Music Magazine Analysis By Ellen Tozer

Front Cover

Masthead ‘Q’

Red colour is consistent With masthead and Blood dripping over model

Main heading

Main picture linking to main heading and is an icon

Text is scripted as looks handwritten

Subheadings/ cover lines

The genre of the magazine I have chosen for the front cover analysis is pop, the genre can be identified straight away as the main picture is of a ‘pop singer’ who is recognizable, if not recognizable then her name is

scripted to give the audience a less formal feel and as though she’s signed it for them herself. Masthead :

An iconic sign from the front cover is the masthead the ‘q’ is a very common magazine throughout stores and is recognized for the boldness of the colour red. This draws the audience in as the red has connotations of love but also danger, red also catches the eye of the audience. The typography of the Q is serif this is because it looks formal and fancy. Just from this we can tell the magazine is more for adults and late teens and less for the childlike and youthful age group. The preferred readers will see what the producers want them to, being drawn in, however the oppositional readers will see it as being bad and negative like dangerous.

Main Image : The main image of ‘Lana Del Rey’ is a medium shot just above the waist of her posing as a sort of zombie/bloody prom queen. The red blood links the to mast head of the magazine showing danger or romance in this case danger comes more clear to the iconic signs as the reader will think of an accident. The sliver crown on her head has connotations of being rich, have more money and having a higher power this becomes clear to the her, however on the main image the body language looks normal and not snobby so we get two sides to her. The lighting is brighter and coming from the right side of the upper face, highlighting the blood. The preferred readers will see a prom queen covered in blood which the producers want to convey this links to the audience because they have all been to prom and Lana Del Rey is around the target audience age. However the oppositional reading of the image is that prom ad Lana Del Rey’s music is bad and giving the wrong impression. audience that we have to look up to

Main headline/Story : The main headline clearly links to the main image of the word ‘bloody’ liking to the blood on the artists face. Its an iconic sign to the audience as they know it links, it’s giving a rhetorical question to the audience as the producers don’t want it to be answered but look through magazine (buy it) and know it. The typography of the text is serif with no fancy writing and seems formal to the reader. The repetition of ‘so’ allows it to be more casual and less structured with it, its as though they’re having a normal conversation and wanting an answer. However the oppositional readers may see it as being wanting to catch the attention by repeating a word, however want another word to be repeated as ‘So’ does not catch your attention as much as they’d hope. The word ‘bloody’ makes you think of being angry and uncomfortable with something around, linking to the target audience’s age its when more dangers come into their life and they can also relate with Lana Del Rey’s age too.

Front Cover

Masthead - serif as making it look more formal

Anchorage

Main heading – sans serif as doesn't’t look formal

Main image

House style is girly and pink colours with a female icon

Subheadings

Pug/Puff

The genre of the magazine I have chosen for the front cover analysis is pop, the genre can be identified straight away as the main picture is of a ‘pop singer’ who is recognizable, if not recognizable then her name is scripted to give the audience a less formal feel and as though she’s signed it for them herself. The target audience is around 15-25 due to having a more older style layout and house style.

Masthead : An iconic sign from the front cover is the masthead the ‘billboard’ The texts is serif and is formal and military like. However the ‘b’ and ‘o’ and hidden by the model/singer Katy Perry, this might suggest she has a higher power and industry than ‘Billboard’ itself otherwise the producers would have put the name in front of Katy Perry or move her lower down the page. However the oppositional readers may see Katy Perry as being too cocky and up herself a little as being in front and bigger than the magazine name. But the preferred readers wills see it just being normal because she doesn't’t have a say and tits the producers layout they have chosen. There are three colours in the middle of the masthead red, blue and yellow. Red being more love, blue being ore calming and yellow more energetic, so all meaning different but combined nicely together.

Main Image :Katy Perry is covered up apart from her arms, the drooping of the flowers give her connotations of love, peace and kindness. The whole image dominates the page covering half of the masthead representing she is higher than the magazine. Her facial expressions show a more innocent, shy and childlike look as though she’s on the verge between moody and happy this can be bad as oppositional readers will see her as being moody and preferred readers will be happy or just hiding her feelings. By not smiling in her pose, this gives her body language a more secretive look about her, which gives the audience the chance to think she’s hiding something which could maybe be revealed inside the magazine. She’s holding the flowers to her chest so she wants them there, this tells the audience she’s caring and can look after thing with the littlest meanings. They have used a main image who is a pop artist and has fans which are around 13-18, however the target audience age is around 15-25 giving it a more juvenile look about it.

Main Cover Story:The main cover story line helps the image and is like a companion for it, it tells the audience who the main icon is i.e. ‘Katy Perry’. Although she is a world famous music artist and the target audience will recognize her name clearly, having her name in a big, bold font makes her the main focus of the magazine and will captures the audiences attention and bring them in. Just the name allows the audience to recognize her without having a huge anchorage below it. They call her the ‘queen of pop’ which has connotations of rich, high end and royal even though the opposing audience may see this as mocking her because its obvious she isn’t royalty, however the audience may think its honoring her in doing something good or for how far she’s come in life, so there are two meanings and it depends what way you take it yourself.

Contents Page

Scripted text

Medium photo shot of main image icons

Pugg/puffs

5 sections of the magazine

The house style is colourful and youthful

Main image of previous Front cover page

The genre of the magazine I have chosen for the front cover analysis is pop, the genre can be identified straight away as the main images and secondary images are of ‘pop singers’ who are all recognizable, it’s a more youthful magazine as shown through the colours and subheadings of sections, also the artist shown are for younger ages so the target audience is about 12-17.

Image shots : An iconic sign from the contents page’s images are mainly medium shots just above their waists, apart from the repetition of the front cover which is just above medium shot of ‘Selena Gomez’. One of the images of one direction links to the subheading of ‘We ‘heart’ boys’ to show there is a meaning behind the image. The lighting of the image in bright and mainly on the faces on the 3 boys, this allows the audience to know they’re important and need to be recognized. The preferred readers will see all images of icons as being positive and uplifting. They have direct eye contact to the audience to let them feel involved.

House style :The house style is really important especially for this magazines age group, they want to see a continuous layout throughout because it’s easier to follow and also read. The house style of this magazine is more youthful and girly colours, using pink, white and yellow. Pink represents being nice because it’s the sweeter side of the colour red, yellow represents being bright, joyous and full of energy and white represents being positive and fresh. We see the repetition of the yellow and white from the main image of their front cover. The house style on this contents page has connotations of being girly, youthful and welcoming which the preferred reading will see which is what the producers would want them to. However the oppositional readers may see it as being to sexist against boys and not including them therefore it’surely just a teenage girl magazine. The use of scripted text (more handwritten) allows the reader to feel its more casual and less formal, they can relax and its how young teens would write so they feel connected.

Sections : Having 5 sections clearly labeled and reliable to the audience helps them know what’s inside the magazine but in more detail, the use of anchorage allows more detail to be given but not too much to bore the audience. The white background allows any colour text to be used, the text is more curvy than normal which gives it a relaxed feel and less formal and military. The boldness of each headline in the sections is easy to read as has a more relaxed feeling using sans serif fonts, it not too formal but easy to understand. Each section has parts highlighted in yellow which makes it stand out more and draws the audiences attention a lot better. The page numbers are there just so the audience knows where to go to. The preferred readers will get the producers idea to make it easier for them to read and drawing their attention and less girly, oppositional readers may see it more as more girly and less on the helping side.

Contents Page

Subheadings

Main image has a more opened up body language and direct eye contact (direct address)

Block quote

Section of magazine making the layout look more appropriate for my target audience

Masthead repeated from front cover

Subheading linked to main image

Anchorage under each subheading

Medium shot of icon

Body Language: Having a famous artist not only draws in the audience but allows the audience to know what genre the magazine is. The shot of Duffy is a medium shot from the waist up with her facial expressions having connotations of being happy, excited and joyful. Being covered up apart from arms lets her be comfortable and not just people buying the magazine for the model but for the content inside. Her facial expressions too show a loud feel like she's shouting at you to buy the magazine and get all the hot gossip, but also her arm moved to the front is like a stop sign maybe because we have to look at this specific contents page or its about allowing down and enjoying it while its hear however that goes against her fiery and upbeat body language

The genre of the magazine I have chosen for the contents page analysis is ‘pop’, the genre can be identified straight away as the main picture is of a ‘pop singer’ who is recognizable, if the target audience don’t recognize the artist her name is printed on the first main story which gives the readers more details on her. Also her names Is under the ‘features’ category so is making her seem special and common, the target audience for this piece would be more older teenagers who are into more ‘Pop/rock’

Layout: The layout of this pop contents page from a music magazine is one where it looks chaotic and messy when really its not very busy and actually quite minimal and bare this is good to most readers (preferred readers) his type of layout has a more relaxed feeling to it, with the different sections but also headlines it allows it to be easy to get around an you can pick and chose where to go but also it gives a loud effect. The darker colours chosen do have a gloomier feeling to it and doesn’t have that ‘spark’ of brightness and joyfulness which most people tend to want to see. Having bolder subheadings makes it more easier to see and to navigate to and from throughout the whole magazine as one. The blue page numbers break up a little bit of the dull colours and has a happier touch to it, also on the same context the small pink guitar gives it a little more girly colour also along with the female model.

Masthead: The use of a masthead on the contents page makes the magazine flow more and keeps it recognizable to all of the audiences. The red box which the name is in is brighter than the whole colour scheme and has connotations of love, hearts and romance which is all things positive and to do with relationships. The typography of the masthead is serif because its more formal than sans serif because they want to keep it more grown up/adult like instead of going all childish. The name ‘spin’ has connotations of dj’s, music and records, this has an old fashioned touch to it and doesn’t feel as modern and CD’s or Ipods. The masthead is important to make that certain magazine stand out from all the others.

Double PageMain Image

Block quote

Columns

Headline

Sub Headings

House style Is girly and pink

The genre of the magazine I have chosen for the double page spread analysis is pop, the genre can be identified straight away as the main images of a pop/rap artist who is clearly recognizable, it’s a more young adult magazine as shown through the main image and article heading, also the artist shown is for teenage/ young adult around the ages of 15-27

Image shots : An iconic sign from the double page spread is mainly the image of a medium shot of Nicki Minaj who is an idol to some people. The shot is took just above the waist line with her body language in a certain position. She has direct address making contact with the audience drawing them in to also feel a connection, however the look on her face is shock and surprised, this lets the preferred readers know they’ll be like this after reading the magazine because they didn’t expect it, however the oppositional readers would see it as a negative and then they’ll be distraught by what they’ve read. Her bright clothes give connotations of loud, expressive and bright these bring a more uplifting article to the readers instead of just an everyday normal article. This is opposite to the main heading of ‘Gospel’ which means even though they're the same person and same feelings its contrasting and from the first eye glance looks not right. This could be bad and give the oppositional readers to think they’re not linked very well (article and image) and just be liked by her name.

Main Headline: The main headline linking to the main image of ‘Nicki Minaj’. The main colour is a darker pink than the background which may not stand out but it does very well n this case by having a dimmer bright light behind it making it dominant to the whole page. The phrase ‘Gospel’ has connotations to church, prayers and hymns however when the target audience thinks of Nicki its all about raps and up beat, fast tempo songs blasting music. The boldness of the main headline come across as loud, big and explosive. If we didn’t see her name it wouldn’t make the page seem as chaotic or loud which ‘is’ Nicki and it is her personality

House Style :The house style is fairly clear to any audience whether it’s the target audience or regular and it is bright, expressive and very pink. Pink clearly has something connected to Nicki because there's not one thing which doesn’t have pink on it or around it. The pink has a girly touch to it and makes the feminine side come out. The preferred audience would see it now as a more girly, fun and young magazine however the oppositional audience may sometimes see it as being a bit sexist incase boys like Nicki as an idol and may see it as being rude to them for some apparent reason.

Double Page

Main Image

Subheading

Body language of the model looks more sexual and too much for my target audience

Layout is simple and effective

The genre of the magazine I have chosen for the double page spread analysis is pop, the genre can be identified straight away as the main images of a pop artist who has been an iconic figure and is clearly recognizable, it’s got a more older adult meaning s shown through the main image and body language but also the artist shown is for young adult around the ages of 15-27.

Image shots : Half of the double page spread as actually been taken up by an image, however the oppositional readers may see it as being there's not a lot to say about her and has to get her personality across through and image not words. On the other hand the proffered readers may see it as a positive and agree she has more to offer on her image than words because she’s got ‘the look’. The black and white image has a more old fashioned feel to it even though lady gaga isn’t old fashions and yet a modern performer. It’s more a close up shot because its above the waist but can see chest area and is very open, this tells the audience that she really isn’t afraid to hide her body and doesn’t worry about being to sexual for a simple music magazine. Oppositional readers may see it as hem wanting to attract more males then females from this as its more sexual however the preferred may see it as drawing female or just both genders in for not being sexist.

Body Language: The body language of Lady Gaga is very controversial as in some may agree and some may not. For example she isn’t making a huge effort to cover up the chest area and instead is just hovering her hands over. Some people may find this as a way o draw more men in then women in which case she could be seen as an object and not a human, however in preferred readers cases the producers want it to show women that they shouldn't be ashamed or shy of they're body. Her body is fairly slouched over and does not an upright center posture this not only makes this page have a relaxed feel to it but keeps it calmer and not all in an orderly fashion nor have a correct position she should be in.

Layout: The layout of the page is very simple, minimal and bare however makes it easy to read but also reliable to read, and by having a large red ‘L’ in the center of the text makes you think of Lady Gaga and being Loud. This to some people could be positive and show lad gaga has a voice inside of her to yell or just to sing, others may see it as being too much and she's overshadowing herself through this chosen layout. The colour white has connotations of being pure, fresh and clean where as blending it with black to give a duller harsher colour makes it have more negative connotations like dim, dull and gloomy. But bringing the colour red in allows it to pop and come to life more as red has connotations of love, romance and hearts this gives us a completely different positive feel on the whole article.