Magazine Analysis – Kerrang.The Masthead goes straight across the front cover of the magazine, in a large, bold font, and in a bright yellow, which stands out excessively, which is the intention. Along with all of the other text on the front cover, the text is all in a Sons Serif font, which implies the magazine’s targeted audience is not for young people, but for people at least teenagers and over, possibly up to 30/40 years of age. This is because lots of fancy writing is appealing to young children, and in contrast, dull colours such as black and white don’t attract young children, but attract in a music situation, people who are interested in the Rock genre.

The Splash image takes up at least a third of the page, because the image is of the main story within the weekly magazine. The photo is a medium long shot of the 3 members of the band, which are clearly represented to be a Rock band, by the stern look on their faces, along with one of them having blood on his face. Also, they don’t have neat hair, it is messy, because having neat hair is a sign of femininity, which isn’t related to Rock. Next of all the colour in the background of the splash image is black and white. Black has connotations of danger, and the two colours in contrast are effective because they’re not the two prettiest colours, they’re seen as fairly evil/scary colours.Also, the three band members are stood in a triangular shape. The most popular singer/band member is at the front to attract more readers/buyers, however, even if a minority of people don’t like the main person on the front of the magazine, there is another two band members who people might aspire to.

In the middle of the magazine front cover, is the Banner. The banner is another method of selling the magazine to the buyer, as it gives the buyer an incite as to what type of articles are in the magazine, and in this case, it also states one of the main articles which will undoubtedly interest many readers.

The Price of Kerrang magazine is £2.20, which isn’t such a high price. This is an incentive to buy the magazine because it is extreme value for money! If it was an expensive magazine, maybe £5+, then the magazine wouldn’t be purchased by many teenagers especially, because the majority of teenager don’t work, so won’t want to spend, or simply won’t be able to afford an expensive magazine, where as this magazine is affordable to all generations of the magazine’s target audience.

The Plug on the magazine’s front cover is another incentive to purchase the magazine, as in this instance it is a competiton. The plug stands out for three reasons. First of all, it is on top of the splash image, which shows it has a lot of relevance. Secondly, it is yellow (the same colour as the masthead) which not only shows consistency, but stands out dramatically. Last of all the text fills the whole area of the plug itself saying ‘Win!’. Therefore it stands out, and makes a buyer think about firstly purchasing the magazine, and secondly entering the competition, to win!

The Colour theme of this magazine is black, white, red and yellow, which is the common theme of Rock genre based magazines. Because these colours don’t attract young children, and they have connotations of excitement and danger. Last of all they are bold, outstanding colours.

The Anchorage magazine’s front cover is ‘THE WAR ON EMO’. This refers to the splash image on the front of the cover. It infers that the favourite of the 3 Rock stars has been beaten up in a war/conflict of some sort.The Barcode is found on every modern day magazine, in order that the person who wants to buy it takes it to the counter, and gets it scanned, and pays for it. The price, date and issue is usually either on or next to the barcode.

Magazine Analysis – Kerrang.The Kerrang magazine’s front cover has a lot of Coverlines on it, which massively helps boost the chances of selling the magazine because it is informing the potential purchaser of lots of different articles within. If there was only one coverline on the front cover, and everyone hated that interview for example, then lots of people wouldn’t buy the magazine. In this case, the magazine has lots of coverline so if people hate on of the articles within, there is a good chance they will be interested in the others. Such as they may not like My Chemical Romance, but might love Fall Out Boy.

Magazine Analysis - QThe Masthead on the front cover of Q stands out for a variety of reasons, which are certainly intended. First of all, the Q is placed on a large red square, and the Q is in white, so the contrast makes the Q much more visible. Also, the Q is a considerably large size (larger than all the other text on the front cover), and is in a bold font which is easily identifiable for people to notice and hopefully purchase in a shop. It shows consistency, because all of Q’s magazines have the Masthead in the same place, which makes it easily recognisable.

The Header of the front cover is vital. On this front cover, it goes across the magazine, and is placed fairly centrally. In this case, it says ‘KINGS OF LEON’. This is eye catching for a potential purchases visually, because it is black text on a white background, which is an extremely strong contrast, and also the text is in a large, sons serif font, which is not only clear, but shows maturity. Rock magazine’s target audience is generally not for younger people, but people of teenager age upwards. If the text was is a serif font it would look more child like. The header also sells the magazine, as it is related to the splash image. The Kings of Leon are a massively popular Rock band, which will interest plenty of the target audience. Without the incite of the header, there would be less of an incentive to purchase the magazine.

The Cost of the magazine is £3.90. This isn’t extensively dear, however £3.90 weekly for some children is a large amount of money, of which they can’t afford, so this emphasises the fact that the magazine isn’t for/targeted for young children. On the other hand, for the majority of the target audience (teenagers to middle aged people) £3.90 isn’t too much money to spend weekly. The price is very small (next to the barcode) because the creators want people to become interested in the magazine first, and want to buy it, before they’re deterred by the price.

The Plug on the front cover of Q isn’t very big in comparison to a lot of magazine’s plugs, however, it still does it’s job! The plug in this case introduces other articles within the magazine, such as: FRANZ FERDINAND ‘WHY WE STOPPED TALKING FOR A YEAR’. Along with two other articles. This sells the magazine more, because if people for example aren’t interested in the Kings of Leon, then they might be interested in Franz Ferdinand, or another artist. Also the plug yet again stands out, because the circle is yellow on top of a grey background, and the text is black on a yellow background, which shows great contrast, which is easily visible.

The Colour theme of the magazine is following the trend of most of Rock genre based magazines, because the predominant colours are red, yellow, black and white. However, the people in the splash image are wearing quite bright colourful clothing.

The Splash Image of the magazine is of the Kings of Leon, which is quite obviously linked to the header. In the splash image, the Kings of Leon are smiling/laughing, and wearing colourful clothing. This represents the Kings of Leon as a cheerful band really, not heavy metal Rock where they’re dressed in black with piercings, tattoos and have weapons in there hands. As all magazine front covers should do, this splash image is a medium long shot. Last of all, the 4 band members aren’t stood in any sort of hierarchy order, which would imply one band member is more popular than another, it shows equality and content.

The Pull Quote on the magazine is in the centre of the cover, on top of the Kings of Leon, because it is a quote from their interview, and is related to their interview/article within the magazine. It says “IT’S THE COMEBACK STORY OF A LIFETIME”. The text is placed in a box, with a strong/bold red outline, emphasising it’s importance. This is similar to an Anchorage because it is related to the splash image.

Magazine Analysis -QThere is 2 Banners on this front cover. They both do the same job as they both contain small amount of information about stories within. The banners are at the top and bottom of the page, and are easily visible. The Fleetwood Mac banner yet again shows good contrast as the text is in black, placed on the yellow banner, and it also includes a picture to interest the purchaser and make the magazine more visual. The band Fleetwood Mac are quite an old based British Rock band, which will not interest many of the younger generation, and shows sophistication, and a sense of tradition, that ‘old’ bands are still respected in Britain. The Buzz Words ‘rare’ and ‘exclusive’ instantly excite the reader, and is an incentive for them to purchase the magazine, and read that specific article.The other banner at the bottom of the page has 3 of the articles within placed on it. This banner in fact is placed on top of the splash image of the Kings of Leon, which shows it’s importance. As with all of the text on the front cover, the font of the text is bold and sons serif which is clear and mature.

The Barcode is found on every modern day magazine, in order that the person who wants to buy it takes it to the counter, and gets it scanned, and pays for it. The price, date and issue is usually either on or next to the barcode.

Magazine Analysis – NME.The Masthead on the front cover of NME is in the top left corner, which is the same for lots of magazines, because it can be seen easily there, especially considering the size the box NME is in. Also the box is red, and the text is in white, which is a strong colour contrast. The text is large, and in a bold sons serif font, which is clear and shows maturity, which is consistent throughout most Rock based genre magazines, because most people who purchase Rock magazines, are of a slightly older age.The Splash Image on NME’s front cover is a medium long shot of the 4 people in the photo. All 4 people are pulling different kinds of faces, which don’t completely relate to the typical stereotype of what a Rock star(s) would look like, because they’re not stern faced, screaming, or covered in blood for example. However, these 4 people also don’t fit the stereotype for Pop music for example, because they’re older, and haven’t got stylish hair styles, the same goes for the clothes they’re wearing.Part of the Splash image goes over the top of one of the subheadings on the front cover. This shows the importance of the people on the front cover, as the splash image takes up the majority of the page.

The Colour theme is red, black and white, as are most Rock genre based magazines. These colours don’t appeal to young children, they are more basic colours, which do relate to Rock, because they’re not childish, they’re exciting/aggressive. Red obviously has connotations of danger, and black/white are usually used to show scariness. These colours, along with the photo on the front cover will appeal to the specific target audience. These colours are also good to allow to have text on top of them, whereas if you had a dark brown on black, it would be hard to see compared to black and white.

The Price of NME is £1.99, which is extremely affordable for a weekly magazine – and one of the main age groups, teenagers, who don’t earn much money, therefore they can’t afford paying too much on a music magazine weekly. Next to/along with the price, is the barcode, and issue number. On every magazine you have these 3 things no matter what genre it is. They are always small so that the potential buyer looks at the front cover, gets dragged in and wants to buy it, and therefore isn’t immediately put off by the price. As for the barcode, every magazine has one in order to be able to purchase it at the till, by it being scanned. Last of all every magazine has an issue number so that you’re informed of what issue it is, for people who are rather interested in the magazine, so that if they miss an issue, they know which on they’ve missed, and they might be able to find/buy that issue.

There is some Anchorage on this front cover. Where is says ‘So Pixies… …. Do we have a deal?’ This refers to the splash image indefinitely, because when you strike a deal, men traditionally shake hands, which is what the man on the front of the magazine is doing. This also is as if the hand the man is about to shake is our hand/the buyer’s hand, which physically makes us think for a second that he is trying to shake our hand. This is humour, which also assists in selling any magazine. Younger children also wouldn’t feel as if they’re striking a deal, it wouldn’t interest them in the way it is intended, which further emphasises the fact the magazine is intended for slightly older people.

There are 4 small Subheadings next to the masthead at the top of the front cover. These are an incite on some of the other articles within the magazine, which are a major selling point. For example, if some buyers weren’t interested in the 4 people on the front cover, they might be interested in one of the named artists in one of the subheadings, such as Jake Bugg.

Magazine Analysis – NME.