Music Magazine –Contents Page Analysis

NME MagazineThe first thing you notice about this contents page is Arctic Monkeys front man, Alex Turner, in the image in the centre of the page. This is placed about the headline “Arctic Monkeys” these to obviously relate and are purposely positioned in this way to capture the readers eye immediately. NME have then decided to put a paragraph under the image, describing a little bit more about the article later on in the magazine, this is effective because if the reader hasn’t already bought the magazine by now then this could give them the information that confirms the sale. The left hand side of the page has smaller text, which tells us what is on every specific page, this has been produced in a smaller font size because there is no need for it to be any bigger as the reader will only read it once they have bought the magazine. The writing on the right hand side advances on what the left hand side has done, it informs the reader what is on certain pages, but not all the pages. Instead of having every page, it has fewer pages but then goes into a little bit of detail about them, like the Monkeys article in the middle of the page. The colour scheme of this contents page is a uniform NME colour scheme, red, white and black, with a little bit of yellow in places. This makes the magazine instantly recognisable, without the need for having the magazines names plastered everywhere.

Q MagazineLike many music magazines, an image of the main articles subject is the centre point of the contents page. Here a wide shot of The Courteeners is shown. It displays them in clothes that they would be seen in in everyday life. Across the page, there is no information on every single one of the magazines pages, instead they decide to tell us around 15 pages with more description and detail. This can be effective in ways because it could reach out to a target audience that are interested in the displayed information. There is also a second image situated at the bottom of the page. This falls under the “Review” header, this will give readers the ability to know who Q magazine have reviewed this week. The vast majority of the information on the contents page is on the left hand side in one column. This is a typical structure for magazines on contents pages, so it would be something that the reader would recognise and be comfortable with. The colour scheme of this page follows the a regular Q magazine scheme, red, black and white. The colours only differ when an image is involved. This is very effective from a readers point of view because they would know what they are reading without having to search for magazine name.

Vibe MagazineThe main focus of this contents page is clearly Beyonce with her legs in the air. She is laying on the floor with her legs raised in the air, this would be called a wide shot as it shows everything that’s going on. The way the top of her legs are positioned resemble the shape of the letter V, which can relate to the V in the magazines name, Vibe, this would have been planned as a further advertisement for the magazine. The title “Contents” has been split into two letters, four letters, two letters. This is an effective way of displaying the title of the page, it is innovative and different, but still allows the reader to read what it says without any trouble. The text is situated on the right hand side of Beyonce, this shows just how important Beyonce is on this page because she has forced the text to move out of the way of her image. The font of the writing seems to be more fancy on the sub-headings, followed by a standard, clear font for the information under the section. It is not a typical contents page for a number of reasons, the text is the second most important thing on the page, after Beyonce. Also it doesn’t display what is on every page, as a matter of fact it doesn’t display much information at all, however the layout is effective as it works with the image to intrigue the reader into reading on in the magazine. The colour scheme appears to base around plain colours, e.g. white, black, grey, etc.