Q Front cover analysis This magazine is a popular music magazine called ‘Q’. From the front cover you can tell that there will be articles about all different celebrities, all of which are linked with music. There are puffs that tell us there will articles about Gigs, interviews and different genres of music as well.

The target audience for this magazine would obviously be people interested in music; I don’t think that it would have to be people interested in any specific genre as lots of music magazines include a range of genres. Although I do think that the age of this magazines target audience would range from young adults about 16 years old to people in their 20’s.

This magazine is using a direct mode of address with the central image; this tells me that the magazine wants to have a close relationship with the reader, the artist on the front is looking straight at the audience, this makes it feel more personal than if the artist was looking away from the camera.

Florence Welch is a very popular artist from ‘’Florence and the machine’’ she is used on the front cover because she is very well known and has lots of fans around the ages of the target audience for this magazine. With her on the front cover they will want to buy and read it because they are fans of her and her genre of music.

The anchorage text for this magazine says ‘’I feel so alone, Florence, women on the edge’’ this implies that the artist is having a crisis and is upset about something. By using this anchorage text fans are going too intrigued and will want to find out why Florence feels like this? Fans also might feel an even more personal connection with Florence because she is willing to share this information with them.

There are no groups being represented in the imagery on the magazine but the puffs do mention the ‘’heroin hookers and hair mental Motley Crue’’ this is a group that would appeal to a specific group of fans that are in to the ‘’rock and roll’’ music artists and their lifestyle.

When you read the anchorage text and see the image you get the feeling that Florence is showing that she can be vulnerable too just like the readership, she isn't talking about how happy she is, she is sharing a personal problem with her fans, she is showing us that she can also be weak and we are all exactly the same. The image is an extreme close up, meaning that we can see her face very clearly, she looks very pure and quite vulnerable, we can tell that her life isn't about the fame and glamour, she also has times were she is weak and vulnerable like everyone else.

The title block for this magazine is very simple as it’s just the letter ‘Q’ I think this helps it to stand out and people will remember the title as it is so simple. The background of the title block is red, which again really makes it stand out; red is a very eye catching colour that you cannot miss, the Q is white which again makes it very eye catching. Red and white is also very similar to red top tabloids like ‘’The sun’’ which also use these colours to catch the audiences eye. The letter Q is all about questions, which the magazine has lots off, there are always lots of interviews and articles on asking the celebrities questions.

The puffs on this magazine mention different celebrities for example Simon Cowell is mentioned. He is extremely famous in the music industry and has lots of fans; we know that he will be featured in this copy of Q which will attract his fans. By mentioning people like Simon Cowell and different bands like ‘’The Motely Crue’’ we can tell more about the target audience, there is no way that a young audience of 13 year olds are going to be interested in reading about them, the target audience will be more mature and interested in more than just the artists in the charts.

The slogan for Q magazine is ‘’discover great music’’ it tells us that the magazine will be talking about different artists and their genres. It also implies that the magazine might also feature newer artists that people might not have discovered yet, this will attract fans that are interested in newer artists that haven’t been in the spotlight yet.

The colours for Q magazine are all bright, there is mostly white used for the font on the front cover, the puffs and anchorage text are in white which helps them stand out from the image. Red is also used in the Title block which again is very eye catching, the only other colour used on this front cover is blue, which stands out but also matches Florence’ eye makeup in the central image. All of the colours complement each other making it very eye catching but not too fussy.

The magazine uses a very popular music artist on the front cover to attract the audience, people will want to read the magazine when they see who the main celebrity in this copy. They also mention different popular celebrities in the puffs which will attract more fans. They also mention gigs in the puffs which people would be interested in going too and finding out more information about.

Rolling stones front cover analysisThe magazine front cover I am analysing is ‘’rolling stone’’ and it is a music magazine. From the front cover I can tell that the articles inside will mostly be music related, this is because of the person on the front who is a music artist and also most of the puffs are associated with music.

The target audience for this magazine would be people that are in to music. There would be no specific gender for the audience of this magazine as there is a wide range of music genres included for all genders. There is a range of people like Lady Gaga to Elton john and Drake. The wide range of genres also means that the audience would not have to be into a specific type of music, for example people that are into rock music and people that are into R&B would both be able to buy the Rolling stone magazine as there is something for everyone. The target audience for this magazine is also quite wide, because they include artists for the younger audience like Drake but also Elton John for the older audience. I think it would range from young teens around 16 to the older audience at around 40 who would be interested in artists like Elton John.

The artist on the front cover is using a direct mode of address; he is looking directly at the camera. This gives the audience a more personal feeling with the artist. It is almost like he is making eye contact with them which is much more personal than him looking away from the camera. If someone in the audience is a big fan of the artist and they are making eye contact with them it makes them much more enthusiastic about buying the magazine and reading about this artist. It makes the artist seem like he is ready to open up to the audience and share everything, If he was looking away from the camera it would look more like he was hiding something and the relationship between the artist and audience would me much less personal.

Macklemore is the artist on the front of this magazine. Macklemore is a very popular music artist who has just recently became big; he has lots of fans as he has been in the charts and has released a few new songs in the last few months. Rolling Stone has chosen Macklemore to be on their front cover because they are aware of how popular he has become in the last year, they know that a large majority of their audience will be big fans of the new artist meaning they will all want to buy it when they see him on the front cover.

The anchorage text for this magazine says ‘’Thrift shop superstar Macklemore’’ this implies how big Macklemore is, they describe him a superstar this tells me that he is ready to tell us how fame is treating him and tell the audience about how he became such a big superstar In such a short amount of time. There is no negativity in the anchorage text which reflects on to Macklemore, it makes him seem even more positive and happy, which makes the audience want to read about him.

The overall message that the artist is giving through the anchorage text and the main image is that he is happy. In the image he has a small cheeky grin on his face which shows us that he is happy, the anchorage text, as I said before is very positive which reflects on the artists image. It gives the audience a positive feeling we know that he is happy with his career and his ‘’superstar’’ lifestyle.

The design of the title block for this magazine is quite simple, it says ‘’Rolling Stone’’ the title on this issue is actually behind Macklemores head, this means that we can only see part of the title. This shows that the magazine is quite popular and people will be able to recognise it and see what magazine it is even if part of the title is hidden. Rolling stone is usually associated with the old but popular and iconic band ‘’the rolling stones’’ which means the title of the magazine is related with iconic music.

The puffs on this magazine are mostly to do with music; there is a fall music preview with a list of various artists underneath which intrigues different audiences that are interested in different genres of music. There are also puffs that mention ‘’the college loan scandal’’ which is going to attract college students, because they are currently at college they are going to want to read about this scandal. There are other puffs that mention different bands and information about the bands that will be mentioned in articles inside the magazine. The type of audience depends on what the puffs, some puffs mention college; others mention different artists and some are about artists who are going to have articles inside. As I mentioned before this article has a wide target audience because they have so many different genres of music featured.

The colours used on this magazine are quite simple, they use a white background, which helps the writing and image to stand out, we don’t focus on the background we focus on the image and text because it is so bright. They use the red and white combination in their title which is very similar to the red top tabloids like ‘’The Sun’’ this also catches the audience’s attention. They use black for their text colour which again helps it to stand out on the white background. Some of the text is yellow which is used to highlight certain things that might be important, for example ‘’Thrift shop superstar’’ and ‘’ Ripping of young America’’ are both highlighted in yellow because they are significant and they was the audience to take more notice of them. The font used is all big and bold, it is very easy to see and easy to read making it better for the audience that might not be able to read smaller fonts. The big bold font again makes everything stand out.

The audience uses a popular music artist to attract their audience, when the audience see who the main star is for this issue they will want to read and know more about them. They also mention more stars in the puffs which will attract the audience to find out more about the stars they have mentions.