Researching current magazines

When looking at current magazine covers I can see what codes and conventions are used and how they 'hail' their target audience.
NME is a well respected music magazine, known for their individuality and bold front covers. Here is a copy of a recent cover with the band 'Gossip' on the cover. The lead singer shown, left, is known throughout popular culture for her outrageous outfits and being her 'own woman'. We see that the magazine is following the code and conventions, with the red banner at the top and the front cover in the top left hand corner. The band is the biggest picture and is even placed over the title, this could maybe show how the band plays an important in this particular issue. This idea could possibly work considerably well with my magazine front cover; symbolising how music is the most important thing and how to address this to my audience.
The colours used in this magazine is red, white and black. These are all very bold colours that equally contrast and compliment each other. They are the stereotypical colours of a music magazine, not for the faint hearted. Because of this it can make the magazine stand out on the shelves and allows NME 'hail' in their audience appropriately.
The writing it shown to be stuck on, this can give the effect of any teenagers room, crammed with stickers of bands, and the 'random' placing. The way the text is sort out, it could be conceived to be just 'put there' however.
The fact that the band is above the title of the magazine could create the sense of how this is about them, not the magazine. It could show how the magazine is merely a distributor of this information and that it's the bands that are important. I believe I could use this technique effectively in my magazine.