Textual Analysis For Front Cover Of Music Magazine

 This is an image of the front cover of an “XXL” magazine that has a high key lighting, medium close-up photograph of a celebrity (P.Diddy) who is the main image of the magazine. As everything in the photograph is in focus, the image of the celebrity has a wide depth of field. The photo has been edited to create a black and white effect, taking away any other colour. In the photo of P.Diddy, the props he is wearing represent his wealth; the pinky ring and the “Jesus Piece” chain have diamonds and jewels in them.

The setting is a plain white background which helps to make the audience focus on the main image, the celebrity is well-known which also contributes to grabbing the audience’s attention. The font has been placed behind the celebs head and chain, this type of jewellery denotes riches and connotes the celebs pride of his money and fame. The costume that the celeb is wearing seems to be a t-shirt and a jacket on top, this casual type of clothing may connote the type of character P.Diddy is. The NVC of the celeb shows confidence in his career as his hands are pulling his costume as if to show it off.

On the “XXL” magazine, the masthead, which is “XXL”, is behind the celeb which may be connoting how big the news of the music artist is. The “XXL” sign is denoted as the masthead because of its distinctive colour and size between it and the rest of the magazine. The masthead of the magazine is boldly in red, which still makes the brand of the magazine stand out. The font is in a san serif style; this connotes the modern day type of magazine it is. The selling line is just above the masthead that reads, “Hip-Hop on a Higher Level”, this connotes that the type of magazine “XXL” is a music magazine, more specifically a hip-hop magazine. The selling line is in a small san-serif font in the top left hand corner of the magazine.

Below the main image of the magazine lies the main coverline, “Diddy” with the kicker underneath which reads “Mo’ Money. No Problems”. There is another kicker above the main coverline that’ reads, “Hip-Hop’s No.1 Mogul”, which was in an italics style along with the main coverline and the kicker above it. The word “Diddy” is in large capitals letters in bold, san-serif font, the word denotes the celebrity’s name, which is P.Diddy. As the main coverline is in bold it may connote the importance of the celebs story.

The kicker above the main coverline denotes a label for the P.Diddy, this connotes the how successful the career of this celeb has been. This kicker is not as big as the main coverline and is not in bold; this may be done just to keep the audience focused on the main coverline.  The rule of thirds has been applied here to avoid the kicker being unseen. The kicker below the main coverline supports the connotation of the other kicker as this one denotes that because he has more money, his problems are gone. This kicker is bigger and bolder than the other kicker above the main coverline.

The other coverlines are located at the top right hand corner and the middle left hand side of the magazine. They are also in san-serif font and although they are quite small, the bold font help the coverlines to be recognised along with the use of the rule of thirds, which helps to get the audiences attention because of the coverlines position. The celebrity names that were used in the coverlines also help to get audience attention to the magazine.

The “XXL” magazine was released on June 2010, the dateline of this magazine is found on the barcode at the bottom left hand corner. As the dateline had only contained a month and a year, this may connote that the magazine is published monthly. A barcode is displayed on the magazine, which denotes that the magazine is a purchasable item, which may be bought off newsstands; this magazine can be bought for $4.99. The currency of the price denotes that the “XXL” magazine is published in America as the currency is dollars.

 This “XXL” magazine has a website which is has to recognise, but it has been put in, using a vertical style of text, “XXLmag.com”. The magazine may have put the magazine website in such small font so that people will not realise it, this may have been done to avoid the loss of customers who buy the magazine.

Textual Analysis For Music Magazine Double Page Spread

 












This “Kerrang” double page spread has six different images of people associated with music. The main image denotes a man with a prop microphone, it is also hard to see behind the text but he also has another prop which looks like some type of guitar, presumably an electric guitar as the page seems to be based on heavy metal music. The background is unclear but it seems that the man is performing outside.  The man’s costume is black and he has tattoos on both arms, this is a typical look of a rock star. As the man is performing outside, the high-key lighting effect has taken place. This man’s NVC shows that he is shouting into the microphone because the color of his face has gone red, which usually happens when shouting or aggression occurs. This man is also pointing at something off of the image, this could connote that he may not be performing at all, but introducing another music artist.

At the top left corner of the magazine, is another denotation of an image of a music artist, using a prop which is an electric guitar. He also has the typical look of a rock artist as his arms are also covered in tattoos, with the well known guitar of rock in his hands. The setting is dark, but the man is in high-key lighting. This music artist’s NVC denotes that he is shouting with his eyes closed which could connote how great the atmosphere of that place is. There are two other photographs of rock stars with their microphone who are also singing into them with a lot of passion, this is denoted from the NVC from their faces. Both photos were taken in dark backgrounds and both seem to be low key lighting.

The main coverline of this page reads, “Whiplash!” in capital letters. This large font is bold and white, written in san serif style to give that modern style to the magazine. Underneath the main coverline is the kicker that reads, “Wembley stadium gets its metallic baptism”. This is in smaller font and in serif black font, which connotes a traditional feel to the magazine.

The rest of the magazine has a dark background for the text, which is typed in white and some parts red. This double page has a theme of black, red and white colors. Due to the type of music the magazine is based on, which is heavy metal, these type of colors suit the genre because the colors connote dark feelings. Heavy metal is known for giving that type of dark, loud music.

Introduction

My new task is to create a music magazine front page, contents page and a double page spread. The following posts will be for the main task of creating a music magazine.

College Magazine

The front cover of the magazine had a medium close up of a girl with a background of different colors. The background in the image of the front cover was a weakness of this magazine because it had limited the range and positioning of colors. On the other hand, the colors chosen by the questionnaire participants allowed me to get a vibrant front cover, making the cover look more appealing to the colleges.

 

This content page of the magazine is a double page where the color theme is; red, green and purple, just as the college students requested. A few more pictures of students have been placed on the content page to show different scenes of the college. All of the font has been outlined by the use of white "strokes" from adobe photo shop to help make the letters more visible for the audience to read. 

Drafts Layouts

Questionnaire Results

Out of the twenty students, 9 of them chose images and the other 13 students chose an even mixture of both. No students had voted for the magazine to be displayed with mostly text. 

 

The type of news that the magazine should cover will be college news since 11 out of the 20 students chose the college news option. The other 9 students had chosen to make the magazine cover college and local news.

This chart shows that 14 students want their college magazine to be free, rather than paying for it. On the other hand, 6 other students want the magazine to be purchased, due to results; the college magazine will be free.

For the 6 students that wanted the magazine to be purchased, they were asked to choose a price. 2 students chose 25p, 3 chose 50p and only one student chose 75p. No student would pay a £1 for the magazine.

The chart shows the amount of students who enjoy reading, 13 of them do enjoy reading, and the other 7 students do not. This could also show the rough percentage of students that will bother to read the college magazine when published.

 This chart shows the amount of students who would want a page for a quiz/crossword, 13 voted yes for a page for crosswords & quizzes, and the remaining 7 voted no.

In this graph 14 students wanted the magazine to be published every term; this was the most selected choice. Therefore, the magazine will be published every month. Following the highest vote, was the monthly choice with 8 students voting. Lastly, only 3 students voted for the magazine to be published.

The 20 students had voted on what should be in the college magazine, education, entertainment, culture or other. One student voted for a educational magazine, 8 voted for a entertainment magazine, 5 voted for a cultural magazine and 5 students voted other. Other ideas were about relationship issues and life topics.

 In this graph, there is a three way tie between the choices of a white & purple magazine, a green & white magazine and a red& white magazine. These votes had 4 students each, while the other 8 students voted; 2 for blue & black and 3 votes each for blue & yellow and blue & white.

 There was an obvious difference in the amount of students that wanted to contribute to the college magazine. The majority of students had voted yes, to have a contribution page for the magazine; this can allow them to get their voices heard in whatever they may want to say by advertising thing onto the contribution page. This also shows the amount of people that may have greater ideas for the whole magazine.

The age of the students varied with; 11 students that were 16 years old, 8 students that were 17 years old and just 1 student that was 18. The reason I chose to distribute the questionnaires to the younger students, rather than the older students is because the younger students will be in the college longer than the older students who are soon to be leaving the college, therefore the college magazine should be based on what the younger generation of student want. 

This graph shows the equality between the two sexes that have made a decision on the college magazine’s development. 10 males and 10 females were given this questionnaire, just to show that both male and female students equally had a fair chance to contribute to the making of the magazine.

Questionnaire