Journalistic style and structure

The double page article in my music magazine will be an interview with the band featured on the front cover of said magazine. I want to keep the journalistic style quite informal with open questions to create a relaxed atmosphere with the artist. Keeping the questions informal will make the artist feel comfortable during the interview which should spur them on to answering the questions more honestly as they are relaxed in the environment. I will also be having open questions so that the artist won't feel as though they are being pushed towards a certain answer, and this way, I may be able to uncover information about the band that I would love to know which I may not have asked about. Along with the use of informal language, the interviewer may also use technical language about the music to make it seem professional and intelligent perhaps.

Most music magazines, like NME, have a similar journalistic style to their interviews, probably for similar reasons; that they want the artist to be relaxed enough to answer the questions in the most interesting a detailed way.

The structure of my article will be similar to most music magazines, like the one above. I will have the main artist image taking up most of one page, including the title and subtitle, then the article will take up the other page. I will begin the interview with a paragraph establishing the scene so that the reader can visualise the interview whilst they read. In this paragraph, I will also include some details about the band, like what they are most famous for, who's actually in the band, what they are wearing etc.

"In the garden of a craftsman bungalow, in the shade of a jacaranda tree, a hammock sways in the late summer heat. It is a scene of idyllic bliss, disturbed only by the sounds of hummingbirds, two kids screaming, violent neighbours and police helicopters swirling around in the sky. Beside the hammock sit the four women of Warpaint, sipping on mineral water, puffing on homemade fagsm fiddling with their scuzzed-up hair and looking like an American Apparel advert that's been rolled in the mud."

This is the beggining paragraph to an article about the band 'Warpaint' from the 9th October 2010 issue of NME. This is how I want to start my interview, with the establishing paragraph. The journalism used in NME is the inspiration for my article, as it is quite informal and colloquial, appealing to a younger audience and making them more interested in the article as they can relate to the language and slang used.


In articles like this, the titles and text grabs usually stand out from the rest of the text so that they can grab the reader's interest and attention. The text used in these sections are snippets from the interview from the artist featured. Typically, it's information that will sound interesting, for example "Pete Doherty said to me 'God, you're really f****d, you need to go to bed'. That was sobering". That's a text grab from an NME interview with The Wombats. Using quotes like this will grab people's attention as they are usually something shocking or interesting that the artist has revealed. These text grabs are usually in larger text and bolder fonts to further stand out from the rest of the article. The same technique is used with the title, it has to be eye catching, interesting and is usually another quote from the interview or a pun on the band name or album name, for example, "World Of Warpaint" is the title of an NME interview with Warpaint. This title is effective as it's a pun on the computer game World Of Warcraft and it also includes the band name to show that the article revolves around them.