Music Magazine.Research

Doing some research on Music Magazine, I found some really good inspirations. Exposing some of the front covers I will emphasize some points.

+ Close-up shot which shows heightened emotions and allows the audience to engage with intensity

+ It has a top celebrity as front cover star. It attracts fans to buy the magazine

+ Big titles which infer high importance

+ The magazine has a scandalous star on the front cover. It awakens audience’s interest

+ The front cover celebrity is undressed. This is attractive because it connotes revealed secrets

+ The most standing out article title is a question. It makes it curious

– I would like the titles more emphasized

 

+ The title is very specific and I like it

+ There is no front cover human star besides the picture of a band. The attention is dragged to a musical instrument

+ Lots of article titles which give details of what you may read in the magazine

– To many images and colours. It tires the eye

As an example of a famous Music Magazine I have chosen Billboard magazine, which is a weekly American music magazine,one of the oldest trade magazine in the world, covering all genres of music.

On the cover of this issue is an actual very famous pop singer, Lady Gaga that was introduced to the music industry just recently. Having such a well-known celebrity on the cover is the perfect way to attract the audience, appealing to the young people aged between 16-30.

In general lines, Billboard magazine has kept the brand colours through all the issues, this being Yellow ( inferring joy and energy) ,Blue (as a calming and harmonizing tone) and Red (highlighting the importance and tradition of the brand). The three colours are always present in the title. The font used for the title is easy to read.

When the cover star is very famous and has a whole career in the industry, the title is usually covered by the person’s head.

In this case, the contrasting colour of the cover is the Lady Gaga’s hair colour, which is lila, and gives the image a funky detail.The background is grayish and black, not to overload the page. Some of the article titles are written in bold white, for the contrast. The main celebrity’s name is the most accentuated because it is meant to be in the focus.

The conventions are covered, having a medium close-up of the artist, big headings, a harmonized colour-scheme, the price,a bar code and the title.

For my second music magazine, I have chosen Q magazine, which is the biggest UK source of music news, reviews and exclusive articles about the greatest bands and artists.

I have chosen the issue that has the same artist on the cover as the previous magazine, to observe the differences.

In this case, Lady Gaga has a more provocative look, showing her darker side. The nudity has the purpose to attract the male audience and to infer the scandalous personality of the artist. This way, the magazine is provided with a large audience. The name of the artist is written in large font, white coloured, so it is the main attraction.

The cover has wide headings, to catch the attention. The colour-scheme consists of Red, Black and White, all having their own purposes. Red is used to highlight the most important elements such as exclusive articles (100 MOST SHOCKING…). Is is also the brand colour and present in the title. Black is the base colour and is used for the article titles which are written in bold. White has the purpose of equilibration and perfection.

The is also a band name encircled on the cover, to drag the attention, and a quote that awakes interest.

The writing from above the title has the intention of showing the authority, saying : The UK’s biggest music magazine.

The music magazine covers all the convention, big headings, image of a very famous celebrity, price and bar code.

CONTENT PAGE EXAMPLES

This content page is keeping the cover’s colour theme of gay, black and red, which emphasizes associates with the brand. The compartments are well-structured and easy to understand and so are the article titles. The page numbers are written in a contrasting colour, red or white, to be easily observed. Under each article title there are placed some detailing to give an idea about the content.  There is one main medium close-up shot of an artist that is in the focus and is supposed to be on the cover too. The artist is looking straight into the cover making the picture very deep and emotional. The clothing fits into the colour-scheme and the hairstyle harmonizes with the issue’s style.

On the bottom of the page,there is a quote written in red that is supposed to awake the curiosity of the readers.

The articles are categorized into two parts, being the usual ones that are present every issue and the articles that exclusive and present in the headlines.

The entire layout of the magazine’s Contents page is attractive while being simple and understandable. The main focus is the image which is appealing due to the eye-contact and popularity of the artist. All the cover lines stand out due to the colours and bold font.

Article page example

First of all, we can see that all the conventions are covered by this article page, the title written in bold,right under it is the author of the article, and the name of the compartment it fits into.

In the middle of the page there is a medium shot of the person it is talked about in the article, with some detailing right under. The image’s purpose is to illustrate the content and bring some colour to the page.

This article appeals to classic music listeners, of and older age, as the main character is far from young.

 

The next article page I am going to evaluate is an interview retrieved from Q magazine. The article is about a band, having their picture as the main focus. The interview consists of the journalist’s question and the artist answering.

The colours used are red, blue tones and black. Red is associated with the brand, which is Q magazine. Blue tones are present in the picture and at the bottom of the page, where we can see how the band has evaluated through the years. Black is used for the writtings, in order to be easy to read. The article layouts differ from one to another, because every article has it’s own story and has to create the atmosphere that fits the best.