A male music magazine, clearly shows the women to be more sexualised

Analysing a music magazine.The front page.. I have chosen to analyse the music magazine Billboard. As I am not fully certain of what genre of magazine I want to follow and Billboard covers a wide range of popular music artists with different genres of music. The magazine is very colourful and stands out well, without having an overcrowded front page or an immature colour layout, such as the childrens pop magazine We Heart Pop. The layout is very conventional with the masthead at the top of the front page and the image looking directly at the audience/buyer. The magazine has repetitive use of 3 colours throughout the front page creating a colourful layout, these are the house colours and are also a convention of magazines as they link all the pages together creating a continuous flow, throughout the magazine. The house colours are also used in the photo of Carly, with her bra strap being the same colour as some of the writing. This magazine appears to be targeting young adult, this can be seen by the use of primary colours and the simple white background also the artist on the front page also looks quite young, especially with her outfit of sequins this reminds me personally of a kids first disco outfit, with the use of sequins. Another reason to analyse this magazine is as it is not something I would buy usually and I want to see a range of magazines before creating my own. This will help me see things that work well in a magazine and things that don’t work well and things that will attract people’s attention and what will not.

This magazine is called ‘Billboard’ this personally reminds me of the brand Billabong which is a surf company it uses similar colouring and reminds me of the beach and a more relaxed atmosphere. Billboard is usually an information board this shows this magazine will be full of interviews and information

the target audience want. This title doesn’t sound overly immature, compared to other magazines such as ‘We Love Pop.’ Showing that Billboard is aimed older audience and has a more mature style. Having ‘Carly!’ under the masthead shows that this artist is a big part of this issue. Enticing people who are a fan of this artist to buy this magazine. Creating a built in audience for this particular issue of the magazine. Billboard, is also very quick and easy to remember and likely to stick in the buyers head meaning it to be more likely to increase repeat purchases, the style can also not be mistaken for any other magazines this is good that is disenfranchising the magazine from similar magazines. Also the fact its called Billboard that by definition means notice board, shows the magazine will have new information in it and Billboard will give the magazines additional insight into their favoured artists. The masthead is also in this issue overlapped by the main image, showing the name isn’t vital

to be seen as the colours and fonts clearly distinguish which magazine this is, this shows the

magazine is well known a smaller magazine would never take this risk.

Billboard is published by Prometheus Global Media, That was originally Global Media, is an American entertainment publishing company based in New York City. It is a major publishing company and has won many CLIO awards. The CLIO Awards is the world’s most recognized international advertising competition Prometheus Global Media also publish the magazines; ‘The Hollywood reporter’ and ‘Adweek.’ Aswell as running online websites for Billboard. The circulation figures weekly are 16,327 that is relatively low for a music magazine. This could be due to the fact people are viewing it online. It also comes out every week meaning that its customers have a constant update of what is happening in the music industry. The magazines costs is $6.99 the fact the price is in dollars shows it is only published in America. This would be £4.42 that is at the high end of the price range for magazines in the UK, with magazines such a vogue in the UK going for £3.80 which is one of highest classed magazines in the UK. This hopefully shows that’s Billboard is a better quality magazine due to its higher price than cheap 99p magazines.

This magazine seems to be aiming to attract teenagers and young adults. This can be seen due to the choice of colours they are very primary. Most likely to be aimed at girls aswell, seeing as it has a teenage pop singer on the front and contains a lot of red, which is seen to be a girly colour, also the red draws attention to the page. The articles don’t appear to aim at a gender, this could show it to be a mixed gender magazine. But if Carly was in a bikini for example, I would presume its aimed at the male gender as this would be more appealing to males. Billboard also has an online magazine, this allows the consumers to interact and gain more information, this shows that most of the target audience are online and spend allot of time on the internet. This shows that the target audience is quite modern and young. None of the captions make complete sense, this pulls in the audience to read more to understand such as on the front page it says ‘ATTACK of the dong clones. HOW SOUND A-LIKES HAPPEN.’ Billboard also appear to do a range of competitions to win gig tickets and prizes allowing the consumers to interact with the magazine.

The image on the front page is a mid-shot, allowing the audience to see Carlys clothes and posture . She isnt smiling this tends to be common in the genre of Rock, Punk and Hardcore music, creating a more fearsome, ‘tough’ look. Even though

Carly isnt from this genre of music, it is maybe to represent this magazine as not a 100% pop magazine and not to have young smiling stars on the front of the magazine, making it look more mature. Also her cold facial expression shows power and coldness, this could suggest that there is

an interesting story inside. Her clothing appears to be fashionable, relating back to

the pop genre. Also CARLY written across the front page is bigger than the masthead suggesting that Carly is very important and this magazine will contain lots of information about her. This magazines has allot of writing compared to other magazine front covers, this indicates that it is more written based. But other than that this magazines has a typical layout, with the use of house colours which is a typical convention of magazines.

The magazines appears to be messily laid out, with items over lapping. Although this works well for the magazine and gives it a modern and fresh look. The publishers have the ability to make the magazine look stylish but messy without overcrowding it, this is a very professional look. It doesn’t address the audience the audience directly, more stating things that will be in the magazine but not giving enough detail for the audience to fully understand what is in the magazine, making the magazine more attractive.

The magazine attracts the audience by putting key words in bold such as ‘FORTUNE’ and ‘ATTACK’ this entices the audience to find out more information about these words and why they are there. Having CARLY on the front page makes it obvious

who the picture of.

This magazine follows many typical conventions, appealing to young audience. The messy layout shows suitable for teenagers and the use of red and blue show it is mixed gender and aimed at teenagers, with the use of 3 house colours being a typical convention of magazines. The language is very statmental and grabs attention as well as the strong photo that takes up most of the cover, indication Carly is a big part of this issue.Analysing this front page has helped me understand the layout of a front cover and understand the importance of following conventions with music magazines.

The Content page.. This magazine is pop based, following typical conventions and aimed at teenagers and young adults who are interested in music.

The content page is divided into layers, although this isn’t very clear which gives it a nice flow, the use of blue lines help separate sections, this is also one the house colours and helps create a flow throughout the magazine. With the page split to show a charts at the side and after the masthead has a layer of picture, this structured layout allow the content page to be read more easily. This is pretty unconventional to have such a clear cut structure, it guides the reader around the page by alluring them to what they are interested in, with artists pictures and page numbers . This allows people who are interested in

certain artist immediate access to which artists are in the magazines and what page they are on. Also the division of page numbers and other information allows readers to know what section to read to find page numbers. The use of blue to summarise the key information on the page, allowing necessary information to be laid out clearly. The colour scheme is very basic and follows through the same blue from the front page, this links the pages together. The style is allot more bold and structured with a non messy layout.

The images used appear to be very bold they connote the pop music genre by having a range of artists, although both women are wearing sleeveless tops and both men are wearing black jackets showing that the artists are keeping in trend with the fashion. The largest image has no background and is overlapped by writing, incorporating it into the page. Other photos have not been cropped except one of the males head comes out of the photo and overlays the banner, this makes the magazine look less basic and creates a link between the photo and the title. They are all standing at an angle this is typical of

fashion magazines and shows authority. Also in the background of two of the photo you can see cars, this indicates that not all the photos were taken in a studio, the photos also being sunny showing wealth and more natural photos. The numbers at the corner of the picture indicate what page the photos are linked to that allow the reader to know what page they want to go to quickly. The pictures are also grouped at the top of the page, this adds a banner of colour to the page which makes the page more appealing, it also adds colour.

The language used is relatively grown up, with the use of the chart shows the audience is able to understand the structure, and they don’t need to make it bright and colourful to keep the readers interested, like they would need to with younger audiences magazines. The graph to the left is very formal, there is no direct text anywhere on the page, mostly bold statements similar to what is on the front page. The layout reflects the genre to be relatively serious with no large use of bright childish colours and big smiling photos of music artists. This indicates that it is aimed at an older audience.

They follow the typical convention of writing overlapping picture, but the chart to the side is breaking the conventions of music magazines, this type of chart is usually found deeper in the magazine and not on the front cover. The sub title is still at the top which is a typical convention and means the reader knows straight away what the page is about.

This magazines seems to follow typical conventions as is clearly trying to aim at more mature teenagers and young adults. With the use of grey and blue giving the magazine a chic look. This magazine has helped me to see a clear structure with the use of layers works well for a magazine

and the use of more than one image. Keeping the colours simple and having all the photos similar works better than having a diverse range, as all these photos link together well.

The 2 page spread.. This magazine is for young adults with an interest for pop music, wanting to know information about upcoming events, new artists and artists.

The layout of the article is simple, with the photo taking up the whole left page drawing attention to it rather than the text. The image of the young male celebrity looks like he is maintaining eye contact with the reader in a very natural pose, drawing the reader in, and also reflecting the mood of the magazine and of the artists own personality. The attractive celebrity male image is designed to appeal to young female readers, him having his arms open shows bravery and power. The writing in columns is neat with a wide introductory paragraph and two wide columns underneath. This shows the article will make for easy reading and the large photo means readers immediately know who the page is about. The clear white background makes the page look very fresh.

The colour palet on the page is pale and soft with spots of intense blue that are found throughout the rest of the magazine pages, these house colours help brighten the page, with the background being white, the white makes it look fresh and clean, it also represents the genre well, if it was a black background that is a typical convention of rock magazines. The repetition of colours on every page helps create an idea of brand and magazine recognition. The white background with black text is typical magazine convention, makes for easy reading but is quite unusual for a young magazine so give the article a feeling of being more formal. The large blue and red circles around the very bold black heading help to draw the readers eye to the title and look like they have been circled by someone for a reason – saying ‘ read this!’ The uses of colour in the top right hand corner subtitle and the green highlighted text circle emphasize these parts of the article and entice the reader to read the full article. The house colours can also be see on the artists tshirt, interlinking the photo.

The readers interest is maintained by the pictures and layout, without even reading it you only have to look at the image to know what the text is about. The reader is invited to read by the

direct look of the celebrity and the pull-quotes highlighted in colour. The main heading is in block capitals and in black font so it stands out from its background to attract the audience.

I think this double page spread works well as it is well structured, very calm and clear but exciting to read. One thing I have noticed is that the simple use of colours means ‘ less is more’. By having few colours it works well and keeps a simplistic feel and doesn’t make the page over complicated.