Magazine research

For A2, we have to create a music magazine cover, I have decided that I am going to follow the similar cover conventions used in ‘CLASH’ magazine. The common features used in the ‘CLASH’ magazine is a close up shot of the artists head in the centre of the magazine making them our main focal point, this is further enhanced when the artist is looking straight at us giving us a sense of direct address. The masthead is of a large, capitalized, white font which is centrally aligned and sits at the top of the magazine, contrasting against the darker colours making it look clear and eye catching. The magazine only uses a few colours making it look crisp, clean and professional. Furthermore only a few cover lines are used to surround the main image which gives us a slight insight of what is expected in the content of the magazine but doesn’t overpower the focal point of the artists face and the masthead. This gives a sophisticated and effective look as it isn’t too busy unlike other music magazine such as ‘Q’ who use many cover lines to give the audience a clear insight of what is expected in the content of the magazine. ‘Q’ also use a strict house colour of red, white and black to make is obvious to the reader that they’re reading a ‘Q’ magazine as they can familiarise and associated those colours with ‘Q’s’ magazine.

Anna Moorhouse

For my preliminary task I have decided to research and produce and magazine of an ‘indie rock’ genre. This is because I am familiar with this genre which, I believe will help me produce a more realistic music magazine. For my music magazine I am going to use neutral and deeper toned colours to suit the genre of an indie rock magazine as I wouldn’t want to use bright, bold colours as this would be expected in a pop music magazine along with many cover lines giving it a busy, cheerful look. This is shown in the music magazine ‘Top of the pops’.

Anna Moorhouse