Magazine Front Cover Analysis- chosen genre

Q Magazine

• The Masthead of this magazine is ‘Q’.• The slogan ‘Discover great music’ under the

masthead is there as the words associate with the magazine in advertising.

• The skyline providers the readers with insight into information beneficial to them, something they can get involved in, another way to lure them into reading the entire magazine.

• The puff; ’26 Festivals to blow your minds’ providers the readers with information about the content of the magazine.

• The cover lines e.g.; ‘JAY-Z and KAYNE WEST on the throne’ allows the readers to know what articles are going to be in the magazine etc.

• The main medium close up shot/image features Lana Del Ray and as she is the front cover, her name is in the biggest and unusual font, which stands out on the cover, indicating she’s of some importance to this issue of Q magazine.

• The barcode and the price of the magazine are displayed clearly to allow the reader/buyer easy insight into how much it is and whether its worth the front cover gives the impression that it’s worth the money or not.

NME Magazine

• The title of this magazine is NME, which is in vibrant white capitalised letters, situated in the top left hand side of the magazine to make it easily readable and seen.

• The masthead introduces; ‘The New NME’ and offers special edition covers. This appeals to the readers as it is something different.

• The cover lines which are on the front cover are ‘The State of Music Today’, this is presented in white block capitals, however this makes it slightly unclear to the readers then what is in the magazine because it’s not as easily readable. Also, it then follows with names of famous people who feature in the article with a quote from Florence Welch herself, who is the main medium close up shot image, and the main focus of the readers attention.

• As briefly mentioned above the main image features artist Florence Welch. The image creates a relationship between Florence herself and the reader as they feel engaged as if what Florence is saying is directly meant for them as she appears to be looking straight into the eyes of the reader. NME’s editors have displayed Florence to have very little make-up on, indicating the thought pattern they had that she didn’t need any as the shire vibrancy of the colour of her hair did all the talking as necessary and all by itself.

• The layout of the magazine cover is extremely minimalistic and effortless, presenting itself to fit in with the genre of music, and how it likes to flawless exhibit its talented members, effortlessly doing what they do best.

• The price of the magazine is presented clearly for the reader, and as it is only £2.20 it appeals to its most common target audience between the ages of 15-25 as they are most likely students which not loads of money left over to use and spend on luxuries.

Billboard Magazine

• The Billboard masthead is in a clear font, making it easily readable and recognisable for the readers. It also stands out against the soft feminine pink tone of the background. The main medium close up shot of Katy Perry overlaps part of the masthead, which shows how important she is, as she’s taking centre stage on the cover.

• The cover lines on the front cover even though they’re small stand out as they’re in a bold dark black font with a contrasting bright yellow sub-heading to add to it. The yellow sub-heading font colour also matches one of the filled in letters colour in the masthead. Blending it all together nicely. The main cover line; ‘KATY PERRY…’ is in the biggest writing as the issue if focused of Katy herself, the text on the front has to coincide with that.

• The magazines main target audience and focus group are females. The whole aura of the magazine is feminine based, from the blatant pink background to the main image of Katy Perry draped in flowers. The flowers (used as props) that Katy is wearing are there to indicate the soft side to her, yet the black dress reinforces that Katy famously has a dark, mysterious and mischievous side as well.

• The puff which is presented in a circle near the bottom right hand corner, is interesting as it is placed away from the rest of the information on the front cover so its another eye catching element of the cover and it goes against the usual left hand third conventions that magazines follow.