Music magazine Front Cover Analysis.

Skyline= Advertises free CD in the top third and an attention grabbing story.

Masthead= Simple design, black against white background to stand out. Easily identifiable branding. Strong and bold text.

Cover lines= Red / white interchangeable background / text maintains themes from skyline and masthead + stands out. Dramatic and eye catching stories e.g. “sex, drugs, revolution” + ignores left third conventions. Relies on one main cover line to be dominant with a handful of other stories supporting it.

Cover Image= Art work taken from various artists of the genre. Helps maintain a consistent design that readers can recognise. It ignores conventions of the left third and mimics the surreal nature of the music genre it depicts. Lots of white space helps keep the design simple and focuses the eye on the image and the text. Also features a few artists themselves.

Masthead= Hidden behind main cover image. White, stands out simple and recognisable.

Selling line= Exciting, memorable, catchy.

Cover image= In front of the masthead suggests dominance / attitude / not held back and iconic posing with shadowy, murky lighting to suggest dark + evil. Also the CD cover in the bottom advertising free stuff to draw readers in + shows brand extension as the “Classic Rock” logo is used to indorse the product.. Quite “cluttered” and “busy” with stories, main photograph itself however “rises above” this with its pose and emptier black background.

Cover lines= “Exclusive” with bands name printed almost as large as the masthead right across the centre of the page, placed in the eye line of the reader. White text of smaller cover lines draws attention to them as the background is black. Red circle depicts “The lost issue” story, makes it separate from the rest of the page.

Masthead= Breaking usual style of the magazine by being the same colour as the cover art e.g. gold. Links the two together and leaves the readers eye free to look around the rest of the page by not drawing it to a loud, aggressive masthead.

Cover Image= No actual photography just artwork. Gold text depicting band logo’s from the genre shown in main cover line, “Metal”. The higher up logos, closer to the masthead are more famous bands. Logos themselves “crammed in”, as many as the designer could fit. This has the effect of suggesting to us that the genre is big and therefore a successful one.

Cover lines= Only two stories on the page. They are the only text in white alongside the skyline which makes them stand out.

Colour scheme= The black and gold is being used to create a retro feel. Reminds us of an old vinyl record cover. Black also suggests dark, evil and trouble. Not at all “fun” just serious and epic + gold has connotations with special, precious, valuable, or just not common and mainstream. This is being implied about metal.