Blog 8- Planning and Evaluation of the article

I have analysed two magazine double page spreads: NME and Rock Sound. I have examined how they both use language, the tone of the article, if they are formal or informal, humorous or serious.


Firstly, the genre (rock) of the magazine means that the articles are very informal and more humorous than serious.


In NME, the style of the article is set up as an interview of a rock boy band called 'The Teenagers'. One of the main highlighted phrases is: 'of course we are a sexual band. We're the teenagers and that's all they think about'. This is highlighted in blue so one of the main focuses on the page and catches your attention very easily. It is also a very open an 'attitudy' phrase said by one of the band members which would appeal to a younger teenage audience because it is just the thing they like to read; open and honest. Where as, older generations may find this sort of language offensive and inappropriate. Another one of the main headlinesm, written by the magazine journalists, says: 'Young, dumb...' which is explaining the band and will influence their fans to act in the same manner which is a negative effect from the language used in the magazine but teenagers would see this as 'cool'. The main picture used in this double page spread is a picture of the boy band lying against a wall, covered in rock related posters, on a bed. This gives a very lazy and relaxed look for the band and will encourage teenagers to read the magazine. The set out of the magazine uses a colour scheme of blue, highlighting the main parts of the double page spread and most the article if taken up by the image of the band, followed by a two collums of an interview from the band. This will appeal to teenagers because most teenagers have more of an interest in visuals than lots of text. The page then has a collum down the right side of the page which is not related to the article but other small stories. The page looks crammed with information which gives a very messy/scrap book effect.



The rock sound double page looks very different from NME. It has less of a messy effect and more of a tidy, structured layout. However, again there is less text and the image also takes up most of the double page spread, similarly to the NME double page, therefore, it also appeals to a younger audience. There is also less random text and highlights of the main article scattered around the page. Instead it gets straight to the point with only a newspaper style heading and sub heading to tell us about the story. The image is a picture of the band who have the typical rock look to them; wearing make up with dark eyeliner and black and red clothing.



Both magazine articles have a very casual approach and use mainly slang and abreviations of words.



After analysing these two magazines i decided to do an interview for my double page spread. Rock readers seem to prefer an interview straight from their idols rather than having a reporter writing about them. This makes the magazine look better and more popular because rock artists are willing to talk to the magazine and have pictures taken for the article. Then followers like to read what their idols have to say and it makes the article seem more personal. Therefore, i decided to do a interview for my rock magazine.

I included slang phrases such as 'luxuary crib' to atract a younger audience and also included a section where fans wrote in to the band and asked quections which were then answered by the band members. This again makes the fans feel closer and more personal to the rock stars and gives a good representation to the magazine.

My set out was slightly different from the two magazines i analysed because i mainly used text rather than images. However i also used a colour scheme of blue and pink, which is the colour scheme i have used through out the whole magazine.