Analysis of Existing Rock Magazine Contents Pages

Kerrang!Images: Multiple images are used on the contents page to grab your attention and make the contents page more appealing and interesting. The main image is quite striking as it covers half of the page. The main image is action shot of a singer crowd surfing at a gig, which gives the audience a sense of the energetic passionate atmosphere. It also makes the audience feel involved with the music and how their favourite artist make the music they listen to and enhances the audiences own passion/feeling for the songs. Smaller images are also used to show what is featured in the magazine, which are ranked by size (articles that are thought to be more interesting get bigger images ect). Furthermore images of two pages featured in the magazine are used to make it easier for the reader to locate articles with ease. Lastly a picture of the editor is used above the editors section to make the section more personal which is .

Text: The text is split up into 6 different categories to make finding specific articles' easier for the reader. The main information usually the band name is in capitals to make them standout as well as being in a darker colour which stands out against the light background. All of which are making it easier for the reader to find articles' and to see instantly which bands are featured. Similar to the images the size of the text is ranked by importance. There are two headings to the page, the main one being ‘kerrang! this week’ which unlike the other more conventional heading of contents reminds the audience of which magazine they are reading as well as being more informal and connecting better with the intended audience. Furthermore the entirety of the text is written in the same informal style so that it appeals to the intended younger audience. Differnert fonts are also used to capture the audiences attention to certain bits of text ie ‘brit pack poster special’. As well as blocks of colour behind some parts to make them stand out more or to show it as a separate section ie the subscription offer.

Layout: The page is divided into two halves. One half being completely dominated by a image taken at a gig, and the other side being a mix of images and text showing what is in the magazine as well as a section from the editor. Inbetween is a banner with the heading on. It could be suggested that this shows that kerrang is a bridge between the music and life of the artists it features and its readers.

QLayout: The layout is in a grid style which is very simple but effective. All the articles are listed down the left in a column and divided into two sections. This makes the page easy you use and the articles easy to find. This section takes up only 1/3 of the page with the majority of the page taken up with one main image and a smaller section showing what reviews are featured.

Images: The main image takes up a vast portion of the page and is defiantly the most striking thing. The denotation of the image is the band in similar posses all looking directly at the camera. This has connotations of unity and the natural background suggests that this is who they are them naturally and they are showing them selves to you (their looking at the camera). There is also a annotation showing the page number and heading as well as a small summary which makes it easy for reader to identify which article the picture refers too.

Colour scheme: red is the main colour used on the contents page, the red is the same used on the masthead/logo. This creates a strong house style and brand image so that the reader will instantly recognise the contents page as a Q contents page. The only other colour used is a gold which has connotations of power and importants so grabs the readers attention. It also compliments the red without clashing with any of the colours on the images. The whole colour scheme is simple and is used to highlight important pieces of text and enforcing a strong house style but used effectively so that it doesn’t clash with any of the images or overpower the page. However this unusual for a rock magazine to have a simplistic look.

NMEText: The language is very informal ‘Diddy’s down the front having a bit of a mosh’ and ‘we visit the legends In their native Seattle to chat about grunge, Kurt and long careers’ being examples. This helps the reader connect with the magazine as it is written in a way that is familiar to them and similar to the way they speak. It also uses words that are specific to the rock genera ‘mosh’ ‘grunge’ which immediately tells the reader what type of music the magazine is featuring as well as making the text relate more to its audience.

Layout: a grid layout is used which gives the page structure and makes it easy to use for the consumer. A band index is a unique feature of a NME contents page and features down the left hand side of all NME contents pages. The band index is a list of all bands featured in that issue of the magazine making it easy for the reader to see all the artists that are featured as well as which pages those specific artists are on. This is useful on a music magazine as the audience will only be interested in bands they listen to this gives them a way to easily find the sections of the magazine that are about the bands they want to know about. In the centre of the page is information about the main article. With a column showing what els is in the magazine running down the right-hand side, and is divided into 5 section.

Images: there is really only one image on the page which goes against the genera conventions for a rock magazine. The image is located in the centre of the page so that it immediately grabs your attention making you automatically aware of the main article. The image itself is of the artic monkeys playing live makes the audience feel involved with the music and how their favourite artist make the music they listen to. Meaning they feel more involved and therefore are more likely to read the article.