Analysis of Music MagazinesBy Jake Harborne

Front Covers…• Serif masthead. The

magazines masthead has a large ‘F’ in pink to make it stand out to the rest of the masthead.

• Formal layout of the front cover including the cover lines and the font that is used.

• The background is coloured white as it makes all the content on the cover stick out.

• Limited use of colour with mainly the use of white, black, pink, gold.

• A variety of images are used on the cover to promote articles within the magazine.

• Medium shot of the women in ‘All Angels’. It’s the covers main image and attracts the reader. ‘All Angels’ acts as an anchor for the image as it is positioned in the middle and draws attention to it.

• Medium shot of the ‘Choirboys’ at the bottom right of the page.

• Contains the standard conventions of a magazine such as the price, date and a barcode. A variety of images are also used on the front cover.

• There is hardly any white space on the front cover as text and images are used to fill in empty spaces.

• Kerrang!s masthead is informal as it has a cracked window style giving it a more of a rock effect.

• Main image is a medium shot of Dave Grohl from ‘Foo Fighters’.

• His hair style and clothing adds to the theme and also makes it stand out.

• Few images are used along with hardly any cover lines, giving emphasis to the images and cover lines that are used.

• Karrang! uses few colours on its cover with yellow/ white text and using black, grey and red from the backgrounds.

• The other image used is also a medium shot and is of a group of people.

• Key words are highlighted in yellow as to make it more eye catching.

• Uses price, date and a barcode the standard conventions of a magazine.

• Headers and footers show extra content within the magazine.

• Masthead is partly covered, suggesting the reader knows the magazine.

• Cover follows the rule of thirds using the middle for the image with the sides using cover lines.

• The main images is a medium shot and covers the masthead slightly.

• Colours used are mainly red, white and black for the texts.

• Unlike the other two front covers MOJO only uses one image.

• The cover lines are of various sizes suggesting ones may be of more importance.

• Like ‘Classic fm’ this cover uses many cover lines and strap lines giving information about articles in the magazine.

• Contains a barcode, date and price like most standard magazines.

• Like ‘Kerrang!’ the magazine use’s the main image as the background for the cover.

Contents pages…• This contents page uses

the same colour scheme as its front cover making the pages flow from one to another.

• The images used represent articles that are within the magazine.

• The images have captions telling what it is about and also has the page number the article is on.

• The date is also shown again showing when the magazine was published.

• The list of articles and their page numbers inform the reader of the magazines contents so they can choose which ones to read first.

• The masthead from the front cover is used twice in the contents page, at the top and at the bottom of the page next to the page number.• There is hardly any white

space left as most of the free space has been used on the contents page.

• Unlike the other two contents pages this one contains a letter from the editor and contains a picture of the editor.

• The Headlines use the same font and style of the masthead from the front cover.

• Contains the issue number of the magazine and the date of when it was published.

• Uses the colours of red and black for the text and uses the colour white for the background.

• Features images of previous issues of the magazine along with the current one at the bottom of the page.

• Has medium shots to close ups of people who are featured in the magazine along with captions and the page number.

• On the bottom left of the page the writing that is vertical compared to everything else names the photographers that took the cover photo and the contents photo.

• There is no dead space within the contents page to make it more appealing to the reader.

• This contents page uses the entire image as its background and is in black and white.

• The issue number of the magazine and the date of publishing is visible. The same as the other contents pages.

• The masthead from the front cover appears at the top of the page and at the bottom next to the page number.

• A section from one of the inside stories is quoted on the contents page, trying to interest the reader in that article.

• This contents page only uses two colours for its colour scheme, red and white.

• Unlike Kerrang! And Classic fm’s contents pages, Mojo only uses one image.

• Not many articles are listed on the contents pages as only five are mention on this page which differs from other content pages.

• The image is a medium shot from the waist up to the head. The shot has space at the top and at the left of the person to leave space for text.

Double Page Spreads…• The headline is

centred below the images on the left page of the article.

• A standfirst is used to sum up what the double page spread is about and the persons name is in bold to stand out.

• The article starts of with a drop cap of the letter ‘G’, shows the reader where it starts.

• Just above the article and below the standfirst shows the picture credit for who took the photographs and it also credits who wrote the article.

• Nine different images/ illustrations are used that relate to the article.

• These images also have captions along with them to explain what the shot is about.

• The double page spread also uses a Pull-quote from the article and it is of bigger size font and is coloured red to stand out.

• Unlike the Classic fm double page spread, this magazine only uses four different images on its double page spread.

• Also this article uses crossheads for each part of the articles.

• The headlines are features on the bottom of the images instead of at the top of the article.

• This double page spread uses a white background using black and white text.

• Unlike the previous double page article this one does not use drop caps.

• Uses strap lines underneath each headline and captions are used for each main picture.

• Unlike the other two double page spreads I have analysed, this one uses one page for the text and the other page for the image.

• Drop caps are used twice for the two main pieces of text.

• The headline for the article is made up of different sized fonts which gives a different feel to the article compared to the other magazines.

• A medium close up is used for the only image that appears in this double page spread.

• Like the other double page spreads the image also has a caption telling the reader about the photograph.

• Underneath the stand first on the left hand page is the picture credit and also credits who wrote the story .