Textual analysis -Music magazines in the UK

My next step in my research is to look further into the front covers, content pages and double spared pages of three different music magazines.

I am going to analyse them and look at the differences and similarities between them.

“Q” magazine

Colour schemes:The colours used in this front cover, are mostly red, black and white. If we look at other Q magazine covers, you will find the same three colours in every issue. There is a big gold circle in the left third. This stands out because it is another colour then the three main colours.

Mise-en-scène:Most of the front cover is taken up by the picture of the singer Adele. The front cover is usually covered mostly by a picture, because it is the main attraction and it draws the readers attention.

The masthead:The masthead it much bigger than anything else on the front cover, and the audience is therefor drawn to look at this. Adele's hair is overlapping the logo a little bit, and that makes the cover look professional, clean and well though out. Text:

The text of what you can find inside this magazine, is written in the left side of the magazine. This is usually the case, because when you read a magazine, you read from left to right, and the shops that sells magazines often stock them a certain way, so that you only can read the left side of a magazine.

That is also why the masthead always is on the left side of a magazine.

Fonts:The fonts used in this issue, are clean and bold. This makes them stand out more, and it draws the attention of a reader to the magazine. The large fonts makes the magazine stand out more. The smaller text tells the reader more about what is inside the magazine.

Matching colours:We can see that Adele is wearing something purple. This makes her kind of stand out, because purple is not a “normal” colour for Q magazine. Her nails are also a light purple colour. This creates an idea of sophistication and wealth.

The shot of Adele is a medium close up, and this shows her facial expressions. She looks right into the camera, and this makes the reader feel welcome and makes you want to read this magazine.

The cover lines:The information about what is inside the magazine is also written with different size and colour text. The name of the band or artist they are talking about, is written with a bigger size text than the surname and the rest of the information. The cover lines are also written with different colours, and this makes each an one of them stand more out.

The title & masthead:The title on this page is written is black, bold letters. With the white background and the black letters, it makes the title stand out.The date and issue is also written on the top of this page. It is written with a red colour, and this makes it stand out more, just as much as the masthead, because they are both red.

Mise-en-scene:The upper half of the left hand page is mostly taken up by the main image, which draws attention to the page and the picture. On the lower half of the page, there is some text and another picture with text connected to the picture. By giving the audience sneak peeks of what you can find in the magazine, in form of pictures, makes them more interested to read this magazine.

As a will say more about on the next page, the colour schemes are black, red, white and blue.

Structure:Both the left hand page and the right hand page, is divided into three columns.

On the left hand page, the artist is placed in the middle column. This is done to create a structure, and to make the audience more drawn to the picture. Because the eyes of the reader will firstly look at the centre of a magazine page. The text on the left hand page is divided into two columns, and the third column is made up by a picture. This also creates a kind of neat and clean structure, which makes it more comfortable and pleasant for the reader to read and look at this page.

The right hand page is perfectly divided into three columns, which is very satisfying to look at. The first column is made up by two different pictures and some text. On this page there is one picture that is divided into two different columns. The picture is made up by four persons, and two and two persons are in the same column. In that way this page still looks organized and clean.

Colours:The colours schemes on this content page are white, black, blue and red. These colours all stand out against each other, which is why this is a good colour match. On the left hand side, the focus is more on the red colours, and on the right hand side they has focused on the blue colour.

The page numbers, are written with Qs main colour, red. This makes them stand out against the black letters and the white background.

The same is done on the other page, but here the page numbers are blue, which makes the page numbers stand out even more. This because blue is not a typical Q magazine colour. The pictures on the right hand page have blue as a main colour, which matches them to the blue on the page numbers

Text: Every “headline” that is on this page is written with bold, black letters. This makes it easier for the reader to know what the issue is about. If the reader wants to know more about what's inside the magazine, they can read smaller text under the headlines.

Pictures:The smaller pictures makes this page more attractive, and it draws the attention to the content that is connected to the pictures. Which again makes the read want to find out more, and read further into the magazine.

The image that is the most eye-catching on this content page, is the picture with the pink background. The contrasts between the black clothes and pink background, makesthis picture stand more out. Also, if you look at other pictures on this page, every other picture has black, white and blue colours in it, except the pink one.

The main image on this page also stands out, but because of other reasons then the “pink image”. It is an eye-catching, because it is much bigger then other pictures on this page. The colours in this picture are black, white and red, which matches the colours on the contents title.

Quote:A quote from the artist is put in the main center of this page to make the reader want to read the article. The quote is written with big white letters, with a black background to make is stand more out.

Text:The big, bold capital letter is used to start a new paragraph and to draw attention to this page. It is written with a black colour to make is stand more out from the white background.

Structure:The structure of the text on this double page spread is different from the structure of the pictures on this page. On both pages, the text is divided into two columns, while the pictures on the left hand page are kind of divided into three columns. The left picture column is made up my one picture of the whole band and by the first text. The middle column is made up by half of a shot od the band on stage, a medium long shot of the lead singer and a quote. The middle picture columns kind of breaks up the text, so at the bottom the text comes “back together”. This is why I think there are different structures for the text and the pictures.

The right hand page is a bit different from the left hand page. Here you can see a very clear structure, because of the little black line in the middle of the page. This indicates that the text is divided into two columns, which makes this mage look more clean and organised than the left hand page. The main picture on this page covers both columns, which drawn attention to it and makes this page more interesting to read.

Colours / pictures: The colours used on this double page spread are, on the left hand side, very bright and joyful. Three out of four pictures on the left hand page are taken at a concert, and in these pictures we can kind of feel the concert vibe through just looking at the pictures. The colours and images reflects joy, fun and music. The picture on the right hand side, is an extreme long shot, of the band on stage with the audience in the foreground. The picture is taken in colour, but because of the light used, it looks like it is in black and white.

Mise-en-scene:The upper half of both pages are taken up by pictures, and the text is placed on the bottom half. By using a white background with black letters, makes the pictures, which are colourful, stand more out. This also makes the page look more organized.

“NME” magazine

Masthead:The masthead is very eye-catching and bright due to the capitals and the bold color of it. The contrast between the white, bold letters and the red background makes it stand out even more.

Quote:The use of a quote gives the reader an insight into the story they can find in this magazine. As the quote is on the cover it’s likely to grab the attention of the reader and intrigue them so they will buy the magazine.

Main image:The main image on this front cover, is a picture of a long shot of a band. Although the whole band is on the front cover, the lead singer is placed more in the centre and further towards the camera than the others in the band. This makes him stand more out, and it also makes this front cover look more dimensional and thought through.

Colour schemes: The main colour scheme on this front cover are red, blue, white and black. This is quite an eye-catching colour scheme as red and blue are quite bold colours and they stand out against each other, in the same way as white and black stand out against each other.

Cover lines:The cover lines on this front cover, are very eye-catching. On the left hand side: the contrast between the black bold letters and the white background makes them stand out. The cover lines on the right hand side are written with white letters with a red background, which again makes them stand more out from the main picture, and makes them different form the cover lines on the left hand side.

Mise-en-scene:Most of the front cover is taken up by the band. The band is leaning against a brick wall, which makes them look casual, cool and chill. The clothes they are wearing emphasizes this. The brick wall’s colour matches NME’s main colour, which is red. By matching colours on the front cover, makes the magazine look more calm and casual rather than crazy with to many bright colours.

Structure:This content page is divided into three columns, which makes the page look very neat, clean and organized. The structure makes it easier for the reader to find out what the this magazine is about.

Structure / text:Every column has its own headline, which again makes it very organized and easy for the reader to read to understand. By giving the headlines a red background, makes them more eye-catching and makes them stand more out.

To makes it even easier and more clearly for the audience, every content has its own little headline. This is written with white letters and a black background to make it stand more out against the other text on this page.

The masthead:The masthead is placed on the top of the page, and because of the red and white colours, it stands out against the black and white text underneath.

The title:The title on this page is not “content” as in many other magazines. Here it is “inside NME”, and instead of writhing “NME” with the same font as they have written “inside”, they have used the NME masthead. This make this page look more playful and creative. By using black and red, which are two completely different colours, in the title makes it more eye-catching.

Pictures:The only picture on this page, is placed in the centre. This makes this page look a little bit more attractive, as there not only is boring text. By placing a photo connected to one of the stories inside the magazine on the content page, makes the reader want to look further into the story, and it makes the reader exited for what's inside the magazine.

Colours:The colours used on this page are minimal. The only colour on this page is really red, together with the colours used in the image, which are not very bright colours. This makes the page look very sophisticated, clean and easy to understand. The same way the front cover of this magazine looked very clean and neatly.

By using so minimal of colour in a magazine, makes the audience focus on the text in the magazine instead of the pictures. This can be both a good and a bad thing, because younger people often find it more attractive if a magazine has many pictures and colours. However, older people may find it better if the colours are less bright, and the magazine only has a few pictures.

This can be one of the reasons why NME average reader age is 25+.

Text / fonts:The small headlines are written in capital letters, which makes them stand more out against the other text on this page, because that is written in small, normal letters. Another thing that also makes the small headlines an eye-catcher, is that it is written in white letters with a black background, and the other text on this page is written with black letters and a white background.

Bottom strip:The content on this bottom strip is the highs and lows of Mac Demarco (the artist) in 2014. By having a sort of timeline about his life in an article, makes the reader more interested in reading the page. This may tell the reader some things about the artist that they did not know before. If you have not heard about the artist at all before, you get to know him a lot better through this sort of timeline than you would just through an article.

Mise-en-scene:This page looks really clean and neat when you first look at it. This is because the page has a good structure, and there are not many bright colours or pictures. The one thing that catches the eyes of the reader before anything else, is the bottom strip. This is because the text in the bottom strip is written with white letters and a light blue background, where the other text on this page is written with black letters and a white

Colours: The colours used on this page, are the same as on the content page, very basic and natural. The main colours on this page are brown and blue. Brown, because the artist is wearing a brown jacket, which he has on in every picture in this page. Blue, because the sky on the middle picture takes up half the image. The bottom strip also has a light blue colour as a background, which fits good in this page.

By using so minimal of colours on a double spread page, may make the reader less interested in reading the page, but it can also make the reader more interested in reading the page. I think I depends on how old the reader is, and how interested the reader is in the artist that the article is about. If the reader don’t know anything about the artist, this page may not appeal to him or her, because the artist may seem a bit boring because of the lack of colours. However, if you know about the artist before this page, and are interested in him, you probably don’t care about the colours.

background.

The artist the wearing casual clothes which indicates that he is “a normal” person, and that he maybe don’t want to be referred to a famous. That the pictures are taken outside instead on in a studio emphasizes this. Through these pictures, the artist come forward as a normal and chill person.

Pictures:On this double spared page there are three main pictures. All these pictures colour match which makes this page look more organized and clean. The picture on the left hand page is a medium long shot of the artist, to show the audience how he looks. the clothe he is wearing reflexed that he is a chilled and relaxed person. He is not wearing much colour, his clothes are in more natural colours.

Quote:By using a quote from the artist, gives the audience a more personal bond with the artist, and it allows us to “get to know” the artist a different way than we normally would have done in just an article or a interview.

Structure:The pages are divided into three columns. This gives the page a good structure and it makes it easier to read and “understand” the page. The picture on the felt hand page, fits perfectly in the left column, and the picture on the right hand page fits perfectly in the right column. However, the middle picture in divided into two different columns, but because it is divided into the two middle columns, is looks fine. When a page has a good structure, it makes the page more neater and clear, and it makes the audience drawn to the page, because it is nice to look at.

The picture in the middle is a long shot of the artist and of the nature around him. He is placed on some sort of fence, up high. This reflects that he is a daring guy and that he is loving life. The fence and the sky are two parallel lines, which makes this picture very attractive and nice to look at.

The picture on the right hand page is a medium close up from the side, of the artist. In this picture can the audience look at what the artist is looking at, which is a music player.

“We love pop” magazine

Masthead:The masthead on this front cover, is very eye-catching due to the contrasts between the black letters and the white background. The pink heart also makes it stand more out, even though there is a lot of pink on this page. However, the black line surrounding the whole masthead makes it stand out the most.

Mise-en-scene:Most of this front cover is taken up by the main picture, which is a medium close up of the artist Rihanna. The picture is taken with high-key lighting in a studio, which makes the artist look flawless. Rihanna looks right into the camera with a very intense look, and this catches the readers attention. It looks like she in “inviting” the reader in to read the magazine.

The colours on this page are very bright and outstanding. The colours that are used the most are pink and yellow. These colours are more young girly colours, which tells us the reader aim of this magazine.

On this front cover there is a lot going on, and if we compeer it to the other front covers I have analysed, this is by far the most intense and busiest front cover of them all. This may be because the aim is to get young girls to read this magazine, and they like bright colours and more pictures than text.

Cover lines:The cover lines on this front cover,are very eye-catching due to thecolour use. The bright pinkbackground with the white textstands more out then the white background with the black text, but both cover lines are eye-catching.

The cover lines on this front cover, are very eye-catching. On the left hand side: the contrast between the black bold letters and the white background makes them stand out. The cover lines on the right hand side are written with white letters with a red background, which again makes them stand more out from the main picture, and makes them different form the cover lines on the left hand side.

The information about what is inside the magazine is also written with different size and colour text. The name of the band or artist they are talking about, is written with a bigger size text than the surname and the rest of the information. The cover lines are also written with different colors, and this makes each an one of them stand more out.

Pictures:The use of pictures on this front cover, is at a whole other level than on the Q and NME front covers.

On this front cover, there are small sneak peaks of what you can find in the magazine, in picture form. Other magazines may only have text about the content, but this type of magazine has pictures. This is because of the young audience that the magazine appeals to, their audience would rather look at pictures, then read text.

Bottom strip:The bottom strip on this front cover tells the reader what posters are inside the magazine. They have used an yellow background with a big pink arrow, to make sure that the reader sees what special posters you get, when buying the magazine.

Splash feature / plug:The front cover has three splash features in form of plugs, because of the average reader age.

The splash features tells the reader some of the content, with both pictures and text. This is an important feature to have on a front cover, because the reader may not be able to look on the content page inside the magazine. So the reader should want to buy the magazine, just by looking at the front cover.

Colour schemes:The colour schemes on this front cover are very bright and eye-catching. The main colours are pink, white and yellow, which normally are very unusual colours to use on a front cover. However, because this is a teen magazine, it works. Every magazine has to stand out in the shops, and the only way this girly teen magazine can stand out against other similar magazines, is to use bright, girly colours and use pictures of popular artist.

Tagline:The tagline above the masthead tells us what the magazine is about, as a whole. “Gossip, fashion, boys uncensored!”, is says, which is a typical girl magazine content. If you look closely to the font used, we see that “uncensored” is written with a different font, than on the rest of the tagline. This is done to draw the reader attention to this word, and to make the reader more interested in the magazine.

Mise-en-scene:The main colours used on this page are blue, green, yellow, white and black. This is a Christmas edition of the magazine, so that is why they have used Christmas related colours. The gold bows on this page, also represent the Christmas in the magazine, and at the same time it makes this page look more girly.

Title:The main content title, is written in the left corner on the lower half of the page. The title is therefore not as eye-catching as other things on this page, and it is not the first thing the reader will see. By not making the main title as eye-catching as other stuff on the page, can make the page look unstructured, but on this page it works. This is because the page has another title written on the top of the page, placed together with the magazine logo.

The title stands out, because it is almost the only text on this page that is written with a black font and it is written with a lot bigger font than anything else on this page.

Structure: The page is divided into three colours, which makes this page look well presented. The main picture is placed in the middle columns, to make it attract attention toit, because it stands more out then the other pictures on this page.

The magazine has also placed all the ………...splash futures in the left hand column. ………...This also makes the page look more ………...structured, and easy to understand.

Bottom strip:The bottom strip on this content page, is very outstanding due to the blue background. The bright blue background makes is stand out against the main white background on this page.

There are a lot of pictures on this bottom strip, because the strip is advertising for the posters in this issue of the magazine. The readers attention is often first drawn to pictures on a page, and because this strip has a lot of pictures, it will be one of the first things the reader look at.

By placing the title “Hot posters” in ayellow, outstanding plug, makes thebottom strip stand out even more. The blue colour against the yellow colour, also make the strip more eye-catching due to the big contrasts.

Pictures:The main picture on this page, is medium close up of the singer Olly Murs. He is a very famous artist, so that is why the magazine have chosen to make him the main image. The background is light blue with snowflakes, and he is wearing a red and blue sweater, to match the Christmas theme in this magazine.

This page is overloaded with pictures, but the three other main pictures are the three placed on the left.The upper one, is a picture of three of the members in a band. It is a medium shot of the boy, to show what they are wearing. The picture is used to make the reader interested in reader the article further in the magazine.

The middle one, is a picture of one member in a boy band. They have only used a picture of one of the boys, because the article is about him and his girlfriend. The picture is a close-up, to show of his facial features.

The last picture is a picture of two member of the boy band One Direction. And again, the picture is used to make the reader more interested and exited to read the magazine.

Colour Schemes:The colour schemes on this page are yellow, blue, green, white and black. The big contrasts between these colours make this page an eye-catching page, and it makes the page more interesting to read.

By placing a green background behind the main white background, makes the white page stand more out and it frames the page. The green on the main content section, is also an eye-catching thing on this page due to the colour use. By matching green colours, makes the page more calming to look at and the page look more planned and structured.

The small headlines have another colour then the main text, and this makes them stand out against everything else. The headlines are blue while the other text is black.

The page numbers on the uppers half on this page, are written with not only another colour, but also with another font. They are written with a white colours and with a yellow background. This makes them really stand out, because this is the only place we can find the colour yellow, so the reader is drawn to such an unusual colour.

Masthead:The half of the headline is written in black letters, with a more girly and neater font. Her name is in a bold pink font larger than other words on the masthead, which makes her name stand out from the page suggesting she is very important and that she has a large personality.

Structure:The text is divided into three columns on the left hand page, and into two columns on the right hand page. The third column on the right hand page is the picture of Nicki. By placing the picture of the artist in the “middle” column, makes it stand more out.

The text is also split up into section, each section discussing a different topic. This style of article would appeal to young people, as they can read the article in smaller pieces rather than one long piece of text.

The small headlines above each section makes it even easier for the reader to only read parts of the article, and to understand the structure on this page.

Mise-en-scene:The picture of Nicki, the artist, is placed almost in the center of the page with the text framing her. The picture is very out standing and it grabs the readers attention, because she is dressed in bright, pattered clothing and jewelry. Overall the picture creates a sense of fun, and it makes the reader more interested in reading the article.

She is looking directly into the camera, which allows the audience to feel more connected with the artist.

The colour of Nicki`s lipstick matches the colour of her name in the masthead. This emphasizes the facts that she is powerful and important.

Quote:This page has a pull quotes, and it is used to highlight the most important parts of the article and to attach readers attention to these parts.

Colour schemes:The colours used on this page are different shades of pink. Matching colour makes, the page look more relaxing and cleaner to look at.

The bright pink colour on the masthead stands out against the light pink background.