Music magazine page analysis

• 5 front covers• 5 contents pages

• 5 double page spreads

• Magazine: Jazzwise magazine.• 1st publication: 1997.• Still in print: Yes.• Website: Yes.• Who owns it: Jazzwise Publications Limited • Magazine position: Mainly covers traditional jazz artists. Provides in depth

reviews of gigs and artists. Mainly provides information intended to inform and educate its readers.

• Stylish, chic or fun: Stylish.• USP: The biggest selling jazz magazine in Britain• What personality it reflects: Stylish, sophisticated, intelligent. Probably

upper-class.• Product name: ‘Jazzwise’ definitely connotes information – ‘wise’

suggesting that the main point of the magazine is to give news and education.

• Product advertisements: Tightly relevant – jazz festivals, Blue Note records, other jazz albums. Suggests immersive lifestyle – completely revolved around jazz.

• Layout: Very traditional – masthead, centre image with plugs spaced around image. Suggests that audience are ‘set in their ways’.

• Content: Mainly focused around interviews with artists. Pull quote from Mike Stern.

• Typography: More modern font for masthead – doesn’t fit in with other aspects. Other font is more traditional and scripted. Large font, not too much information.

• Iconography: None – uncluttered.• Colours: White, with various shades of red for font. Unobtrusive and calm.• Main image:

• Colour: Predominantly black and white. No bold colours.• Lighting: Soft, low key lighting.• Props: None.• Setting: None – studio shot.• Mise-en-scene: Traditional placement. Traditional, smart dress

code.

Taking these into account:• Conventions: No bold colours, traditional layout, uncluttered cover.• Representations: Suggests jazz artists are well respected and sophisticated, but not unordinary.• Ideologies: Some text suggests rebelliousness (‘Miles tried to put me in rehab’), but mainly suggests tradition.• Audience: Older – uncluttered layout and larger font. Again, tradition and sophistication, linked with older, possibly male

(considering plug artists) audience.• Genre: Jazz is elegant, stylish (similar to cover image outfit), but nothing to get excited about.

• Magazine: Smooth Jazz magazine.• 1st publication: Unknown• Still in print: Yes.• Website: Yes.• Who owns it: Independent• Magazine position: Completely covers traditional jazz artists - has little

to no coverage of new artists.• Stylish, chic or fun: Stylish.• USP: Showcases a range of traditional jazz genres.• What personality it reflects: Older, been a fan for a long time, previous

knowledge of artists.• Product name: Name completely connotes the current perception of jazz

– bland and boring. Suggests relaxation.• Product advertisements: Mainly travel companies to iconic jazz cities –

for example ‘New Orleans’. This suggests that the average reader is older and has the time and money to travel.

• Layout: Very dated. Very simple to look at. Not exciting.• Content: All either artist interviews of reviews of festivals.• Typography: Dated – Times New Roman seems to be predominant.• Iconography: Saxophone – stereotypical of jazz.• Colours: Rich, warm colours like red and yellow. Black and white.• Main image:

• Colour: Gold of saxophone.• Lighting: Soft, low key lighting.• Props: Saxophone – jazz instrument.• Setting: None visible.• Mise-en-scene: Traditional placement. Traditional, relaxed dress

code. Saxophone obviously connotes jazz.

Taking these into account:• Conventions: relaxed colours, black and white text, traditional layout.• Representations: Suggests jazz artists are relaxed and chilled. Unexciting.• Ideologies: Relaxation, because of words like ‘smooth’, ‘scenic’ and ‘shines’.• Audience: Older, with time to travel and visit concerts. They don’t want to get something unusual.• Genre: Jazz is boring and monotonous. Good relaxation music but the genre itself is very unexciting.

• Magazine: Downbeat• 1st publication: 1934• Still in print: Yes.• Website: Yes.• Who owns it: Maher Publications• Magazine position: Completely covers traditional jazz artists - has little

to no coverage of new artists.• Stylish, chic or fun: Fun.• USP: Devoted to jazz, blues and beyond.• What personality it reflects: For people who ‘feel’ music – possibly for

those who perform jazz more than just those interested.• Product name: Again suggests relaxation – Downbeat sounds like

‘downtime’. • Product advertisements: Jazz albums. Specific to brand.• Layout: Again, follows traditional magazine format.• Content: Annual awards, ‘blindfold’ monthly article where a celebrity has

to rate a jazz record blindfolded.• Typography: Bold – 60s feel. Could be updated.• Iconography: Black and white is traditional, although drums suggest

‘funkier’ side of jazz.• Colours: Black and white contrasts well with the orange type. Title stands

out with vivid orange – unusual for a jazz magazine.• Main image:

• Colour: Black and white – traditional.• Lighting: Dramatic on face and drums – image seems more ‘alive’

than the ones in the other magazines I have studied.• Props: Drums – rhythm and excitement.• Setting: None visible.• Mise-en-scene: More artistic and expressionist composition rather

than normal portrait shot.Taking these into account:• Conventions: Black and white is very traditional. Goes against some conventions – composition of cover image and

colour of text.• Representations: Suggests jazz artists are more exciting and individual.• Ideologies: Title doesn’t follow the image ideologies. Title suggests relaxation however image and text is more exciting.• Audience: Possibly younger, jazz performers. Articles seem to be based more around playing rather than listening.• Genre: Jazz is exciting, ‘funky’ and individual. Title still follows traditional conventions.

• Magazine: Mojo• 1st publication: 1993• Still in print: Yes.• Website: Yes.• Who owns it: Bauer.• Magazine position: Completely covers traditional jazz artists - has little

to no coverage of new artists.• Stylish, chic or fun: Fun.• USP: Exclusively covers classic rock.• What personality it reflects: Free, rebellious lifestyle. Not just music –

suggests fashion and lifestyle.• Product name: Suggests a ‘feeling’ of music rather than just listening to

it. • Product advertisements: Jazz albums. Specific to brand.• Layout: Unusual centre box with extra information. Doesn’t quite follow

traditional layout.• Content: Lots of ‘top 10’ and ‘top 100’ lists as well as interviews.• Typography: Modern, bold and unique. Retro.• Iconography: ‘Mods and rockers’ .• Colours: Very bright and bold colours – represent Britain (red, white and

blue).• Main image:

• Colour: Blue duotone effect on face – high contrast.• Lighting: Dramatic lighting over body – creates shadows. • Props: None.• Setting: ‘Mods’ logo as background – iconography.• Mise-en-scene: Pose is quite powerful and dominant – influential

musician.

Taking these into account:• Conventions: Goes against conventions of jazz magazine – bright colours and retro fonts, however black and white is still

apparent.• Representations: Suggests that this musician is powerful and important because of pose and ‘halo’ around head.• Ideologies: Suggests a lifestyle full of excitement – bright colours, loud music.• Audience: Teenage – mods and rockers. 60s lovers. • Genre: Genre is sophisticated (suit) but exciting.

• Magazine: Little White Lies• 1st publication: 2005• Still in print: Yes.• Website: Yes.• Who owns it: The Church of London.• Magazine position: Bought for the unique graphic style as well as the

cinema and film reviews and articles.• Stylish, chic or fun: Fun/chic.• USP: Beautiful graphic design.• What personality it reflects: Unique, individual, creative.• Product name: Unusual name for magazine – again follows the

personality it reflects. • Product advertisements: Very littler advertising. Urban outfitters and

cinema adverts seem popular.• Layout: Very unusual – small amount of text and no photograph. Makes

you want to read on and find out more.• Content: More ‘offbeat’ articles about how it was filmed. Not many

interviews. Statistics about the film. • Typography: Very original typography relevant to film on the sides.

Unique.• Iconography: Classic ‘Western’ image revisited with modern colours.• Colours: CMYK colour scheme. Almost neon. Jumps off the shelf because

of these colours.• Main image:

• Colour: Very dramatic and bright. Almost childlike which juxtapositions with the image reference.

• Lighting: N/A.• Props: Western icons – cowboy hat.• Setting: N/A.• Mise-en-scene: Traditional portrait shot which works well with more

unusual colours and graphics.Taking these into account:• Conventions: Goes against pretty much every magazine convention – especially layout and colours.• Representations: Excitement, anticipation, interest. Represents Westerns as exciting and unusual.• Ideologies: Unique, ‘indie’, creative lifestyle.• Audience: All ages – more to do with the type of person rather than age (see above).• Genre: Film is exciting and unusual. Can be unique and creative.

This is a more unusual contents page, which doesn’t seem to fit with the very traditional front cover. It is very simple – with the title at the top and a subtitle below. The text is centred around the image of ‘Courtney Pine’ who is in one of the main articles. Again, the page follows the dark colour scheme that was seen in the front cover. There are two fonts present (apart from the title), and this seems to be so as not to overload the reader. Sophisticated, simple and reasonably boring. Seems to expect that if readers have made it this far then all they want is to read the articles – not look at an interesting layout. Saxophone prop contributes to jazz iconography. White, red and orange colour scheme is dulled down to more muted tones – not very bright or exciting.

Again from Jazzwise, this contents page is more interesting for a number of reasons. The fact that the text is diagonally angled over the image looks more professional and interesting than centring it around a central image, and the dramatic sky background is more exciting than a block colour (especially black or white). The more important articles are written in a larger font size which makes the interesting stuff stand out, and the groundline at the bottom advertising the magazines website provides a more multiplatform experience, as well as information for those who haven’t bought the magazine and are just flicking through.

This is a contents page from the magazine Smooth Jazz. Personally I think it looks quite unprofessional – as though it was made by a student. Small things indicate this – the positioning of the number caption on the larger photos is inconsistent, and under some parts of the contents are lines, but in some cases there isn’t. There is a large number of heading colours – and I don’t feel that these colours work together in any way, and three of the colours are variations of blue with unbalance the whole page. The layout is the only part I think is effective – it is abstract but easy to read. The page numbers are not in order but are instead subsectioned under different headings, I technique which I feel over complicates the contents page.

This contents page I personally feel looks both more professional and interesting than the ones from Jazzwise. The main image is taken from an elevated angle which provides the audience with a more unusual view of the artist, and the background/floor colour is interesting but isn’t so distracting that it is difficult to read the text. The magazine title, issue number and date with the dividing lines splits the introduction from the contents, which itself only includes the most important articles (presumably the lesser ones have their own smaller contents on the next page. The pull quote adds extra information as to what the article will be about as well as making the reader want to read on.

This is the contents page for The Virgin Suicides issue of Little White Lies. I think that it is a great concept to name each issue by the main topic, because it makes the whole thing feel more like a book. Rather than having specific articles it just tells the reader which section the article might be in. The whole design is very simple – with a creative watercolour background and relevant doodles in the bottom corners. Little White Lies usually uses quite a narrow, small font for its body text which makes the whole page look more like a piece of artwork than a magazine, and also ties in with the ideologies of this magazine I mentioned in my front cover review.

This is a very minimalistic double page spread – the muted blue background gives a feeling of relaxation and the musicians pose is almost one of reflection or contemplation. The sphere graphic image is one associated with calmness. Although the design is simple, it is not boring. There is an introductory paragraph in bold, and the names of those involved with the article are written in capital letters. A simple drop caps has been used to start the article. This double page spread follows the typical conventions of one, with the spherical title being the only thing slightly unusual. Overall, this DPS continues the ideology from the cover and contents pages from Jazzwise magazine – jazz is calm, relaxing, but not exciting.

At first glance this magazine double page spread appears to be very cluttered – the majority of the space is filled with text. This does not look inviting to the reader, and I expect that the authors assumed that this article would only be read by those who had bought the magazine to read it, and therefore didn't need to attract people who might read it on impulse. A pull quote has been used as a summary of the article, but I feel that the purple colour scheme apparent through the text and the images looks a bit tacky and forced. Again, the saxophone has appeared as a piece of jazz iconography.

This is a much more dramatic double page spread from Mojo magazine. The image is what jumps out of the page first – an action shot of Neil Young complete with guitar and very harsh, dramatic lighting creating a high contrast, grainy image. The text is in white and is offset with gold, suggesting that this is a rock legend. The drop caps in this article is much bigger and again more dramatic. There is also a skyline on this article which adds extra emphasis to the supposed importance of this part of the magazine. The opening paragraph is in a much larger font than it has been on the other DPSs I have looked at, and the title takes up nearly half of the page. In fact, the title itself is a pull quote from the article.

This double page spread is about the jazz artist Jamie Cullum. Like the DPS two slides ago they have gone for a purple theme, however in this case the theme works and doesn’t look tacky. A delicate purple light has been used in the main image which adds interest and ties it to the purple title, which like the Mojo DPS fills up almost half the page. As this article is an interview, bold and normal text has been used to distinguish between the interviewer and the interviewee. Rather than an introductory paragraph they have just used a single line, which I think is more effective because a potential impulse reader may not read an entire paragraph just providing information about the article. I think the use of a drop caps would balance the look of this page better. Alliteration has been used in the title as a rhetorical device.

This is a double page spread from Little White Lies magazine. Just two photos have been used as graphic devices, and they both also provide the colour for the article. The text is offset nicely with the rating section, which has been laid out stylistically with a mixture of bold, italic and different sized text as well as line art. The pull quote at the top is written in a font that compliments well with the body text, and balances with the ratings at the bottom. The whole design is very simple but comes off as being much more creative and interesting than most double page spreads, despite the fact that there are no unusual features – just a pull quote, images and text.