Colour: Interestingly, these pages do not have the same colour theme as the front colour of black, white and red. Instead there is use of light pastel colours such as green and blue. These colours portray a feeling of youth, fun and laid back. This relates to the hip-hop artist featured, Kid Cudi. The decision to not use the same colour scheme as the front cover could be because Kid Cudi is associated with hip-hop, unlike NME which mainly focuses on rock. Also, Kid Cudi isn't the main cover feature so the different colour scheme establishes this. There are elements of black which make those particular parts stand out as they are a complete contrast to the other light colours. The background has a stained, marble effect which portrays a modern and unique style. Most double page spreads just have a plain white background or other block colours. Overall, the colour scheme creates a young and fun mood which is clearly different from other stories as it is not associated with the genre rock.Design: The image dominates the pages by spreading across both pages. The text surrounds the image in neat columns which is commanly seen in double page spreads. This makes the text look neat and professional. The title is in a large bubble writing style which is funky and young. Interestingly, the rest of the text is in a more formal style. However, it is still more modern than the classic times new roman style.
Image: There is only one image which is obviously of Kid Cudi as this article is about him. It is important to have a large image of him as usual NME readers may not be familiar with him as he is not associated with rock. This is also why it is a close-up. The image is taken where there is a chaotic, vibrant background with use of many different colours. The colours relate to the rest of the page, as there are mainly green and blue elements. The background seems to be slightly out of focus which means that even though the background is quite busy, you still focus of the most important thing, Kid Cudi. The grafitti background is stereotypically associated with hip-hop which Kid Cudi is involved in.
Pose, style, hair, make-up: Kid Cudi is wearing a light green hoodie which again relates the the colour scheme and also hoodies illustrate his 'bad boy' image. A bad boy image is commonly associated with the genre hip-hop or rap. His watch comes across as being quite expensive as it looks like gold which shows his success and fashion. He is also wearing geeky glasses which are very fashionable nowadays and despite his hoodie and swearing, it makes him more friendly and approachable. His outfit portrays him as being young, funky and very fashionable. Kid Cudi is shown sticking his tongue out which makes him look cheeky and rebellious. It shows that he has a laid back attitude and doesn't take life seriously. This also relates to him swearing with his finger which is again rebellious and quite disrespectful. Again it is portraying a 'bad boy' image. Swearing shows that he doesn't care what people think and he thinks he is better than other people. He isn't shown as being a good role model. This relates to his selfish and arrogant mentor, Kanye West. Again, his cheeky attitude along with his geeky glasses still make him lieable and not intimidating.
How are words used? The title 'The arrest is history' is a clever pun as it is a play on words of the famous phrase the rest is history. The word arrest is used again as it relates to situations Kid Cudi has been in and it clearly outlines parts of his personality. Again this fits into the 'bad boy' image. Arrest and history are in bright different colours as they are the most important words in the title so they clearly stand out. There is then a few short sentences that are larger then the text underneath it. The few lines give a summary of what the story is about and they leave it quite open without explanations to make you want to read the rest of it. An example is 'she almost got shot' which is very shocking, blunt and interesting so you want to know how this situation happened. People that know of Kid Cudi wouldn't expect anything less than a drama. 'Here's what happened...' provides a flow between the summary and the rest of the text. Kid Cudi is in bold which makes it clear who the story is about as it actually doesn't say it in the title and the target audience of NME, young rock fans may not recognise him from the image. It is common in double page spreads for a large letter to be used to start off the text. The K is in the same style as the title and it also relates to the artists first name Kid.
Language: A quote is used which is very common for double page spreads. It gives you a little insight of the article and the persons personality. It is a technique that grabs your attention and subtlely persuades you to rread the rest of the article. It clearly stands out due to being in bold and capitals. The quote includes a question, 'do I feel like king of the world?' This is not classed as a rhetorical question as there is actually an answer. The answer uses humour and shows immaturity which relates to Kid Cudi's laid back and and rebellious attitude. In various parts, the text is in capitals such as 'TURN SLOWLY TOWARDS ME!' showing shouting and a serious moment. These parts clearly stand out which make them appear interesting. The whole article is explaining about a journalist's journey when going to interviewing Kid Cudi so the language is normal everyday speech and has quite an informal tone. This makes the article easy to read and not intimidating. The whole story of Emily Mackay's journey is very exciting and interesting which reflects the language used to make the readers get a clear image of what it was like and feel involved within the story.
Overall impression: This double page spread attracts quite a wide audience because obviously hip-hop fans and Kid Cudi fans, will be very interesting in reading it. But also usual NME readers might be quite interested in reading this as they are probably not too aware of Kid Cudi. This article gives a good insight of his personality and music. Overall, the double page spread creates a young, modern, quirky, rebellious mood. Rebellion is one major thing that both genres, hip-hop and rock have in common. This feature is clearly seperated from the rest of hte magazine, mainly due to the different colour scheme that is not associated with rock.
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