Magazine Analysis

In this I will look at several music magazines and analyse them

As you can see this is a billboard magazine which has Florence on the front of it. I would say that this is a medium long shot because you can see from the top of her head all the way down to her lower thigh, (just above the knee). She has her arms up above her head and she is also doing direct address, which is looking directly into the camera. Doing so shows that she wants to connect with the audience in some way. They may have done this because it might grab the readers attention. What I mean by this is that they might pick the magazine up and see that she that she is looking directly at them so it might make them look at the page for longer, and then hopefully they would want to read on and buy the magazine. I would say that this is not a full bleed image, because she does not take up the whole page. If she was too take up the whole page then there would be no point in her doing that pose, because you would not see half of it. You would most probably only see her, chest, neck, face and possibly part of her arms. Furthermore for this picture, Florence must be close to the background because you can see her shadow quite distinctively. It could be that, or the shadow could have been photoshopped in. As well as this the background does not seems to be that clear on what it actually is. I would say that it is a plain grey background but there are shadows so there are other objects there. Additionally the lighting seems to be coming from above of directly in front of her, so this means the lighting is either top lighting or frontal lighting. I would have to say that it is more liking going to be top lighting but its not directly looking down at her, it would be at a lower angle. I think this because if you look at her shadow it is slightly lower than herself so the lighting must be coming from above her. As well as this her facial expression is very simplistic. I think she is doing quite a serious facial expression, which brings me back to how it may grab the readers attention. What I mean is that if you have a serious face and you are also looking directly into the camera then it can draw the reader in, because she is making eye contact with you, and having the serious face adds emphasis. Within this magazine there are no other images around the front page, there is only Florence and all the cover lines.

The colours used for this magazine cover are very simplistic. The main colours used are grey, white and maroon/burgundy. The grey is used on the background, the white is used on the cover lines and the burgundy is used on the dress Florence is wearing. They have made Florence's’ dress a darker and bolder colour because they want her to stand out from the page, and be the first thig that you look at when you pick the magazine up.

This magazine page is not as busy with its cover lines, but it does have quite a few on it. The first cover lines is right at the top and this across the

width of the page; its says ‘George Clinton Vs. Universal music group; what will it mean for the old

school.’ I'm not exactly sure what this implies but the first part of the phrase is in bold which

emphasises on that particular phrase. On the left hand side of the page you have some more cover

lines. The one at the top uses alliteration and it says ‘Power preorders’. This is in bold white writing

and stands out from the writing underneath. The next cover line underneath says ‘New

management’ and this is also in bold. And that last cover line on the left hand side says, ‘Genre

expansion’. Just like the rest it is in the shade white and is in bold. Similarly on the other hand side of

the page u have a few cover lines. The first one says, ‘25 years of hot Latin songs chart.’ This black

writing is in a grey text box that is slightly transparent. Doing so makes the writing stand out than the rest, because it has a text box around it,

and the colour black. Below this it has a list of some Latina singers. And they are, ‘Luis Miguel, Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglesias, Prince Royce and Ricky Martin.’ All of these words are in bold and in the colour white, and also between each name you

have a small grey line which divides them apart. I would say that this just adds design and effect to the page. Underneath this there is another cover

line which says ‘The boss team that built Foster the People’. That phrase foster the people is in bolder writing. This is a band name and having it in bold

makes it stand out from the page. This means that anyone who's likes that band can easily see

whether a certain magazine talks about them inside. The font used for the cover lines is very

similar to ‘Agency FB’. This font does not include serifs. In the centre of the magazine there is grid

which has 9 squares to it. In each square there is a letter and these letters spell out Florence. In the

bottom right corner of the grid there is n ampersand and underneath that in a smaller font it says The machine. So overall it says Florence & the

Machine (this is the name of her band). This grid stands out from the page because it is on top of the

burgundy dress and as the writing is white the colours stand out from each other. The font that is

used for writing is similar to ‘Century’. This font uses serifs which makes it more fancy compared to

the other fonts uses on the page.

The masthead is the word Billboard and it is placed behind Florence, which implies that she is the most

important image on the page. Also it tells us that the company has become so successful that they do not

need to show their name as much because they know that people will recognise their magazine

almost instantly. Also, the masthead is in the colour white. The letter ‘b’ has its centre filed with red, the letter ‘a’ is blue and letter ‘d’ is yellow. These three

colours stand out from the page.

This magazine is a billboard magazine and as you can see Adele is on the front cover. The Masthead of this magazine is the word Billboard. They have used the colour white for the masthead because white stands out the most from black. The word ‘billboard’ stretches across the width of the page, however it is behind the main image which is Adele. This tells us that she has the most importance on this page. She almost seems to stand out from the page and looks slightly 3D because she is in front on the masthead. Also Adele is the biggest image on the page, which implies the same thing as before, (she is the most important image on the page. You could also say that they are trying to grab the audiences attention with this image. Also they may have made her the most important image so they can keep the artist happy, and Adele is a one of the most popular British artists so why would they not want to make her the main image. Furthermore, this front cover uses direct address, because Adele is staring right into the camera. This implies that she is trying to connect with the audience by looking directly at us. I would say that the first thing you notice on this page as soon as you pick it up is Adele, and in more depth I would say you look directly at her eyes, because they seem to be the feature that stands out the most. This could be because of the fact that she has bold eye makeup on which makes the eyes stand out more than anything else on her face. Saying this brings me back to direct address. Her eyes stand out more because she is looking directly at the camera. Moreover Adele seems to wearing a plain black top, but it is hard to notice as it blends in with the background. The only features that are visible of her is her neck and her head. This tells us that we only needs to focus on her face and nothing else. Her expression seems to be quite simple. You could say that she has quite a concentrated look, which brings me back to the idea that she is trying to connect to the audience which is why she has a concentrated look. As well as that the lighting seems to be key light and fill light. This light is generally the most appealing light to use, because it can make you skin look smoother and clearer, however make up can also do that same job. Looking at the image I would say that it is a full bleed image, because the majority of the picture takes up most space on the magazine cover. As I have said previously this makes Adele stand out a lot more. Other than Adele there is noting else in the background expect from just the plain black background.

Below Adele is the word ‘music’. This is in bold bright colours, (blue, red,

yellow, and green). They have purposely made the word music in

bold colours, because they are wanting it to stand out. Also they

have outlined the word in white which also helps it to stand out more. As

well as this the white outline includes serifs, and each little serif that stands

out (these are the small round circular shapes on the end on the letters) is a different colour. This

makes it more unique and different. Around that word they have included

a leaf like pattern, and this pattern carry's on all around the page. The pattern seems to lead your eyes to the next feature on the page, cover lines. The cover line that seems to stand out the most is the one that

says ‘The year of Adele’. This would be the cover line that stands out

because the main image of the page is Adele. The rest of the cover lines seem to be all the same size, font

and colour. The cover lines seem to talk about a range of things, for

example: The year in dance music, the year in major-label movies, the

year in $5 CO’s and the year in post-myspace world. They all seem to repeat the phrase ‘The year in…’

which could imply that they will only be talking about this year and not

last year or what might happen in the future, only this year. Furthermore the

cover lines are all placed around Adele, and in this case they are just

down both sides of the page. For each phrase ‘The year in’ the size of the writing is smaller than the word

after it. So for example: For the phrase ‘ The year in Jason Aldean’, the words Jason Aldean are bigger than the phrase The year in. they

might do this because they want to emphasis on the artists name or what

the cover line is about. They make the main point stand out from the

rest of the sentence.

The font used is very simple, its just a plain white bold font. I would say that it is very similar to the font Ariel narrow, however it’s a bit longer.

This font is san serifs, which is generally more common than having serifs, however they do

use it for the word music. They use the flicks in a different colour for each letter, so the letter M is in blue and the flicks are in red. The two colours

that r used for each letter seem to be contrasting colours so they stand out from one

another. Also the flicks are connected to the white outline and they are shaped as a circle.

As you can see this is a Q magazine. The main image of this magazine is Florence and this is a medium shot, which involves her from waist up. Her right hand is reaching out towards the audience which implies that she is trying to reach out and touch you. This is said at the bottom of the magazine underneath her name. It could also imply that she is trying to connect with whoever is reading this and also you could say that she is trying to tie you in and read that magazine. From what it looks this is not a full bleed image because she does not take up the whole page. The reason why they may have made it not full bleed is because it is a medium shot and I personally think that it would have looked too much if you made the picture bigger. Furthermore the angle of the camera seems to be a low angle shot, what I mean by this is that the camera is angled below Florence. This gives her some sort of importance because we are looking up to her. This could be a metaphor because people could quite literally look up to Florence, in other words she could be someone's inspiration. Also she is the main image so she would be the most important feature on the front cover. As well as that, this image also has direct address, which is when the artist or person is looking directly into the camera. This gives us the idea that she is trying to connect with us and it also gives her some significance. Moreover in the picture of Florence she is holding a microphone, which tells us that she seems to be singing to the audience. This could explains why she is holding her hand out, because most singers do that when they sing as they are trying to connect to the. I would say that the angle of light is coming from above, but not directly above her head because otherwise the light would not be as directed on her face. The light is in front of her but it is up high up and at an angle. I would say that her facial expression is almost serious but she is singing to the reader so its as if she is trying to connect through singing, by doing so I would say that she looks like she is trying to concentrate. The place at which this shot was taken looks like a studio shot, mainly because the background is quite dark and you are not going to be taking magazine covers outside at night. The masthead for this magazine is the letter Q, and it is in the top left right hand corner. It is in the colour white and is in a red square. This would probably be one of the focal points for the magazine.

The main colours that are used in this magazine are red, white, black and a bit of yellow. I have not included the colours used in Florence's clothing, but if I was then I would include cream, and pale pink. I would say that they have used quite dark colours so it gives the magazine quite an edgy/indie feel.

Just by looking at the magazine you can tell that the cover lines take up a huge amount of space. The

biggest cover line is most probably the one at the very top which says 50 Indie Rock records you must

own. The words ’50 indie rock’ is in much bigger font than the rest of the sentence, (records you must

own). This is because if you like indie or rock music they want to grab your attention by saying your

style of music in big bold letters. I would say that the font used for this cover line is close to Bell MT, and

this font uses serifs. Most magazines don’t use serifs because sometimes it does not work, but I

personally think that they have pulled it of, and that it really works well with the page. Underneath that

phrase you have a list of some of the indie and rock artists that they said you should listen to and they used a slightly different font. I would say that it is

similar to Ariel, and this time they do not use serifs. Also the font is smaller than the cover line itself.

Underneath that cover line you have a button and they have used a bright yellow to make this stand

out from the page. It says in white font ‘Plus, the A-Z of indie, introduced by Noel Gallagher.’ Using the

word plus draws the audience in because they are saying it as if there is more interesting and exciting

things to read so it makes the audience want to buy the magazine. The word A-Z is in much bigger font

than the rest of the phrase because this is the more important part of the phrase. When you say A-Z you

know you will get a list of something to like before they make it bigger to draw the audience in. In smaller writing it then says ‘introduced by Noel Gallagher’ and his name is in the colour yellow.

Doing this makes his name stand out more. Underneath you have two more cover lines which I would say are less important, mainly because they

are the smaller cover lines and they do not stand out as much as the rest. Both involve names which are

in a bigger font than the information underneath. On the other side of the magazine underneath the

masthead you have in big letters ‘Hit Men’. As you can see this cover line starts with an imperative

because it starts of with a verb. Like before, having the phrase in big letters emphasises it and makes it

stand out from the page; grabbing the readers attention. Underneath that they have used syndetic listing, ‘Behind Rihanna, Beyoncé and Coldplay. Also this cover line uses the same font used on the other

side for the list of 50 Indie Rock records.

Furthermore another big cover line says ‘Florence’ in big red writing which is found in the bottom left hand corner. This is in a more fancy font to everything else on the page, ( its very similar to the font Lucida Handwriting).

Doing this makes the writing stand out from the page a bit more. Underneath Florence it says,

‘wants to reach out and touch you…’ This phrase emphasises on how Florence connects with the audience. Also the font used is the

same as the one that says ‘50 Indie Rock’. The last cover line is right at the bottom and goes across the width of the page. Its says some artists name and the first one is in red, then

white, then red and pattern carries on.