Analysis - Front Cover

15:21 music , Music Magazine 0 Comments

This is the ‘Kerrang!’ magazine. The front cover has a masthead in a bold red and has a broken up/shattered affect, symbolizing the style of music that the magazine focuses on. The mast head is the same on every issue of the magazine however it does change in colour depending on the theme of the magazine. Punk Pop focuses on being different from the mainstream and challenging the codes and conventions set by society. This magazine fits to those codes and conventions by having 5 people on the front cover all coming from different bands; this is contrary to the codes and conventions of a music magazine as traditionally the front cover only has one person/band and does not mix. The large “2015” in the center of the page ties in with the colour of the red of the masthead showing that there is clearly a link between the two and it’s of importance. Andy Biersack (the front most male) is reaching out his hand which appears to be presenting the lead story, presumably to do with the main image that is shown on the cover.


‘Q’ Magazine has a very distinctive logo that is prevalent on every magazine that is printed, the distinctive red background and the bold letter ‘Q’ is now widely known. The bold red is present throughout the front cover in terms of the font colour for the splashes. Q Magazine has a style where the name of the featured band or artist is shown over the image. This is carried across every magazine that is produced. This magazine focuses more on the rule of thirds meaning the left 3rd has more splashes so it can be seen easier when viewed on a shelf where traditionally the right most two thirds are covered by the next magazine, this helps audiences see the magazine and become interested in the splashes before they even see the whole front cover. Unlike “Kerrang!”, Q shows the bar code on the front of the magazine which shows that it conforms more so to the codes and conventions of a music magazine. The whole layout is very clean with a white backdrop to the main image. Brandon Flowers is dressed in a black leather jacket which contrasts the background and catches the eye better.


NME Magazine is another major music magazine that I will be using for inspiration. This particular front cover features “Florence” from “Florence and the Machine” The main image is a close up of the artist which has high key lighting, this gives the effect of higher contrast between the pale skin and the vibrant red hair of the singer, to continue the contrast all of the splashes and masthead are in white to stand out against the red background. However the name of the artist is contrast to the whole front cover as it is in a black font. This clearly stands out so the audience can link the picture that is very bold and almost aggressive with the black text that has the same affect, this indicates that Florence is the name of the person in the main image. Again this magazine fits with the codes and conventions more than “Kerrang!” magazine in the sense that it sticks to the rule of thirds and has a bar code on the front of the magazine.