Magazine Research

Billboard Mag

The Masthead:

The masthead “Billboard” is printed large and bold so its target audience (fans of the Billboard Music Awards) can easily recognise it, also taking up around a 5^th of the cover page to make it stand out more. The colour of the text is grey/silver and looks ‘hard’ and ‘solid’ giving the text an edgier pop vibe- also relating to the wooden prop the artist is holding. It gives a sense of change to her original character, as Cyrus has ‘grown up’, and is no longer the innocent Disney-child star.

Use Of A Flash:
There is a flash telling the audience not to miss out on a country music summit. It then has the website you can access to be apart of the summit (deals/advertisements to engage the reader). 

Use Of A Sub-Heading:
There is a rhetorical question asking the audience “The Queen Of Tween Grows Up. But Will Her Fans Follow?” it feels as if the reader will question themselves about following Miley Cyrus, it also creates tension and urge to read more of the article inside. 

Background:
The Background colour is purple, giving off a feminine atmosphere however the colour gradually disappears into Cyrus’s dark clothing creating a mystery to her-alongside her costume. 

Rule Of Thirds:
The magazine uses the rule of thirds, placing the artist directly in the centre of the cover; this draws all attention onto her, making her the focal point of the magazine cover. Her eyes are directly on the camera, focusing on the reader, as if she has more to say and give if you read the article, as well as indicating her ‘serious’ change of character.

Cover Lines:

The cover lines include other bands, which are included in the magazine so if they are unsure about the main article artist they are able to read about different bands.

The Main Image:

The main image is of the artist, Miley Cyrus. She is positioned in a way to make her look strong, dominant and powerful, as apposed to the typical ‘male gaze’.  This is also shown by her looking directly into the camera, showing she isn’t afraid of what is to come of her career after ‘Disney era’. She is also holding a gold letter ‘M’ showing her importance and power. This attracts the audience of younger generations who could look up to her.

The Main Cover Line:
The main cover line is just the name of the artist ‘Miley Cyrus’, it is a short and gets straight to the point of the main article inside the magazine, the image behind the text is the artist making it obvious to the reader.

Barcode/Issue Date/Price:

The barcode and price is there so the magazine is sellable to the consumer, the issue number and date is an easy way the reader can keep up to date with the issues. The barcode is obvious in the corner of the page, easily seen, but not too large that it overtakes the main concept of the front cover.

Q-Mag

The Masthead:

The masthead of ‘Q’ magazine is big and bold, and it isn’t covered by the picture of Adele, unlike Billboard. The ‘Q’ stands out as it is against a striking red, so it is one of the first things that draw your attention when you look at the magazine, which is a good selling point for the magazine. The colour red signifies passion and energy (masthead), and white is associated with purity and innocence (Adele). The image of Adele is only slightly covering the text; this could suggest that Adele is proud to be associated with them.

Main Image:

The medium shot of Adele is studio taken and shows the singer looking directly at the camera with her thumb against her lips. This pose is supposed to make Adele look more attractive, but possibly also makes the reader feel more connected with her, and it is also slightly provocative, suggesting it is directed towards the ‘male gaze’. Adele’s skin tones are very pale; almost similar to the background colour, this could relate to the idea of the 19^th century, where a pale tone signified beauty. The singer’s long hair looks windswept, relating back to the subheading “Blows Us Away”, reminding us that Adele’s talent is so powerful, that it even affects her looks.

Pull Quote:

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it”- this shows a confident side to Adele, which is inspiring to the reader. Makes the reader to read the magazine to see how Adele ‘got it’. The image backs this, as she looks very confident as if she is ‘flaunting’ her looks. ‘Q’ magazine normally focuses more on the older generation of music, so for Adele to be on the front cover, she should be proud, therefore ‘flaunt’ it.

The Headline:

‘Adele’ in bold white capital letters, showing the reader the main focus of this issue is Adele (further relating to the main image of her). The font is simplistic, suggesting that ‘Q’ is focused more on the music rather than the celebrity, also that her voice is so amazing on its own that it doesn’t need ‘fancy’ fonts.

Graphics:

This is reinforced by the magazines colour schemes. The colours used are very simple-red, black, white and pale grey. This shows that ‘Q’ is a mature, traditional magazine that takes itself quite seriously (sophisticated). ‘Q’ is a mature magazine that focuses on successful artists rather than the new, upcoming artists. This means that the target audience are more likely the mature music listeners.

Tag Line:

The tagline of the magazine is “Discover Great Music”- so the audience could want to buy the magazine so they can discover it for themselves.

The Plug:

“The 300^th issue” ; this could encourage the reader to buy this issue as it could be special as it is the 300^th issue. The use of the colour gold signifies wealth and royalty, so for the people who purchase could feel a bit more priviledged.

Cover Lines:

These inform is on the other artists that will be featured within the magazine- this will influence whether the magazine will be purchased. Names such as “Liam” are in bold capitals, indicating that he is a big artist and drawing our eyes towards his name. Each artist has a minor heading underneath, sounding exciting, attracting the reader to want to know more.

The Barcode:

The barcode and the price are at the bottom of the magazine, which is common for all magazines. This issue is £3.99, which is affordable to the audience.

Pop

Header:

Typical of a magazine; they are used to show the reader what the page is about. In this case, its news and then it also states that readers can go on the Kerrang Website to find the newest lot of news.

 Title:

An enormous title on the page, although the largest section of it doesn’t tell the viewers who and what the article is about it still attracts readers flicking through the pages. The largest section of the title is one of the questions asked to the artist in the interview, indicating that this would be a popular answer that fans could be interested in.

Main Image:

A full page image of the artist to catch attention of readers, instead of placing small images around the page which people could possibly skip past and not take notice of, they placed a large one so people can see the artist clearly. He is also looking directly out of the page therefore the readers could take it personally.

Page Design:

A continuous outline to the page that appears to look like spotlight, this gives the impression of fame and glamour, and that he will be a big star.

The Feature Article:

Huge feature article featuring Davey Havok. Straight away the article jumps a section of information about him, then begins with questions from this interview. Due to the fact that there are quite a lot of questions, the reader will be attracted to this page so they can see how he answers these 'popular questions'. Also, there are quite a few personal questions within this interview, such as secrets and his childhood, which would further attract his fans.