Analysis of 3 music magazines

Raymond.J.Sloan

The distinctive font of “Classic Rock” is used to give the magazine character and an identity. If its unique then the audience will instantly recognize the magazine. If it was similar to another magazines font then it does not have a strong identity as the magazine may get confused with other magazines. The “Classic Rock” magazine uses the font style mainly in its title with elements of it throughout the cover in the Sell Lines. This is to give an overall and consistent style of the magazine which is known as House Style.

The Sell Lines of “Classic Rock” are used to make the magazine more appealing, detailing the features that are contained inside which could attract the audience’s attention. An example of this is “EXCLUSIVE! GUNS N’ ROSES” which would highly appeal to Guns N’ Roses fans which want to find out as much about the band as possible so an “EXCLUSIVE” with them means that new and unrevealed info is being released which would persuade fans to buy the magazine. The magazine uses Sell Lines across the entire cover to maximise the samples of info about different artists to appeal to as many people as possible.

The magazine uses gutters to split text up. This means that its easier to read and the audience does not start reading text they have already read because they are getting confused. Gutters are used by placing one column of text about a centre metre away from another column so the text does cross with each over.

The magazine uses drop capitals to add focus to an article. This means that the reader instantly knows where the article begins. The drop capital also adds some style to the text which livens up the overall page. A drop capital is used by having an enlarged capital letter for the first word of a story/article.

The “Classic Rock” magazine uses white space to make the text stand out and easier to read. They do this by changing the font of the text to a dark or vibrant colour like black and red which sticks out among the white background and may not against an image or other coloured backgrounds.

This magazine uses a unique house style as no images except one large one is used along with the description of each story for the numbered pages under “Contents”. Most other rock music magazines use multiple images along with their contents. They use the unique house style to be different from the rest and give the magazine a more “professional” look. They use this house style by using only one image with their contents instead of many.

The magazine uses an anchorage to better describe the image of the band to the user which involves the creation of “Exile on main St”. The magazine places the anchorage above the characters of the image so that it directly links to them and does not get in the way of it.

Drop capital is used to emphasise band and its importance to this issue.

Sell lines are incorperated

Quotes are extracted from the content

This magazine addresses the audience by using a more formal design laying out more text than images that are not littered across the page but rather placed in specific positions. The colour of text is also not varied, giving it a less “messy” look.

Drop capital is used to start off article and attract the reader to the beginning of the story.

Consistent house style matches cover as the both contain a mixture of gold and black colours.

By-lines and picture credits show the reader the people who wrote the article and took the pictures. This is to give credit to those people and possibly build up their reputation.

The anchorage is used to explain the images of the band members on the left and right. It gives the images meaning.

Body text

Masterhead

Borders used to emphasise the text in the middle of the page.

Anchorage to give credit to photographers/authors.

Banners used to signify key features or importance.

White space used to emphasise the “contents”.

Masterhead use to give magazine character and so people can identify “KERRANG!” easier.

Strap line used to identify key features of this specific issue.

Multiple sell lines employed to appeal to audience.This magazine

adresses the audience by using an informal style with images scattered around the page and multiple text colours to speak to the audience and identify key features

Drop capital used to show start of article.

Same font style as magazine title. Looks as if its painted on to continue to give magazine an informal and messy look. Some text even over lapses the image

Gutters are used to make text easier to read.

By-lines used to give credit to writer/photographer.

Anchorage used to give audience a peek/preview into the article.

Strap-line is used to state the band featured.

Cross head used to split up paragraphs of text in article.

Consistent yellow and black house style throughout magazine

Cross head’s used to split up contents.

The lead is used to introduce magazine to readers.

Anchorage used to explain images linking to pages.