Deconstruction of 3 Music Magazines Covers

By Rachel Black

Masthead – This is used at the top, left of the screen so that readers know straight away what magazine they are reading. They also use a a bold red to make it stand out against the pale background and against the model (Adele).

Then use the same bold red to make certain sell lines stand out more than the rest of them. Also the colour of the text is very basic (red, black, white and gold), however they are very bold colours that appeal to that specific audience type as it’s not overcomplicated, suggesting that it is for an older audience rather than to 12 year olds.

Adele is taking up most of the cover which suggests that she is well known enough for her to be able to take up the whole cover, and that people will want to buy it just for her. Adele also takes up a little of the masthead, which again suggests that she is well known enough, also that the magazine itself (Q) is well known enough for some of it to be covered and that it is still recognizable.

The 300th issue is in a gold bubble, it is the only text bubble done this way which makes it stand out more against the other text surrounding it. It is also at eye level for us as a reader and with Adele, this is done so that once you’ve looked at Adele the main sell you look at this piece of text.

All of the text is in upper case, trying to get that everything is important, however the main sell line is the biggest text, which suggests it is the most important.

Adele is in a medium shot pose, looking directly at the camera maybe to suggest confidence and to suggest to the reader that she’s talking to them.

Another thing which suggests that it is for a teenage plus audience is that it only has one image, which takes up most of the magazine cover. If it was for a younger audience it would have more pictures and different text styles because a younger audience needs more things to keep them entertained and to stop their minds from wondering to another magazine. However this magazine has only a few sell lines and colours as the less things that are going on the generally the more trendy the magazine is to the audience.

Masthead at the top, left of the cover. White, bold, thick, block name, so it stands out against Florences’ red hair.

Simple white, black and red background colours. Not overcomplicated so it still looks sophisticated to the audience. It keeps to the magazine conventions as many music magazine use these three colours.

Text isn’t everywhere on the cover. It has only minimal text which suggests again that this image is very sophisticated. It also suggests that the reader doesn’t buy the magazine because of its content but for its name(NME). Text is placed above, to the right and to the left of Florences face so that her face is framed, so that you look at her (the main image), rather than at the text first.

The main sell line is to the left of the image and is lower down than the other sell lines which may suggest that it doesn’t matter what Florence has got to say, and that she is famous enough to just be known with an image of her face.

Florence is made to stand out against the rest of the text and image, as it is the only one that is dark, making it suggest that because it’s the one thing which catches your eye the most it is the most important part of the magazine.

On this magazine cover there is only 1 image which again suggests that it is for an older audience which don’t appreciate lots of things going on in there magazine.

Another thing which suggests that this is for an older audience is that it is Florence on the front cover of the magazine. In her songs she talks about ‘My boy builds coffins he makes them all day. But it's not just for work and it isn't for play’, something that a younger audience shouldn’t be listening to.

Masthead is at the top of the cover, sticking to magazine conventions. However this magazine doesn’t really stick to ordinary conventions as the text has coloured circles in them, something that isn’t usually done in the magazine world. However this makes the magazine even more recognisable to the reader, as other music magazine won’t have this type of logo.

Another way in which this magazine cover is different to many others is that the Drake (the main image) is in greyscale. Usually magazines tend to have their images very bright with bold colours which make that specific magazine stand out against the rest, however this magazine will stand out more because the main image isn’t bright.

Text on music magazine covers are usually white on a colourful background, however on this magazine they have used white text on a grey background so that it keeps to the main colours of the magazine. They also may have done this because they want the main selling point for the magazine to be Drake, not the other sell lines.

Because the magazine logo is in colour and the main image isn’t in colour it is put across that the magazine itself is actually the main selling point of the magazine and not the main image.

The magazine cover suggests it is for an older audience as it only has little text to go with the image.

It also has only a 3 main colours (black, white and green), this again suggests that it is for a sophisticated audience, however it also has red, yellow, bright blue and green so it also suggests that it has content younger audiences would enjoy.