Joe Torbati 18125

Music magazine analysis

Q front cover

In this Q magazine the band Oasis are featured. Oasis at that point had been mainstream and their band profile had been very rebellious and outspoken and people already know about their rock and roll attitude and lifestyle which has been associated with the band. The lead singer in the main photo is getting over that message that they still are the rebellious rock and rollers. The way he has been shot is right up in your face just like if he was going to fight you and the fact that the quote is “are you ready for a slap?” gets that message across that they are badly behaved, rebellious, and always picking fights with people. It is almost like Q have made the band look like a gang and the lead singer is the leader who’s

Masthead

Skyline

Main picture

Featured articles

Main article

Flash

Banner

leaning up into you to make you feel small and helpless and him being strong and dangerous and has his gang members behind him. The font used on the featured articles is a contemporary, bold font to show that Q magazine is a modern day rock magazine featuring bands that are around today and not 30 years ago. At the bottom of the front cover on the banner they show that they feature other things as well as music so people who aren’t interested in the articles but are interested in upcoming gigs or reviews would then be attracted.

Q contents page

This is one of the pages of the double paged contents in a Q magazine. The colours used are the same bold colours used on the front cover so it shows that the two are from the same magazine. What’s different from the front cover is the font. The font on the front cover is much more contemporary and modern but on the contents its old fashioned so they don’t really match each other. When they number what pages things are on some of the features have a small font sized number next to the article but they have numbered the pictures of things that are in the magazine with big, bold numbers in italics. This could show that

these are the main articles that may have been featured on the front of the magazine. The way the pictures are set out is quite organised compared to other rock magazines where the pictures are spread all over the page. The writing doesn’t go over the pictures as well. These features could show that Q magazine isn’t a rebellious, punk or an unorganised magazine which younger people tend to get but more of a sensible, organised magazine targeted at older music fans maybe 18-40. The fact that some of the articles have pictures with them shows that those articles are lead articles or more exclusive than the other articles. Q DPS

The double page spread used in this Q magazine for this main article. The main article has been spread along a few pages so the pull quote, the standfirst and the by line are on the previous page. This DPS is very simple. They have simply halved the page to have one half text and the other half picture. I think this is very unusual for a music magazine to do this because I would have thought they would be more experimental and have the lead picture in different places but this one is very straight forward. I think this layout was done to show a post-modern side of Q that is simple yet affective in that it gives an oriental warrior kind of look like a knife has precisely cut down the middle of the page and the two people are battling each other.

The layout of the text is very simple as they have set it out in simple columns that run along the whole DPS. They have used a huge drop cap for the first column to show that this is the start of the main article in the magazine. They have also used smaller drop caps for the start of each topic. The DPS remains much organised and keeps with the simple yet affective layout throughout the magazine.

Kerrang front cover

In this Kerrang magazine the band Lostprophets are the main feature. From the look of the front cover it is a lot busier and has a lot more pictures and features all set out in a casual way with the main image behind them all. The main image also links with the pull quote “I won’t back down” as the artist is being photographed in a certain way to go with that. This shows that the magazine is probably aimed at a younger audience because of the cool, rebellious way all the features are presented. The Kerrang masthead is very distorted and rough where it has the broken glass effect to show rebellion and the rough, jagged edges of the font. This is all used to present to people that Kerrang is a rebellious, troublesome, cool young hard rock magazine which a lot of young people are so they are presenting themselves in a way that will attract their target audience.

Masthead

Skyline

Flash

Main image

Pull quote

Lead article

Cover lines

There are a couple of flashes as well. The flashes are on the left third so when the magazine is on the shelves in shops the free items inside the magazine will attract people to the magazine. The free posters might have been used as a gimmick because obviously they want free stuff and because they are young they don’t have enough money to pay for as much leisure items as older people so free things will attract them to buy it so Kerrang will make sales by giving the market a gift and the market will feel they are getting more for their money. The font used for the cover lines and the pull quote is a bold, modern font to show that this is a modern magazine with music and new articles which would attract a young audience who are into new music and not old music.

Kerrang contents page

The way the contents is set out is quite organised with the article and page numbers all in one half of the page and the picture on the other half but it’s what’s in the picture and the text that again presents Kerrang as a hard rocking young magazine. The main photo is a picture of a singer crowd surfing on loads of young people. The people in the picture are all young and look like their having a good time so other young people who like to go to

gigs maybe interested in the article and others like it. The people in the photo could be the kind of people that would buy Kerrang magazine so these are the people that Kerrang is aimed at. There is a lot of text for each feature in the magazine because they show what the topic is and put that in bold then have a sentence or two explaining what the feature is about. There are some articles that have a picture of that page featured on the contents page. This will make that article stand out from the others so maybe those articles would interest the reader more than some of the others.

Kerrang DPS

I think this DPS on the main article is unusual because it is so unlike the front cover and the contents that I would have expected it to be set out more like them. In comparison to the front cover and contents page this DSP and much calmer and organised with an entire page of text and a big picture on the other page. I wouldn’t expect a young person would be excited to read an entire page of writing when they first look at it. The size of the text is different too as it is far smaller and in bigger quantities that the text on the other pages. The organised text and the black, white and gold colour scheme in the photo that has been transferred to the other page make it look more sleek and stylish unlike that messy, unorganised, punk layout of the other pages.

I would expect a DPS like this to be featured in a magazine aimed at an older audience like maybe 25-40 but because it’s in a magazine aimed at teenagers and young adult, I don’t think it is a very good match. Younger people would be repulsed by the site of loads of text because they would find it an unpleasant task when they initially buy it for leisure.

The Word front cover

The front cover of The Word is far more different from the other magazines as all of the features and the picture is set out in a simple, organised way that I would expect an older audience to read and there aren’t as many features like flashes or a skyline. This may have been done to try and prevent the main picture being covered up because this painting has been especially done for this issue and is a one off so they want to make it as special as possible. It is unusual that the main image be a painting and not a photo. This gives the magazine a sense of class and maturity that magazines like Kerrang would never have. I think older people would be attracted to buy a magazine with a painting because painting is a calm, quiet activity that older people may prefer than to going out partying. The image is of Brian Ferry so I suspect that because he is in an older band that this magazine is targeted at an older audience who would have listened to his music.

Masthead

Main image

Lead article

Cover lines

There isn’t that much text on the front cover. There a quite a few cover lines showing what else is in the magazine, there is some info on the lead article but that is pretty much it. There are no flashes or a skyline. The page looks nearly empty but older people may not be interested in everything in the magazine or they may like to look at the main image.

The Word contents page

The first thing to mention about The Word’s contents page is that it doesn’t fill up half a page. They have used most of the page for something else and squeezed it on the side which I find unusual. This maybe because people of an older age which I think this magazine is targeted at would read the entire magazine no matter what is inside unlike younger people who might buy a magazine for a particular article. The contents don’t have any pictures to go with some of the articles. This may have been done to keep the contents page small to make room for the other article on the same page. They haven’t made clear what the main articles are in this contents page unlike Q and Kerrang who have included pictures of what the lead articles are. This may have been done to save room for the other article on the same page or because people who read

The Word like to get information from the text and prefer that there is more text than pictures.

The Word DPS

I think this is a great simple layout for the DPS because the picture works nicely spread across ¾ of the DPS and they have incorporated the standfirst into the lead image really well so the lead image and standfirst fit together. The body copy has been set out in one long column instead of many smaller columns. This makes the whole page look organised which I think would be preferred by their older target audience. I think a younger audience would be repulsed by the text in one big space and prefer the text set out in many columns to make it look like there is less text. The lead image is very calm and quiet with an old man in a suite standing by a table. An image like this wouldn’t be put in a magazine like Kerrang because people who read The Word are interested in a different genre of music, fashion and lifestyle than the younger readers of Kerrang. In the other magazines there wasn’t much text on the first introductory DPS that introduces the lead article but this has so people may want to read more about the article and younger people don’t want to read loads and prefer pictures to make it less boring. The language used in a magazine like The Word would, because of its older target group, would be more intellectual and use

smarter words than say a magazine like Kerreng where the language is very basic.