TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

OF Q, KERRANG! AND NME

This magazine has very bold boyish colours and mainly includes male artists on the front page therefore generating a male Target Audience.

The only woman present on this cover is Rihanna. When applying Gauntlett’s theory of

empowering female we can see that she is present to contribute to the edgy theme of the magazine, when also applying Mulvey’s Male Gaze which objectifies her which implies that

she is there to sexualise the magazine and entice males. The coverline ‘Perfect Playlist for

every occasion’ shows this magazine understands the wants of the audience and can show relation between them through different

types of music which provides a mass target audience lots of recommendations and also

recognition of a variety of Indie artists.

The contents page is divided, one half includes a lot of pictures which reflects what is going to be featured

throughout the magazine in a visual way rather than through text and a standard contents page which is more informative, this provides the reader with a less boring page to look at and gives an insight on what the magazine will be like throughout which is a god way to structure the contents. The title of the

page is quite small and plain in the corner which is effective as there is a lot more going on throughout these pages, there is also a ‘SUBSCRIBE’ box which is bold compared to the rest of

the page which attracts the reader’s eye and allows information about the subscription to be read, this is an

effective marketing technique.

This two page spread shows the house of Paloma Faith which contradicts the front

page target audience, not only does the woman feminise the magazine, the domesticity of her house being featured in

the magazine tries to encourage females to read

this. The layout ofthis article is very good and

allows sufficient space for both text an pictures. The text is very small in order to get as much writing in as possible

and allows thepicture to be bigger. The text is

in numbered boxes as aborder around the image allowing each point to beclearly shown and makes

space for the picture.

With other genres such as Pop targeting their market for teenaged girls this magazine is more alternative and is aimed at the opposite side of the spectrum; older teenaged boys. This magazine has a lot of coverlines that take up the majority of the page, the main image is half covered from the coverlines allowing the head to be the main attraction and looking into the camera lense which makes it eyecatching. Although the masthead is being covered by Oli Sykes’ head, the magazine has enough popularity for the people who look at it to know what magazine it is.

This contents page is only actually small, it takes up a third of the page and includes the name of the article and little or no information on it. This therefore leaves plenty of room for other information, in this case there is a competition which allows the magazine to gain recognition and allows readers

the opportunity to win something whilst the magazine makes money. There is also a subscription information box in the bottom right hand corner, which is the exact same as the other magazine,

and is also eyecatching. At the bottom left of the page there is an editorial comment which is friendly towards the reader and offers an insight into the world of the editor.

This two page spread is looking into the following year and why its going to be really good. It will include information such as concert dates or music releases which makes the

year ‘rock’ through a music way. The coverline talks in a conversational way allowing a casual read instead of heavy reading which is what a magazine is supposed to be.

NME is a very popularmagazine that only

focuses on alternativemusic which allows more

bands to be spotted by the public even when they are not very famous.

Magazines like these will include upcoming artists which helps them gain popularity and be backed by a high end music magazine. Top 40

music is dominated by POP music and these alternative music magazines allow less known artists to spread

through shops. The main picture in this covers the whole page and

includes coverlines that are relevant to the picture and correspond to the colour scheme of the picture and the colour of the masthead. The dateline

is on this page and includes information including date, price,

website and the barcode.

The contents page is much more creative than the majority of mainstream magazine’s adding an individuality to the

structure. This contents page has taken up the majority of the page, unlike the other magazines and also has a main picture that covers three quarters of the page. The colours are very girly and includes females in the picture which could expand the target audience to girls as well as boys. At the bottom of

the page there is a point-of-sale where you can get money off the magazine if the reader has a ‘Virgin Addict Loyalty Card’,

this also shows album covers of various bands letting the audience know what they can get money off. Throughout this

magazine there is a page dedicated to Gorillaz’s new album ‘Demon Days’ which is an effective marketing technique.

This two page spread isdedicated to the thenupcoming band Arctic

Monkeys, there is a pictureof them on the left allowingreaders to know what the

band look like which makespeople recognise them in the future. The pink text goes across the picture and overlaps the

text in an original font and attracts a female fan base. The heading at the side ‘Meet the arctic

monkeys army’ shows that the band have a growing fan base, the quote ‘they’re the best

band since the Libertines’ expresses their talent and entices readers into looking them up on

YouTube which generates popularity.The structure of the

page is very effectiveand I really like it