Music magazine covers

This is a standard music magazine called ‘Kerrang’. It features rock bands like ‘You me at Six, Green Day and Bring me the Horizon’.

This music magazine has a skyline that runs across the top of the magazine which consists of shocking stories involving the band that is on the main cover. It also calls out to the reader about special attractions and more.

Below the skyline we have the masthead which the main image is covering showing that the company making the Kerrang magazines are confident knowing that the audience will know which magazine it is. The whole of the masthead is the width of the magazine, stretching from left to right in big bold letters so it stands out against the rest of the magazine. The font of the masthead appeals towards the theme of the magazine as it is Kerrang.

The layout of the magazine is set in a way to appeal towards the audience. It is quite busy with lots of detail to attract the audience. Kerrang have used lots of features to create this magazine and have used various fonts and sizes. They have also used different pictures to sell more stories of what is inside the magazine. The layout is the type of layout that suits the genre.

The barcode they have used is quite big and does get in the way of the text. It is located in the bottom right hand corner along with the price of the magazine. The font and size of the price is smaller than the rest of the fonts on the cover of the magazine. The price is small and hard to locate which tells us the price is high. If the price was low, the font would be bigger so it attracts the reader’s eye and would sell more. The sell lines are a big part of magazines. They include a range of features which are included inside the magazine.

The main image is the biggest part of the covers features as it sells the main story to the reader of the magazine. The main image is of a band called ‘Bring me the horizon’. The group are making direct eye contact with the audience drawing them towards the magazine and making them want to buy it. The subject that Kerrang used, represent their style of music so only people that like their music will only buy this magazine. 

This is a standard music magazine called ‘NME’ which is short for New Musical Express. This magazine is featuring Alex Turner from the Artic Monkeys and Miles Kane from The Last Shadow Puppets. The masthead is not like normal magazines because it only stretches across half the width of the page where as other magazines have their masthead are usually the same width as the page. There are three different colours to the masthead, black and white outlines while the rest is filled with red. The colours of this masthead suit the theme of the magazine really well as the rest of the fonts and colours are the same, to make the house style consistant. The font they have chosen to use is easily readable and anyone would recognise what type of magazine it is. The main image is obscured by the main image, showing that the company is confident in knowing that their readers can recognise their brand of magazine. It will only appeal to the target audience that take a liking to this type of music (Indie music) to be able to enjoy this magazine and what ever it includes inside.

This magazine is lacking a slogan, its not competing with its competitors in attracting the target audience into buying the magazine. Also it creates a memory cue so the target audience may remember the title of the magazine. Some people may look automatically at the slogan and want to buy it that way where as others don’t.

The main image is the main selling point on the cover of the magazines; it includes the main story inside. On this cover, there are two people covering the majority of the page showing that this is the main story along with the anchorage text which is located in the middle at the bottom of the page. The anchorage text supports the main image and it gives additional information about the subjects and will draw the audience in. The two men are also making eye contact with the audience drawing them towards the magazine and if fans, to buy the magazine. The subjects appeal to the target audience in knowing that they have to be fans of the subjects on the cover to buy the magazine because people that are not fans, will not be interested in buying the magazine or the stories that are inside.

The sell lines are a range of features on the front page which include information about other different stories which are inside of the magazine. These are the small stories that are on the front cover which sell the magazine to the target audience. The sell lines have to appropriate to the genre of the magazine for it to sell just like this one has. The sell lines are placed down the left hand side of the page and are laid out under one another. There are different sized fonts on each sell line. They do not have any images to support them so some people may not know what the story is about properly.

The price is set in the bottom right hand corner in a little white box along with the barcode which is place next to it. Often, if magazines are expensive then the price can be difficult to find where as if the price was really low, like 99p, then it would be really big and advertised so more people would buy it. The barcode is small and does not get in the way of the text which is good because there is more room for information.

This is a standard, well known branded magazine, called ‘VIBE’. It involves rap music which is only for the fans of rap.

The masthead is easy to spot as it is right at the top in big bold letters. The masthead stretches across the full width of the page making it stand out against the white background. The colours that have been used suit the whole magazine really well as there are only three main colours. The colours are red, black and white. These colours have been chosen because the subject is wearing black and these are the colours that suit black the most. The colour of the masthead is black and red, mixing in with the white background making the masthead stand out for the viewers to see. The masthead is obscured by the main image showing that the company of VIBE, is confident in knowing that their target audience will notice that it is their magazine and not someone else’s that looks similar.

The main image is a medium shot taken of Eminem (who is a rapper). This is the main selling point of the magazine as it is the biggest story that is inside the magazine. The subject is looking straight at the camera making direct eye contact with the target audience drawing them towards the magazine. The subject is represented as a typical stereotype of a rapper. How he is coming across as mean, he has the tattoos and the vest top.

The sell lines are laid out in a way that makes them stand out so the target audience can see them. They are laid out down both sides of the magazine, avoiding the main image so the main image can stand out more. Some of the sell lines have bigger fonts meaning they are bigger stories inside. Some of the sell lines are different colours to make the cover look more attractive to the target audience.

There is no bar code on the front cover meaning it is on the back of the magazine. This is good because it means there is more room for more sell lines on the front cover, where as other people may get confused and think there is not barcode and will not buy it or just steal it.