Magazine Cover Analysis'

Q Magazine

3 colour palette;

Red, grey/white and black are used. These colours are closely associated with Rock and are popular amongst music magazines. These colours strongly contrast with each other, black and white alone would be monochromatic so red is used to stand out and be eye-catching. 

Banner;

The banner doesn't take your eye away from the masthead, yet stands out as directly opposite colours used. 'The UK's biggest music magazine' isn't too complicated so wouldn't need much effort for the reader to read. 

Masthead;

The largest letter on the page, in the top third which is where the eye gets drawn to first. A connotation of Q could be that it is an unusual magazine, as the letter 'q' isn't often used. 

Central Image;

Cheryl Cole is represented in a 'rock' style, rather than her usual 'pop' style. She uses Marjorie Ferguson's romantic or sexual expression, or possibly Trevor Millums seductive expression, indicating to men that she is available - this would encourage a male audience to buy the magazine. 

Rain is also used again, to the semi-literate audience, to advertise her newest album 'Messy Little Raindrops'. The words '3 words' were used also which relates to Cheryl's single; ' 3 words', this would encourage Cheryl Cole fans who don't usually buy Q to purchase the magazine.

                                                                      NME Magazine

NME Magazine;

Top Third:

Reading and Leeds festival are known to be rock festivals, which would give an immediate invitation to the target audience to look further. Apart from the masthead the 'preview special' contrasting with the black background would immediately draw the eye, as it would stand above others on the newsstand.

The colours used in the top third are all equally contrasting, comparing to the second/third third which are slightly more layed back colours. The names of the bands are directed at a variety of audiences; Metallica is the older generations, Foals are more indie whereas Slipknot are closer to heavy rock.

Bottom 2 thirds;

The font ' The Killers ' is similar to The Killers' logo, making it more recognisable to fans. Their front man Brandon Flowers, is made identifiable with the subtitle 'Can Brandon find the plot in time for Reading and Leeds?', using his first name makes the magazine more personal and the readers will feel that it's easier to relate to him. The smaller quote ' I'm having a personality crisis right now' is reflected in the pictures having three different expressions, and that he is possibly torn between choosing which one, as the effect on the paper is torn.

The cover has a festival theme to it, as it mentions V Festival and Reading and Leeds festival, so if it was released in the summer it would be more appealing as it is festival season.

                                                                  Vibe Magazine

The colours used in this magazine contrast with those of NME and Q, which were quite similar. The colours are bound to be different and attract a different audience as this is a completely different genre of music. The masthead is the only piece of text on the cover which is gold, so that would stand out from any other image/text placed on top of it. The next most important text is coloured red, which is the 'special collectors edition' ' 150th issue' ' Mary J Blige' and ' Kisses,Clothes', there are many artists named in grey which indicate they are important, yet not as important as the feature article on Mary J Blige.

The grey(silver) and gold could also reflect that r&b artists stereotypically wear a lot of silver/gold jewellery.

The central image of Mary J Blige is the centre piece, as the text is fitted around her; this implies she is the most important and there will be more information included about her.

I decided to chose three different genre's of music magazine to analyse as I wanted to experiment with different styles, I found that the R&B artist was more aesthetically pleasing, and that I preferred Cheryl Cole image as it was very stylised and matched the style of the magazine. The three colour palette colour scheme was more effective, as it didn't make the magazine look too cheap or 'busy'. On the subject of colour I found that the yellow on the NME magazine looked at bit tacky, and wouldn't encourage my target audience (Similar age group to me 15-18 years old) to buy the magazine.

I think that using one image, rather than 3 on NME, makes it simpler and easier to look at, and again doesn't make the front page look too 'busy'.

The dress of my model must reflect the genre; if Mary J Blige was wearing skinny jeans and vans it wouldn't reflect the genre closely.

Whilst looking at these covers I have decided to do a mainstream pop magazine, taking inspiration from Vibe, as I didn't really take to the black and red, as I find it looks too 'rocky'.

After I evaluated these covers I then found 'Billboard' magazine, which represents what kind of style/colours I plan  to use for my magazine. I would like to mix this style of magazine with a more classy style of a fashion magazine such as Elle, Pop or Vogue.

I prefer these covers as they are more contemporary and eye catching, I also like them as they are different to typical music magzines; they don't contain the basic red/white/black colour pallete which I think doesn't suit the type of magazine I have decided to do. Billboard have also used contemporary female artists, who look like they could be models, rather than someone (e.g) Hayley Williams from Paramore who looks like a rmusic artist. I think that Billboard magazine is more relatable to the type of music magazine I want to do.