Electronic Music Magazine Cover AnalysisJoe Popplewell

The colour scheme is very minimalistic with two colours dominating the bright yellow. The cover is mainly white which creates the minimal feel and the black of the text and the picture is used because it stands out the most while perpetuating a serious tone.The yellow is bright and vivid, and is used sparingly at the bottom of the magazine, more so at the left. This creates the effect of lighting where there is none, It works with the graphic behind the man to create the effect.The yellow colour also serves to freshen up the cover and steer it away from a boring, plain black and white cover.The contrast between monochrome and vivid yellow attracts the attention of the audience.

The masthead and tagline are all contained within a rectangle at the top of the cover, this is part of it’s house style. The only information outside of this rectangle are small and pushed right up against the rectangle, with the exception of the sponsor logo which is tucked away at the bottom right.This rectangle and the small text outside of it helps the attention of the audience stay more towards the picture.The cover operates under the assumption that the target audience/subscriber base knows what to expect from the magazine because of the lack of any text describing the contents. This assumption creates a personal connection with the audience as there is an element of trust, trust that the audience has at least some idea of what to expect.The lack of information makes the cover look smart and some-what sophisticated.

The cover utilizes a variety of fonts but they are all quite similar in that they are smart and clean looking, and help establish the sophisticated, almost clinical look the cover is trying to achieve.The masthead is defined from the rest of the text only by its size and boldness. As opposed to other covers in which the masthead has a different font, size, colour etc…

The way the graphic elements of the cover line up with each other with surgical precision composes a bureaucratic look. This bureaucratic look is associated with computers and therefore the electronic genre in that computers are perfect, there is a clear definition between computer made and mad made in that computer made things are comprised of elements which are perfectly aligned, symmetrical etc…

The picture is of a electronic music artist named Trentemoller, which is shown to the audience with ‘TRENTEMOLLER’ being slightly bigger than the rest of the text.The man is dressed in a smart suit which again, reflects the sophisticated look the cover is trying to achieve as part of it’s house style.However the man is also dressed down to an extent, with an off centre coat, hands in pockets, hair swept aside, eyes closed and not looking into the camera. The image is also in black and white makes the images crisper looking, and helps it fit in with the black and white colour scheme better.

The colour scheme is different to most magazine covers with the 3 main colours being : black, white, and green. Rather than the classic : black, white, and red. However the 3rd colour (in this case green) is unique to each issue, which serves to differentiate the different issues’s covers without completely changing the layout. The green is focused on a very crisp and clean font, and is limited to only the a few areas of the main masthead and coverlines.The bright neon/fluorescent colour is also reminiscent of motherboards and electronics, which are the basis for the electronic genre itself. The neon colour is also important in making the text stand out from the black background.

The layout of the cover is organised and neat, all the text is horizontal and the majority of text is at one side of the photo. The coverlines are all the same size and distance from eachother which means that no one story is seen as more important by being bigger than another.

The black background colour creates a serious tone and helps the bright text really stand out and grab the audience’s attention. The black background also allows the black and white photo to fade into the background nicely, this effect means that the photo doesn’t look disjointed or separate from the rest of the cover.The photo uses the chiaroscuro effect to create a moody and dark feel which reflects the dark and moody feel of Gary Numan’s music at that time in his life.

The list of bands and artists shows the reader what content they can expect to see in the magazine, and enticing people who like some of them artists to buy the magazine. This shows that they are targeting a specific audience that like this genre of music.

Like most magazine covers, the masthead is in large letters at the top of the cover, so that it grabs the audiences attention, because English speakers usually read from top to bottom.However, unlike a lot of mastheads, the masthead is not in capital letters, which gives it a more refined, sophisticated look, because it is less ‘in-your-face’; which fits in with the dark and moody look of the cover.

The title also possesses the logo in place of the ‘o’ which serves to not only associate the name of the magazine with the logo, but also to grab the attention of the audience in a slightly more subtle way than bold, capital letters. The audience is drawn to the logo because it is the only piece of graphical work on the cover.

The coverlines are quite obscure, and don’t give the audience a lot of information. This is because the magazine wants to create a sense of intrigue, and curiosity by giving us bits of info and expecting us to want more. It’s also because the target audience of this magazine is expected to be well versed in the electonic music scene already, which is why they don’t have to give the audience a lot of information.

The cover photo is an black and white picture of a young Gary Numan, he is wearing a serious look on his face which gives the cover the most of it’s moody vibe. He is also looking directly at the camera which means that he is looking directly at the audience.

A small, almost unnoticeable, patch of green in the bottom right exists. It is most likely part of his shirt and could have served as inspiration for the colour scheme. Or the image may have been altered, with the original colour of the patch modified to make it the same colour of the coverlines. This helps tie the photo to the rest of the cover by sharing the same colour pallet.

The person on the cover is Gary Newman, a well known musician, this means that the cover appeals to not only those well versed in the genre, but also those less knowledgable throught the use of a fairly mainstream musician.

The colour scheme of this cover is tied to the central theme of a faded photo. It shares the same colour pallet of muted greens, light blues, and blacks created by a high level of saturation on the main photo. This theme gives the cover an old look which could attract an older audience through the promise of older music.The masthead is made to look sort of like a film strip, by being all of one piece, it also looks similar to an airfix kit, showing to an extent the DIY element to the genre.The title itself also reflects the indie element to the magazine, it is on the ‘side-line'. The masthead is also put behind the man in the photo, in order to make him pop out.The main coverline is the same colour as the list of artists beneath it, it’s also the same font and has the same cross graphic in the ‘O’ as the crossed that separate the artists.This lack of differentiation means that the main coverline and the list of artists, look clumped together and not noticeable.The layout of the cover follows the traditional layout with title at the top and main coverline near the bottom in front of the subject in the photo.

The background colour is a aqua blue which follows a gradient further down the cover until it reaches an almost cyan cover. This creates intrest for the eye that solid colour wouldn’t create, the gradient also continues the old poloroid photo theme that is generated by the colour scheme.

The eye-line of the person in the picture is pointing up and out of the frame of the cover and his face is bathed in a harsh light which dilutes the detail of his face. This white saturation creates the old photo look while also giving off an almost heavenly vibe with the light coming from above which I think is purposefully used in order to contrast the names of the bands and artists that unite under the main coverline ‘ultraviolence’.

On the cover all the font that isn’t part of the masthead is the same. It is a clean, regular font which has a hint of an electronic feel about it due to the rounded rectangular shape. This helps link the cover to the genre.

A lot of the band and artist names feature violent vocabulary such as ‘fear’, ‘kills’, ‘death’, ‘die’ and ‘rapes’. The creates a violent theme which is captured in the main coverline ‘ULTRAVIOLENCE’.

The magazine is now purely in a digital format, this is a growing trend with smaller magazines because of the financial advantages that come with the medium. Going digital means that they can ‘publish’ any-time they want, for free. They can also use other media such as internet radio, music playlists, videos, live-streams, animation etc… that would be impossible with print media.

This is on old magazine from the 70’s, the retro style is something I may wish to reflect in my own magazine.

The masthead is in a 70’s style font, very curvy, which gives it a funk vibe.The image and background are blended together as one by using a filter of some sort to change the colour gradient of the man.This creates a bright look which is sure to capture the average passer-by.