Magazine contents pages: Conventions:

The contents page I have decided to study was a ‘Q’ magazine. This contents page in particular is double sided. There are eight photographs on the contents page for this magazine. Three of which are print screens of articles within the magazine. The magazine consists of 154 pages.

The title of the contents page is across the top of the page with the logo of the magazine. There is a small version of the front cover of the magazine positioned in the top right hand side corner of the contents page. On the first side of the contents page there is a large portrait orientated photograph of a band on the right hand side of the page. There is another photograph of another band to the left of the page. This photograph however is much smaller in size but still portrait. The text for the content is below the smaller image, down the left hand side of the page. Texts are red and black to match the magazine colours.

The over side of the contents page looks much busier than the first side. Some photographs on this page are overlapping other photographs, which helps create this busy affect. It consists of the same layout regarding the title, fonts and colours; however, the photographs and text on this page are laid out differently. Two of the print screen images are in the bottom left hand side corner of the page and the other is in the top right hand side of the page. The last three images are of different stars in the music industry. The first positioned at the top towards the left hand side and the other two below. The text for the content is positioned down the right hand side of the page.

Audience Research

Here is some audience research I collected in helping me understand what people want/expect to see and read in a Music Magazine.

Textual Analysis of a Music Magazine

The music magazine cover I have chosen to analyse is called “Q”. This magazine focuses more on most recent or popular bands and musicians, rather than a pacific genre. Therefore, the age range will also vary between 16-40 year olds (possibly even wider). However, for this pacific magazine cover, I believe it focuses on rock music.

The masthead on this magazine is simply “Q”, which is positioned in the top left of the magazine cover. It is a white, sharp font on top of a red background. The font colour and style helps give it a modern look and also helps make it stand out.

The main coverline for this magazine cover would be “WORLD EXCLUSIVE! COLDPLAY Four months of fear, tantrums and nudity”. This coverline is much larger then over coverlines, which shows it is the main coverline. Also, we can tell it is the main coverline because it is accompanied by an image of the band, Coldplay, showing its level of importance in the magazine. The font colour for this coverline is white; however, the part which reads “COLDPLAY” is yellow. This helps make the name of the band stand out from the rest. Also, it is the topic of discussion, which means it will help draw the attention of Coldplay fans regardless of what it is actually about.

The coverlines would be “MADE IN HELL! The 10 craziest rock couples” and “BLOC PARTY Young, hot... and glum”. Both have the same font and roughly the same size. The colours of these fonts are the opposite of the title and main coverline. These fonts are infact black. Both accompanied by a small image relating to the subject.

The barcode is found in the bottom right hand side of the cover; keeping it out of sight for the audience because it is irrelevant to selling the magazine.  The issue number, date and price are located above and below the title of the magazine. The font is extremely small which shows the magazine designer did not want it to take up much room on the cover. Also, they did not want the reader the pay any attention to the price.