By Toby Emery

MAGAZINE COVER ANALYSIS

ROLLING STONE

Rolling Stone is a magazine published every two weeks that focuses on politics and popular culture. In 1967, Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco, California, by Jann Wenner –

who is still the magazine's chief editor – and music critic, Ralph J. Gleason.

Elvis issue- Widely regarded as the greatest singer/entertainer of all time, it is very fitting that Presley is on the cover representing the ‘100 greatest singers of all time’ story. Being a very special issue featuring an extremely prestigious list they have used black and gold for

the title + headers giving you a sense of importance and prestige. The photograph of Presley is in a sort of vintage sepia filter to once again elaborate the time the magazine has spanned

across to gather the greats. In todays society we often refer to gold like colours being symbolic of greatness, winning and competition. Through doing this, it draws the readers as you instantly want to know where your favourite singer placed in the rankings. With the use

of the words ‘special issue’ it makes you feel like your purchase of the magazine is worthwhile, and may persuade non-regular purchasers of the magazine to pick up this one

copy. Therefore, Rolling Stone have done a brilliant job of selling the conents through making you feel your getting something special and in doing so reaching out to a much broader

audience creating mainstream buzz. Fur

KERRANG!

Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on the 6th June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on a distorted

electric guitar, Kerrang! was initially devoted to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000s it became the best-selling British music newspaper.

The style of Kerrang is unorganised and muddled with content sprawled effectively across the page. The way the product is presented is very loud and in your face just like the genre of the music.

In this particular cover, they use a black on yellow font in the headers as this is the proven most visually striking colour scheme to use. This is why all warning and road signs are black and yellow.

There is also a strong use of red to contrast with the yellow, reassuring the fact that there is no order to the magazine. There is also a blood spatter to follow the hard-core med evil style of the shoot with

the sword and throne as the story is all about ‘the kings of modern metal reclaiming their throne’.

Q

Q Magazine the UK's biggest music magazines, music news, reviews and world exclusives with the most important bands on the planet.

Q is a very mainstream magazine targeting the majority with a very broad fan base/demographic.

In this cover they have used Cheryl Cole. A worldwide recognised sex symbol performing a provocative pose. There is order to the magazine with the consistent Q logo in the top

left corner. They have used a red, white and black colour scheme consistent with the company logo. Even in the photo your attention draws to the red lips on the pale white skin along with the dark hair and make-up. The photographer has done a brilliant job

giving the image a rain effect with the wet hair and surrounding droplets.

They put emphasis on ‘ROCKS’ with the spacing between the letters making it very effective as it fills the bottom of the page.

The left stories are filtered with background colour blocks separating the stories neatly in a set order as opposed to a jumbled KERRANG.