Music Magazine Research - Front Page, Contents and Double Page Spread

Front Page
I have been looking at a range of music magazine front covers. I have been looking at the layout, use of language and the images on the front covers of different music magazines which are similar to my music genre choice for my own music magazine.

On each front cover, a different colour scheme is used. This is better than having an array of colours which coud be lost in the photo. On the NME front cover there are only 3 colours used, excluding the title of the mafazine which is in red. There is also more than one image featured. The cover photo is backed up by a bold headline that stands out telling the reader who the image is of.

The subheadings of the magazine frame the main front cover image and sometimes overlap. The main heading of the magazines above are going over the main image.

The main conventions of the magazine shown on the front cover are the masthead, the photo of the band or artist that is the main focus of the magazine issue, text that is relevant to that image, text surrounding the image that is advertising other featured stories, bar code, price and issue date.

The text relevant to the main image and the text surrounding the image advertising the other stories are headings and subheadings.

Contents

The main conventions used in the contents page of a magazine are relevant images for the stories featured in the magazine, a list of stories with page numbers showing the reader where particular articles are featured and the issue date and number.

The contents page pictured above is from Rolling Stones magazine. The page is dominated by a picture of one of the main articles featured on this issue. Kanye Wests' arm is the photo is overlapping the heading at the top. This merges and connects each part of the magazine.

On the right hand side of the page is a list of the contents of the issue with relevant page numbers and small descriptions of the article or feature.

Above is the contents page of NME magazine. The same conventions apply but the magzine also features a plug at the bottom advertising a subscription to the magazine.

Double Page Spread

The dominant feature of the double page spreads below is the image of the band, artist or actor. The black and white images add to the dramatic effect or genre of the article.

The tone of the article can be seen through the image and style of tone used.

In this particular article the photo is in black and white to represent age. The tone of colours used in this article can represent the mood. For example, the article above is about Willie Nelson's life.

These articles, from the NME, are showing articles on bands/artists of the indie genre. The photo above represents the genre of the music as well as the rebellious image portrayed by the artist.

The tone of these images is fun and artsy maybe representing the artists as original or individual.

On each articvle there seems to be a summary paragraph which decribes the article in a few words.