Slide 1: Introduction to the double spread analysis.
Slide 2: Image of the DPS of NME that I will be analysing.
Slide 3: An image to illustrate the band that the DPS article is about - 'The Strokes'.
Slide 4: (Question one): How does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be? - The band of the article is an American band from new york known for their wild rock'n'roll lifestyle i.e sex, drugs and rock music, and have been described as a Garage pop revival band. Due to this reputation and the fact that they are not well known in the British music mainstream would suggest that the target audience of the article is an informed mature audience of about 16-35 year olds who are interested in the music scene.
Slide 5: (Question two): What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words and phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine? - The language used in the article is both colloquial and uncensored using informal language and includes swearing. This would support that the target audience is of an older age group.
Slide 6: (Question three): How is colour used? - White is used as the background of the Main body text so as to make the black text stand out and become easier to read. Black is used as its a strong bold colour ideal for an eye catching article title and also they are easy to read on a white background. The sky blue colours of the sky and the earthy tones of the background of the landscape mirrored in the bands clothing suggests that they are going to take on the world or are a down to earth band. Red is used along with the black and white to support the magazines colour scheme but also because it is a bright eye catching colour that will draw the readers attention.
Slide 7: (Question four): What style of text (font type/colour/size) is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience? - The Main body text is in a Serif Font as it is for the rest of the magazine. This is the conventional choice of font style for most magazines as it is the most easiest to read in large body texts. The Article title and pull quote is in a Sans Serif font which is the type of font conventionally used for titles and headlines as it's most eye catching. It predominately uses black for fonts or sometimes white for contrast correlating to the magazine's overall colour scheme of black, red and white.
Slide 8: (Question five):How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value? - The eye flow according to western culture is in a Z shape form the left to right making their eyes catch the article title first before skimming across to the secondary pictures and sidebar before moving to the main body text to the main image on the left page and going across the secondary pictures at the bottom and ending on the anchor. The left third rule here suggests that the main image on the left is of the most importance with specific meaning such as the need to promote the band itself visually which is the most effective technique used in magazines.
Slide 9: (Continuation of slide 8): Slide 9 is a display on how the DPS is laid out. The left page is taken up by the main image, the article title and the leading text with the bold black sans serif font of the article title competing with dominance with the main image. The majority of the right page is taken up with text including the side bar with a total of 5 images to compete with or so that the audience is visually aided in understanding the text. This would suggest that the magazine puts more emphasis on information through the text that would indicate that their audience is more interested in news about the band and being informed making them a more fan based mature audience.
Slide 10: (Question six): What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence - It addresses the reader in non direct address as a member of the 'in crowd'/ informed audience. This is illustrated by the article's heavy reference to rock/indie history and mentions certain albums and events that only fans or an informed
audience would understand.
Slide 11: (Question seven): How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis - Through the textual analysis of the DPS the band is presented as a typical indie band. This is conveyed through the smart casual clothes of the main image reflecting the non mainstream genre and lifestyle of Indie rock. Through the earthy landscape of the image showing their popularity world wide or their ambition to 'take on' the music world globally. The other images are of bands and scenes related to 'The strokes' such as Indie rave scenes reflecting the bands rock n roll rebellious lifestyle and image of the band 'Kings of Leon' - who are a similar genre of band but more popular in the UK giving the reader a better idea of what 'The strokes' music is like.
Slide 12: (Question eight): How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover? - The Sans serif font used for the article title of the DPS is similar to the Font used for the cover lines on the front cover showing a consistency throughout the magazine. Both include black and white images and both follow the magazine's colour scheme of black, red and white to tie the magazine together. However this particular issue of NME magazine is a special souvenir issue and would not usually be laid out as the magazine covers is and would not use as many Small sized images or black and white images as they don't tend to be as successful as a front colour image without colour to hold the readers interest.
Slide 13: (Question nine): Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples - Since the article is targeting a well informed audience the article is full of examples that need prior knowledge on part of the reader in order to fully appreciate the article. The quote mentions 'Kid A' which is a ground breaking album by band 'Radiohead' which influenced the Indie genre heavily as the point of the quote is that the strokes are intending to pull away from theses influences which a reader uninformed about Indie rock history would not understand fully.
