Magazine

Cover Analysis

Music Magazine 1 Cover Analysis- Metal Hammer

Main Image:

The main image of this magazine cover is Rob Halford as the magazine covers an interview with him covering his favorite pets/animals and "Heavy Metal Pets" in general, fans of him will be drawn to this as they may want to learn a more personal and interesting side of their favorite metal artist. Although we cant see his eyes there is direct address as he is clearly looking directly towards the camera, at the reader, this could further entice someone to read this magazine as it further engages readers personally. The image is placed very centrally focusing predominantly on Rob Halford, his clothes and the kittens he is holding. Everything else on the cover is placed in a way that revolves around him, clearly dictating him as the centre and main point of the cover and suggests heavy content involving him within the magazine. The photo is a medium close up that is clearly a very high production camera shot suggested from the clear background and very high camera quality meaning that this was a professional studio shoot. This high quality image helps establish a clear target audience of potentially older people who are interested in metal music, the Mis-En-Scene of his clothing being all black, as-well as skulls on his gloves, very much match typical codes and conventions of metal music magazines as-well as his pose of sticking his tongue is a typical iconic pose done throughout rock and metal artists. His clothing and sunglasses may suggest he is a typically unkind or mean person but this is disputed by his expression of sticking his tongue out, an almost silly pose that makes him seem more friendly and the fact he is holding very cute kittens, very much contrasting metal music as well as the Mis-En-Scene. This idea of doing or having something that completely contrasts metal genre stereotypes and conventions is almost a trope or cliche in metal artists in order to achieve a shock factor from audiences.

Masthead:

The Masthead is a bright white in a Sans Serif Font, this matches typical conventions of metal and follow stereotypes of the genre as-well as further establishing a target audience, a potentially rougher and older audience that enjoys metal music. The word "Metal" in an almost scratched Sans Serif font is placed inside the H of the word "Hammer", this is a unique idea that sets this magazine cover apart from others slightly as-well as matching codes and conventions of metal with this font that suggests a sort of rough and tough treatment. The main image overlaps over the masthead, this is likely due to the idea that the producers of this magazine believed that their masthead was recognisable and iconic enough for it to be unnecessary to see the whole thing to easily identify it.

Main Cover Line:

The main cover line is in a unique, angular font that consists of red and yellow. This contrasts the entire rest of the cover through the use of different and unique Font type and colour pallet, being very eye catching to a reader and further emphasising Rob Halford and his band Judas Priest as the main focus of the cover and having a main section within the magazine. Additionally there is also use of a pun that relates the main image containing kittens "Judas Purr-riest" is a play on words with the original band name Judas Priest, this use of light comedy also relates back to the idea of an element that completely contrasts typical metal stereotypes for a shock factor and to peak interest to a familiar or unfamiliar reader that wouldn't expect comedy like this in a metal magazine. Beneath this main part of the cover line is a short sentence explaining the cover image simply "Rob Halford: Metal Maniac. Kitten Lover." Quickly establishing who Rob Halford is for an unfamiliar audience as-well as identifying him as a metal artist and quickly saying what about him this magazine will talk about, his love for animals, specifically kittens.

Cover Lines:

The other cover line in this cover are much smaller and represented as far less significant, done in a white sans serif font with some yellow text surrounding them to attract attention to them but doesn't take away from the main components of the cover such as Main image and Cover line.

Barcode:

The barcode on this cover is placed in the very bottom left and is very small, establishing itself as the least interesting and one of the last things a reader would look at on the cover. The barcode is accompanied by the price and issue number, all very standard statistics that are important for a magazine to have but lack any seriously interesting value to a reader. Therefore being on the least interesting and last looked at elements on the cover.

Colour Scheme:

The cover sports a mostly white, black and yellow with slight elements of red to support the eye catching objective of yellow. These colours contrast each other greatly to create an effective, clear and easy to understand cover that matches typical conventions of metal as a genre. The brighter colours such as red and yellow are used in extreme contrast with black to draw alot of attention to specific elements such as the main cover line.

Target Audience:

The target audience of this magazine would typically be slightly older people in their 50s-60s that enjoy metal and potentially have nostalgia of Judas Priest or Rob Halford when they were younger. Or younger people that enjoy metal music and some of the older artists for it. This audience is targeted through use of codes and conventions of metal achieved through the use of specific Colour Scheme, Type classification, Lexis and Mis-En-Scene.

Music Magazine 1 Contents Page Analysis- Metal Hammer

Layout:

The contents page is laid out in such a way that the actual content list is placed in the center of the double page spread and images of the most popular artists or largest points of interest within the magazine are placed in a way they revolve around the contents list. This is a very unique way to layout a contents page that differs massively from a typical and standard list format with a few pictures. The 4 corners of this double page spread contain the largest images while the images across the top and bottom of the spread are smaller, this suggests that the 4 corners contain the most popular artists that a majority of readers would want to know about while the smaller and potentially less popular artists while still evident and relevant on the contents page are shown to be smaller and less emphasised. , this is confirmed by the fact that Rob Halford is in the top left corner, not only is that the first part of a page a reader would start from, but Rod Halford was the main focus of the cover meaning his relevance in this magazine is massive. With focus on him in the Cover and Contents page, explaining why he is one of the main images on the contents page. There is also a puff on the contents page, this is usually an element included on the front cover but here is instead put on the contents page, perhaps to reduce visual clutter on the cover or is more convenient and stands out less with the other similar colours in the images of other artists. 

Contents List:

The categories of this contents list are Front Row, Features, Albums and Lives. These are clearly deemed by the magazine as the most important or most interesting categories of content contained within the magazine and are mostly stereotypically correct deemed by what a reader would typically want to know when reading a magazine and only wants to know a specific, important part. Every listed item has a short description that quickly describes what is discussed in that section as well as listing the page number for convenience. The listed parts of the magazine in this contents page are very typical, standard and expected for a music magazine despite genre.

Relation to Cover:

Both the contents and the cover page share a similar colour palette of black and white for elements that aren't images of other metal artists, as-well as a sans serif font for all of the text. While the colour scheme is the same the order is not. On the cover the text is white on a black background while on the contents page its the opposite. Black text on a plain white background. This both relates both the cover and contents page but also differentiates them from each other with this slight but notable difference. The images of other artists also all use direct address, having the artists looking directly at the audience, this is a repeat of what is on the cover and further emphasises the idea of personally enticing a reader.

Music Magazine 2 Cover Analysis- Q

Main Image

The main image is the entire band of Arctic Monkeys looking in various directions while the bands leader, David Turner is looking directly at the camera, using direct address to entice the reader to read this magazine. Him being the only one looking at the camera separates him and makes him seem more responsible, formal and important that the other band members visually explaining to a reader that he is the band lead while the other members look in other various directions with various expressions, none of which suggesting seriousness, formality or importance. The entire band is on the cover due to being the main attraction of this magazine, an exclusive interview with the extremely popular band. The image and other elements of the cover are positioned in a way that the entire band is very clearly visible while other elements revolve around them, highlighting them as the main point of the cover. The mix of David Turner very serious expression, and the rest of the band either being confused, surprised or unfocused gives the reader an idea of the bands values. an idea of seriousness with mixes of informality, informality and lightheartedness. The expression and poses also relate back to the target audience of this magazine, fans of rock and arctic monkeys in general who are likely slightly younger (16 onwards). The camera shot is a very high production value Medium-Long shot. This relates to the popularity of the Arctic Monkeys and the expectation of a high quality photo for any kind of media production starring them.

Colour Scheme:

The colour palette of this cover is predominantly darker colours such as blacks and greys with smaller portions of much brighter colours to highlight specific elements such as the masthead or banner. The use of white text on the black/grey background contrasts it and makes it easy to read for an audience. This darker colour palette matches typical codes and conventions of rock music magazines as-well as rock music in general. This pairs well with the brighter colours in the magazine cover such as blue, yellow and red as it effectively highlights elements of the cover that are important to the magazines producer, its also used to highlight areas around  cover lines, bringing attention to otherwise uninteresting parts of the cover

Masthead:

The Masthead of this cover and the vast majority of Q magazines is interesting as it is only a single letter, as-well as being overlapped and slightly covered by the main image means that Q magazine believes they are iconic and recognisable enough to have an easily misinterpreted and simple logo that audiences will immediately recognise it and relate it to a magazine similar to that of the iconic nike tick. The letter Q is white in a standard sans serif font on a plain red background to achieve contrast and make it stand out. It being such a brightly coloured backing compared to the predominantly dark colour pallet of the rest of the cover makes it stand out and helps audiences identify this magazine as a Q magazine. This bright colour compared to the rest of the cover also makes it so the Q logo is one of the first things read by the reader meaning that potentially Q magazine values its own representation and brand recognition over the band they are featuring. This sort of logo doesn't typically match codes and conventions of rock magazines as Q magazine isn't solely a rock music magazine but a music magazine in general that covers multiple genres, this requires a neutral logo and name that doesn't favor any specific genre in order to maintain neutrality.

Main Cover Line

The main cover line on this cover is fairly uninteresting compared to other rock music magazine covers as it is simply a larger text in a standard sans serif font that emphasises its importance and significance. One point of interest about this cover line is the "The Q Interview" placed directly above it. This design element doesn't feature on other Q magazines so has specifically been made for this one, this further emphasises the idea of this being important as-well s the text stating that it is THE Q interview suggesting that this is an exclusive scoop on Arctic Monkeys that people should care about and be interested in. It further suggests that a "Q Interview" is a very high quality and insightful thing via the use of lexis "The" meaning that potentially this is the only type of interview in the magazine market that is this high quality and skilful.

Cover Lines:

The cover lines on this cover are placed on the lower right portion of the page, potentially due to the orientation and position of the band in the main image that needs to be placed in such a way so it can be viewed easily, even is this means moving other elements of the cover to a different place than usual. The cover lines are in a white or grey sans serif font that makes it easy to read and corresponds with other text on the cover. These cover lines are revolved by small lines of brighter colours (blue and red) to draw attention to them for the reader, and show their significance to the magazine but not take away from more important parts of the page.

Barcode:

The barcode is placed in the very bottom right of the cover, following the typical idea of a Z shape in how readers look at a cover, suggesting it is one last and least important things to look at on this cover, it is accompanied by a price and date, these 3 things are often grouped together on magazines as they are uninteresting but  and less important than other elements on the cover but are still very necessary for a magazine cover to include.

Target Audience:

The target audience of this cover would be slightly younger people (16-25) that enjoy rock music and are fans of rock music and the Arctic Monkeys. This cover conforms to typical codes and conventions of rock music magazines with its use of a sans serif font and of a darker colour palette consisting of blacks and greys with white text that contrasts and makes it east to read, as-well as lexis that relates to typical slightly cynical or negative themes that are common in rock (Booze, Lies, Fire, Kicks etc).

Music Magazine 2 Contents Pagr Analysis- Q

Layout

The contents page of this magazine is much more typical and standard compared to the metal hammer contents page, having a much more list like , single page layout that is effective but slightly less interesting in design, This contents page consists predominantly of text with a few large pictures to fill any negative space and make the contents seem packed and therefore making it seem like the magazine has lots of content for the reader. The Arctic Monkeys section on this page is not made larger or emphasised in any way despite being the main point of the front cover. It is instead placed in the top left of the page, which is typically the first place people look at and start reading on a page. There is also a banner across the top of the page that could be used to fill even more negative space and to function as a title for the contents page.

Contents List

The contents listed on this page are not divided into sections, but are instead just talking about specific artists across a range of genres, and anything that is related to them and important at the time. This is an accurate attribute for non genre specific music magazines that discuss and have content for a wide variety of genres and artists. On the right side of the page, there is a column that discusses live shows, new albums, reissues and films. These are clearly deemed the most important contents of the magazine as they emphasised through the use of a large, bold sans serif font that are shown to be clearly interesting and important by the use of colours such as blue, black and red in the section titles.

Relation To Cover

The contents page shares a similar colour palette to the front cover, red, black and white but instead of white text on a black background (such as on the front cover) there is instead a white background with white text to establish a clear difference between the front cover and contents page. Both the front cover and contents page also use a clear sans serif font, typical for non genre specific music magazines that want to establish themself as slightly informal and unserious.