Analysis of three music magazines

Kieron Mackney

• Kerrang’s masthead for their magazine is always at the top of the front cover, with this a copy of kerrang magazine will be easily detectable as readers of this magazine are familiar with the layout of the magazine. On this issue the magazine the main image is covering part of the masthead, kerrang are able to do this as they already have an established fan base who would easily recognise the masthead, even if some of it was covered by an image.

Masthead

Main Image

Secondary article

Main Article

The left third

With this issue of kerrang magazine, there are very little cover lines trying to grab the attention of readers to purchase the issue, this may be because the magazine has an established fan base so no longer needs to grab the attention of readers as they will buy the magazine anyway, because of previous issues.

• With Q magazine, a well known music magazine, apart from the masthead and the main article banner, this issue contains very little writing on the cover, meaning possible readers are unaware of what is inside this issue. This may be the case because this magazine is well known then people will still pick up this issue, or with the choice of the prodigy, a well known band worldwide on the cover, then readers will know already that this is a good issue by the choice of band for the main article.

• Unlike kerrang magazine, NME choose to keep their masthead over layering the main image, this could be the case for this issue as it is a Christmas issue and the masthead is slightly different from the usual NME masthead, and if part was covered up then readers may not be able to easily identify the masthead or the magazine.

• Also with this particular issue, the front cover uses the left third rule with the cover line, secondary articles and photo strip. Keeping the other thirds free for the main image, this is because the main article is of Simon Cowell, and with the expression he is making to the readers would not be as effective if cover line were to be on top of the image.

• This is a contents page from NME magazine, along the left hand side is a band index, indicating what bands are featured in this issue and what page number they are on, helping the reader navigate through the magazine. The heading the contents page and the band index are in a bold print, this is to break up the text and make things like the index easy to spot when a reader is only taking a glance at the page