Music Magazines- Front Cover Analysis
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Transcript of Music Magazines- Front Cover Analysis
MUSIC MAGAZINES: FRONT COVER ANALYSIS
In these slides, you will see three front covers of music magazines I have analysed, contributing towards my research for my foundation portfolio
HOUSE STYLE
Throughout this presentation I will analysing many aspects
of my three chosen front covers. This will include how the
magazines maintain house style through colour,
images/design, masthead, font styles, layout and language.
What is house style?
‘The way a magazine maintains a thread- distinctive code
throughout its pages. These are often the same throughout
all issues of the same magazine’
Why do magazines use this?
Magazines use this to create the ‘branding’ effect with their
product. It is so the reader can become familiar with the style
of magazine and therefore can easily identify it as they know
what to expect
Where would you find it?
You find it throughout the entire magazine but especially the
front cover and masthead as this is the first thing that
attracts the reader.
NME – NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS Background
Is a music journalism publication in the United Kingdom,
published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music
newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine
format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in
1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles
chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it
became the best-selling British music newspaper. During
the period 1972 to 1976, it was particularly associated
with gonzo journalism (self-involved reporting), then
became closely associated with punk rock through the
writing of Tony Parsons. – Wikipedia
GenreIndie/rock
Target Audience16-24 year olds
FrequencyWeekly
Total circulation(ABC July – December 2011) 23,924
TOP OF THE POPS
Background It features chart information, star gossip, fashion and
beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. It is a
supplementary magazine for the TV show Top of the Pops
until the latter was cancelled in 2006. – Wikipedia
GenrePop
Target AudienceFemale: 11- 15 years
Frequency4 weekly
Total Circulation98,030
TEEN NOWBackground
TeenNow is IPC Media's bi-monthly teen magazine. With 92
pages packed with the latest gossip, exclusive interviews,
affordable fashion and beauty, plus a free giant poster every
issue - it's every teenage girl's best friend. With an ever growing
army of fans on Twitter and Facebook, Teen Now is everywhere
the readers are, sharing their passion for all things celebrity, and
finding out exactly what rocks their world - after all, it's their
magazine, we only make it!
Genre
Teen
Target Audience
Teenage girls
Frequency
Monthly
Total Circulation
Unknown
ColourThe dominant colours on this cover are red, white, black and
yellow. This creates a serious mood and associates with the
picture of predominant males. The red is used to highlight
the most important feature on the cover- the masthead, this
immediately draws your attention to it and along with the font
is the first thing you register. Your eye then follows down the
cover and is met by the contrasting white against the dark
shirts, followed by the bright yellow to provide more depth
and give some life to the colour scheme otherwise it would
be very bland. This simple colour scheme also complements
the photo, as doesn’t take away from the main impact of the
cover- the image of the four men, because to many bright,
distracting colours would make the page seem to busy and
take the attention away.
DesignSans serif fonts are used throughout this cover, this adds to
the boldness of each word suggesting the men are bold,
which associates with the main cover line ‘BACK WITH A
BANG’. This is emphasised by the capitals which also
creates impact. Every word on this cover is written in
capitals, which makes the text stand out and create impact
that adds to the mood of the cover, along with the strong
image.
Image
The cover image is a medium close up shot of
four men, looking directly down the camera
lens. This links to the main cover story of this
band being ‘back with a bang’. A convention of
any magazine is that the image on the front will
be of a person looking directly down the camera
lens so he/she draws the reader in and the eye
contact is seen as an invitation’ to the reader to
pick it up and read it. However, this magazine
challenges this convention because we cannot
see their eyes so conventionally shouldn’t been
drawn toward the magazine. I feel the fact
they’re wearing sunglasses to cover their eyes
is because it adds to the mysterious mood and
with the sun trying to beam through the middle,
is conveying the fact the four men are covering
it up wanting to hide the sunlight and be ‘back
with [such] a bang’ it hides the light;
emphasised by the sunglasses.
Pose, style, hair & makeup
All the men are wearing casual clothing and are standing in
a relaxed pose, with their hands in their pockets for
example. This creates a relaxed mood, but their serious
facial expressions contrast with this maybe suggesting
they’re a relaxed band but are taking their come back
seriously. Again the mise en scene of sunglasses, the open
buttoned shirt with sleeves rolled up, t-shirts and tattoo
conform to the genre of indie/rock and is what the audience
would expect to see and associate with this type of music.
Language
The main cover line on this cover is one that is
situated in the middle of the page. All four pieces if
text near the centre link with the one story of the
band Franz Ferdinand’s come ‘back with a bang’.
This suggests they’re not keeping quiet about their
come back and will almost certainly be doing
everything they can like promoting their new album
to make sure everyone knows they’re back. This
suggests there is a feature inside informing the
reader about their comeback and this would interest
the target audience. This information can almost
certainly been seen at a glance as they are big
enough to be read from a distance. The only
limitation with the placing of this text is when it is
placed on a shelf most of this cover line will be
covered up apart from the top left hand corner cover
line. The placing of the two cover lines at the top is
very clever because these are the ones that will be
seen when the magazine is one the shelf (the bold
colours adding to this). Therefore, the audience will
pick the magazine up because of the two cove
rlines in the skyline region and then be drawn down
the page by the main cover line. All the words on
this cover are very short, strong words which again
add to the impact, reiterated by the man on the far
right pointing like a gun and the adjective ‘bang’
Institution/distribution
IPC Media publishes this magazine. They publish a
range of magazines including fashion, beauty,
home, lifestyle, women, teens, men's and music.
This magazine would be distributed everywhere in
the UK to all shops that sell magazines such as
Tesco, Morrison's, Co-op, corner shops and book
shops
Overall Impression
Even though this front cover might seem very simple to the eye, I feel its very well constructed and has been well
thought through to attract the target audience. It gives you a clear indication of what’s inside shown by the clear, bold
and colourful cover lines. It is designed to appeal to 16-24 year old because of how the band is represented as an on
trend relaxed group looking ‘cool’ in shades, the simple colour scheme of male related colours and bold text adding to
the chilled yet serious atmosphere.
DesignThe main cover line of ‘1D UNLEASHED’ covers ¾ of the
bottom half of the magazine. It is as big as the masthead which
goes against the typical conventions as the masthead is
normally the biggest element on the page. The designer has
done this because they feel this cover line is just as important
at attracting the audience as the masthead. The left hand third
is filled with three cover lines, which is a typical convention of
any magazine because when the product is displayed on a
shelf, these are the pieces of text which will ultimately make the
reader pick up the magazine and then discover more about
what's inside by seeing the main One Direction cover line. The
organisation that created the magazine, along with the skyline
will also be seen when placed on a shelf. The institution BBC
will covey to the reader that this a trusted, quality magazine
because it is associated with the BBC; a successful, trusted
organisation for producing a range of predicts on many media
platforms. The skyline will appeal to the audience as
stereotypically 11-15 year old girls are interested in make up so
would love to be able to give themselves a ‘celeb makeover for
just a £5’. The puff among the 1D image is placed on the t-shirt
of one of the band members which reiterates the fact you can
win a signed shirt. The most important pieces of text on this
cover are written in capitals which emphasises their impact.
Each piece of text is also written in a sans serif font because
these are seen as more modern fonts which will attract the
young target audience, apart from the bottom left hand corner
which is written in a serif font, which makes it easier to read
and gives the cover some variety but doesn’t make it to busy.
Image
The main image of One Direction has a
direct link to a feature inside. One Direction
are a band with the target audience for
there music teenage girls, this fits perfectly
with the Top of the Pops audience too.
They represent the audiences idols and
celebrity ‘crushes’. The many images
dotted around the edge are also musicians
or celebrities who's work appeals to
teenage girls, and the images of female
celebrities would be what the audience
would want to aspire to
Pose, style, hair & makeup
One Direction are laughing and giving each
other piggy backs which conveys a fun feel to
the reader. The other celebrities are also either
smiling, laughing or look like they’re having a
good time which reiterates the fun factor of this
cover. They’re all wearing casual clothes and
not a lot of makeup with suggests the relaxed
feel of this magazine.
Language
The main cover line includes the verb
‘unleashed’ which suggests One Direction have
gone wild and have let go of their celebrity
status by revealing all to the magazine, which
would attract the audience because they would
want to know as much as possible about this
band. This is reiterated by the strap line below
‘…even more personal…’The cover lines
‘friendship sos’, ‘freaky phobias’, and ‘access
all areas’ suggest interesting stories inside
which will grab your attention and find
something out about your favourite celebs you
didn’t know before. The adjective ‘outrageous’
suggests something out of the ordinary from
Union J, so would make the reader want to find
out what it is. The buzz words in the puffs,
would attract the audiences eye as they’re
short and bold which makes them easy to read
.
Institution/distribution
BBC is the publisher of this magazine, which is probably
one of the most successful organisations in the media
industry. The publish and own a range of different
products including TV programmes, radio shows, and
print based products. This magazine would be
distributed to the entire UK and possibly abroad because
of the BBC’s international relations to any store that sells
magazines.
Overall Impression
I think this front cover gives an excellent
indication of what’s inside, as it appeals to
the target audience through the female
colours of pink and yellow, cover lines of
musicians that appeal to that audience
ColourThe dominate colour which is evident on this cover is
bright pink. This colour immediately makes the
magazine stand out as well as highlighting the important
points the publisher want the audience to read first. This
colour is also associated with females, which links to the
target audience of this magazine of 11-15 year old girls.
Blue and yellow are also bold colours used to emphasise
the pink and the blue works well linking these two
colours together, which might also link to the male
element of One Direction on the cover. The white used
in the masthead draws your attention to it as this colour
is barley used. These ‘fun’ colours give the magazine a
lively, happy feel which helps attract the audience as
well as conveying the celebrities inside as happy with
lively personalities.
Colour
The colour scheme for this magazine is very
similar to the Top Of The Pops magazine. It’s
bright pink, yellow and blue colours stand out
and appeal to the teenage girl target audience.
The element of white breaks up the page and
adds to the bright look. All these colours give it a
fun feel and make it look like a scrap book a
teenage girl would make of their favourite artists.
Design and images
Out of the three posters I’m analysing, this is
the one with the most
images present on the cover, again adding to
the scrap book feel. This cover challenges
the main convention of any magazine cover
because the left hand side third does not
contain many cover lines, and the two cover
lines present are attached to images. The
most cover lines are present at the top of the
cover in the skyline because when this
magazine is presented on a shelf, it is what
the audience will see. The main image of
Union J links with the cover line because
they’re in suits so ‘All dressed up exclusively
for you!’ suggest the four boys have got
dressed up especially for you the individual
and no one else. Another element that
challenges magazine conventions is the fact
the masthead is not the biggest piece of text
on the page; the band name ‘UNION J’ is.
This is because the designers felt that the
audience knowing Union J are inside the
magazine is more important than the
masthead in this particular issue. The four
boys’ heads are also covering the bottom of
the masthead to so this suggests they’re so
bold they’re coming out of the page full of life.
This magazine displays the most diverse
range of fonts and sizes, with a mixture of
sans serif and serif fonts. This reiterates the
scrap book feel which would appeal to the
target audience. There are three puffs on this
cover, the main one containing the buzz
words ‘8 HOT PAGES INSIDE’. This is
situated in between the glee boys and Union
J which conveys to the audience the eight
pages are about them. The cover images are
mainly male which the target audience would
be their celeb crushes and the female images
ones in which the target audience would want
to aspire to be like. Overall they represent
what the target audience want to look like,
listen to and be like
Pose, style, hair & make up
The main image of Union J shows the boys
looking quite serious, however they do have a
cheeky smile which conveys they’re serious
because of the fact they’re suited and booted
however they still have their cheeky
personalities. The other images also show the
celebrities smiling or having fun which adds to
the fun feel this magazine conveys, as well as
them all having on trend hair styles which is in
fashion for trendy teenagers
Language
Colloquial language is used throughout
which will attract the audience because it’s
language they themselves would use. It
again emphasises the scrap book element.
Like the Top Of The Pops magazine, there is
much use of personal pronouns, which
makes the magazine feel more personal and
included. The adverb ‘EXCLUSIVELY’
suggests to the reader that you’ll only find
Union J ‘All dressed up’ in this magazine and
nowhere else, which is why you should buy
this magazine.
Institution/distribution
This magazine is published by IPC
Media. It’s distributed nation wide and
would be sold in any shop that sells
magazines, the same as all the other
music magazines I have analysed
Overall Impression
Overall, I think even though this cover
has elements that challenge front
cover conventions, it still appeals to
the target audience through images
and language which appeal to their
interests