Analysing Music Magazines

Buzz Word – ‘Win’The blood red colour of the buzz word immediately draws you to it. Being just under the title helps in drawing attention.

Masthead – ‘NME’This fits in with the colour scheme. Bordering it with white and black emphasise the title.

Banner– ‘Kate Nash and Jack Peñate’The central image of the two music artists is a friendly one, they seem happy which makes the reader more likely to want to read about them. The headline also fits in with the colour scheme.

Cover line - ‘How to get Tickets’This is a good marketing technique as the concert that they are advertising links in with the magazine therefore, the people that do read the magazine obviously would be interested.‘The Sickest Gigs Ever’

The splattering of blood is eye-catching and clever and matches in with the colours of the magazine and I’m assuming the type of people who do read these kind of magazines, go to gigs as it isn’t mainstream pop that they listen to and that is all that is available on music channels.

Cover Lines – Being in different colours, it makes each individual feature stand out more. This is another good advertising tool in magazine editing.

Masthead – ‘Q’Because the ‘Q’ is in front of the central image, it makes it more visually dynamic. Using only red and white contrasts with the rest of the dark cover.

Features The names of music artists and bands that will feature in the magazine. Spacing them out so the black background is between them, makes it more dynamic and eye-catching.

Banner – ‘3 words. Cheryl Cole Rocks’This is a clever idea as the album she was promoting at the time was called 3 words and so this is a clever advertising tool.

Strapline – ‘The UK’s biggest music magazine’This serif makes you want to read the magazine it makes it more likely that it will appeal to a wider target audience.

Central Image – Cheryl ColeThis picture is a provocative one that is designed to appeal to both men and women. Men, because they want to be with her and women, because they want to be like her. The red of her lipstick is a few shades darker than the colour schemes but still matches in and looks professional.

Cover LinesInterviews with all different genres of music encourages people to buy this. They are also very well known and therefore appeal to the younger and older generations.

Central Image – BeyoncéThis image incredibly provocative. The pushing out of the chest and steadying herself on the wall makes her dominant. Also, the damp top just covering her is daring and edgy.. assumingly much like the contents of the magazine.

Masthead – ‘VIBE’The colour is this is a very striking red, the font is bold and it is established enough as a magazine to have it behind Beyoncé, so her head is half covering the middle two letters.

Feature The words match the image – ‘Beyoncé strips down for summer’. ‘Strips down’ is in red as that colour is more eye-catching than black. From this, you can tell the magazine is trying to appeal to both men and women.

Colour SchemeMuch like Q magazine, the colour scheme is red and black. For me, this represents a teen-20’s age group. I believe it’s also trying to include a level of sophistication, therefore appealing to more people.

Cover LinesFrom this text, you can tell this magazine is aiming at Americans as any other country wouldn’t buy a magazine that bases itself around America and no where else. Similarly, if you are visiting America, you might buy it if you are planning to visit these places.

WebsiteThis is to promote the artists that they feature in the magazine enough for the customer to buy it.

Masthead – ‘Top of the Pops’Justin’s head covering half the title is acceptable because it is such an established name, it doesn’t all have to be shown for people to know its name.

Features – One Direction, Aston from JLS, Selena Gomez and real life storiesThe insinuation of snuggling up to the biggest teen band is a clever marketing tool for young teenage girls who dream of meeting their idols. The JLS story creates intrigue as to what Aston did that was naughty, as well as what makes Selena scared of Twitter and the real life story is a good informative feature that teaches the teens of the dangers of alcohol and other similar products.

Cover Lines - 12 star looks to steal!Showing Cheryl Cole is clever as at the time, everyone considered her to have the ideal style. Also, buying clothes that you know your favourite celebrity has, makes it more tempting.

Central Image and Lure – Justin BieberHis smiling in a non-threatening manner makes him look approachable and down-to-earth. The feature ‘I feel really self-conscious’ is a big draw for teens as a lot experience things like this and would relate to him. It is a clever way of reminding his fans that although he is a celebrity, he is just like the rest of us.

Colour Scheme – Pink and WhiteFrom this colour scheme, it is very obvious that the target audience are young teenage girls.