week,
The NME magazines wanted to have an edge like no other magazine so they took the idea of the US Billboard magazine and created the first UK Singles Chart. This then adapted in the 1960’s. Firstly they featured band like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones on the front covers of the magazine. NME then created their own poll winners features bands like these within the magazines. The results of the polls then featured in the NME poll winners’ concert. These featured many bands and made NME more known. They awards were filmed and aired on British Televisions weeks after the event. This was their first of many cross broadcasting.
In the beginning of the 70’s NME was starting to loss public interest to Melody Maker magazine. Therefore NME started to change their face of the magazine and this appeared to bring the readers back. Later in the 70’s saw the punk era. This meant that magazines like NME had to change their style for the reader’s suitability. However for magazine like NME it was a slow process to change the cover to this new phenomenon. It then started to advertise for “hip young gunslingers” and this brought back readers and started some new readers. Bands also started wanted to be noticed by NME because they had the biggest circulation.
The 80’s brought the mergering of Rough Trade records. This meant that readers could gain cassette tapes by mail order at low prices through NME magazine. This cassette tape included many new and famous bands (Orange Juice, Linx, buzzcocks etc). The second tape was released in 1986.
The 90’s for NME brought the launch of the first virtual version for music magazine, this was the NME webpage. This dated all the important development in the music press online. This was not such a big success but was redeveloped in 2005.
The years of the 2000’s brought many new developments for NME. In 2002 NME released orginal magazines which had artist reviewing and relating to one artist or band. This relates to the many different genres of music. The NME was catering to the many musical trends. Examples of this could be the 60’s mod, 70’s punk and the 80’s Goths.
Style/layout/mode of address
The current circulation of NME is 58,284. NME currently cost £2.20 weekly (However there is an option of a years subscription). It consists of many A3 pages with a glossy print on the front cover. This front cover, compared to earlier covers, looks bright and enticing. It consists of one main image at the centre of the magazine and then smaller images and headlines surrounding the magazine. The main image is of a relating artist to the reader. In this case it would appear MGMT is on the front cover. This will appeal to the reader’s profile. They will recognise the band and want to develop their enthusiasm for their music. This could by the article inside the magazine or by posters, in this case just the article. The mode of address for NME can be seen by the terminology and images. The terminology used slang. This can be interpreted in different way for different sub-cultures.
Content And Approach To Music
The content of NME is based around mainstreams. This is because of the different sub-cultures of today’s society. The NME is an attractive magazine, which attracts many enthusiasts. This is because it is focuses on the cotemporary music and bands. This includes visiting all gigs, listing the up coming gigs and listing the up to date music charts. NME is known to have all these features and more. They promise to have the “first on music news” with these entire top artists in their articles. The regular artists they have on EMA are The Killers, Kings Of Leon, Green Day, Fran Ferdinand and Fall out boy. The main focus for the content is the current artists who are producing new material and songs.
In this particular issue the main bands featured are The killers (with Elton John), Fall out Boy, The wombats and MGMT. The rest are all unsigned bands or local bands that become known. NME first show news articles relating to the bands and then goes on about the album releases and song releases. Then lastly there are gig lists and upcoming tour lists.
Also within the magazine there are many adverts that some readers keep because they are very amusing adverts. There is also a section within the NME magazine where the readers have a chance to have their letters published and people then can then discusses their views. This lets everyone have an opinion and makes the readers feel included within the magazines. The letters can be based around any form of music, even if that band is not previously mentioned in the magazine. The gig guides are very interesting for the music euphuists.
Near the end of the magazine there is special section, which is written by an artist. In this case it is Mick Jones the artist from The Clash. He writes his point of view for the readers to see.
The mode of address through these two types of features in a magazine is very reflective and informal. Both of these bring in readers because it evolves the reader and their views.
Promoting the Industry And Other products.
Within many NME magazines there is many adverts for many different reasons. The relationship between the editors and advertisers is very symbolic because each is different. Within all the magazines there is many musical adverts, however there are also general adverts. In this particular issue there are adverts for the musical game Lips. This is just one of the many musical adverts. Another example is the orange advert, however this is just a general advert.
The way adverts are layout in the magazine is by how much they are willing to pay for each page. Each page is worth an amount of money. The order in which the adverts are laid is also fixed by the price that the company is pillaging to pay.
Every NME reader has a profile and the advertisers appeal to this. The magazine is aimed at teenagers and appeals the “typical” teenager. An example would appeal to their fashion, their hobbies or even their music genre. This is because the representation of the NME is young audience.
Also through the advertising NME promote their other ways of broadcasting. This is through the Stylish website and radio. They can let the readers know of their cross broadcasting through using their products like the magazine. This is because the reader can already relate the existing products.
