Popular Music Magazine Research and Analysis

Billboard cover

Billboard focus on more popular music, this gives them a large audience to appeal to and decisions such as the artist on the front cover or the

There is no Strapline meaning that the first part seen by the customer would be the Masthead or the top of Katy Perry’s head. This emphasizes and draws more attention to it, especially the block colours in the middle of the text which contrast with the rest of the cover colours.

There is only one picture on the cover, this simplifies the design and focuses the attention towards Katy Perry, the well-known pop singer. People who like Katy Perry’s music would be drawn towards the magazine as they might want to find more about her like if she is releasing a new song.

She is wearing a strange dress embodied with flowers, this could be to try and show the type of music that she sings through visuals as flowers can be related to soft and calming music whilst the pink background could be related to stereotypical girly music.

Her head goes over the Masthead, showing that she is the most important thing on the page and that the article is important news.

The bright yellow of the skylines make them harder to read, this either makes the viewer look closer to try and read them or makes readers ignore them.

The font colours vary from black witch is easy to read to white and yellow which with the strong pink is harder to read, this makes it feel like the creator of the magazine wants the viewer to focus on the black text.

Billboard contents

The contents page is largely different from the cover of the magazine. The colour scheme completely changes from loud and flamboyant to grey and flavorless. The only colourful thing on the page is the heart on Kanye West’s chest. This makes you think that music comes from the heart and has deeper meanings than just sound. That it is the unique style that the artist wants to share with others.

The grey and uninteresting colour scheme makes it very easy to focus on the text as well as there is nothing distracting the reader whilst reading.

Like the front cover there is not a lot on the page and the design is very simple. This helps the reader read and enjoy the magazine as they are not being bombarded with information they might not care about.

Another famous music artist is on page 2, this shows that billboard has connections with famous music entertainers and that they are reliable and trustworthy.

Billboard double page spread

Like the other two pages the double page spread tries to keep the colours and design simple and tries not to overwhelm the reader with information. Instead they show a very interesting picture of Rhianna sitting on top of a pink tank barrel. This is certainly enough to grab the attention of most people and make them more interested in the article.

The fonts are different for different articles, this could help the reader identify different articles form on another and not mix them up by accident, making it easier to read. Some of the headings are in pink, this especially makes them stand out against the rest of the page and also goes with the pink on the tank.

The colours and design used would really appeal to the target audience as they are pink and look very fashionable and stylish, almost as though the design fits in with the type of music focused on, witch is mainly pop music produced by very famous and popular artists.

Kerrang front cover

This magazine is much louder than the Billboard magazine and really tries to force as much information and colour into your eyes as possible.

The Masthead has cracks in and is in a large and bold this makes it seem loud and in your face, shouting "READ THIS MAGAZINE!" at you and as though it is very important and MUST be read.

The anchorage tries to pull the viewer in by throwing as many reasons for them to read the magazine right in their face.

The simple colour scheme only consists of four colours, this makes the cover less confusing to look at, however the colours are still bright and attention seeking.

The man on the front is an example of the type of music that this magazine will focus on, and the type of characters and bands that will be interviewed. However he is a "scary looking" guy and might scare away potential customers by making them associate people who read the magazine with him, and they don’t want to look like him.

Kerrang! contents

Like the front page the contents page is very loud and chaotic and disorder but to closer inspection the page is split into sections to try and make information that might seem uninteresting exiting and worth reading.

The contents splits the information into different sections, Feedback, News, Live 

Reviews, Win!, Features, Album Reviews, Gig Guide and The K quiz. This makes the magazine seem easier to read and more manageable so the reader reads the whole thing instead of only reading certain articles.

The man in the top right has the same look as the man on the front cover, scary looking and different. This could be to try and represent the type of music that this magazine focuses on, strange, new and unconventional.

There are two advertised articles on the top left, these try and grab the reader’s attention making them want to read these articles. The articles could be the intro articles and grab the readers interest in the magazine making them want to keep reading through related articles.

The contents page also includes a message from the editor, this makes the reader feel more involved with the magazine as they can feel what the editor wants to show through the magazine, this might make them enjoy reading it more.

Kerrang double page spread

The double page spread has a different design to the front and contents pages. It focuses instead of a dirty and in your face design and colour scheme on a slightly cleaner look that immediately pulls the reader’s attention towards the main title of the page “my dinosaur life”

The title is displayed in a crude and raw looking manor that tries to look ancient and caveman like. This could be related to the fact that it references dinosaurs. This immediately took my attention as it is the biggest thing on the screen, even bigger than the man that the article focuses on.

There are only three colours on this double page spread, this makes the information easier to take in and is different from the rest of the magazine that focuses on trying to pull in the reader and grab their attention. This could be to simplify the design and reinforce the primitive feel of the page.

The toy dinosaur really adds to the ancient age feel of the page but makes it seem less severe as it is a toy and not a real representation of a dinosaur.

The few articles on the page are placed cleverly and use different sizes of font to try and direct the order in which you would read them even though they are in odd positions on the page.

This page really utilizes space efficiently as there is a lot of blank space on the page but it still looks full of content, this is the effect of the clever design of the page and shows that the placement of articles and objects on a pace can really change how it is read.

BBC music cover

The BBC music magazines are aimed at a much older and more sophisticated audience compared to the Kerrang and Billboard magazines that I have also annotated and looked at. This means that the design should be suited towards the new audience. The BBC Music magazine has achieved this in a variety of ways.         

The fonts are fancy looking with serifs and no straight lines, only curves. This makes them look stylish and easy to read. They won’t appeal towards a younger audience however as they might find the font uninteresting and unexciting however this is probably the intention as the magazine is not for the younger generation.

The colour scheme is very dull with only about 3 different colours being put to use. They are very similar in shade which makes the magazine not stand out against other magazines however older viewers might like a front cover that is easier to look at and not in your face like Kerrang. The incentives for the reader to open the magazine and buy it mainly include interviews from famous musicians and composers who have won awards. This might seem boring to some readers but to others who would be interested in this type of music would be very fascinating.

The font style for the cover lines is very similar to that of the title, however they are easier to read and less curvy, this would be because they are smaller and need to be clearer to read as a result. The man on the front cover seems to represent the average reader and is not there to show off his looks but his talent as he has a music award. This is a change to the stereotypical sexy and good looking models on the front cover of magazines and would appeal more towards the targeted audience.

BBC Music Contents Page

The BBC music contents page follows a similar style to the front cover, only using a small amount of plain colours to the same easy to take in a and not in your face feel of the front page. The article contents are well laid out in a easy to digest order from left to right. Each article includes a picture to make the reader identify with what it could be about and if they recognize the picture from some ware then they might find what they want to find more quickly which makes them interested for longer

The background is whit in this picture which makes the text easier to read and interpret, seeing as some of the audience for this magazine would be slightly older this would help if they have trouble reading, this is also probably the 

reason for the dull colours. Each article includes a rating, this could help persuade the reader if they are not sure where to start, a downside to this is that mostly all the articles have the same rating, making this rating system semi pointless.

BBC Music Double Page Spread

 

The picture of a choir takes up just over half the page. This, unlike the contents page has much more character to it as the reader gets the sense of listening to a choir in a church which helps the atmosphere of reading the magazine.

The title “Last choirs standing” makes the reader worried that there is a decline in the amount of choirs still running which would be an incentive for them to be engaged further into the articles.

The colour scheme is very plain like the rest of the magazine, this would be to make the magazine easier to take in and make it seem “kinder” to the reader as it isn’t in your face like some other magazines such as Kerrang.

The articles are layered out in a simple and easy to read layout like in the contents page, this makes the feel of the magazine much more engaging towards the reader.

The fonts used are simulate to that used on the front cover and contents page, clear and easy to read yet elegant and stylish.