Music magazine analysis

The masthead is at the top, left hand corner. It is red with a white letter in it, which makes it really simple and easy to remember. The red colour draws the reader in and makes it stand out.

The main picture in this magazine is of Coldplay, which you can understand by the main coverline. It is taken in the studio and this is the image that creates curiosity. If you like Coldplay, or this music genre, the magazine will attract you and make you want to pick it up and look at it.

The band members have a serious face, which could represent that they are professional and serious about their music. It suggests that the guy in front is the lead singer and is the most important member of the band. The two men behind are standing in line with each other, which can mean they both play the same instrument. The fourth man is almost hiding behind the other band members. This suggests that he is less important and I would guess he is the drummer, since drummers always get put in the back. The way Coldplay is standing in the photograph can also be similar to the way they stand on stage.

The puff lures people into the magazine. It is red, which corresponds with the red logo.

The coverlines are used to attract the readers and sell the magazine. “U2” is in red, which makes it stand out on the white background.

The magazine uses adjectives and numbers to pull the audience. E.g. It is “the 10 craziest rock couples” not just one. They also use more than 1 adjective at once. E.g. “fear, tantrums and nudity”, “young, hot and glum” and “craziest rock”. The selling line is showing us

what you will find in the magazine and that it is all the months favourites. It also makes the audience think that you get more for the money.

The main colours in the magazine are red, yellow, black and white. Red and especially yellow attracts the audience. We read the text in yellow and if we find it interesting, we will end up burying it.

The design is very simple and easy to read, yet effective. On the top you find the “Q” logo and it says that it is a contents page. It also has features that change from month to month.The layout is very tidy considering the amount of text involved. The magazine is also divided in three colons, which makes it easier to navigate and find what you are looking for.

The main image is of Adele and the box on the left side shows that it is exclusive, because not every magazine gets to see two months in the life of Britain`s biggest new talent. Underneath you have also a picture of Artic Monkeys, in case you don`t like Adele.

The colour palette used is mainly black, white and grey. However, the red colours are used to highlight the important parts in the magazine and attract the reader`s attention, for example the logo, the list titles and page numbers. The contents page also use the same colours as is its front cover.

The women in music section appeal to the female readers by giving them strong role models. The guys are also interested in this section because they are attracted to women.

The review section claims that it is best on something and that you will not get it in the other magazines. It shows guides to different types of music (CD, books, gigs) and that there is something for your taste.

The image uses 50% of the pages and is the first thing we notice when we look at this double page, which shows her significance and importance. It is edited by making the picture black & white and that makes the page consist of only three colours.

Lady gaga fits in the theory of Male Gaze. She is naked and is only covering her breasts with hands while she has a necklace of chains on. This makes her appealing to the male audience, since she is sexualised, but also to the woman audience because women want to look like her. Lady Gaga`s music is pop genre, but by the photographs she can also sway into a more of a rock star role.

The “L” stands for Lady Gaga. It is in red, which draws the readers in and it is the second thing we notice when we look at the double page. The colour anchors the logo of Q magazine.

The colours on the double page are the same as in the front cover and in the content page: black, red and white. These colours are used to relate to the magazine brand.

The magazine looks classy and minimalistic due to the fact it only has one picture and text. It uses a simple serif font through the whole article, which makes it easy to read and sophisticated. Her name on the right, top corner consists of two fonts. “Gaga” is in the same serif font as the rest of the article, while “Lady” is in a calligraphic font, which makes it more feminine and elegant.

The text is divided in three columns which makes the text more appealing. It also contains drop caps which attract the audience and structures the text by showing the start of new paragraphs.

The text doesn't have a clear beginning, since the sentece starts in the middle of the text, which means the page before is about Lady Gaga as well.

The masthead is at the top, left hand corner. It is red with white letters in it, making it simple and easy to remember. “Spin” has basically the same masthead as the “Q” magazine, which means they copied it since “Q” come out first. The red colour in the masthead attracts the audience and is in contrast with the other colours, making it stand out.

The main picture in this magazine is of Mumford & Sons, which you can understand by the main coverline. If you like them, you will get attracted by the magazine and hopefuly buy it.

The band members are smiling and look happy, which can represent that their music can make you in a better mood and that it is in a fast rhythm. They also look chill by the clothes they are wearing, whcih suggests that they are not that serious and make music because they enjoy it.

The picture is taken outside and not in a studio, which is unusual compared to the other music magazines. It seems like it is a festival area, and that suggest that this magazine suits people who like going to festivals and gigs.

The plus sign tells us that this magazine contains lots of artists and bands, which atracts the readers. If you don't like Mumford and Sons, the magazine can still suit you.

The magazine has something in red in all the corners: the masthead, «red», «features» and the '+' symbol. This is to highlight them and make them appeal interesting and important.

This tells you that this magazine issue is exclusive because it cointains music you have to listen to. By writing this the reader gets interessted and thinks that he/she has to get it because it is not like the rest of the magazines.

The cover information tells us who photographed the picture, who styled the artist, who fixed her hair etc. This works as an ''advertising'' for the workers, so the readers who find the things they do interesting can look them up later.

The magazine has placed it in a box since it guides the readers eyes.

Spin have clear meanings in their feature names and descriptions. The list also shows only the five most imporant and interesting features and not all of them. This is because the rest is not that imporant.

The feature titles are just names to some artists and the descriptions are detailed with a bit of background, facts or quotes. Even if you didn't know the artist, you gain some kind of information about them just from reading the description. I think this is to appeal to their target readers, who may have more of a deep interest in all kinds of music and will find it interesting to find new artists to listen to.

The masthead is used on the contents page as a reminder to the readers and it also links in with the cover as it is positioned in the same place.

The pink ukelele clashes with the red masthead. This is to make the page more interesting.

The quote gives you a small tester of an article you will find later in the magazine.

The contents page contains five colours to keep the page simple, yet dramatic. It uses red, pink, black, blue and white colours to make a statement.

The magazine uses just blue and black colours for the text. They also repeated the blue colour from the page numbers for the cover information box. This is to attract the reader and make the box stand out.

The main image is of Duffy which is the main featured artist. The way she is holding the ukelele suggests that she is about to smash it. This reflects the type of audience that Spin magazine is targeted at. It is a rock/alternative magazine, therefore Duffy is shown in an action that people think rock stars should be doing. The amount of lighting is bigger on Duffy than on all the other places. This creates bigger shadows and it helps to bring the image more forward and make it stand out.

The image is of Florence Welch, lead vocalist in the indie rock band Florence and the Machine. It uses 2/3 of the page and this represents her significance and importance. It is edited by making the picture black & white wich makes it more vintage looking and interesting. This also makes the page consist of only two colours: black and white, because there are no text in colours. The page looks quite dull and colourless, but it significates the overall feel of the magazine.

The way she is posing is as if she is flipping her hair back, which adds a dramatic effect to the image. It also suggests that she is confident.

The main topic is about her being the artist of the year, which can be another reason for the image being so big.

The text is divided in two columns, which makes it easy to read. It seems like there will be more text on the next page, since the sentence isn't compleded. It cotaints drop caps to attract the audience and structure the text.

The cover clearly follows the rule of thirds. The NME logo takes up the top third and the images of Brandon are clearly seperated into thirds.

The barcode, issue number and date are clearly at the bottom of the page.

The masthead is at the top, left hand corner like in the two other magazines. The colours that are used are once again red and white, but compared to Q and Spin, this masthead is not a red box with white title, but a red title with white outlines. Since the masthead is a sans-serif and also in bold, the title appears more important and it sticks out with the white outlines.

The puff, which is written in yellow and white against a black surface to higlight it and attract the audience, repeats the two festivals that are mentioned in the main coverline. This makes the festivals more imporant and with the text written in white it suggests that 'Reading' and 'Leeds' festivals are the best ones. The adjectives are used to pull the audience.

In the coverlines NME mentions other bands you will find in the magazine to attract the readers. If you don't like The Killers, but are into indie/rock genre, you can still find something suitable in the magazine.

It also says 'best new bands', which suits for the people who like to find new music to listen to. By putting the adjective, the coverline becomes more interesting than if they just wrote 'new bands'.

The main pictures in this magazine is of the frontman in The Killers, which we understand by the main coverline. It also tells us that his name is Brandon. The coverline is a question, which makes it more dramatic and interesting. The readers will want to find out the answer and read the interview. It also says that he is quite busy, which gets emphasized by the quote where Brandon tells he has a personality crisis.

The three pictures shows Brandon Flowers in different perspective, which represents that he is unsure of his personality.

The main colours used in the magazine are red, yellow, white and black. This makes Brandon's green shirt stand out from the text.

In this contents cover there are eight different images used to explain to the reader what’s coming up in the magazine. This illustrates that the magazine is filled with different stories and features.

The largest image is central to all the other images to show that it is the most important and probably interesting feature. It catches the reader's eyes and suggests that the he/she must read it. This picture is in black and white, while the seven others are in colours, making it stand out from the rest. It also seem to be taken from a gig or festival where the singer is in action, which portrays the atmosphere and it suits with the caption underneath.

The other seven images use a variety of shot types and have a quote underneath. This gives the reader an insight into what to expect from the feature.

The headline is the biggest piece of text and it is bold to grab the reader's attention. This makes you immediately understand that it is the contents page, even though it is not written anywhere. Instead NME chooses to write it in a more creatively way, which makes the headline more interesting.

The caption text is placed underneath each image to give the readers some kind of information and tell them what to expect in each feature.

There is a variety of different styles of fonts used, from bold to italics, which makes the page look more exciting. The magazine represents a more indie style by using all the different fonts. It also sets different text apart from each other giving clarity to the reader.

There is a list of other features and the title in that column is 'plus', which says that there are more things to find in the magazine.

The colours that are used do not follow the house colour scheme of NME. Instead it uses only black and white, and only the images are in colours The white background helps the text to stand out.

The colourful images draws the reader to each of the stories. The colours are very natural and they don't take the attention away from the text. It gives the contents page a more laid back appearance which suits the indie genre.

The image uses 50% of the double page and is the first thing we notice, which shows his significance and importance as they did in Q and Spin. It is edited into black and white and that makes the page consist of four colours, the NME's house style which is black, red, white and yellow. Only a bit of text is on a yellow background. It is a quote that says ''past your bedtime, Jake'' and this shows the humorous side of the magazine. The yellow colour makes the quote stand out and it becomes more interesting.

Jake Bugg seems very quiet and he is playing the guitar with his eyes closed, which shows his passion for music.

The headline seems to be inspired by Bob Dylan's song '' The Times They Are A-changin' '', which suggests that Jake Bugg looks up to him and they probably have simillar music. It immediately stands out as it is in bold capitals. The half of the text is in black, while the other is in red, which gives big contrasts. The by-line, at the top of the article, tells us who the photographer is and it is highlighted with red colour to attract the readers. The quote ''I used to dream about playing in America'' gives the readers an idea of what the article will be about. It is also in red with two other names, 'Jake Bugg' and 'Matt Wilkinson', making the readers more interested. The NME logo and page number is in the left hand corner of the page and it is small so it won't take any attention away from the main article.