Music Magazine Front Cover Analysis'

The masthead on the front of this music magazine cover is big, bold and in red.

It is in the top left hand corner and can be seen clearly. It does not take up the full width of the top because it is short and snappy. Also NME is a very well-known music magazine and does not need to fill up space informing people who they are, as they already know.
The music magazine is aimed towards young people and the colour red could signify rebellion.
The photograph is the whole front cover, and gives off an ‘I’m not bothered what you think look’ this is appealing to young people as they want to appear the same way and get the same look. This will attract young people to purchase the magazine as they will want to get involved and gain role models for themselves.
Beside the photograph is ‘MIA’ also big, bold and red. This is to attract the audience by telling them that within their magazine is going to be information about someone important. They will see it is someone important when looking at the magazine as she appears in the photograph.
At the top right hand corner of the magazine cover it says ‘INTRODUCING THE NEW NME,
8&10 SPECIAL EDITION COVERS’. It isn’t as clear to see the top line but informing the audience that there is going to be special edition covers will encourage people to purchase the magazine. In the bottom right hand corner of the magazine are some sub-headings of important names after the heading ‘THE STATE OF MUSIC TODAY by’ this emphasises the importance of this magazine and that it is a well-known magazine. It must be a popular choice of magazine to have a lot of important people featuring in it.

This magazine cover also features a barcode to scan and a price to inform the audience how much they’re going to have to pay for this magazine. These are done at the bottom of the page as they are less important and have no effect on the readers opinion.

The institution of NME music magazine is IPC Media and is a popular magazine; it has been published weekly since 1952. It was the biggest selling music magazine (then newspaper)
The masthead on the front cover of this magazine is in the top left hand corner and is bold. This is done to help the audiene recognise which magazine it is.
Underneath the masthead shows a black circle that reads ‘JACK WHITE’S SHOCK NEW ALBUM’ this is very eye catching and immediately attracts the audience to the magazine. It appears as though it is covering something else which gives it the effect that it is too important to miss.
Just above to the right hand side of the masthead is the studio news: selling line. This would straight away attract their target audience because the selling line has the names of popular bands, with the same type of genre. This magazine would attract a lot of people as it has included popular bands that people would listen to.
There are many cover lines, going down the left third of the front cover. Most of the cover lines relate to the type of genre that is studied within the magazine. ‘ROLLING STONES’ and PANIC AT THE DISCO ALBUM’. This is to help the reader in understanding and not getting confused. It instantly informs the reader about what is going on, who is featured in it and the type of genre. This is good because it is direct and gets straight on with selling the magazine to their audience.

The main image on the front cover is of ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’. This immediately tells the audience that they are going to be one of the bands featured within this magazine. They both give off a serious expression. This suggests that their story is going to be important for the reader, it could also link with the line below ‘I was worried the monkeys…’ This will entice the reader to buy the magazine as they will want to know what it going to happen.
At the bottom right hand corner, there is a barcode, issue number and price. These are the less important features of then magazine and are therefore placed at the bottom. The website is also placed underneath; this is so the reader can access more information about the magazine if they really enjoy reading it.

VIBE is a popular music magazine and one they constantly use the large, bold and thick title VIBEt to specificically show it's them. Also this form of title is one that is used with other music magazines such as ‘NME’ this clearly demonstrates that a large title must be a lot more appealing to the audience . Also VIBE will most likey have more famous artists on the front cover, generally being hip-hop, rap and RnB. This immediately shows to the reader what type of magazine it is just from it’s front cover, making it very clear from the front that the magazine is based on music, specifically in the Hip-Hop, Rap & RnB area. On the front of this music cover, they have made the main picture bigger than everything else this demonstrates that they want to make it clear to the reader what the magazine will specify in for its best and main story. The purpose in doing this is that VIBE believe in they promote their most interesting story on the front cover and give the reader just a taste of what is inside,  making them want to purchase the magazine.

Vibe has the idea to entertain rather than inform people, this could be a possible good idea reviewing the new realeases as it coul be more informative than if it was trying to be informative. VIBE includes articles such as stories from Eminem, who is a large Hip-Hop artist. He's put articles such as this in not to inform the reader but entertain them with his conversation, the magazine is publicised in a fashionable way with slang and a hip hop feel to it. It creates its genre of music by having artists famous in the genre all over the magazine.

I feel this magazine would be aimed at the 16-27 age group. I think this is because, Eminem is an artist of recent times which shows us that the magazine is going to be based around that genre in general. Everybody knows what genre of music these artists perform. I think this magazine could be targeted more towards the male market, this could be because of the certain look of Eminem. It is too intimidating and is more suited for the male side. The magazine has inside information for fans interested in the hip-hop / rap genre. As Eminem is on the cover, it instantly tells us the genre of the magazine, the style and the information inside.

Distribution

I would like my magazine to be published weekly, I think as the price is quite low it will be affordable for people to buy each week to find out the latest gossip. By publishing it weekly, the audience will be able to keep up with the latest gossip also as they are not having to wait a whole month.

Target Audience

I would like to aim my music magazine to both male and female genders with an age between 16-24. I think by choosing pop as my genre, it will target more towards a younger generation than an older generation.

Music Genre

I have decided that the genre for my music magazine is going to be pop. I have come to this conclusion because I think pop music appeals to everyone but also is more appealing to the younger generation such as teenagers rather than the elder generation.

The Brief

Main Task: The front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you-minimum of four images.

Evaluation

Evaluation of my College Magazine

To create the front cover of my college magazine, I used a 12 megapixel camera to take some photographs that will be used in the creating of my front cover.

I had a few initial ideas for the front cover of my college magazine.  I had originally planned to have the masthead ‘WYKE’ appearing in the colour purple to match the logo so people would clearly recognise what college my magazine is aimed at. I had also planned for my college magazine to have an orange background so it would be bright and would stand out to the audience however after thinking about it, it would show no indication as to what college it was informing people about and also the purple masthead would contrast with the colour of the background. Instead I decided to have a purple background with the masthead being white; the theme of Wyke College is still then shown.

On my front cover, I have included the date and price to inform people how much my magazine would cost and also to notify them if my magazine has any relevance to current issues so that they would know if it was worth buying. I have shown both of these in white font as it is visible and stands out clearly for the audience to see. I have placed them underneath the masthead as the audience don’t have to look far to find them.I have also included some cover lines on the front. At the top right corner of the magazine I have advertised for the college party which takes place at Pozition. I have written this in a bright pink font as it matches the logo for Pozition and people can instantly identify this. I have then included that NUS cards are on sale for £11. This will be important for students as it is the main purpose for use of discounts so this would gain their interest. This gives a clear indication of what is going on and will inform the audience a bit about what is happening. I have taken a photograph of someone playing chess and placed it in the bottom left to notify the audience about a tournament that is
taking place. I have written ‘Friday 18^th November, Don’t Miss Out!’ in a yellow

font so that it appears bright and people can easily spot it. I would also like this to persuade people to purchase this magazine by identifying that there is a competition and by finding out about the competition they will have to buy the magazine.

I have included the issue number at the bottom left of the magazine as this helps the audience to identify how many issues there have already been of this magazine.

When preparing the image for my magazine, I took a lot of photographs around the college, such as the entrance, the buildings, the library, inside the library and all around college. This was for the background. I then focused on taking a photograph of a college student as it says in the brief to be on the front cover as a medium close up.

I have taken a few photographs and testing them with different backgrounds as well as testing different backgrounds on the same image. I then decided on a photograph of a Wyke Student, with his arms in the air to appear like a really happy student. I wanted to convey this message on the front cover of my magazine as I want people to buy the magazine and know that good things are going on inside the college. My initial ideas were to have a student sitting at a desk studying, but when I tried this out it didn’t look very good he either looked at the camera which looked unrealistic or looked into his studying material which didn’t grip the audience to magazine.

I have placed a barcode at the right bottom corner of my front cover, as if it was to be sold, the shop selling it would need a barcode to scan the magazine in order to know how many issues had been sold.

I decided to place an anchorage on the front cover of my magazine just placed above the main image, ‘It’s all about the preparation!’ After thinking about this for a while I finally decided on this slogan as it was catchy and quite memorable. I think this makes the audience think about college work and exams, and gives informs them that that within the magazine will be information to help them balance their college work and how to concentrate.

Overall I think the front cover of my college magazine works really well because I have used a range of different colours and all the colours work together instead of blend in to one mess of colours.  I have also used a range of different fonts to help give the cover variations instead of having it look all the same. If I had more time, I think I would maybe change the layout of the cover as it could look more realistic with the image directly underneath the masthead and the cover story lines on the opposite sides. However I decided on the original layout as I think it still works well and the cover story lines are clearly seen.



Finished Product

Drafts

This is my idea for a first draft. After looking at it, i do not like this design at all. The 'Wyke' masthead at the top doesn't fit in with the rest and looks a little out of place. Whilst the colour of the date and price cannot be seen very clearly. The image is too big for the background and doesn't give a good effect of him 'holding the Wyke masthead'.

Contents Page

Drafts

I have experimented with different backgrounds for my image to give it the right look. When drafting the front cover of my magazine properly, i wil test all the different backgrounds to see how they will look when i have added the masthead, cover story lines, anchorage and everything else.