This is the first day of my blog, I will upload all my work on here from now on until the end of this part of the coursework.
This next essay is about a previously published music magazine article.

Firstly I will look at the institutions of NME magazine, NME is produced by IPC Media and the editor is Conor McNicholas. The paper's first issue was published on 7 March 1952 after the Musical Express and Accordion Weekly was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, and re-launched as the New Musical Express. It was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, NME created the first UK Singles Chart. The first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino. The competitors of this magazine would be Kerrang and possibly The Big Cheese.
NME has a large audience, mainly consisting of teenagers who like going to festivals such as Reading, Glastonbury and Leeds. People who like rock, alternative and indie music and those that like going to gigs and having a good time drinking etc. Other audiences such as critics and people in other countries could also consume this product. The producer of the product is trying to appeal to the entertainment section.
The representations of NME magazine are based on band members, bands and fans. The magazine is mainly all about male artists. Female artists and black people aren’t popularly shown in the magazine. In the images the bands are shown in both a positive light, doing what they do best performing and recording albums, but some are also shown in a negative light. Most images are from photo shoots, clean cut and looking their best, but some for example Kids In Glass Houses and Crimesss were photographed at “a house party no-one will ever forget”.
Furthermore the forms and conventions of NME magazine are worth reviewing. The most commonly used article types are interviews. The article I will focus on will be an interview with Late Of The Pier. In the article, the band says that their aim is to “crumble the roots of all the shit music that’s being released nowadays” “ We won’t write songs saying that this band or that band are shit, we will just show a lot of music up from underneath.” The article always mentions that ‘Late of the Pier are so determined to push boundaries that they don’t even care if they like their own music.’ The article shows the band in a positive light, showing how they first set up the band and started gigging, the band also mentions that when they first started playing and gigging they went on a ‘twisted learning curve’. They also said, “We were kids not knowing how to play instruments, writing a lot of weird stuff and not really knowing how to present it.” Now that the Late of the Pier have ‘got their shit together’, Tim Chester, the interviewer writes ‘fingers crossed the band hold it together, because we need them now more than ever before, In an age of insipid, rehearsed and reheated music and a stale and crumbling music industry, Late of the Pier are here to shake things up and push things forward. They’re one of the few bands that can claim to be making something completely unique.’ Throughout the whole article the theme of pushing boundaries, being unique young and new is shown. This is also shown by the use of images as the band are portrayed in a messy, querky paint filled environment, the captions for the images also represent their youth as it says 'No mummy we haven't been near your make-up bag' giving it a fun feel.
The band say that they have had two years of mediocrity and that it will take to more years for people like them to gain control again. They want to become more famous than they already are and are willing to push more boundaries to get there.

I completed this essay over the Christmas holidays. I paid particular attention to forms and conventions but my teacher marking suggests that I need to pay more attention to the representation of NME magazine.