Magazine analysis - Report

After looking at the a range of different music magazines ranging from the rock focused Kerrang and the hip hop and Rnb focused Vibe, I have found a range of different techniques that the magazine uses to portray different ideas and that small changes can be made to the front cover to make it clear to the audience what genre the magazine focuses on.

The majority of magazines had one main image on the front that dominated the front cover. The image was always related to an artist that was currently popular in the specific genre. I also found that the image used helped the audience to understand what age group the magazine was aimed towards. On the front of all the magazines the artists were looking serious which is a typical convention of music magazines because it makes the artists look cool and uncaring, something which is attractive in music artists. The main images had more of a sex appeal when clearly targeting an older generation. However rock magazines such as ‘Q’, focused more on the music rather than trying to appeal to the audience through the glamour of the artists. The image used on the front of ‘Q’ magazine clearly portrays the rock genre however it doesn’t show the artist (Mark Potter) as being ‘sexy’ or appealing to the opposite sex. Instead it shows the artist being cold and cool, typical rock star qualities.

No direct mode of address                                                   Unconventionally, the main

                                                                                                                  focus is on the masthead

The cool metallic colours of the

background connote coldness

When using one main image on the front cover to dominate the page it makes the magazine seem more expensive and has a better finish to the magazine as it looks more organised and structured. However depending on the target audience’s age group that the magazine is trying to attract depends on the amount of images used on the front cover. For example the front cover to Kerrang!, is very busy with many different images and captions covering the page giving the illusion that there is a lot of information and articles featured inside the magazine. It also appeals to the target audience because it is exciting and it reflects the nature of the magazine. The kind of front cover also becomes very eye catching but is also clearly trying to attract a younger age generation.

Calm, metallic colours                                                                                                

Typically sexy woman,                                                                                            posed seductively                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                              

Bright, Bold colours

Typically unattractive woman, also posed seductively

The representation in the two magazines is significantly different, which is shown by the front covers. Vibe is a very serious magazine, which focuses greatly on appearance, where as NME doesn't so much, making it seem like a more 'fun' magazine. These representations would appeal to the target audience of the magazine since people that focus on their appearance and are worried about what other people think would be more attracted to Vibe.

It is important to choose a colour theme that reflects the images and genre of the magazine. Magazines targeted to younger age groups used more colours that contrast against each other, however the majority of magazines focused on three or four colours that contrast against each other, but more subtly, making the magazine seem sophisticated. The colour schemes from the different magazine differ significantly depending on the target audience, as well as the music genre. For instance, the classical rock magazine Rolling Stone used more subtle colour on the contents page as well as greyscale images, with little colour throughout the page. A sharp contrast to this is Kerrang!, also a rock music magazine, which uses vast amounts of colour and bold text throughout the magazine, as well as the contents page with the focus of the page being on reflecting the nature of the music, which is often loud and explosive. This is because of the difference in the age of the magazines demographic, with Rolling stone being aimed at an older target audience and Kerrang!'s audience being young adults.
Another contrast in colour schemes is Vibe and NME. Both magazines are aimed at roughly the same aged demographic and yet the colour schemes are very different. The Vibe colour scheme is of calm colours, which blend together flawlessly and create a flow throughout the pages such as metallic blue and silver, where as NME uses bright, bold colours which create a very eye catching effect, such as red and yellow.

While researching and analysing contents pages I have been able to realise the importance of using a colour theme similar to the one used for the front cover, to show the continuity between the pages and to show that they flow together and are part of the same magazine and create a house style. Along with the importance of layout and spacing as over crowded contents pages can show different genres depending on the images that are used. For example for the Kerrang! Contents page, it is very structured however is also crowded with all the information present on one page.

The images used for Kerrang! Are all very natural, there is nothing posed or modeled about the shots, they are just taken as snap shots of the artist producing there music, showing that the magazine is focusing more on the music itself rather then on the artist producing it. This makes it very clear to indicate that the style of music being portrayed is rock. However other magazines such as Vibe and Q spread their contents pages out over a double page spread, making it much more simplistic however easily readable, and easy for the reader to identify the aspects that are of main attention to them. The simplistic view makes the magazine look more sophisticated and more expensive, as it is not over crowded.

The Vibe article and the Q article put a lot more into the article and cram as much on one page as possible, unlike the Kerrang! Article which spaces out the text more evenly. This is because Kerrang! and other magazine that are aimed to a younger target audience try to make their information 'bitesize' and easy to read, so as to appeal to the 'MTV generation' and stop readers losing interest.

The language used within Q and Vibe is more sophisticated than that used within Kerrang! and NME so as to appeal to the younger audience, whereas the more sophisticated language would be similar to that of a newspaper and would appeal to an older audience.

The contents pages on all the magazines I looked at showed that there were lots of writing and headings across the page, indicating exactly were to find the articles, and giving page numbers to each of the images, making it easy and understandable. In Kerrang! And NME, the contents was all on one page unlike Q and Rolling Stones where the contents is spread over two pages, making them easier to navigate around and understand which would appeal to older target audiences.

In conclusion, I have found my research into other successful music magazines on the market now has helped me to understand the conventions of music magazines and which ones I should follow in order to create a successful magazine. However, I have also learned that I can change certain conventions in a magazine, such as an unconventional colour scheme or language style, and still create a magazine that would be successful in today's market.