Music magazine cover analysis

Masthead• The masthead for the music magazine “RESPECT” goes along the top of

the page. The masthead has a slick gold look which makes it really stand out from the rest of the page. It is placed along a black banner, which interestingly fits in with the rest of the cover as the front cover is made up of dark colours. The gold colour of the masthead fits really well with the black banner it is placed on and contributes very well in catching the attention of possible consumers. Furthermore the font on the cover is very clear with a descent size which helps for people to view the cover from long distances. The interesting thing about this masthead is that the colour isn’t always the same in every issue. In previous issues the colour of the masthead blends in with the nature of the front cover of the magazine.

Continuation of masthead analysis• As you can see below, the two different mastheads on these previous issues of “RESPECT” are different to each other and

also to the front cover I am analysing. The front cover that features Eminem on the front cover has the colour silver on the masthead, which very neatly blends in with the rest of the greyish looking front cover. Also the cover that features Jay Z on the front cover has a white coloured masthead fitted onto a red banner. Although it doesn’t seem to fit as well as the silver and gold masthead with the rest of the cover, it still funnily enough works well with the cover.

Photo shot

• The shot of the rapper on the front cover is a mid shot. The rapper is making straight eye contact with us as the audience and it seems as if it is a way of catching people’s attention and getting them to purchase the magazine. Also the clothes the rapper is wearing works well with the background of the magazine and also blends in with all the other aspects of the magazine. For example, the black leather hooded coat goes really well with the night time environment along with the dark gate situated behind the rapper. Also the gold chain around his neck has a similar look to the colour of the masthead.

Text • The text around the front cover are all of the same font. This makes the magazine fit very well together as it doesn’t appear

too busy. Most of the text is white however there is a specific part of the magazine other than the masthead that is of a gold colour. This was probably done in order to make the magazine more appealing and not have everything seem too plain. The different parts of the text are situated in different parts of the cover in a way so that it doesn’t really leave any part of the magazine’s cover appearing blank. Also the magazine very cleverly plays with the words. For example, beneath the masthead on the right it is written, “OUR CULTURE”. This is almost done as it is a pun. For instance, it could signify that there will be a topic in the magazine about the culture of Hip Hop, however it is also placed under the masthead named “RESPECT” and so it seems as if it is saying, “RESPECT OUR CULTURE”, basically meaning respect our culture of Hip Hop. Also the magazine promote itself by mentioning the different things that features within it, like a story on Jay Z’s book “Decoded” and an article on new breaking Hip Hop artist BOB. Finally there is a pull quote from someone within the magazine stating, “What I did in one year a lot of people accomplish in ten”. This is also another way the magazine appears to be promoting itself as it makes people wonder what the article is about, and more importantly want to actually purchase the magazine so that they can find out.