Cover Analysis

The masthead of the magazine is always featured in the top left corner or right across the top of the page, the masthead is always one of the first things you notice about the cover because they are always bold end eye-caching, the colour on each of these mastheads stands out, the Kerrang masthead is big, white and in capitals on a black contrasting background, the NME masthead is red to go well with the colour scheme of the rest of the cover, and has a white and a black border around it to help it stand out, and finally the Vibe masthead is Red on a very plain grey background enabling the word ‘VIBE’ to really stick out.

On a magazine cover there is always a main image, the main image is always the first thing to be noticed and so must be of a well known and well liked artist, that fits in with the type of magazine and the target audience each magazine has, for example Kerrang use bands and rock artists, where as Vibe would use more R&B or Pop artists so that the magazine appeals to its audience. The main image often covers other important parts of the magazine because it needs to be the biggest and most eye-catching thing on the page, if the artist/band does no stand out it will have little effect on drawing in a reader.

The main image of a magazine cover is often taken in various ways, for example some feature close ups of singer, some the whole band at different levels, and some not even looking at the camera but singing or playing live.

The cover of a music magazine always has advertisements and interesting content of the rest of the magazine e.g. quotes from artists featured in that edition to draw people in, or little bits of information about tours, interviews and reviews, one thing I noticed on all magazines here, NME, Kerrang and Vibe the name of the artists are highlighted in some way, on the Vibe cover ‘Jay-Z’ ‘Usher’ ‘Nia Long’ are all made to stand out to draw attention but not too much to attract attention away from the main image and the masthead, this is also done on NME Cover with ‘Arcade Fire’ ‘Radiohead’ and ‘Kaisers’ and on Kerrang Cover with ‘Green day’ and ‘Lacuna coil’. Some cover such as the Kerrang and NME use various font types maybe to create a new individual effect and make more important parts stand out, however some Covers such as Vibe use very similar if not the same font type throughout the whole cover just at different sizes and colour, this might attract readers because it almost creates a neat and efficient look.

The magazine covers take advantage of our eye line and the fact we read left to right, for example the NME cover the tag lines are places very cleverly, top left, middle right, middle left, bottom right each time the text placed slightly lower down so that the reader will do the typical z shape when they pick up the magazine.

On each of these covers the name of the band or artist that is featured in this edition is cleverly made to stick out. The name ‘Biffy Clyro’ first of all is smack bang in the middle of the page, is in big block capitals and has black blocks of text around it making the white printed text contrast with the black and stand out. This is also done on the other cover with the name ‘Bring me the horizon’ firstly it is the only word apart form ‘exclusive’ that is in a different colour to the rest of the page and it is also printed in block capital. Both of the covers also cleverly place the name to the left hand side of the magazine, this could be because they are taking advantage of how we naturally read left to right and are therefore more likely to read it if it is more to the left that the right.

On every one of these covers there is some kind of text squeezed into the top section right above the masthead that will draw the audience in, ‘NME exclusive’ ,’New Album Special’, ‘WIN trip to Germany’, all these pieces of text will appeal to some members of its target market, and the fact that it is placed right at the top means it would be easily seen and maybe the first thing seen, also it is right above the masthead which is always noticed my the reader and if there is something interesting near the masthead the readers eyes may wonder up and notice the text. Something else I noticed is that on one of the NME Covers and the Kerrang Cover is that some the text that are at the top, are highlighted or made to stand out in some way, ‘Win’ is placed on a big bright red sign so that as soon as you read the masthead u can already see the red sign in the corner of your eye, then the words ‘Ac/DC’ are printed in yellow as opposed to white like the rest of the text this may be because the reader is more interested about who the band are and might not want to read the whole line the fact that the band is highlighted will draw attention to who you can ‘win’ tickets to see and especially for AC/DC lovers this text will now be more prominent. This is also done on the NME cover the phrase ‘New Albums; is printed in yellow to be separated from ‘2006’ and ‘special’ while still in-keeping with the general colour scheme.

On the Kerrang and NME covers pictures of the magazines content are placed at the bottom of the page, this has a huge effect on the reader, the main reason a person will buy a magazine will be based on who is in it, each member of the target market will pick up the magazine and if the main image is not too appealing to them they will simply scan the rest of the page to see if it includes any other artists they are interested, but they do not want to be flicking through the entire magazine to find this out. On both covers the pictures are also placed more to the left similarly to the text and masthead, so that they are more noticeable to the readers eye line.

Another thing I noticed about some of these covers it that they often will have a specific colour scheme through the entire cover, for example the NME cover has a theme of red and white and the Kerrang of Black and white. This enables the reader not to get too confused by too many different colours they can break down the different parts of the cover, it also creates a very slick, neat look to the magazine. However some covers will take a different approach and will have many different colours on their cover perhaps to create a more individual and unconventional cover, maybe appropriate to the artists personality featured on the cover.

Codes and ConventionsMasthead – Top/Top Left (Always Caps)

Tag Lines – Left & Right Hand Side

Other Pictures – Bottom or Left Hand Side

Extra Info – Top (Small

Main Picture – Centre (Eye-catching)

Featured Band Name – Middle Of Page

Barcode – Bottom Corner