Magazine Front Cover Analysis‘Reggae Report’

Masthead

This masthead is very specific to the genre of music of which the magazine focuses on. Whenever we see the colours red, green and yellow – we associate it with Jamaica and in terms of music, we associate it with reggae. This instantaneously relates the magazine to its genre. The size of the masthead is also very dominant over the rest of the page, but only for half of it. The title of the magazine is ‘Reggae Report’. Despite this two worded name, on first glance, the only word of which stands out is ‘Reggae’. This is because there is a lack of magazines of which focus purely on reggae, and so when there is a magazine with this focus, its genre becomes its unique selling point. If a reggae fan is walking down a magazine aisle, they are going to gain interest in any magazine about reggae because of their rarity. Hence the boldness of the word ‘Reggae’ in this magazine’s masthead. It also uses a serif font, which also varies the magazine from the assumed norm of modern day magazines and makes the cover look more authentic and unique.

Dominant Cover Image

Much like the masthead, the dominant cover image on the cover of this edition of ‘Reggae Report’ varies from what has become the normal expectations (this edition is from 1995, though). The dominant cover image slightly overlays the masthead, but this doesn’t really make any impact on the effectiveness of the image. The photo itself is a tribute to the reggae artist Bob Marley. It is a photo of which has been graphically designed via a computer software, but has twice as much of an impact on the page than a photo would. The range of colours in the image and the way of which Bob Marley has been designed in the picture has an incredible visual impact, and actually meant that the cover could appear as complete without many coverlines. The contrast between the colours in the dominant cover image and the lack of colour in the background also creates a great effect on the visual appearance of the page. This is an example of how a magazine front cover can be dominated purely by one image, but still have the effectiveness of many, many words.

Lead Cover Line

The lead cover line on this cover is more about the concept than the appearance. The page is dominated by the tribute to Bob Marley, and so the lead cover line has been made to appear as just a small tagline. They do not need anything else to attract the attention of readers, as the image does that, so the lead cover line is used to inform, not to persuade. The type face used for this cover line is at a size of which does not dominate the page, but will still be noticed. The colour of the type face is yellow, which sticks to the house style of this magazine, and to the iconography of reggae (red, green, yellow). The text merges well with the rest of the page.

Secondary Cover Lines

Apart from the sky line, there are only 3 lines on this front cover of which could be classed as secondary cover lines. These are at the bottom of the page, under the title – ‘Also:’. These coverlines are in white, which contrasts the black background and makes them clearly visible. This conforms with the iconography of magazines in general as it would not seem like a real front cover if there were no clearly visible secondary cover lines. A sans serif type face is used for these secondary cover lines as it ranges them from the masthead and makes the page look more complete.

Sky Line

The sky line on this front cover is written in a small, sans serif type face and is white. This is quite basic, but gives the reader something else to look at other than the extravagant colours of the masthead, and of the dominant cover image. For a magazine to really appeal to their audience, it needs to contain some information on the front cover to let readers know what will be contained. In this case, they have used the skyline to list reggae artists of which will feature in the magazine. This will attract the fans of these artists, or create a ‘buzz’ around them. If the magazine didn’t need to share its contents, then this front cover would probably just be one huge image. But this skyline has been used to conform with the typical expectations of music magazines, and even magazines in general. It is a necessity to share what will be contained.

House styles

- Use of typical reggae colours – red, green and yellow.

- Sans serif font (with the exception of the masthead).

- Black background, white text.

- Musical instruments seen on dominant cover image.

- Iconography -> Barcode, price, issue number.