Comparative Analysis

NME'S Magazine front cover is very simple but effective, sticking to the same colour scheme throughout, the artists on their front cover are wearing black which often is associated with rock music. The masthead "NME" is written in big bold letters which makes it stand out, this has been done for a lot of the titles written in white bold letters on the front cover. The artists on the front cover also have a unwelcoming look on their face which links to the name of the magazine 'NME', which is pronounced as "en-ne-my", makes it seem like their trying to scare away other competition. Also the use of darker colours, even the pink being in a darker shade of pink, shows formality and maturity which implies the magazine is targeted at a older and more mature audience unlike its counterpart Kerrang.

Top of the Pops front cover is very colourful using lots of different colours like pink, blue, yellow, black, white and purple. Also the fact that the colours used are very bright and the writing is very 'bubble gummy'' suggests that the audience their targeting is a much younger one. The use of Justin Bieber as the main image on the magazine suggests that they are targeting a primarily young female audience who are big followers of pop music, this is also implied by the main title "Mate or date?" and the use of other artists like JLS with the title "JLS Undressed!" which is much likely to attract females rather than men.

Both magazines show distinctive similarities between the both of them, they have have both chosen to use a popular relatively new artist in their respected genres as the main image of their front cover which shows they are trying to appeal to what 'in' and popular at the moment and since these two artists are generally liked by the majority of their target audience they are appealing to them more. Both magazines have also made sure they have included a masthead on the front cover of the magazine, the magazines logo, a bar code and also other sub headings. These are all vital features in not just music magazines and magazines in general.

However they also show a lot of differences which is mainly due to the fact that they are targeting two very different audiences. NME's front cover, although using three different colours, is quite plain which gives it a sense of formality therefore suggesting they are targeting a older audience whilst Top Of The Pops has used many different colourful colours on their front cover which many images and is less text heavy than NME which shows their target audience is one of a younger age.