Music Magazine Research

Colouring- Rolling Stone magazine either use a white background or black background they are mostly famous for the simple coloured background with a usually red colour mast head, however they sometimes change the colouring of the mast head in order to suit the image. The white background makes the text stand out which is usually black on white or white on black.

Mast Head- the mast head is a non-serif styling as it is curly, the mast head is used as a famous logo for the magazine as the font has a 3D effect to stand out, and the mast head is covered up by the picture as it is famous enough for people to know who they are.

Main image- the main image is always someone/band that is famous (in this case Amy Winehouse in a medium close up) not necessarily always a person famous for music, but the magazine is always about music. The image covers up the mast head page to make it look like they are actually standing in front of the magazine cover making it more realistic and attractive to the audience.

Types of articles- The articles in this magazine are about Amy Winehouse and her problems, which was in the tabloids at the time and A list of tour line-ups in the summer, these kind of article are fun loving music and news about the musician that are being subjected.

Contents Page- Main story has the biggest picture and sub heading, with the most description on the article that it is advertising; this shows an importance towards the story. The second to main story is also bigger than the other articles, but not as big, it has more description than the others and a picture, however only slightly bigger than the normal descriptions. Simple black and white colouring with

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the contents title being a golden colour and the normal article page numbers being a golden colour the different colour making it stand out so that people can easily see where which article is. Bolder titles for the articles making it stand out and one colour image on the second to main photo to add a bit of colour, so it doesn’t look like a newspaper as such. No editors note.

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Music Magazine Research

Colouring- As with Rolling Stone magazine Kerrang! Magazine uses either a black text on white background colouring or white text on a black background. The white black and red colouring acts as a kind of emo/gothic colouring scheme, there are no bright colours on the magazine cover.

Mast head- The mast head is a serif styling, it is in block capitals to add a ‘in-your-face,’ effect and it has a shattered font as if it has been smashed this adds a aggressive effect which is associated with emo/punk style music (e.g. headbanging, listening to screamo).

Main image- the main images on this magazine is always a band or artist not necessarily in the charts as it tends not to have pop or R’n’B singers on the cover, the genre of music that the bands are, are usually: screamo, emo, punk, rock etc. In this issue however the main image is of Slipknot which is a famous screamo band.

Types of articles- The articles in this magazine are Paramore advertising Twilight when it had first came out, the free posters you get in the issue, a list of bands that are written about in the magazine and they don’t give away what Slipknot have done or going to do in the magazine, they just give the name of the band in the picture. All of these articles are about bands nothing is given away apart from the freebies you get in the magazine, so if the reader sees a band they like; they have to buy it/read it in order to find out why they are listed on the front cover.

Contents Page- clear title informing it is a contents page yellow text on a black background to make it stand out, editors note at the top so it’s the first piece of text that you see, the article are down the right hand side with headings to what kind of section they come under, page number are bold but black and no description used. Pictures of the main

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Music Magazine Research

Colouring- Like all the other music magazines listed above usually NME uses a white background but with a red/reddish orange mast head colour. However sometimes the magazine uses a fully colour image to cover the whole background like the background in my example. In this example because of the fully coloured background the article text colour is yellow in order to stand out and for the readers to be able to read it in clarity.

Mast head- The mast head is a serif styling and is in bold block capitals, because of the short amount of letters (it is abbreviated) they can make it as big and bold as they like because of the lack of space that it would normally take up. It is outline in white in order for the colour to stand out it usually has a double outline white a white line then a black one around the white, but this was unnecessary for my example. The text is simple as the music genre is indie/rock so there is no specific font that attracts that sort of audience and the simplicity adds an effect all in itself.

Main image- the main image in this example is a band (like most of the other music magazines), however because of the indie genre not a lot of the bands have to be/are famous. As NME don’t always chose to write about chart singers/bands. They seem to be in a medium close up however they are almost a close up, considering how you define a close up.

Type of articles- the articles on this cover include the reason why the band is on the front cover (20th anniversary of the greatest debut album ever), and alike Kerrang! Shows a list of bands/singers that are included in the magazine. This has the same effect of the viewer/reader needing to know why a certain band is in this magazine.

Contents Page- Clearly labelled title, with

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Music Magazine Research

the name of magazine and instead of saying it a contents pages says’ This Week,’ this gives them a effect of being different and as if they are talking to the reader and make the magazine more personal to the reader. All of the sections are clearly labelled with the page numbers being a different colour to make it easier for the reader to find the page number without having to look to closely at all of the articles. Main article is enlarged with more of a description and the main image (shows importance), Has random additions at the bottom of the page, making it look like the magazine has more to offer to the reader. Subscription advert at bottom of page, different colour box around it makes it stand out as it is the main aim of the magazine. One thing that a lot of magazines do not have are a band index, this differs the magazine from the rest and we obviously know if we didn’t before than this is a music magazine and also make the reader know that if they have a favourite they can find it easier with NME. Colouring- What I have discovered from all these music magazines are that they all mainly have white background, this is no different for Q music magazine. This magazine has a white background with a block of red with a white ‘Q,’ the rest of the text colours are red, black or white with only a few in yellow to make it stand out from the rest of the writing.

Mast head- The mast head is more of a logo in this case as it is just a Q which is in a non-serif style and sounded by a block of red. This mast head/logo is simple and elegant, it gives the impression that it is aimed at any kind of music taste and that it is for an older audience, not aimed so much at teenagers.

Main image- Coldplay are the main image (medium close up) in this example as they are advertised with the main article in the magazine, they are not taking up much room, but are obviously the biggest

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Music Magazine Research

image on the page, they are standing seriously rather than doing anything drastic, which adds to the impression of this magazine being for an older audience. The band is a famous one so this magazine tends to get their bands/singers from the charts, so we can also tell that they are not aimed at one specific genre.

Types of article- The articles on this example are: World Exclusive with Coldplay, Bloc party, 10 craziest rock couples and on tour with U2. These articles all differ and this separates this music magazine from the rest because this magazine has the article layout of a gossip magazine (e.g. Heat, Hello, etc.) rather than keeping all of the articles secret it exposes some of the dramatic articles to its audience to get them interested and excited about the magazine itself.

Contents Page- The contents is clearly labelled with the logo on the side, the date clearly shown on the title block, the main article is the main image (long shot) but doesn’t not have much more of a description than any of the normal articles listed. They have the sections clearly labelled and the text is a simple black with a white background (opposite to the contents title block) with red numbers so that they stand out. They have also put a review sections so that if the reader wants just reviews they know exactly where to look at because there is a specific block at the bottom of the page just for articles that are reviews.

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Music Magazine Research

Colouring- The colouring of Vibe magazine is the background is white like most of the other magazines, the mast head is a black fading into red colour effect and the rest of the text is either black or red with goes with the house style that has been used.

Mast Head- The mast head is being covered up by the main image, this gives the effect that the artist who happens to be in the main image is standing almost in front of the magazine and this adds a personal effect to the readers. The mast head is serif styled and the colours are two colours to make the red stand out more and make the mast head more effective.

Main Image- The main image on this magazine happens to be a medium close up of the artist Eminem the way he’s standing represents what kind of personality he has. The shadowing effect of the main image enhances the effect I described earlier of making the artist look as if he is standing in front of the magazine page itself. The artist image also tells us what kind of music the magazine will be covering, so from the use of Eminem (along with some of the other article names) we can guess that this magazine probably covers rap/R’n’B/chart music.

Type of articles-Some of the articles include an article on Eminem in which they use the play on phrase of ‘comes clean,’ in order to insinuate that not only is he telling us about it, but he’s getting off drugs, this adds a clever and humorous effect to a serious situation so that the readers do not feel too depressed about reading the magazine. Like most of the music magazines that I have covered this magazine has a list of artists that are covered in the magazine, so the reader knows if they are interested in any of the artists, so the magazine can expand their target audience. They have also used some

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rhetorical questions so that they engage their audience’s interest and by getting them to answer the question unconsciously they are more interested in reading the article, therefore more interested in reading the magazine.

Contents Page- the contents pages has a bold title, it’s been made so big that the one word has to be separated into 3 lines and this adds an odd and individual whilst being imaginative effect. In this contents page (not the contents for the magazine cover) the main story is about Kanye West, so he is the only image on the contents page, however the story about him is not separate it is included in the list of articles with all the other normal articles. The sections are clearly labelled and the page numbers are bold in order to see them; however the use of colour is not varied and is all in black text and grey background. The Kanye West image is a medium close up in black and white as well and the heart in the picture has been edited to be the only bit of colour so we can guess that the article is about his love life. There has also a giant V faded in the background and this symbolised the name of the magazine.

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Music Magazine Research

Colouring- The colouring of Smash Hits is pink; this gives the impression that it is gender aimed at girls. The colouring shows all different shades of pink with some yellow added in order to make the images that it is around stand out.

Mast Head- The mast head is slightly covered indicating that the magazine is so popular that you should know it without having to see the entire mast head. It is pink to match the house colour and enhances the effect of it being for girls. The outline of with makes it stands out and the non-serif font makes it calming, and makes it look less like it’s for the older audience.

Main image- The main image isn’t really obvious but we get the feeling that the main image is the one of celebrity Preston. This also influences the effect of the gender aimed audience as for the time of the magazine he was the new ‘heart throb,’ of that year and this brings attention from girls to the magazine.

Types of Article- The articles on this magazine are all to do with celebrities rather than music as such, there are some celebrities that are pop artists and that also gives us a sense of childish audience because children are more interested in pop artists. There is also an article about Preston’s love and fashion which adds an extra girly effect to it.

Contents Page- the contents page has a similar look to the front cover which shows that there is a house style about this magazine. It continues which pink which encourages our theory of it being for girls/aimed at girls. Like the other magazine the contents page has similar features such as a main image (of a pop star so we can tell which genre this covers) it has different coloured sub sections of text and bolder numbers although the text is mostly pink on a white background. Random pop-ups and flashes around the page, some silly, show childishness so we can guess this is for a younger audience. The main colours that are on the front cover are keep (pink and white)

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Music Magazine Research

with some added yellow like before insert to create a bolder difference.

Colouring- The colouring of Rock Sound magazine is the background is white like most of the other magazines, the mast head is green with some of the sub headings being green and the rest of the text is white, grey or yellow which all complement each other with the house style that has been used.

Mast head- The mast head is slightly covered indicating that the magazine is popular and that you should know it without having to see the entire mast head. It is and enhances the effect of it being for the rock genre as the magazine title has the word rock in it. The serif font gives it an edgy feel.

Main image- The main image is of the band that is the main story standing as if they are actually standing behind the words. They are standing in a serious and strong manner which makes them seem more of a ‘hardcore,’ band and adds to the genre of rock. The main image like all the other magazines is a picture of the people that are the main feature story.

Type of Article- The types of articles are all about music, unlike Smash Hits they are all about music artists and their music rather than fashion or the celebrities themselves. They main articles are about the band Muse which happens to be the band that is the main image, this also tells us that this magazines biggest article is on Muse and so that magazine is advertising to the fans of Muse in this issue. The other things on the front cover are a list of all the bands featured in the magazine like most of the other music magazines have and advertising the freebies that you get with this magazine.

Contents Page- This contents page has a slightly different as the list of pages numbers are on the left hand side and the pictures are on the right, the colouring is simple as it is white black and red. Where the list is the background is white, it has red strips of colouring with the sections on in order to separate the sections and the other half with

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Music Magazine Research

the pictures is red. The text is black to stop confusing colours and so the writing stands out on the white background. The pictures show different bands that are featured in the magazine with the page number there are on printed on them, the bands pictures varies in size depending on how popular/well known the bands are e.g. Green Day have the biggest picture are they are the most famous band in the pictures.

Colouring- The colouring of Alternative Press is very simple they have a white background with coloured text. The mast head is orange which stands out, the texts are all multicoloured from white, black to red and green. This gives the magazine an attention drawing effect without going overboard.

Mast head- The mast head is slightly covered indicating that the magazine is popular and that you should know it without having to see the entire mast head. In this case the mast head is the initials of the magazine name, but the name is printed underneath so that people don’t get confused as to what magazine it is.

Main image- The main image is a picture of the band All Time Low; this makes us associate the magazine with the emo/rock genre as this is what the bands genre is. The picture is of them playing with paint this is appropriate to them as they want to be seen as childish, fun-loving, down-to-earth people.

Types of Articles- On this particular magazine cover there are not a lot of articles mentioned, the only article mentioned is the one about All Time Low and this is mixed in with another about New bands. There is also another article of 100 bands you need to know, but apart from that the articles are very limited this is a disadvantage to the magazine as they are not advertising as much as they probably could which in turn makes them look slightly unprofessional compared to other magazines.

Contents Page- This contents page is very different from any of the others I have

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Music Magazine Research

analysed , the main image fades into the background to make it look different, they have the main article in the biggest writing acting as a title where the title of ‘Contents,’ would be placed. They have a different colour for the articles but the same for the numbers and descriptions of the articles. They have more writing about the main article and have used different colours for nearly anything, making it difficult for a house style to fit.

Colouring- The colouring of Spin magazine is very dull compared to the other music magazines that I have analysed especially because it is for chart/pop music and the only other pop magazine I analysed was Smash Hits and that was the most colourful out of the magazines. There is only one colour that stands out which is red and that it for the title which works well to make it stand out but adds a boring effect to the magazine as a whole.

Mast Head- The mast head is odd in this case as it appears over the image of the celebrity rather than behind it which gives the impression that they think they are more important than the celebrity. Like I said above the mast head is the only thing with colour on it, this makes it stand out from everything including the main image.

Main image- The main image is of celebrity Florence from the band Florence + the machine. Unlike some of the other magazines the main image is the only image on the magazine which means that it is simple, this is good as then the front can have lots of writing on without making the front cover over the top.

Types of Article- On this front cover there are only two articles mentioned. They also like others have a list of the bands that are mentioned in the magazine. The main articles is of Florence and the other articles is about free tracks which is also an advertisement to buy the magazine as it offers more than just the magazine.

Contents Page- this contents page has a

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Music Magazine Research

similarity to Vibe magazine because the page is taken up mainly by the image of the celebrity and it is simplistic. The contents does actually say contents unlike others which refers people that are reading this must know what a contents looks like, they have included the magazine name but it is being slightly covered by the artist’s hand, which creates a realistic effect as if she was 3D. The text is simple black and bolder numbers and titles to stand out. There is a caption top right which goes with the image so we know why it is there. There is a little box at the bottom in a different colour to tell the audience its different from the contents page.

Colouring- The colouring of this magazine is duller however it is relaxed and this goes with the music that it is advertising as it is classical music and therefore goes with the theme. The title is white on a brown background which stands out in a nice soothing way. The rest of the text is black which adds a classic effect.

Mast head- the mast head is non-serif so it is classy and the colour is simple as I have said above. It is in lower caps so that it isn’t making as much of a statement because it is meant to be taken seriously.

Main image- The image is of someone not famous, but may be famous to the classical music genre, she is in a fur coat which indicates sophistication and is smiling softly too add a friendly touch. She is hold a musical instrument so we know that she is a musician and that she plays in a classical way.

Types of Articles- Even though the genre is completely different does not necessarily mean that the articles are going to be, there is only one main article which is about what we presume to be the woman in the image and about her instrument (trumpet) the rest of the text like the other magazine is of all the other artists that are mentioned in the issue. There is also on little ‘pop-up,’ of reviews offered in the magazine next to the mast head.

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Music Magazine Research

This is an image of a double page spread from Kerrang! Magazine, this article is about Lily Allen, we know this because in the sub heading her name is highlighted in red, and this could help to tell people who she is. The way she is standing in the image shows that she is being suggestive and maybe she is trying to tell us something which ties in with the title because it is a quote from her. The style of text used is similar to newspaper clippings, so maybe this might suggest that she may be referring to how the tabloids exploit or have exploited her in the past.

This is an image of a double page spread from NME magazine this article is about ‘The Teenagers,’ who are being analysed for what kind of band they are we can tell this by the section of quick facts labelled ‘Need to know,’ and also by the other bands that have been slightly analysed down the right hand side. The image used is a long shot and this shows what we assume to be them lying on a bed of what looks to be a stereotypical teenage bedroom, the pictures on the walls are all pictures of girls posing, so we get the feeling that the guys

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Music Magazine Research

in the band are straight as that’s what they seem to be advertising. The poses they use are of them relaxing which shows the readers that they are a laid back kind of band.

This is an image of a double page spread from Q magazine; this article is about Shakira and her new album that is being release. The sub heading has a sarcastic joke incorporated into it, this gives the article writer and the magazine reputation a comic edge and makes the reader believe that the magazine writers are laid back/down to earth people and so relate to the reader. They use a big font size and bold font for the first letter of the article to show the start of the article. The placement of the pictures show the two different sides of the artist, the fact there is a naked picture of the artist shows her ‘extreme side,’ but the main picture is of her at work which is the main message of this article.

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Music Magazine Research

This is an image of a double page spread from Vibe magazine. This article is about artist Florence Welch, you can instantly tell this because of the picture of her takes up one of the pages and she is sitting on a USA flag, this ties in with the title ‘USA got the love.’ This title is a play on sentence and the title of the song that Florence Welch is most famous for is ‘You’ve got the love.’ The sub heading has a rhetorical question in it which influences and engages the reader in the article and the first letter of the article is big bold and of different text which symbolise the start of the article.

This is an image of a double page spread from Rolling Stones magazine. This article is about the band U2. The image is of them in an aeroplane whilst the image is also being merged with them playing at a stadium. One of the members of the band is reading The Independent this adds a common effect to the picture and makes it look like the reader can relate to the band. The start of the article is not in a column and has picture text this is used to get the reader interested and reading the start, so that they will continue to read it, they have also made the first letter bold and a different colour so that the readers know where to start the article.

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Music Magazine Research

This is an image of a double page spread from Smash Hits magazine. This article is about this artist (Steve) there are two images of him one next the text which is a nice one and a full page picture in black and white and quite dark on the opposite page; this contrast shows that he is a celebrity which is good but this article is about something bad that has happened or that he has done. The title ‘Steve’s Close Shave,’ gives us the same impression that something bad has happened to him. The text is in white on a blue background which is quite soft and calming which goes with the theme of the magazine. The mast head is white on a yellow background in quite funky lettering which implies that it is made for a younger audience. The text is set out in questions because they have kept it in interview form so that reading sections rather than one big article is easier and the younger audience won’t lose interest, it also makes the audience feel like they’re getting to know the celebrity.

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Music Magazine Research

This is an image of a double page spread from Rock Sound magazine. This article is about the band Paramore this band is associated with the emo/rock genre so is a perfect article for the magazine. The woman in the band is the main icon of the band so she is highlighted as the background is a picture of the band in black and white apart from only she is in colour. The mast head is the name of the band and is at a slant to create a abnormal effect and it has been smashed a little because it gives it a more rock look. The text is all in one black and is in white; however there is also a section of introduction which is in green to make it stand out. The colour of the mast head is yellow because it goes with the artist’s hair colour. There is a caption above the picture about the band to add a little more information.

This is an image of a double page spread from AP (alternative press) magazine. As you can see I couldn’t get a very good photo of a double page spread from this magazine however we can see that

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Music Magazine Research

it is mainly full of text and that there is not a lot of definition to make it easier to read, so we can guess that it is not for a younger audience and is quite serious. The other page is a image of what we can guess as the band being silly however it is a dark picture which means that it is kind of emo, which goes with the genre of the magazine. They’ve coloured the background of the text slightly with yellow to make it look less boring, but apart from some highlighted red text it is pretty dull.

This is an image of a double page spread from Spin magazine. This double page spread does not have any main article as it is of bands and where they play so there are several stories involved, however we can pick of certain sections, they have a local heroes section which is highlighted with a black box around it because lots of people would like to meet local famous people so that is a main part of the article. There is a main picture of a big band that is playing locally, which of course will be of most interest. The text is all black on a white background with some red sub headings creating some

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sectioning. The sections are pretty legible as they either have lines or thick colours separating them.

This is an image of a double page spread from BBC Music magazine. The main article in this is of an artist and his dreams we can tell this by the title ‘American Dreams,’ we can get this imagery of America also by the fact that there is a American and Canadian flag in the left corner of the first page. The article is pretty simple, black text white background simple font and colouring of title (blue). There is a giant A at the beginning of the article to show the starting point. There are pictures across the top spreading over both pages and they are all separated by a thick white line which shows definition and tell they audience that they are all different people that are individual within this article.

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