Analysis of 3 music magazine front covers, 3contents pages and 3 double

AS MEDIA

Joanna Czurlowska

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Front Cover Analysis Kerrang! Is a Rock magazine. The audience will be mainly real fun’s of rock in the age between 15 and 20 when the teenagers have got their time for rebellion. Price also helped me to specify the age of the audience because Kerrang! cost £2.20 so that the particular target can afford the magazine as they are not working yet. The magazine attract the rock funs mainly by the colours used on the cover. Red symbolise danger and as people stereotypically think rock is aggressive and loud type of music. Black symbolises the dark side so the rock does as well. From the external textual knowledge we know that the Slipknot band plays heavy metal. What can be suggestive for the people is the fact that the person on the main image is actually wearing a metal mask. The person on the picture looks also very aggressive so not everyone will be attracted by this as they may think that those people are very vulgar. The hair style of this person is really messy. This also represents the style of music they produce.

The masthead is black and the letters are sharp. They also look like old and destroyed that links to the genre of the magazine. The font of the Main Cover line is the original, representational font of the Slipknot band. That may attract their funs as they will think that the information's inside the magazine are up to date and are taken directly from the band.

On the Front Cover Kerrang! shows that there is 9 other covers for this particular series of the magazine so the audience may be attracted as they have the right to choose the one they really want because they may have their own, favourite member of the band.

Example of 1 of 9 different covers.

Kerrang! Also adds free poster to their magazine, what will also help to attract the attention of the audience because they may buy it only to get the poster of the person they really admire.

The selling lines inform people what they can find inside the magazine so they have an idea of what they can find inside looking only at the cover of the magazine.

The cover lines are also suggestive for the people because again from the external textual knowledge we know the names of the bands they have presented and if the audience are interested in one of them they will buy the magazine to read about them and to collect more information.

Finally the magazine is quiet well organized, however it is like opposite to the expression we have made by the main image. Me, myself think only by looking at the main image that it is really messy and unorganized but to keep the balance on the front cover they have laid their page very carefully to do not make it to complicate to assimilate.

All the 9 covers.

Front Cover Analysis UNCUT is a Rock magazine as well as the Kerrang!. However, the target audience will be totally different because the magazine aims to older, more mature more sophisticated audience. The price also makes a huge difference because UNCUT is worth £4.70 so the people from the higher social status are more likely to afford the magazine as they have more disposable income. A lot of different aspects included on the cover also inform us who the audience could be. I will start of with the main image. It is black and white. They have used this image to bring back the old times and to satisfy the target audience as those kind of music and those people were really famous in their teenager times. The clothing of the person on the main image also links back to the 60’s, 70’s. The hairstyle is also different to ours now, is really messy and wild. The use of colours also appeals to the target audience because the colour’s are in great composition.

Red may link to the dangerous side of rock. However, it may also be received as the real love to rock. The use of gold isn’t accidental because the magazine talks about the 40th anniversary of the band. Black is a standard colour used on the covers, however same as in the Kerrang! magazine it may symbolize the dark side of rock. The masthead is also red. The letters are big and bold. They carefully thought about it because it also has to appeal to the older generation people so it can not be too outstanding.

The magazine offers their audience a CD. The audience may be attracted because that is a great occasion to buy their favourite CD even thought they may not be attracted in the magazine. So that will bring some extra customers.

The main cover line is emphasized by the red colour. It is because they want the potential audience to get their attention and to make them know what is included in the magazine and who is it about. The cover lines as well as the selling lines are persuading people to buy the magazine and give them ideas of what they can find inside the magazine. Their colours are in harmony with the style of the front cover.

Finally the layout of the magazine is simple and clear, however comparing it to Kerrang! they included more of the features which will need our external textual knowledge to be recognized and help us decided whether buy the magazine or not. This magazine is also more bright and in my opinion attractive.

From my external textual knowledge I know that the Kerrang! cover is weak and all the pages are made up from the same paper. On the other hand, the UNCUT’s cover is much more strong and made of different material than the rest of the pages. It links back to the price and the target audience.

Front Cover Analysis The Rock Sound Magazine is obviously a rock magazine. The target of this magazine can be a mixed group of people. Teenagers also as the adults can be attracted by this magazine, but the price £3.99 testified that it may be more of the adults because they can spend money. It is cheaper than the UNCUT magazine, however it still a big price. Lot of things happens on the cover. There is 4 different people on the main image. They all have similar type of clothing and hairstyle. From the external textual knowledge I know that the band was formed in the 2004 so it is just their stylization to look like the old time stars. The cover is very bright because of the use of different colours. The masthead is neutral, white. It is because they wanted to keep a balance on the page and to do not make it to messy. The main cover line is yellow same as the text ‘free CD’ in my opinion they uses that to link those two points to take special attention to the CD. The selling lines are in the same colour as the masthead. They inform

people what they can find inside of the magazine. If the audience is interested in one of the bands they have named in the selling lines they will be more attracted by the magazine.The cover lines are in different colours, some of them are grey the ret is blue. Even the font is small the text still stand out on the page. It is attractive because people get the information's of what will be included in magazine.

The Rock Sound magazine offers free CD which I mention before. The Free CD will attract the potential customers because The Cd itself may be really expensive but when there is a occasion of buying it for a price of the magazine they will obviously do that if they are fans of the band; in this case Panic! At The Disco.They have also added free posters. Which will take even more attention of the audience. Something new, which two other covers haven't on them and what in my point of view is a great way to attract the audience is the fact that they have promoted a competition. It was a good step because people will just look on the page and know that they have the opportunity to win VIP tickets for download.

The layout of the page is kind of messy and unorganized comparing to the two others magazines. However it may be because they wanted to give the audience something different and to show the real messy side of rock.

Contents Page Analysis

This is the contents page of Kerrang! magazine. The heading is placed in the top right corner. Is quiet different to all other magazines because we used to see heading in the opposite side of the page. In the top left corner we can find a lot of writing. In my opinion it isn't so good because people wont spend that much of time in the shop to check what is written in there however the creators could think completely differently than me and thought that this will attract people because they will know what they can find inside the magazine without going through the pages. The left side of the page is mostly filled with the images of different artists. On the other half of the page they have placed pictures of bands, to keep the contrast.

On the right side there is also table of contents. The more interesting bits have been emphasized by different colour to drag the biggest attention. The right half looks more interesting. There happened more. The page is laid out well and is really clear. The background of the page is white to make all the text easy to read for the audience. The use of yellow was a good idea because it look bright and attractive for the audience.

Contents Page Analysis

This is the contents page of the Rock Sound magazine. From all 3 cover only on this one we can see that instead of writing ‘Contents’ they have placed a ‘Rock Sound’ and the series of the magazine. In my opinion it was good choice because people know how the contents page look like and that is something new, something fresh that we can not observe in the other magazines. The page has been mostly filled up with the picture. Even the content table is transparent so we can see what is behind. On the picture we can see two young fighters. It represent the aggressive side of the Rock and links with the text quote on the left side. The facial expression of those two young males also shows the aggression. It will attract the audience because it makes them feel like they have to face those people; like they have to face this magazine. That also can help me specify more deeply the target audience because making any of the picture I can note that the most interested will be males in the similar age as the one’s on the picture. The contents table is in the bottom right corner. It takes just ¼ of the page. As I mention before the table is transparent and the colour used for the text is white to make it clear and easy to read. The numbers of the pages are highlighted by the red colour to ‘warn’ people what is included on each page.

Contents Page Analysis

This is the Contents page of the UNCUT magazine. The heading of that page fits the masthead of the front cover. It is very good because it keeps the style of the magazine. The page has been mostly filled by the main image. The image is black and white. It links back to the cover because their purpose was to get to the mature audience. The person on the picture is old himself and he will appeal to the audience. He holds guitar what links back to the genre of the magazine. On the left side there is a column with the content. It is attractive because people don’t have to read a lot and they still have an idea of what is in the magazine. The use of colours is very simple. On the page they have mainly used white and red . Comparing this contents page to the Kerrang! magazine this one is a little bit more boring. But it is because the audiences are different. And as I have said before the older people have different expectations; they are more sophisticated.

From all the contents pages the one that would take the most of my attention would be the Kerrang’s! one. It is because they have written the most information’s which will be very helpful while choosing the right magazine. It also has several of different pictures what again takes more of the attention than one huge picture filling all of the page.

Double page spread analysis

The main image. The image present a person, male. He plays on the guitar, it is really attractive because people while looking at the page without even reading the article have an idea what it can be about and judge if the article will be interesting, however we should never judge the book by the cover and do not decide to do not read the article only because the picture isn’t so attractive.

The guitar has a United Kingdom flag on it. It will attract the attention of the patriots. And it also links to the heading ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

The is not a lot of writing on those pages. However the style of the font fits the style of the pages. The letters are small and may be difficult for individuals to read, but it is not such a big problem because people should be prepared for it as they can find similar feature in all of the magazines.

The main cover line is really bright and catch the attention of the audience even more than the picture does. It is also in two different colours so it make the page look more attractive.

Double page spread analysis

On the picture we can see two individuals. They both look like they are indifferent to each other. That may links back to the content of the magazine. Their clothing also express the style of the music they play, rock.They bring the atmosphere from the rock video clips to the magazine pages. The text on the page is white. It is a great

contrast to the dark background. The lines above and under the text divides the pages to sections and that makes the pages look more interesting.

The eye catching title on the page is also white. The letters are in capital and they also stand out in the dark background. The title makes people pass through to the article.

The use of colours will mostly appeal to the male audience because the colours are dark. As well as the picture because the artists are male themselves.

Double page spread analysis The title of the article will mostly appeal to the teenagers as it is ‘THE TEENANGERS’. The title catch the eye of the audience and looks fresh on the page because of the use of blue for the background.

The review table which will be really attractive because people can follow the trends that are set up by the stars and stay up to date with the new ones.

The picture will mostly catch the attention of young males. The picture shows the typical teenagers nowadays. They are relaxed and ‘chilled’. They also look interesting and their dressing code is really fashionable. They will make the audience follow those people.

The use of colours will also mostly appeal to the males. Because if we thought stereotypically blue links with a boy, pink with a girl. And here we have mostly blue, black and white.

‘Need To Know’ table is a great idea, and will attract the audience as they will be interested what they should know about the teenager world.