ARTICLE ANALYSIS

I analysed the NME article which was an interview of Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers. I was interested in this article as it linked to the front cover that I analysed, and it stood out to me on first picking up the magazine because it showed Brandon Flowers in three different poses with a quote; "i'm having a personality crisis right now." This intrigued me to read the article because I wanted to find out why he had said that.

On the first page, there was a large picture of Flowers, with a headline/caption saying "CAN YOU READ MY MIND?" This works because it is a line from a Killers' and so any fan of the band can relate to it. Also, it links to the front cover because it mentions the mentality of Flowers and a reader could get connotations of madness from the title. The pose that Flowers is standing in works well with the title and adds to the cohesion of the article.

The lead of the article also adds to the cohesion , with the phrase "consumed by self doubt" giving the sense that this article will be about the, some would concieve, more human side of the famous lead singer. When the actual article starts, the inteviewer talks for a while about his pre concepted feelings on Brandon Flowers. He mainly mentions the singers appearance "Brandon Flowers does have astonishing eyes" and I found this useful because I may use the interviewers style when writing my article; focusing on the look of the subject so as to conjure up a piture in the readers mind.

On the next page, the interview is set out with a series of questions and answers following on from each other. This style is used as opposed to a whole article written from the point of view of the interviewer using points that the subject talked about. I do not know yet what style I want to use in my article, or whether I want to interview anyone at all, but looking at this example I can see the merits of using questions and answers.

Another thing I noticed when reading the article was that when the answers to the questions were written down, the interviewer added in any pauses or unusual reactions from Flowers, maybe to add to the realism of the article? However, although this use of slightly stage-direction-esque prompts serves to give the reader more information, it makes the whole article seem almost faked and so when it comes to writing my own, I will think before adding in any of my own.
The best aspect about this page of the interview is the layout. Down the right hand side of the text are four picture, one of each band member. These pictures are used to great affect; they bring together the whole page and give it a symetrical, neat look. However, I found that it is not good to have everything in a magazine looking like this all the time, it is more effective to have some parts disordered and messy.

The pictures themselves seem to be of a rehearsal rather than a gig or publicity photo shoot, so they are with their instruments looking natural. This gives an impression of the ideology of the band which links into the article itself; Flowers likes to take all his own pictures and doesnt ever let magazines shoot them themselves. They are also in black and white, which contrasts with the main, colour picture of Flowers but also is because there are four different subjects and settings for each picture and to use colour might have been overpowering. Originally, my article photos were going to be all in colour as I thought anything in black and white only made the page dull and uninteresting, but on looking at this example I have had second thoughts about encorporating some black and white pictures.

The last page has a slightly different layout as the three photos are in the top right right-hand corner of the page, and the rest of the page is text. I don't particularly agree with this layout as I think it makes the page look too full of writing, which may dissuade some readers from more than glancing at it. Plus, all the photos are too compressed into the corner, making the page look unfinished. This could be used in a positive way; sometimes messy, unfinished layouts give a trendy, modern look to a page and I will think about this when designing mine. However, this is not the case here.

On looking at this article I have found many aspects that I can use for my own magazine, but I have also seen some that I feel were wrong and therefore will avoid using.