Music Magazines

-4 Front Covers

Music Magazines- 4 Front Covers

Identify the features/characteristics they all have

Masthead

Main Image of Artist/Band

Coverlines

Interaction between coverlines, masthead and main image

Bright, bold colours

Barcode/Price/Issue Date

Rule of Thirds

Medium Shot/ Medium Close Up/ Long Shot of main image

Interaction between coverlines, masthead and main imageInteraction between coverlines, masthead and main image

Why are these features present on all the magazines? Why are they important?

Masthead are important as they are usually eye-catching and bold making the audience attracted to them. They also create familiarity and recognition for the readers.

Coverlines/Sell-lines are important as they give the reader an insight into the magazine and can show what genre the magazine is.

A main image is vital to a music magazine as it can tell the audience which type of people represent their magazine the most. Also the main image on the cover usually represent the genre of the magazine itself.

Consistent colour scheme/house style makes the magazine cover look professional and attractive. By using bold colours, the audience are more likely to get drawn to the magazine and therefore purchase it.

Barcode/Issue Date/Price is a typical convention of a magazine cover.

Rule of Thirds make the layout of the cover look well organised and professional.

•All these features provide consistency and follow the conventions of a magazine cover. They also provide insight into the specific magazine and represent the genre of the magazine itself. They create recognition for the target audience which will make them notice the magazine and lead them to purchasing it.

5 Differences between the Magazines

• ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘Q’ are the only magazines which have slogans. For ‘Q’ it’s ‘ Discover Great Music’ and for ‘Top of the Pops’ it’s ‘More Gossip! More Scandal! More You!’ This represents the target audiences the magazines have. For ‘Q’ the slogan is quite mature which is suitable for their older target audience. Whereas ‘Top of the Pops’ seems quite young and over-exaggerated which is used to entertain the younger target audience.

• ‘Top of the Pops’ is the only magazine who has a target audience aimed specifically at females. They have used feminine colours like pink and purple to attract young females as that is very eye-catching and appealing. Also they have used big, bubbly font and lots of images to ensure the readers are drawn to the cover.

• ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Top of the Pops’ have more than one person in their main image, whereas ‘Vibe’ and ‘Q’ have just one person. This may reflect the fact that ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Top of the Pops’ are more of a busy magazine and with lots of coverlines, colours and fonts to reflect the genre and type of magazine it is. It also shows that they have a younger target audience as it is image based.

• ‘Q’ and ‘Vibe’ seem very personal with the direct eye contact image and calmer background, suggesting a more mature target audience. The colour scheme are still bold and appealing but still use darker colours to balance out the bright colours used which shows that the target audience is not as young as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Top of the Pops.’

• ‘Kerrang uses gothic style font to represent the Halloween issue of the magazine and also represent the genre of its’ magazine. ‘Top of the Pops’ also use big, feminine, bold font to attract the younger readers. Whereas, ‘Vibe’ and ‘Q’ use a lot more basic, bold fonts which suggest a mature audience or a more serious content inside the magazine.

Kerrang- what genre of a music magazine and provide 4 examples that support your claim?

ROCK GENRE-

The image is of 5 people who have heavily gothic makeup, such as pale faces and black eyes. They are dressed in black, dark clothing. The body language and the direct eye contact can appear quite aggressive and intimidating. The image itself connotes gothic, scariness, evil which all follow the stereotype of rock.

The fonts used on the coverlines are very gothic. The font looks like its been scribbles with black outlining to emphasises words. The font looks very edgy and dull which is very suitable for the rock genre.

The coverlines support that this is a rock magazine as they reference to gothic subjects. The cover refers to ‘black veil brides’, ‘Halloween’ and ‘coffins’ which is very extreme and blunt which is exactly what the rock genre is like.

The magazine refers to many rock artists like Alice Cooper, Metallica and Black Veil Brides. This supports that Kerrang is a rock magazine.

Kerrang- who is the target audience?I think Kerrang has a target audience of 18-30 year old males who are interested and like rock music.

Image is quite gothic and scary which suggests it is aimed for a older target audience. By using an aggressive and scary main image, it shows that this magazine is definitely not suitable for a younger audience.

The price of the magazine is £2.40 which is quite expensive. This shows that the target audience has to be for mature, older people who are working (social class of C/D) and can afford to but this magazine regularly.

The colours used are mainly dull and dark consisting of mainly black which connotes evil, gothic and death. The colours are very masculine which support the fact that the magazine is aimed at males, as if females were also the target audience, a lot more feminine colours like pink and purple would have been used.

The min image is of a band called ‘Black Veil Brides’ who have their own target audience for males around the age of 17- 30 years old. This is roughly the same target audience for the magazine itself.

The rock genre itself is usually listened to by a more mature target audience. This suggests the target audience for the magazine would be quite similar.