Magazine Analysis

Another magazine i have analysed is Vibe. The name 'Vibe' stands out as the font is bold and the letters are spread out so it is easy to read. There is tags for stories above the title which is a common convention for magazines. The colour scheme is simple as the two main colours used are blue and orange also with the use of white and black to help draw attention to the text. The text is justified down both sides to make it look neat and tidy. 'Janet Jackson' has shadow on it to draw more attention to it as she is the main story. The date, price, bar code and website are all together and out the way so it doesn't detract attention from the rest of the cover. The website is used to give extra information about the magazine. 'First ever' and 'limited edition' makes the magazine sound appealing, It is the first photo issue so you would be missing out if you don't buy it. There is lots of names of singer and bands on the front cover to make the magazine look full of stories, gossip, information, interviews etc. The pose of Janet Jackson is sexual. She is wearing tight clothes to show her curves. Her hands are down her pants and her mouth is open. She is revealing alot of flesh. She seems to be taking a picture of the readers making them feel like the celebrity for a moment.


Contents page
This is an example of a music magazine contents page. I have looked at Mojo over a few different issues and have noticed they keep the same layout style throughout. This is very common in music magazines. They have a concert image, an old artist then a painting at the bottom, they also have two album covers in the middle of the photos.
They have the same sub headings on each contents page which helps the readers become instantly able to find what page they need as it it recognisable. The bold 'MOJO' makes it stand out and shows where the page is from.
The blocks are in chronological order so it is easy for the readers to find what they want.
There is information and pictures of the writers of the magazine which allows the readers to see who is producing their magazine. This shows they are pedigree and this is unusual for magazines to do this.
The font is consistent throughout the magazine it's all a 'sans serif' which is useful for a magazine like this as it is easy to read and is relaxed. Different colours have been used to outline different parts of the text e.g. gold for page numbers, red for sub headings and black for the actual content. They have used a simple white background to help it things stand out.

Magazine analysis

The next magazine i will analyse is Vibe which features Mariah Carey on the cover. The colours used are bright summer colours as it is a summer issue. The main colours used is orange, yellow, black and white to keep it simple. Vibe stands out as the font is bold and the letters are spread out so it is easier to read. Hooks for inside stories along the top of the magazine which is a common convention of a magazine. The text is justified to make the text look neat and tidy. The price, bar code, date and website are together at one side so it doesn't detract the attention from the rest of the cover. The font for 'Mariah Carey' is totally different so it stands out as she is the main story. They use pink so it is different to the rest of the texts. The photo of Mariah Carey is a sexual pose. She is wearing a bikini which is very revealing and shows her curves. The use Mariah Carey on the front as she is an attractive female and Naomi Wolf (1990) said erotic images of women are used to sell products to women.


Contents page

This contents page is from 'Q' magazine. It also has a simple colour scheme which consists of a white background with black and red text which helps to make the text stand out. There is one large close up of an artist which is the main image, it is a dominant picture and the readers cant stop them self looking at it. This is common in music magazines to only have a little pick of pictures. It is set out in two sections, which is obviously recognisable with common readers. This helps make it easy to find what they are looking for straight away. The little arrow at the bottom shows there is more over the page. There is little hooks for stories under the headings to help engage the readers.

Magazine Analysis

I am going to analyse a selection of music magazines to see what conventions they use and which ones i will use in my magazine.

The first magazine i am going to analyse is Blender which features Britney Spears as the cover girl. They use only two colours (orange and purple) to keep it simple so it doesn't look tacky. Three fonts which are clear and easy readable are used which is a common convention for magazines. 'Blender' is bold and much larger so it stands out as it is the name of the magazine. There is a strike through the name which makes it memorable and recognisable. Half of 'Blender' is covered and there is writing on top of Britney's head but we don't loose any of the photograph and it is a well known magazine so it can afford to loose some of the title and it is still clear what magazine it is. There is a bar code and a website together at one side so it doesn't detract the attention from the rest of the cover. There is also a website shown which gives extra information about the magazine. There is hooks for stories that are featured inside the magazine, this is a common convention for magazines to have hooks above the magazine name. 'Special report' is in an arrow pointing towards Britney Spears which shows who the 'special report' is about it also makes it sound exclusive. There is a bolder and much larger font used for 'how will it end?' this helps draw attention and makes the reader want to know how it is actually going to end. Britneyboards.org is there to encourage readers to visit the website to find out more. Name dropping lots of different celebrities to appeal to a wider audience and makes the magazine sound full of gossip interviews and articles. 'plus' Shows there is even more inside. A sexual pose is used of Britney as she has no clothes on just a sheet to cover her. She has alot of flesh on show and is staring straight at the camera. There is props such as a mickey mouse hat, cigarettes and a redbull can used to show the ups and downs in Britney's life. They are used to tell a story.

Double page spread

This is a double page spread from a music magazine. It is on a white background so that the text is easy to read. The font is simple, black and small so it is easy to make out what it says. The questions are highlighted in a lime green colour to separate them from the rest of the text. Also the names of the respondent is in a green text and highlighted black so it is clear who is answering.

There is an introductory paragraph to help explain who the people are, this starts of with a bigger font for the letter 'T' which is also in green which stands out. This is a common convention in magazines. The picture is a mid shot of two people from the band, It is in black and white which also helps the green color stand out. It is very large and takes up most of the space on the pages. There is also quotes fron the text that are much larger and highlighted, these act as hooks to try and engage the reader into the story.

Questionnaire

We handed this questionaire out to 60 people, 30 people each. This is our Questionaire and our results.
Questionnaire
Sex?_____
(30 Male 30 Female)

Age?_____
10-14 (5 people) 15-20 (25 people) 20-25 (29 people) 26+ (1 person)

1) What genre of music magazine would you prefer?
Pop
R&B
Rock
Jazz
Country
(36 said R&B 16 said pop 8 said Rock )

2) What genre of music magazine do you think the shelf is lacking?
Pop
R&B
Rock
Jazz
Country
(29 said R&B 21 said pop 2 said rock 4 said jazz 4 said country)

3) How much would you pay for a music magazine?
£1.00
£2.00
£3.00
More
( 23 said £3.00 , 36 said £2.00 and 1 said £1.00)

4) How often do you buy a music magazine?
Every week
Every 2 weeks
Monthly
Rarely
(13 said everyweek, 19 said every 2 weeks, 27 said monthly and 1 said rarley)


5) What name sounds appropriate for our magazine?
Upbeat
Cisum
Rhyme
Tunes
Pulse
(32 said upbeat, 21 said Pulse and 7 said Tunes)

6) What colours do you think would look eye catching for our cover with black (pick 3)?
Pink
Blue
Orange
Purple
Yellow
(32said Orange, 21said Blue and 7 said Purple)

7) What attracts you to a magazine?
Name
Picture
Front cover
Colours
Article
Celebrities
Real life stories
Price
(17 said front cover, 13 said colours, 12 said real life stories and 12 said Name)

8) What puts you off a music magazine?
Name
Picture
Front cover
Colours
Article
Celebrities
Real life stories
Price
( 32 said price 18 said Real Life Story 10 said Name)

9) What do you like to see in the magazine?
New bands
Old bands
Free tickets
Gossip
Interviews
Real life
(23 said new bands, 15 said old bands, 9 said Gossip 12 said interviews and 1 said real life)

10) Where do you currently buy your music from?
I-tunes
CD’s
Downloads
(48 downloads and 9 CD's and 3 said I-tunes)

11) How do you listen to your music?
Mobile phone
MP3
I-pod
TV
music channels
Personal stereos
CD player
(30 said Mobile Phone, 15 said I-pod 12 said music channels and 3 said CD players)

These are pie charts of my results

Plan

Niomi Bolam (me) and Rachel Talbot will be making this music magazine together. We will each produce three pieces of work each. I will produce a front cover, an article and a contents page. And Rachel will produce a front cover in the same style, an interview and a contents page. We have decided to do a pop/R&B music magazine as we feel that is what the market is lacking. Our target audience will be both genders aged 15-25 as we feel those are the ones most interested in this genre of music from our results from our questionaire. As we are working together we are going to keep a similar house style for our cover, contents and interview/article but are going to have different colours and texts etc. This is because we have been looking at different issues of music magazines and noticed they are very similar.

Magazine name styles

i have produced three different styles for my magazine name too see what looks mord apealing to my target audience. we handed it out to 30 people and 14 said the top one 10 said the botom one and 6 said the middle one. we have decided to use the top one.