Rock sound is a music magazine, which seems to be targeted at an audience of older teens and young adults. The graphology and the layout of the magazine however, make the magazine look like as if it is targeted to a younger audience.

The magazine also has a more bold appearance as it really stands out with the bands that are on the front cover. In addition, even though all the magazines has a different colour of the mast head, the magazine still has a connection with each other and the audience or reader is able to recognise the magazine because of the same type and style of the layout.

The magazine at the top has an advertisement of an free CD to attract the audience, even if they may be not a subscriber to the magazine they may become one after reading the magazine –if they liked the CD coming with the magazine.

Blender really has an easy and similar style to every magazine. This could be very effective as it will allow a buyer to recognise the magazine from a distance away. All the magazines have a special colour on the mast head that connotes and relates with the singer or artist on the front cover.

This magazine would probably be aimed at an target audience of teens and adults. The reason for this is because of the wide star appeal, and their ages. Some stars like Taylor Swift, is aimed more at younger girls maybe boys as well, whereas Saif may be aimed at older men or women. The purple mast head on the Britney colour is matching her top which then has been decided to be used as they magazine front cover theme. This is the same as the Saif magazine front cover and when he is holding his guitar, which then links with the orange mast head.

The plain background helps to advertise and make the star more appealing and attractive to the audience’s eyes. Therefore the audience will directly see what and who the celebrity model is on the weeks or months issue.

The XXL magazine has a strong gender appearance mostly because of the name of the magazine being XXL, as this could be a man’s clothes size and could not be considered as an average women size. The stars used on the front covers are targeted and aimed at a more old male audience.

The genre of the magazine is represented stereotypically by having the man dark and hip hop set out, therefore is allows the audience to understand that the genre will be a rap magazine.

The close ups of the rappers is what makes the magazine attractive because it connotes their thinking and enables the audience to understand the music that they do. As females magazine there is a lot of text and advertisements on the front cover. But his shows that male magazines try to concentrate more on the image and the celebrity rather than what is inside the magazine and what the contents are.

All the images are made in a studio and this is what makes the magazine front cover look processional and well done, rather than using a photo that the company’s paparazzi has taken by the celebrity. The fact that the stars has been photographed in a studio also gains the audience respect because they know the the star has agreed to take part in the magazine and that the editors and the company can be trusted with interviews and that the star knows that they are being written about.

The Q magazine is on the other hand clearly represented and aimed at an older teen and female up to the late middle ages audience. The reason why the target audience is so wide is probably due to the use of Madonna on a front cover because this is music that middle ages women would listen to because they grow up listening to it.

On the other hand, there are other stars that have been targeted to an audience of younger adults and teens. By having Madonnas name so big on the magazine makes it so eye catching-which could have been done so that people from the public who are not normally the targeted audience of the media buyer of the magazine will see an old music icon which is for the older middle ages women.

The layout and style of the magazine has an either black or white background, this makes the magazine look even more sophisticated looking and classier. The big red box with the magazines name Q also has an relation to this kind of style.

The classic Rock magazine seems to be changing the style through every magazine. There are some cases where there are extreme long shots of the stars, but sometimes there are also long shots.

Mast head however, as many other magazines is kept the same. The only things the differs is again, when the background colour changes the colour of the mast head changes to either black or white.

Some of the magazines has a yellow print on it, looking like a sticker. This really engages and attracts the audience, as the rest of the magazine is just black, white and red or gold. Therefore this bright yellow colour will pop out. The fact that it only says; ‘Free CD!’ on the sticker like effect. Allows the target audience to think that the CD may be from the artist on the front cover. The graphology design is very professional looking. Making the magazine connote as if the editors are passionate about what they are doing, and they know what attracts the audience. This therefore also makes the audience trust the magazine and they then know that the magazine knows what is happening in the music industry.

All the model stars on the front of the cover, has something linked with the rock style to really express that this is what the magazine is all about. For example there is an guitar, and Steven is holding his arms out as if her has just heard a big crowd from his concert.

There is a different amount of texts on the magazines front cover. This would probably be because

Billboard is an American weekly music magazine. I look like as if the magazine tries to focus on one colour in the background, however there are some magazine issues where the background may link with something that the celebrity is linked with. For example the issue with Miley Cyrus has a background of a field and the country side, this is linked with a few films that she has been in and why type of music she does. However, the other front covers consists of only one colour and this is some ways makes the magazine seem more realistic and professional like.

Every magazine has the stars name on it with big and bold letters so that the audience and the reader knows who is in the magazine and what that issue may include, this will also allow new target audiences to start to get familiar with the artist who is on the front cover.

Unlike other fashion or gossip magazine the front cover does not exist of much text which allows the star to be seen more, and most of the attention is dragged towards the photograph and the artist, rather than the text on the front cover. Because of this it looks more and is more related to music and about the celebrity’s music rather than gossip and a lot of text. Furthermore, if there is much text the typography and the size is very small, this also therefore connotes who the audience is because a small text would not be written to an older audience of the magazine.

Billboard is mostly targeted to the audience of teenagers and younger adults it’s seemed because the artists on the front cover are artists who are recognisable to everyone in the generation within the target audience. Therefore because new artists are found and others are getting old the magazine may only concentrate on what is mostly listen to at that time and the singers-so that new faces are seen on the magazine all the time. This makes the magazine stay at a particular target audience throughout the generations.

On most magazines the mast head has different colour on all the magazines, however this only has two colours, black and white, depending on the background colour.

Vibe really does have different styles and layouts; the graphology is different on every issue. Some issues has a very old fashioned look and layout-even though they are not old but the Ciara and the Eminem issue looks like most modern out of the four.

The Rihanna front cover is very plain and has nearly no text at al. Because if this all the attention is dragged to her and the medium close up of her.

The mast head has the same typography font. On the other hand the colour is different and on the Eminem issue the mast head has a more metallic and model touch to it where as the other magazine issues only has one colour.

There type of techniques can make the company and the whole magazine seem a bit messy whereas for example the Billboard magazine looks very neat and well thought through as all the issues and magazine front covers has a similar and recognisable layout style.

Kerrang has a very rocky and older men style it it. The reason for this is because the layout is very much older rock and metallic names which not very teenagers listen to. The fact that the whole mast head font is cracked or has an effect of looking as if it is cracked makes the whole magazine seem a bit rebel and crazy like.

This magazine has the same mast head thought to it as Billboard however, because it only has two colours depending on the background colour which are black and white.

The use of red and the word Metallica may connote the ideology of anger and violence as hard metallic rock music is, and because this is almost the only bright colour on the magazine, and is places underneath the group of the people in the band the eye catches the magazine.

The last magazine issue has a free text to it with a red text box behind it to stand out, and to allocate the target audience to catch the attention of the fact that you get a free poster when you buy the magazine. This could drag in more and new audiences, as even though some fans of the group on the magazine may not buy he magazine they may see this and will buy it just because they want the poster. However, because they have bought the magazine it is a big chance that they will flick through the magazine and if there are things they like they will buy the magazine again. Because the bands they have in the magazine is what the audience like and therefore this is targeted to the same audience as the bands and the artists.

In the 1970s NME became the best-selling British music magazine. The magazine layout and graphology seems to be a very punk rock and funky style, with bold and strong colors like red, blue, yellow and black. There colors are strongly contrasted which attracts the target audience and eye catches their attention.

There is a lot of action and details going on, on the magazine. However every magazine contains of a big photograph of a music star and then around it some quotes (Lily Allen).

NME focuses on a main typography to be a bit bolder and bigger than other texts so that what the editor may think is the most appealing to the audience in that issue is then publishes the biggest.

Because of the amount of graphics everywhere, on the front cover, the audience does not know where to start looking. In some ways this could be quite good. On the other hand, for some or most audience seems to prefer the neater layout style rather than the messy and bold styles.

Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner (who is still editor and publisher). Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his family and from the family of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim, to get the magazine published. Rolling Stone magazine was initially identified as the hippie counterculture of the era. However, the magazine distanced itself from the normal newspapers embracing more traditional journalistic standards and avoiding the radical politics of the underground press. When the first issue was published, Wenner wrote that Rolling Stone "is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces." This has become the motto of the magazine.

The magazine uses some of the most global and famous starts within both the music industry and the film industry. The fact that every issue has a new star which has different genres of music and films, and that the gender of the model of the front covers changes-represents the wide target audience that the magazine has.

The first magazine shown is on the Jonas brothers, because they are a group they will take up the whole front cover and the mast head is not shown. However, the magazine is so iconic and well known globally that this is not a big problem for the editors (like Wenner) to think about. The cover style is so recognizable that the magazine would probably be able to be recognized without the mast head even.

The mast head color changes depending on the gender of the star model that is on the front. For example, Jenifer Aniston has a light blue color to connote and relate with the feminine size. Then there is Jay-Z cover which has a grey looking color and a darker blue for Justin at the bottom.

The blender magazine content page has a more article and Colum like layout on the contents page rather a more category and page numbered style as most magazines has.

This therefore looks like as if it is more aimed at an audience who would normally just flick through the magazine and find it themselves, but in the contents page it says what is written in the magazine.

The billboards contents page has a plain white background. It does show the page numbers and categories to enable the audience to know where in the magazine that story or news is. This will same time for the audience to find and read which will make them more happy if the magazine is neat and easy to follow, to find what they are looking for.

Even though the background colour is white, the images around it do not make it boring to look at. They use a colour of light blue-this connotes a fresh look and the colour is appealing to both males and females. Also the magazine has a No1 chart on the left hand side. This really makes the magazine unique as music fans can see what is in the chart and maybe listen to new songs which are there that they have never heard before. This will help the artist to create an even stronger repetition.

This rolling stones content page is attractive and eye catching, as the big black and white photograph will pop out of the magazine.

The page is mostly black and white, but contains a colour image and a pink hint on some number pages. The use of bold letters by every number will make the magazine more attractive and easier for the magazine to follow. It also seems like there is a small information box and text about the font cover.

Even if you do not know what magazine this is you will directly understand that this is a rock magazine. This is the fact that the images and typography is the way it is. For example, the font of the text has a more style of older men. The photos of Ozzy Ozborn at the bottom and the photos around it, looks like a scrap book and as if the magazine is collected.

Also in the classic rock there does not seem to have any numbers on the pages and the categories text.

The red colour makes the contents page really stand out, this could be because if there are new readers and they are flicking through the magazine in a shop they may want the audience to read and see what the magazine contains before putting the magazine away again.

The Kerrang contents page has a lot of images maybe to fit as much text and content information as possible.

The categories are highlighted and even the numbers to really make them stand out and to be clear what and where the information is.

As there is text to show categories there are also images which makes the magazine seems to be aimed at a younger audience as well as a older. Because there is categories and the fact that they are highlighted, makes it easy for the reader to be able to read and follow the contents page to find where the news and information is.

The XXL magazine does only have one photograph of celebrity and the rest is just text. But the text is placed out in only one Colum with the page numbers.

However this music magazine is aimed at a men audience. This is because the style does not attract most females. Even though the music may-the layout and style does not.

The date and the logo of the magazine at the bottom is there to advertise the magazine gain and to be specific with the date of the magazine.

The informal and colloquial language of ‘doin’ line’ used creates and links with the type of audience that would listen to the artists music and that genre. This could be used to represent the artists voice and as if her said this.

This magazine does seem to be focusing on images more, rather than text and the actual contents that are included. There is a small column with content information and the page numbers, this seems to be very usual and crucial in a magazine. The photos on the contents page also contain the page numbers of the magazine.

The NME magazine has a shows allot of information about the contents and the magazine. There is even a small column of different bands that are in this magazine, and page numbers of where you can find them. The categories are easy and neat put out. The contents page is neater than the front cover of the NME magazine.

The magazine used a lot of yellow and red on their front cover of the magazine as well as the contains page containing this.

This Vibe contains page does look more like a men’s fashion magazine rather than a both male and female music magazine.

It does not focus on a lot of actual contains information and text but focuses more on the famous stars that would may be included into the magazine. This could be so that the readers would not stop to read the contents page but to actually look inside the whole magazine so that they know if they want to buy it.

NMEs double page spread has a link with the front cover of the magazine which is a photo of Lilly Allen looking into the camera with a long shot of her. The fonts looks like as if someone has cut out letters from another magazine and struck on, this makes the page look more teenage related and aimed at. The fact that NME has used Lilly Allen represents what audience the magazine is for. They use a quote as the title of the page to attract the readers even more because they will see and think that this is something that she said and her in the interview.

Rock Sound focuses and uses a big long shot of a man with layers of text boxes over the photo to add text and to enable the audience to read the story. The double page spread does not look as messy as the front cover looks like; also the red attracts the audience more. In the red text box on the right hand side there is a white highlighted text. Even though this will help to highlight the text it does not make the magazine look very professional. But it looks like the magazine has been made by a student trying to achieve a cool effect.

Q Magazine has a lay out that would attract the female audience. From teenagers to middle aged women. The font of the text is a normal typeface that would often be seen in magazines. The reason for this is so that it is easy to read and looks more sophisticated and professional and if there would be a handwritten style on the font. The big image is really up in your face and is what therefore drags the audience to read about the story.

Karrang has a more rock and male side it compared to Q magazine. The black and white image makes it look old fashioned and as if the band has been in the magazine for a long time, and the white and red typography therefore stands out to allow the important information stand out, this t also links with the rock style and theme of the magazine.

Billboard seems to be very neat on both their front cover, contents page and the double page spread. The page is split into half with one side containing an image of a famous RnB singer Usher and the other is the interview that took part with him. Even though Usher may be aimed at men, in this aspect the magazine and the interview would probably be aimed at females. With the small text and trying to fit all the information onto one side of the magazine will make the magazine represent and be aimed at a more younger adults and older teens target audience.

I would say that this is probably the most appealing and professional looking contents page out of all of the above.

Instead of using a lot of small photos of bands and stars, they have only used two images of bands and other. So that the contents text would be placed and layout in a much side space to allow more information. They do have the date of the magazine inside the contents page as well. ON the other hand, there is not very much categories to choose from, there is only features and every month. This probably makes the magazine look like a more wider genre and not just focus on music, even if it is.

Blender is a really feminine music magazine with the front cover being attracted by females. The double page spread shows an image of a group of females outside a nice house and a car. This will make the female audience want to read the story and the text in hoping to find out how they did this and got all of this. The small red text at the top of the left side of the double page represents the magazines mast head. This will advertise the magazine even more.

Rolling Stones use of graphology is quite affective. It has a very big photo of Paul and a small amount of text by his arm which is following his outline and pattern. This could be an introduction into the other double page spread on the other side of the page or this could just be a more advertisement of a new album or of him. This could be to fans that has been buying the Rolling Stones from the start and has therefore been able to follow his stories and his career. The text elements communicate the meaning to the reader. The reason for this is that it shows that this is an old famous musician who was in the beetles and it is a big thing for the magazine and it shows that it is important to the magazine. Therefore, they have done so that Paul has a whole page with a photograph of only him and a small text just to add detail.

The double page spread looks more like a news paper article about something dramatic, by using the fact that the image is black and white and that there is not any other colour to make the page more colourful and bright. The page looks very serious and has a layout with the text as columns. Also the text font is very small making seem as if they want all the information to fit into this one double page spread.

The double page spread is quite gothic and dark. The photo being on only one side of the page makes this stand out and therefore is more important than the text. The colours are black, white and red and gold. Thin s punk colours and position that they are in will in a way enable and hint to the readers what the magazine article is going to be all about. The topic of the article seems to be about their reuniting and the image looks like they are happy to be reunited together. The tone in the ‘friend reunited’ makes the article and the whole gothic style look a bit friendlier and that they do appreciate another. This will make the fans of this band become even more happy because the finely tone is coming though.

This double page spread has a lot of layers and must have taken a long time to produce. There is a main image which is being eye catch and then there is a black and white image which is placed behind another layer to make the name of the star singer ‘Jamelia’ text to be seen as transparent. The text has a transparent filter to enable to photo behind the name to be in colour in some places, where her body is and letting the background be black and white. The white and red text, divides questions and answers to allow the reader to understand and to follow the interview which is taking place.