Magazine Reviewing

Skyline

Main Image

The Main image of this magazine is of the band ‘The Drums’ The image shows strong emotion and depicts that they are somehow rooted in, serious about what they do.

Behind them is the American flag, with an almost ‘indie’ twist to it.This could imply that they are the new face of indie music in America or that they are somehow taking over or invading America (This could be back up by the ‘Lead Article’: “The New American Invasion”) Further back up by the fact that they are originally from England.

The clothing they are wearing are a direct message to the audience they are trying to attract, As although the ‘Lead Article’ covers most of what they’re wearing, with a couple more seconds of glancing it’s not something that’s hard to see.

The band is also reprehensive for both genders, for males they could be seen as something of icons, and for females something as male interest.

The Left ThirdThe Left Third is not used as much as other magazines, And although there are a few things in it, there’s nothing that would stand out aside from the magazine name.

The cover, although mainly covered in text, cannot be said to be solely text based, as the main chunk of text is all to do with one thing, and the rest is scattered about in small places.The Main Image has a strong focal point and with the colours and expressions of those used in the picture the readers eyes can get draw to it rather then to the mass chunk of text.

The Skyline consists of a few things, But they are all quite dramatic.Stone roses is a bold eye catching big font. Spike island 20 years”To extract only a few items out of an article and pull out “20 Years” is obviously on the emphasise that they have been successful for so long.“We made history” Is a very dramatic pull quote and refers to what the article would most likely be about. Although the ‘Skyline’ is Bold black I think it has purposely been put against a plain/bland background as to not distract the reader from the main items on the page.

MastheadThe masthead is very bold and fits in well with the main image, putting a twist on the American Flag

The Lead Article

The lead article links directly back to the main image.

PicturesThe contents page is mainly picture orientated. Pictures help develop certain themes of the magazine, but on this contents page it looks like they are used to attract the reader to articles.

Layout

This contents page is only on one page, some magazines would have two as it would give advertisers the opportunity to advertise on them, as people usually look at the contents page before anything.

Ease of useThis contents page is relatively simple to use, page numbers of the main articles are placed with their pictures and are most outstanding as those are what people would usually look for first. The rest are placed simply in an easy to read list.

The layout

The layout of this DPS is evenly mixed, with a full page picture on one side and huge chunks of text on the other. I think this is done as the article is not written as a normal interview, but instead it as written as almost a story, and keeping with a story in a book theme the article is written as a full page of text, with the picture resembling something of a front cover.

The pull quote

The drop capThe drop cap placed here is to sign a change of the topic altogether.

The pull quote is placed right in the middle of the page, the style and imagery of it relates directly to the picture and is a quote that would relate to the audience.

Columns

This DPS uses 3 columnsThis makes it easier for the reader to read

Main ImageThe main image is of the band sitting down relaxing and going about as normal, seeing as the article is an interview this places you in the position of the interviewer, and with the picture being of them sitting down, it places you in that scene, sitting down and beginning to ask them the questions that are on the next page. It also includes the same design as the background on the front cover.

Navy blue text

Text relates to the imagery and style of the front cover.

Byline

The Byline is added in in a sentence.

MastheadMasthead on this cover is quite covered and gone unnoticed, this could be done to draw attention to the articles and the main image.

Main Image

The main image is a Mid-shot image. MIA,Is in a sexy striking pose, Holding a burning piece of paper, which relates to what she is wearing, overall setting the theme for the front cover of the magazine.She is doing this in quite a wild look, this represents her lifestyle, which is quite wild and out there.

Lead Article

Unlike the other NME magazine I reviewed, the lead article has very little detail. This could simply be because MIA is instantly recognizable and does not need much of an introduction. The coloour is very out there and wild, possibly refering back to MIA herself.

Pull Quote

The Pull quote “I’m rich enough now to have you killed”Is a big sign of how big MIA is in the music industry, with something as shocking as that to read, people who haven't heard of MIA would be interested to read into it more.

Left Third

The left third is used a lot in this magazine, in contrast with the other magazine I reviewed.The font and colours used within the Left Third, maintains the style and theme of the magazine.Making sure that when someone sees just this left third, they see the magazines as a whole.

Mia is an idol for both female and male, she is a sex symbol which could attract males to the magazine solely on the basis that she is good looking, and she could also provide as a sort of role model for women.

The layout of the contents keeps within the norm for NME. Keeping within the House Style of NME.Although it is a big contrast to the front cover as it does not keep the colour style.

Images

Some of the images used on the contents page are very outlandish, although nothing too outrageous, and little photo editing is used.

On the contents page there is little about what is on the front cover, there is no direct way to find out what pages some of the articles on the front cover are on, which could make ease of use slightly difficult, although they show everything in between.

Ease of use

Images of smaller articles are given out on the contents page, this could be so the reader is clearly shown everything that is in the magazine, not just on the front cover, to help the reader get the most out of the magazine and not miss out of everything in it.

Pull QuotesSome of the pull quotes are quit outrageous and out there, “ I was dancing to marks puking because I was tripping”Pull quotes like these show very interesting points of the articles even if there is very little about what was said in the pull quote.Even if that is the case, the boisterous pull quotes will attract readers to articles that they might not even looked at before.

Keeping within house style of NME, there is a picture taking up one page on the left, and blocks of text on the right.

Also the colours and text within the article keeps within house-style of this magazine, the out there colours, using an image to make up text completely fits in within the frame of the article.

The Pull Quote, made up from an image of Mia, is something very out there and controversial, she openly mocks someone else, who is an idol to a big chunk of teenagers out there. This leads back to her wild style, personality, and lifestyle.

Main ImageThe main image is again strikingly sexy, but is nothing too out there, and nothing too complex. The smoke and the way her face is covered could suggest that underneath everything there is more to reveal about MIA, that we only know so much about her. The image is also not as wild as the one on the cover, this could be because she is letting someone interview her, that she has calmed down and is letting us in.

The way the author talks about MIA at the start is not for or against her, the author is dealing on quite a controversial topic, and so the author has to be weary about exactly what they stay to stay right in the middle without making any enemies in this debate.

Layout

The layout of this front cover has a fractional amount of text compared to other magazines, The main focus is on the Main image and “The prodigy”“Exclusive Subscribers-Only Issue”Is placed underneath the lead article, this is deliberately placed in eyesight as if the issue were to be advertised, those who are not subscribed but are fans of the prodigy would want to subscribe.

Slogan of the magazine issue to issue

Main ImageThe main image is a very strong, eye catching image. It clearly shows how ‘The Prodigy’ represents itself: Big and powerful.The fact that he is shouting and seemingly ripping a crack in the earth and not just stepping over one, is undoubtedly saying that ‘we have the power to do this, we’re that big’ It’s an image that draws the eyes of the reader to it, and makes those who have not even listened to the prodigy interested in them. The clothes he is wearing are quite iconic, the vest is partly to show his physique, but also to show off the mass of tattoos he has over his body.His hair is a very iconic punk look hair. The earrings, the belt, the shoes, all of those are subtle signs to signify exactly what his personality is, the easier the reader understands the personality of him, the easier they feel it is to connect and the more interested they are in the article.

MastheadThe Masthead is in the same place as always for ‘Q’ but is covered by the main image quite a lot which is something that they don’t usually do, this could be portraying that ‘the Prodigy’ Is even bigger than ‘Q’

The left third

The left third is not used at all on this cover aside from the Masthead which is always in the left third.

The lead articleThe lead article has no description and no explanation, it simply states “The prodigy’ Simply stating that it is just all about the prodigy.The colour and font are quite bland but still stand out due to the size, this is to create a balance between the lead article and also the main image.

Skyline

PhotoshopPhotoshop edits the crack in the earth onto the magazine, the crack symbolises the sheer power that ‘The Prodigy’ has.

The contens page is similar to all Q contents pages, the main image on the left page keeps the style of the issue constant, and it directly refers to the image on the front cover.

The contents page itself are easy to navigate, much easier than that of NME, the features are displayed on one side while the less important articles are displayed on the others, These are all listed, with images with page numbers as a reference.

All the images refer to an article in the magazine, and are some actually direct pulls from the magazine.

Pull QuotesPull quotes are completely disregarded in this contents page, instead the journalist has added his own sort of bio/information about the article.

The journalist for Q has added his own notes and captions to almost everything in the contents page.Although the readers won’t know exactly what the article is providing, I feel this system is more in depth, as the journalist can add more in then 1 quote would.

The Contents page is a mix between text and imagery, although it seems that the text is primary and the imagery is used as a reference, kind of a mix on captions. This makes thigns easier as main articles will instantly have a eyedrawing picture with the page number to go with it, and when looking through the list, a picture is always there for reference, this makes the contents page very easy to navigate.

This DPS is mainly text based.The style keeps within house style and the main image relates to the front cover completely.

Pull QuoteThe Pull Quote from this article is very outstanding, as it’s placed under the main image, which is usually the first thing people look at, the pull quote will be one of the things that people look at first. Giving a slight insight to whether or not the reader will enjoy reading this article. The Pull Quote itself is quite humorous, which is a good way of getting people attracted to an article.

Unlike NME, This article has a skyline, reminding the reader of what article they’re reading. This is a nice feature for when people are skimming through pages, if they don’t know the page number but know what article they are looking for, it is great at show

Main ImageThe main image is a strong image of the lead of ‘The Prodigy’ Again everything from the way he is positioned to the way he is standing shows his personality, the wild, groundbreaking (literally thanks to photoshop) i