Analysis of Double Page Spread

I also wanted to analyse a double page spread from the same magazine to see if they carry on with the house style and to see what sorts of things are included within a music magazine article.
 

 The band chosen for the double page spread is evanescence, which was a band that was quite popular but then disappeared for a while and is coming back. This suggests that this is for people who have been into rock music for a while and are fans of the rock sound evanescence have.  The article uses phrases such as ‘I’m about to rip you a new one!’ to tie into the whole rock image, as saying something like that is quite edgy and sounds as if its meant to be shouted rather than said, and rock music is very loud and exciting, which is the image that they want to put across. However as this is an article about all the bad things that has happened to the bad , the writer tries to make us empathise with her by making the whole ordeal seem sad, ‘ went through a painfully public split/spat with seethe singer Shaun Morgan’. This is different to the main idea of the magazine as it is much more sad, but the article as a whole is about there new music, so it talks about the rock music genre a lot. The colour is very different to the contents and cover page as its pink, black and white which gives off a more girly and excited feel. This suggests that maybe this article is targeted more towards the women who read this article as pink is a feminine colour. However the text font is still the same bold edgy font, which shows the consistency of the magazine and ties it all together.

                The pages are laid out with a lot of large images and the text boxes surrounding them that link to what they are talking about. The text box that talks about all the negative things has a picture of the lead singer Amy Lee singing but she looks rough and worn down, where as on the other page where it talks about what has changed and how it has become better, we has an mage of her with a direct mode of address looking strong, therefore it shows contrast. The article addresses the reader as a fan, as they are telling them all the facts but not having much interaction with them, as they are telling them the story of what happened. They are treated them as an intellectual fan and answering the questions they want to know. The article doesn’t really demand much prior knowledge as it tells us the basic background story of what happened with the band in the past, ‘Amy entered a legal battle with ex manager.. ‘, so you don’t need to know a lot but if the reader really wanted to understand what had happened they would have to read the articles on these matters as it only gives brief information on them.

Analysis of Contents Page

As well as analysing a front cover, I felt it was important for me to also look at a contents page to see whats on there and how it works. This will help me get an idea about what sort of things I can put on my contents page and why i would want them there.

           The magazine uses four images on the contents page, one large and then the other three slightly smaller. They fit in well with the general feel of the magazine as they are all images of rock bands performing, and this is a magazine based around rock music. This entices the audience because they get to see what sorts of bands are included and if they are bands they like. The colours and fonts used are the same as the house style on the front cover. This ties the magazine together to make it professional. It again is also quite bright and eye catching which is how it attracts the audience to read it. The information on it is organised down one side of the page so they can clearly see where it is situated. It also has sub-heading such as ‘features’ so the audience can easily find the section of the magazine that interests them. They have also kept the page titles quite short so it’s quick and accessible fro the reader to find the exact article they are looking for. The sections includes are; Feedback, news, win, live reviews, poster, features, reviews, gig guide and the K! Quiz. This tells us that the magazine has a wide variety of articles for all tastes like some people like posters and some people like music news, so it acquires to all of the audiences personal favourites.  They have some promotional features for bands such as the gig guide and articles on various artists so people who are interested in that kind of stuff can look through and see what’s happening with gigs and other things. They also have posters which a lot of people like to have of there favourite band, so this something that adds more appeal to the magazine. The logo is placed right at the top left side of the magazine so it is the first thing you see, this makes it a very dominant feature as it immediately attracts your eye. The logo also stands for the music channel kerrang as well therefore it links to the music channel, so as well as advertising the magazine, its advertising the music channel, however there is nothing mention on the contents page about the music channel but the logo itself links to it.

Analysis of Front Cover

I wanted to analyse a front cover of an exsisting magazine in order to help me get ideas from my own and see what they do in order to draw in their audience. This will help me decide how i want to set out my front cover and give me idea's.

       

         Kerrang magazine is a rock magazine and from the front cover I can see that inside there are going to be lots of stories on rock artists, albums and media news stories around certain rock artists. The target audience for this magazine is teenagers/young people who are interested and listen to rock music and enjoy it. The central image is of the lead singer of evanescence, Amy lee and she has a direct mode of address. This shows that she wants a personal relationship with the reader as she is directly looking at them. She’s on the front cover because evanescence is releasing a new album and a lot has changed in the band. The anchorage text says ‘Amy lee bares her soul’ and this implies that she is going to tell the reader everything about what’s happened and her life, which is why the direct mode of address works because she wants to show that she feels confident about this and wants to tell them. The overall message that the artist is trying to give is that she’s ready to tell everything and she isn’t afraid. There are buzz words on the cover like ‘win’ and ‘plus’ which makes the reader want to buy the magazine even more because they could win something and they get more for their money.

                The title block is in black and has like an edgy cut out font and this tells us that it’s a rock sort of magazine because its messy and it’s also in capitals which are often interpreted as shouting. The title of the magazine is also the title of a television music channel so the readers of this probably listen to the music channel and vice versa. Also its trying to give across a reckless image, which is often the life of a rock star as they are laid back and don’t really care. This magazine has been styled to fit in to its rock genre as it’s very dark and this is typical of rock style. The puffs such as ‘SACKINGS! LAW SUITS! HANDBAGS! AXL ROSE!’ suggests that this magazine has a lot of scandal articles and information on artist which is typical of a music magazine. This suggests that the people reading this are interested in the lives and scandal surrounding the artists. The house colour style is yellow, red black white and blue, which are a lot of colours but are all quite bright apart from black. This makes the black stand out and also draws the eye to the magazine because its really bright and attracts their attention. They also use quite bold fonts and most are in capitals to make them really jump out and be noticeable to the reader.

Survey Results

These are the results from my survey and I have displayed some of the more important ones here that I am going to use in order to help me design and plan my music magazine.

 This shows me how many people who took my survey actually read music magazines, and from this I can see that over half of them do.

 From this I can gather what sort of music people are interested in and like and I can also see what range of music people like as I left it as a multiple choice question where they could tick what they wanted. I can see that the majority of people chose R and B, but there was also a high percentage of pop, dance and rock. Rap was the least popular answer, so from this I can see that not many people like it.

 This chart shows what articles and extras people like in a music magazine, and from this graph suggests that most people like to see articles on artists. They also like to see other things such as latest music, interview and music news.

 This question shows me that most people dislike rock music , but some people dislike pop, dance and rap. However no one ticked hip hop and only a small percent ticked R and B which suggest that they are music types most people like.

From this I can see that people do like to have freebies in the magazine because everyone answered and no one chose to skip the question. I can also see that most people wanted a free download or signed posters, however there was still a high percentage of  people that preferred the other option.

This was an open answer question which required the person completing the survey to give a response of their choice. No one wrote down the same artist so from this I can see there is a wide range of preferences as to what artists people like and want to see on the cover of a magazine.

Music Magazine Survey

This is a link to my music magazine survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N87QR85

I did this to find out what attracts people to music magazines so i could then use some of the ideas within my own work.

Britney Spears Analysis

Before starting to plan my magazine I thought it was important to look at the various ways that artists can be represented within the cover image.I decided to analyse three Britney Spears covers to see the difference in how she has been portrayed in the cover photo.

Labelled Magazine Cover