Analysis of magazine front covers

Big, bold master head that is clearly visible across the top of the magazine front cover. It’s Simple, large font so that it’s clear and visible; it’s also very distinctive and recognisable to the audience. The red box makes the letter ‘Q’ stand out.

This is a sell line for the best new acts of the year. This shows the audience that this magazine keeps up to date in the music industry and it won’t fail in providing up to date content. Therefore this encourage the audience to read the magazine. These sell lines also help give the audience an insight of the contents of the magazine. They tend to display magazine exclusives in order to help sell more of the issue. For example, ‘The 10 best new acts’ gives the audience an opportunity to find out what artists music they should listen to.

Here Cheryl Cole is being portrayed as sexy. This is enforced through her seductive pose of her biting her ring. There is also some phallic representation of the ring which further evokes the maturity of the magazine and emphasises the man image’s sex appeal as the images is clearly demonstrating connotations of sex. . The use of sex appeal will attract mostly the male members of the target audience. The use of rain helps create the ‘wet look’ again, presenting Cheryl as a provocative, sensual figure. The use of a close up helps establish the maturity of the magazine. Whilst other magazines aimed at a younger use group shot/ long shots to show clothing, Q focuses less on clothing and more on facial expressions and how that can sell Cheryl’s sex appeal.

The house style of magazine has been chosen specifically to match the front covers main issue of Cheryl Cole ‘rocks’. For example, black and red are considered as connotations of rock. The sell line ‘The UK’s biggest music magazine’ is positioned at the top of the page to ensure that the it’s the first thing the audience sees. The fact that ‘q; claims to be the ‘biggest music magazine’, gives the audience a good reason to buy the magazine.

The plug helps present the most exclusive content in the magazine. Here, the plug is in circle coloured grey with a back border also including white and black. This feature has stayed within the colour scheme of black, red and white.

Unlike other magazines vibe uses less sell lines and leaves a lot of empty space. Instead here it gives the audience a list of the artists featured in the magazine. This leaves behind an element of curiosity, making the audience buy the magazine in order for them to discover what’s inside. This also gives the chance for the main image to speak for itself.

The master head’s edgy font suit the magazine music genre rock. It is placed clearly at the top of the page in a large black font. It is written solid, bold font which reinforces the magazines serious approach to music. Moreover, the master head demonstrates a professionalism through the use of a plain, contemporized colour: white.

This hints the audience about upcoming collaborations and music. This proves that this magazine is keeping up to date in everything in the music industry. Therefore, fulfilling the aim of triggering the audience’s interest.

Artists on the main image are presented as serious, sophisticated and they give the impression that they mean business. This is reinforced through their formal, posh attire of black elegant suits. The fact that they are positioned behind one another suggest that they are each at different levels in terms of hierarchy in RnB music. P Diddy is positioned right at the front with Rick Ross and a female artist behind him demonstrating that he is the most dominant figure in the front cover of the magazine. The image also demonstrates elements of team work as they are dressed the same and are grouped together on the photo.

On the left hand side of the page, there is a bar code which is used to demonstrate that this is a genuine product that can be scanned in stores. Below that there is the price to endure that the readers are aware of the cost of the magazine. These are all conventions of magazine front cover.

On the sell lines some of the word are coloured. This highlights the most significant sell lines on the cover to ensure that the sell lines capture the audiences attention in order for them to want to buy the magazine. For example, ‘Eminem and Dr.Dre’ are in red to show that they are the most significant artist featured on the front cover,

Kerrang uses an extremely conventional layout as all the main sell lines are positioned on the left hand side of the front cover. This is due to fact that in stores, magazines are positioned in a way that only presents information on the left side of the page. Here the audience is given information on a group’s official come back. This suggests that the magazine is up to date with everything going on in the industry.

Here it gives the audience a list of the artists featured in the magazine. This leaves behind an element of curiosity, making the audience buy the magazine in order for them to discover what’s inside.

Colour scheme of black, white and orange is kept constant throughout the whole of the front cover. The same colour are used on each of the sell lines. However, all of the colours are used on each word of the text creating some differentiation.

Here Paramour’s lead singer Hayley Williams is portrayed as funky rock chick. This is enforced through her hand action and facial expression which helps the main image match the magazines genre, rock. The description underneath the band’s name says ‘pop-punk’s brightest young rebels’ matches the bright colour of the main models. In addition, her hand gestures compliment the young and rebellious characteristics she is deemed to have. This supports the stereotype of rock artists being wild, rebellious and carefree.The free gift is another way of persuading the

audience to buy the magazine as they won’t have to spend extra money on buying their own individual poster. This is a kind of reward for purchasing the magazine which therefore gives the audience another reason to buy the magazine.

The image sell lines help deter the audience form the other sell line texts on the page by providing with a much more visual idea the magazines featured. In addition it makes the front look more intriguing and exciting. More over, the most important words in the sell lives are coloured in a colour that is part of the front covers colour scheme. This helps highlight the most important aspects so that the audiences are attracted to them.