‘Country Music’ Magazine Analysis

(FRONT COVER)

By Eilis Bell

Whilst researching my main theme ‘Country Music’ and different conventions in some country magazines I found a current Country music

magazine, ‘Country Weekly’, which I thought would be completely different to all the other music

magazines out there for instance ‘NME’ but they are set out in a very similar way. Despite that I still

believe that this and other country music magazines do have some conventions; they are

very bright and colorful just like their songs; very bright and emotional. This thus attracts the right

target audience. Various other pop magazines also like to change the ‘pop stars’ appearance a lot to

fit their magazine ( changing hair costume to make it more appealing to the magazines audience not

the artists) but I feel with these country magazines they are more focused on the artist and adapt the

magazine around them and not the other way round.

For instance with this magazine cover the image of the artist ( Taylor Swift) is very bright and colorful; the artists bright dress, hair and the backdrop and thus the headers, subtitles and masthead all match the artist; all follow the same colour scheme.

This is the same magazine as the slide before and I still believe, that even though there is a different artist on the front cover, the same conventions still apply. For instance there is still bright calming colours which again I feel reflects the music genre and the music that these artists make. However when comparing this issue with the pervious one you are able to see that this issue is slightly more modern and has slightly less crowded cover; making it more simple and easier to read and understand. This may have been for a number of reasons; to keep up with all the popular music magazines in the industry as there are not a vast amount of country magazines out there. But I also believe that they have changed their style because over the past couple of years Country music has become more popular around the world so they could be possible making their magazine more appealing to a wider target audience.

This is a current pop music magazine which shows a country artist on the cover. However, I feel, it is not the same as having this artist on a country music magazine; as you can see on this magazine they do not change any of their conventions for the artist or even collaborate them in their colour scheme which I think is a good aspect to have on a magazine, simply because your magazine will be distinctive and remembered but at the same time the magazine is about the artists and their achievements and sharing them with different audiences. SO I believe that at the same time as making the magazine appealing and attractive they should make the artist stand out more than the magazine because the only reason that the viewer is buying this particular magazine is because of the artists inside.