MUSIC MAGAZINE ANALYSIS

Aamna Arshad

Looking at the magazine cover, it’s obvious what the feature of the magazine is, since the name Rihanna is written in big bold white letters linking to the main image. The masthead ‘Billboard’ is the name of the magazine, and is big and bold making sure it is seen. It is well composed with the main image to giving it a better layout. Above the masthead we see writing, which contains information about an event that’ll be taking place.

The magazine is targeted at the younger generation, from the ages of 13-20 both female and male. People who are eager to find out about the latest tunes and the latest artists.

Looking at the magazine you have a sense of its genre as it has Rihanna on the cover and on how she’s presented. Her tattoo emphasises this as it is a gun, giving her that rebellious look which signifies that she doesn’t only sing pop, but genres like hip hop and r ‘n’ b.

The colour scheme of the magazine are primary colours, like yellow, red, black and white. The main image is what brings the colour and attracts the audiences eye. The font remains the same on the cover, just different sizes, emphasises on main topics more.

There’s also a hint of seduction as well as confidence as she is wearing red lipstick, and the colour red often connotes love and lust as well as her hair. The master head of the magazine is also very big so the audience is clear on what the magazine is called. Rihanna also seems to be sitting on some flowers which may symbolize her femininity, as flowers are seen to be pretty and girly.

It also has the quote line ‘My fans don’t really know who I am’ this grabs the audiences attention as they are eager to find out who Rihanna really is. Which in return will cause them to buy it gaining the makers of the magazine money.

There are also many sell lines, which is a catchy tittle which attracts the readers eye, with a little summary underneath. This gives the audience an idea of what the magazine is going to consist off, allowing them to make decisions on wetter or not they want to buy it or not.

The contents has been categorized in to sections such as, albums, songs and this week on. This makes it easier for readers to find what they’re looking for. Also the layout attracts people as it has content as well as images, making it look more eye catching and brings readers in. There are also images of other artists showing the magazine covers a various amount of artists.

On the right side of the page we see what is shown to be top stories, full with images linked to the articles, with sub headings and little summaries at the bottom of what is in the magazine.

The camera shot used for the main image is a long shot, showing her full body again reflecting on her emotion and expression as she is happy.

The colour used on the contents page are very basic primary colours, such as blue, white and grey this connotes simplicity.

Also mis-en-scene is brought in to the magazine, the background is white causing the main image of the woman to stand out.

The representation on this content page is of the main image, who is a singer relaxed and smiling. As her hair is open and flying back, it could symbolize freedom.

At the bottom of the page we see advertising of their websites and events they are linked to. This promotes their magazine and people will go online and find other things that’ll make them money.

By looking at the content pages, we are mainly shown young faces, suggesting who the target audience is, which is around 15-25, young people who really enjoy the latest music and having the latest albums.

If the audience were to be younger the colours would be brighter and there would be more images and aspects that attract the younger audience.

This double page spread heading is the artists name, its been creative and have used Rita Ora’s logo, the logo familiarizes it to the audience or if not the next time the reader sees it they’ll be familiar with it. The logo is red which gives connotations of warning as well as passion. The R and O in the headline has an urban look as it looks painted, giving us a sense of what type of genre she sings, which is hip-hop and r ‘n’ b. This also links to her clothes which is street style attire, Rita wears a beanie hat, which connotes street/urban style as well as youth (being young), whilst the gold jewellery connotes that maybe she’s wealthy. The leather jacket gives her that rebellious look which links back to the cover with Rihanna on it, it shows that artists have a mix of genres that they sing as Rita normally sings pop, hip hop and r ‘n’ b.The layout of this double spread also reflects her urban/street image. The washed out white brick wall and the worn out wooden floor symbolizes that she may prefer hanging around in these type of places. Also basic colours are used as it consists of the colours black, white and red, which is often seen in many other music magazines. Also normal fonts are used except for the questions, which have been presented in a graffiti style font, again emphasising the urban look.The main image makes the article a lot more interesting to read as it grabs the readers attention, the image is a mid shot as she is sitting down allowing us to see her full body as well as where she is, which reflects on what kind of music she sings and what type of person she is.

As you can see there is a major difference between the two music magazines, by looking at the magazine you can guess the genre without even opening the first page as the way it is presented, gives the audience hints. For example, the way the main image is presented, Rihanna is in bright colours hinting her confidence and seduction. While Green Day are all wearing black leather jackets and have this unkempt and rebellious look. The colour black as it is a gothic colour and gives Kerrang that Rock look, as rock stars tend do go for darker colours like black or dark green. Whereas pop stars, like Rihanna, go for brighter colours like red.

Also the layout for both magazines are different, as for Billboard there is only one image and that’s the main image, whereas Kerrang has images on the side, exposing more artists on the front cover, maybe getting more of an audience to read and buy it. Another difference is the way it is set out when it comes to saying what’s inside the magazine, for Kerrang all the main features of the magazine seem to be at the top and bottom of the magazine, whereas for Billboard it’s next to the artists main image being more spread out. It also has a summary underneath giving us more detail about what the article consists off. Though there are differences, we also so similarities when it comes to font, as they both use white bold letters to make the name of artist/band stand out. Showing us this is a key feature in any magazine, no matter what the genre is of the magazine bold font is a major feature. Another similar feature is the shot of the main image, they are both a close up shot showing there facial expression of the artist/band which again links to what type of magazine it is, as Rihanna shows a hint of seduction, while Green Day show no emotion and seriousness, which says a lot about the magazine.

By looking at both content pages, you can tell they’re both from different genres. We know this by the colour scheme, for example the Billboard magazine uses colours primary like blue, white and grey which are usually seen in pop music magazine as they are bright and eye catching. Whereas in NME colours like red, white and black are used, which are normally seen in rock magazine, as they are its main colours. These colours can connote danger and red is normally a very eye catching colour as it is used for effect to make things stand out.

Also the layout for the content pages are very different, as Billboard is more spaced out with more images, while NME is much more packed and less images, this links to genre as pop music is normally targeted at the female audience and they like less information and more pictures. Whereas NME has less images and more text giving us more of an overview of what is inside the magazine as well as hinting it’s genre, since Rock has an older audience than Pop music, it gives more information and less images. When listing all the articles and page numbers, Billboard has sorted them out in to groups where as NME have them all together, making it clearer for Billboard viewers on what they want to read and where it is. This again links to the idea on rock magazine being a bit more cramped up then pop magazines as seen in the content page, everything is packed together. We also see similarities between the two content pages, as well as differences, for example the side contents of everything in the magazine is laid out the same, as a left column. They both also consist of similar features like having their events and features on the content page, though Billboard seems to put all of the things outside of the magazine on the bottom of the page, whereas NME has it on the side. The main images on both of the content pages are both long shots, showing the whole body allowing us to show body posture as well as facial expression.