Website
Website 1 Analysis: https://www.loudersound.com/metal-hammer
Home Page:
The home page of this website is very uninteresting, consisting of no individual content and only being a method to access other sections of the website. Scrolling down results in a mishmash of other sections of the website grouped together to give the reader an idea of what the website consists of. Aside from the logo and other special elements. The text of the website in general is in a small, black sans serif font on a white background, this is fairly uninteresting for a metal music website and subverts typical messy and aggressive tropes of metal music. suggesting this website is more of a slightly formal newsletter for metal news rather than an embodiment of metal music media in general.
Layout:
The home page only consists of individual content at the very top, before then sectioning of the rest of the pages on the website, scrolling down will take you to these specific sections but they are also accessible through a menu bar at the top of the page. Other than this the website consists of typical website elements such as several images and a footer. The image to text ratio on the home page in general is fairly more image focused, having large images that are either graphics advertising events or pictures of artists in related news. These images of artists usually consist of medium long shot or a mid shot showing the artist or band singing or standing together. This is typical for music media in general when imaging artists. The footer is actually slightly peculiar compared to typical website footers, links to socials are featured at the very top of the home page and are missing from the footer at the bottom of the page.
Logo:
The metal hammer logo is placed all over the website in subtle locations such as corners. The logo is the same as the magazines. A black Sans serif font with points on letters such as t to suggest a sort of weapon, following typical metal/rock tropes of violence and incorporating violent elements into a logo. As well as having the word "Metal" Within the H of the word hammer in a rough blocky Sans serif font, the idea of being rough and slightly messy is also a stereotypical trope of metal and rock and conforms to codes and conventions of metal music representation.
Colour Pallet:
The colour pallet of the home page consists of very simple colours of black, white and red as-well as the various usually darker colours in the images related to the news. This colour pallet is laid out via a plain white background, black text and small amounts of red used to highlight specific parts of the page, This is actually not very typical of metal music, this layout and colour pallet is very tame compared to other, far more intense representations of metal music in media and cements this website as more of a slightly formal rock music newsletter rather than embodying main elements of metal music.
News Page:
The multiple linked pages are laid out extremely similarly to the home page, almost identical even, the only difference being actual content. The said content is new and trending news on rock music in general, not specifically metal, despite being a metal music focused magazine and brand in general. The news content is placed on the left side of the page going down, while the right side of the page consists of specific advertising, a simple newsletter membership sign up section offering audiences monthly newsletters, digital and physical as-well as a general music magazine advertisement from a different company that sells magazines, a very typical element that appears in almost all websites. Further down the page there is a section titled "More from metal hammer" that contains even more rock music news. Clicking on any of the shown news on this page takes you to a large page going into depth on the specific news mentioned, in the exact layout of the new page but instead focusing exclusively on that piece of news. Similarly there is a few advertisements on the right side of page.
The colour pallet of the news page is exactly as the home page, white, black and red used very organised and uninteresting, very untypical of metal music as typically it should be far more intense and messy in order to conform to typical metal music codes and conventions.
The images used in the news page usually consist of the artist/band singing/standing looking at the camera in a medium long shot, these images usually consist of much darker colour pallets of black, greys and blues. This is very typical for metal music imagery and representation in media.
Newsletter Page:
The newsletter page is the smallest of the pages featured on this website, only used to very simply advertise the Metal Hammer newsletter by offering an easy sign up and an expansion of what is in these newsletters than other mentions of this newsletter on other pages of the website.
The layout and colour pallet of this page is exactly as the other pages on this website, text on the left side of the page, advertisements on the right side and a colour pallet of white, red and black. Interestingly there is an additional about section on this page that isn't featured on any other part of the website apart from the link on the footer of the website. This about section is also near the bottom of the newsletter page, further showing the peculiarity of this. The abouts section is usually placed in clear site on the home page of the website and this placement extremely subverts typical codes and conventions of websites in general.
Target Audience:
The target audience of Metal Hammer is likely a slightly older audience and those who area interested in metal music. I do not believe this is very effectively suggested in this website. The website subverts typical stereotypes of effective website layout as-well as metal music codes and conventions via the tame use of colours and extremely standard and repetitive layout of the linked pages.
Relation to magazine:
There is extremely little relation to the magazine in this website, the only connection being the logo and a general focus of metal and rock music.
Website 2 Analysis: Q
The home page is laid out in a very standard and typical way that conforms to typical codes and conventions of websites in general, a menu bar at the top with a drop down menu, logo along a banner at the top of the page, a footer at the bottom of the page that contains socials and formality and several still images across the page to fill empty space and break up text. The image to text ratio of this page is mainly image focused, using large images of artists to immediately interest the reader due to the images having contrasting darker colours compared to the white background. These images usually consist of a medium long shot/mid shot of an artist playing music/singing or posing with mis en scene of these images depending on the genre. Q is a genre music website/magazine meaning that it has no specific genre codes and conventions to follow in its layout or colour pallet. This likely relates to the logo simply being a Q on a red background, it remains neutral and doesn't follow stereotypes of any specific genre. The large banner across the top of the page is mostly empty aside from the logo. This emphasises Q as the brand and owner of this website
Colour Pallet:
The colour pallet of this page and the website in general is white, black and red used in a layout of a plain white background, black text and small amounts of red used to emphasise text. While these colours can be related to specific genres such as rock, they are used in a way that doesn't depict them as following typical rock/metal codes and conventions and remains neutrality as Q is a music website/magazine not a genre specific brand.
Target Audience:
Being a general music magazine, Q targets almost any age range of people who enjoy music in general, this target audience is achieved through the careful use of neutrality via the use of colour pallet, lexis and layout not favouring any specific genre.
The Q Lists:
Content:
The Q lists are a linked page of the website that consist of news, articles, events, guides, recommendations and reviews. That are done specifically by Q and presumably seen to be their best/favorite work and have earned a specific page for themself.
This page is laid out in a way that fills any negative space and makes it feel full of content. All content on this page is Q's favorite but it seems that the most popular are placed at the top and progressively include less popular content towards the bottom of the page. Images representing content at the top of the page are also shown to be larger and more emphasised to show importance. The content at the the top of the page are organised next to each other with text underneath briefly explaining what is covered in that article, these are clearly the most popular articles on this page as they are the largest and most emphasised. Below these are more articles instead organised with smaller images on the right and brief explanatory text on the left as people usually read from left to right, making this page east to read. This organisation is repeated down the page, occasionally broken up by slightly different organisation in order not to be repetitive and continuously engage the reader. These images lower down on the page are smaller and less emphasised in order to not take away from the large emphasis on the main articles on the page.
The text used on this page is a black sans serif font on a white background, the simple font and contrasting text and background colour make it easy to read and gives an idea of slight informality. The colour pallet of black and white is used on this page, plus the colours within the images used to represent the specific articles. The colour red is likely not used as it is on the home page in order to not compensate for the brighter colours used in many of the images on this page. that consist of the focus of the article (usually an artist or band) in a medium long shot/ mid shot containing colours that conform to the genre of music that is relevant to the article. This use of camerawork is very typical in imaging in music magazines/websites and conforms to typical codes and conventions of images in websites/magazines. The black and white colour pallet also further emphasises the idea of Q remaining neutral amongst genre and not favouring any specific one.
Clicking on any of these articles takes you to a separate page that consists exclusively of that news content, going into depth on the subject and having a similar layout to home page but instead having a far more text and informative elements, very standard for an article to be more text based.
Famous People:
This page consists of very famous music based celebrities and general news surrounding them, not just music related events, this appeals to an audience that are interested in the actual artists/bands as people and not just their music. The majority of this news is regarding the famous artist/band being involved in a negative scandal, this is the most eye catching and interesting news for readers as it has a powerful shock factor and effectively interests readers.
The layout of this page is exactly like the Q lists page, but obviously featuring music related celebrity news rather than the far more positive Q's favourite articles etc. The images on this page are slightly different that they are still usually medium long shots/ mid shots but instead of showing the person singing or performing like the Q lists it is usually the focus person of the article looking at the camera in various locations that are relevant to the content of the article. This is very typical for celebrity news as the focus is usually on what they have done rather than what they do (produce music).
This page existing in general further emphasises and plays into Q's value of staying neutral and broad. As it clearly doesn't solely cover music related content and is marketing itself as a music focused brand that covers relevant news to music artists.
ANALYSIS: Excellent analysis - detailed and thorough
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