Muniba Naveed

Analysing and annotating 3 similar music magazines (Front covers)

Sell Lines:

“20 BEST NEW DANCE ACTS ON THE PLANET!”

This helps to sell the magazine because the target audience may be interested in all the arts and would like to know about dancing.

Anchorage text:

Gives some information about why they are choosing to interview the band/ what the band is going to talk about or be questioned about.

Masthead:

Standard text size for the masthead is used, not particularly big.

Perhaps to connote that it is a very casual magazine, written informally etc.

Strap Lines:

Smaller headline above main headline

Starts with question

The names of the band and artist are in bold text to give quick & easy information so that the audience will automatically know that Blur and Johnny Marr are involved in this issue.

Main Image:

Shows that the lead story is about the Arctic Monkeys

Also sets the genre of the magazine edition because the band plays indie music.

Well known band to target audience (young adults)

This supports the ideology of the magazine because they are a band and it shows the magazine is about music entertainment.

Puff

A question from band member (most likely lead singer)

“Are you ready for us then?” Implying they are significant and cool and their audience must be “ready” for them.

Other Artists/bands featured in the issue adds more interest to target audience.

Strap Lines

Sell Line:“30 page special” also shows that there is value for money as 30 pages is a lot.

Sell Line:“The Ultimate review” and “The Top 50”.This connotes that this is the best review there is, encourages customer to purchase the copy

Main Image:

A woman not wearing revealing clothes. Suggests sophistication and an older generation which could be a reflection of the musicians music.

Involves artist’s views on politics

Sell Line: Free CD encourages the sale of the magazine because it makes the customers feel as though they are getting value for their money .

Use of exclamation marks makes the text stand out of the page and emphasises popularity of the musicians.

Masthead:

Big and clear bold font to attract customers attention.

Main image:

Very well known American actor; Eddie Murphy.

Majority of all people know about him or have seen his films. This shows that Rolling Stone is a very successful magazine as they are able to get into contact with highly paid and talented celebrities.

Other popular bands/ artists included in the issue

Masthead:

Not fully visible because of main image of Eddie Murphy.

This could connote popularity of the magazine as people instantly know what magazine it is without having to see the full title. This is because it has a unique text font and layout that makes it easily recognisable by everyone.

Left Side Third/ House Style:

Rolling Stone magazine mainly always uses the Left Side Third format for displaying purposes so that if it is placed horizontally people can still see the headings. This is an effective way of displaying because the magazine will never go unnoticed.

Also this house style is traditional for Rolling Stone meaning that people will recognise this style and associate it with Rolling Stone.

Popular cartoon from the 90’s returning will encourage excitement in readers