Genre Layout Conventions

By Erin Dawson

Conventions of a music magazine –Cover page.

• All magazines will have a bold masthead that will be situated at the top of the magazine, it will either be in front or behind the forehead of the cover model. This is because when the magazines are on a shelf in a shop, a consumer will only see the title of a magazine, because of this the title must stand out so the consumer will pick your magazine over competitors.

• Magazines will have a colour theme depending on who the target audience is, for example ‘Top of The Pops Magazine’ will have a lot of bold pinks as it is aimed at young girls 10+ and this is stereotypically what girls of this age like.

• The magazine will always have the masthead in the same font on every cover they publish so the consumer does not get confused and it keeps with the magazines DNA.

• Puffs and coverlines are never on the models face in the cover image and will be put in the negative space, e.g, hair and clothing.

• The puffs and coverlines will always be balanced; if there is big bold writing in top left of the magazine a bold puff shape will be on the bottom right side to keep that balance.

Conventions of a music magazine – Contents.

• All music magazines will offer a clear way of navigating through the magazine; large page numbers next to the article information will be used to help reader to do this. Subtitles may also be used for ‘regular content’ and ‘features on the cover’ so the reader knows exactly what they want to look at.

• Contents pages will all feature a picture of the cover of the magazine somewhere on them, usually with by-lines giving credit to the photographer and whoever else was involved.

• An editors letter will always be featured on the contents giving you information about the issue that you have picked up.

• There is usually a pictures of some of the bands/singers that have articles in the magazine to break up the text and also to catch the readers attention into read that particular article.

Conventions of a music magazine – Double page spread

• Large font and unusual font too is used to capture the readers attention.• The title is usually a quote from the article that the band member/singer

has said. • There is always a picture of the featured person on one side of the page to

break up the text and make it seem like less inclining the consumer to read the article, it also makes it look visually interesting.

• It is usually around 2000 words or slightly over or under.

Rock genre- Cover page

• In most cases the masthead is partially covered, and always at the top of the magazine. • Rock magazines are always very busy looking especially on the front cover, however they do have a

pattern rather than being completely random, they usually cover up all of the negative space in an image with the cover lines and also puffs of different sizes and colours again keeping the dark colour scheme.

• The magazines conventionally have a dark colour scheme, mainly reds, whites, yellows and blacks, to attract the male target audience and relate it to the genre of rock as these colours are what you may think of for a rock song. These have also been used as stereotypically people who read these types of magazines like risky things; the red connotes danger; black mystery; yellow caution.

• The largest cover lines are usually towards the bottom of the page sometimes straight across the chest of the person in the main image.

• Rock genre magazines sometimes use a black and white main cover image which is something other magazines wouldn’t use, Rock genre magazines sometimes break the rules of other genre magazines just as the reader may break some rules of everyday life and stand out more from the crowd.

• The main feature images are always conventionally un-glamorous and usually have nonchalant facial expressions or perhaps of the band, or solo artist singing.

• The main image always has the person in stereotypical rock clothing, lots of blacks, tattoos leather jackets, long hair, piercings and so on.

Contents

• One main convention of a contents page in a rock magazine is that it will always feature images on the contents. There is usually one main image featured which suggests to the reader that this is the main article in the magazine and so tends to be the most appealing, the pictures give the magazine that cluttered rock feel yet still keep all the article pictures in columns like many magazines do in other genres.

• The page numbers on the contents pages follow the generic conventions of a music magazine; every page number has been printed which means the reader can scan through the magazine and find what page they want far easier.

• There are smaller images; sometimes all the images are the same size. These give you an insight into what else might be in the magazine, the images also have page numbers next to them, this is so they can include lots more on the contents to give you more of an idea as to what will be inside the magazine.

• The colour scheme and text is always the same as the ones used on the front cover on the contents page so the reader isn't confused as to what magazine it is, they all follow there own DNA and uphold this through out the magazine.

• There is always a section the editors wrote usually in the top corner sometimes the bottom to make the reader feel like the magazine is more personalised and like its their friend in a way.

Double Page Spread

• The heading on a double page spread is usually the largest text on the page which is bold so it will stand out, it will also have a unique font to capture the reader’s eye inclining them to the article. The most eye catching title will usually be the article the front cover advertised so the reader isn't confused.

• At the beginning of the articles there is a stand first which is a significant convention of a music magazine, and any magazine for that matter, as it gives readers an insight into what the article consists of and captures the reader’s attention which is why it needs to be interesting. A lot of the time the stand first will contain a lot of information to get the audience to read that particular article.

• The text is always a smaller size e.g. 11/12, the article is always in columns too which is typical of any magazine to make it easier to read for the reader.

• There is always a dominant picture in the article to break the text up and make it seem like there is not as much to make sure it captures the reader’s attention and makes them want to read the article. The pictures are usually placed on the left but sometimes be right, the picture is to show readers what it’s based around too as it is usually of the person in the article.

• Pull quotes are used in the double page spreads to grip the reader; they usually consist of the most vital information in the text for example something the featured person or band has said in the interview.

• There are usually By-lines under the article which will have the editors or photographers name under it to give credit to them.