Magazine analysis

Blue Copeland

This is a retrospectiveMusic Magazineabout old records.

Basic serif font, easy to read, bold and coloured white.

The medium close up is relevant for this magazine because it is serious.

The sky line

The price of this magazine is £4 which is a lot of money for a magazine so its for people who know about their music and are going to spend money.

It’s a serious magazine for people who are going to appreciate the information and articles.

This quotes it is serious!!!

It has an iconic figure on the front of Jimmy Hendrix

The heading is the reverse to the heading on the front cover, they are both in a serif font: its a boring black colour which is easy to read. Its not a gimmick or in a crazy colour because the audience its targeted at just want to know about the track lists and information.

It has the tracks listed on the left with the page numbers in red and pictures related to articles on the right with the page number on top in the same serif font as both headings.

The form is dictated by the function which in this case is serious music and record history.

This is mainly a text led page. There are 3 columns on each page full of text. The only places there isn’t text is where the pictures are.

Its has an interesting pull out quote from the text to attract the audience and make them want to read the article.

The pictures aren’t in colour they have been edited to the effect ‘sepia’. This suggest history and old times: this relates to what the magazines about which is the history of records and legendary artists.

The artist is positioned with a microphone and appears to be singing: it all links to the article and is appropriate to the magazine and article.

It states that the band is unorganised and there admitting it.

The picture is of Cheryl Cole in studded, ripped clothing flicking long wet hair back covering the logo showing the power of the image. She’s using her sexuality to sell the magazine.

The skyline points out straight away it’s a music magazine. Its probably going to be visible when its on the shelf in the shop, so if people are looking for a music magazine then they can pick this up knowing its what there looking for.

Because ‘Q’ is a recognised magazine it doesn’t really need all that much on it to sell it. Therefore it has no pullout quotes or cover lines.

The masthead ‘Q’ is a bold recognisable red square with the clear white letter in a serif font.

There isn’t loads of colour as its not needed due to the busy city life background and the theme to the magazine.

Contents is written on a red strip that the house style with the front cover.

Contents pages are particularly attractive to advertisers because it’s the page they turn to, to see what's in the magazine.

They have a long, black and white edited shot of Cheryl again because it’s a pictorial contents page as they have used her as the main part of this magazine. She’s sexy and looks like a rock chick which is appropriate to the theme.

There is a clear hierarchy to who this issue is based on, we know the most important artist in this Q magazine is Cheryl Cole. Q is trying to show that if you want to read about Cheryl Cole then you should read their magazine they have done this by giving her the main image on the front cover, also the only pull out quote on the page, she appears again hear in the contents page, she has more than one double page spread about her and the magazine are trying to give the reader as much as they can about her.

This article is laid out with a big picture of the artist then columns of text. The article starts with a drop cap: this is used to enhance the look of the page.

The main image relates to the article because it compliments him and it shows mark doing the things he loves.

The headline isn’t all direct pull out quote although a part of the text is used in inverted comers which means a part of it is. Its consistent with the house style of the magazine, it’s a sans serif font and its clear the article is about Mark Ronson as his name is written in a different colour.

There’s one pull out quote which is a line about his album: its complimenting him coz its showing his humorous side it’s a juxtaposition.

They haven’t used a complete double page spread for the article but they have still kept the house style colours which are the trade mark colours of ‘Q’.

This cover line is quite aggressive and fiery like the picture and like the artist as well. This gender reputation is more feminine than masculine. It has a long shot of Mia as the main image and the colours are bright with fiery yellows, oranges and some pink. The font used is serif, the sizes vary due to importance and the colours of the font are either yellow or white.

There is a clear hierarchy on this front cover the most important articles are on the left third the ‘Mia’ lead article has the largest font and large pull quote. This dominates the front cover and clearly indicates to the target audience that she’s the most important element of this edition.

NME knows that people just flick past the contents and don’t read the list, so they have changed the layout to make it look attractive and hopefully people will want to read it.

There is a larger picture in the middle of the page and then other pictures circling it. Each picture has a pull out quote, this is to give the reader an understanding of that particular article and make them want to read it.

This is a pictorial contents page. Its just a plain white background with black writing. It has clear page numbers and the fonts sans serif which shows seriousness, and makes people believe what there reading.

This double page spread is mainly based on pictures.

It carry’s on the house style from the front cover in the font for title. It uses sans serif, as apposed to serif, this reflects the youthful target audience.

The writing is laid out in a none formal way, this also reflects the target audience.

The text is in formal also, it relates again to the audience, making them feel more comfortable reading it.

The images on this page are used for attracting the readers to events that are generally intended for they’re age, (bright colours, gigs etc).

There are also text boxes next to the images to explain where and what is going on.