Research and Planning: Music Magazine Cover's Analysis

Research and Planning: Music magazine cover's analysis

I have chosen to analyse two magazines of the same genre I would like to use for my magazine.

The first magazine is Q magazine, which features Kasabian on the cover. The magazine has followed the three colour rule as it has red, white and black, this colour scheme is used on every magazine they publish so that the magazine is recognisable for the readers. The masthead has a red background and white text, these two colours are bold which highlights the brand name and also allows quick recognition. The main image on the cover is of the band Kasabian this suggests to the readers what genre the magazine is going to be, also the cover includes such bands as Arctic Monkeys and Blur, which implies to the reader that the magazine is of a rock/indie genre. The image is a long shot of two members of the band and shows the guitarist of the band holding a guitar which is on fire, which ties in with the cover line "The 101 Hottest things in music now", also the magazine was published in 2009 which is when Kasabian's single 'fire' was released, a line in the song is 'I'm on fire' which the magazine has decided to interpt into the cover as the main cover line says "Kasabain they're on fire". The sell line tells the readers that it the UKs biggest music magazine which suggests its the best magazine out there for this magazine genre so the readers will buy it.

The second magazine is NME, which features Lana Del Ray on the cover. The magazine also follows the three colour rule as it has red, white and blue, this colour scheme has been used to comply with the american flag because Lana Del Ray is an american artist who uses the american flag in all of her videos which suggests she is proud to be american, also it ties in with her single 'National Amthen', this could be why they have chosen to use an american flag in the background. The masthead is in a white bold font so it stands out from the background and allows it to be easily recognised. The main image is a midshot at eye level, her facial expression implies she is fun-loving and she describes herself as a 'psycho' on the cover lines. Other coverlines include artists or bands from an alternative/rock genre such as Nirvana, Noel Gallagher, Pete Doherty ect, which suggests the magazine is of an alternative/rock genre. Also the cover lines are slightly slanted in contrast to the Q magazine as Q's cover lines are straight but both magazines have their main cover line bold and in the centre of the page to attract the readers attention and imply who and what is featured in the magazine.