ANALYSIS OF THREE CONTRASTING MUSIC MAGAZINE FRONT COVERS. Naomi Lynch

What three music magazines? I have chosen to compare NME, Q and a classical music magazine. The reason I have chosen to do so, is because they are all very different. They share similarities, but also differences. Of what I already know, NME and Q are very successful music magazines and share similarities. However, a classical music magazine is extremely dissimilar. By comparing the three in this powerpoint, I hope to find out more about the three.

NME. This is one of the many NME front covers. It shows a close up picture of Florence, including her face, hair and a small amount of Florence’s top. Florence’s face seems very pale against her bright red hair, reflecting the light and whiteness off her top. The creator of NME has decided to make the colour of the text white making it lack colour. I think this is a good choice, as it is the shame shade of her top, making the magazine seem more thought out to the audience, than a messy non-coordinating one. The lack of colour in the title and top, makes her bright red hair stand out, making it stand out on the shelf in a shop. All of the writing on this front cover is in bold and very clear, this suggests the audience is for a wide range- for example it isn’t graffiti writing which the audience would be for teens, it isn’t classical sophisticated writing aiming for an older audience or very messy, maybe aiming for audiences interested in rock music. The word ‘FLORENCE’ is the only text which is in black, this makes her name stand out from the rest of the writing. The title is at the top left, in the biggest font. It also reads left to right, as it is a mainstream magazine, linking back to a wide range of audience. Florence has an intense stare into the camera, giving a slightly moody photograph, as opposed to a smiling magazine it makes the reader more intrigued. The sell line ‘I WOULD NEVER HAVE GOT THROUGH THE X FACTOR AUDITIONS’ is very intriguing and appealing to the audience, as it a sell line that makes you think why wouldn’t she, Florence is huge?

Q. Q is a very well known music magazine, as stated in the banner at the top ‘THE UK’S BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE’. That comment makes the magazine more likely to be bought, as the audience will think they will surely like it if it’s the biggest UK music magazine. The comment also suggests it to be a mainstream music magazine. This front cover is very similar to the Florence NME front cover. They share similar images, fonts and colours. They both evidently do this as they experimented it and found it is very effective. The colours of the font are all either red or white, well chosen colours making it stand out a lot from the black/grey gloomy background. The font of this cover is big and bold, also simple making it easier for the audience to read while glancing at the shelf. A front cover piled with overloading information isn’t appealing to the majority of audiences, as it gives away too much information making it less intriguing and more pointless to buy. The image of Cheryl Cole is again a close up image, like Florence’s. However, one difference between the two is Cheryl’s is a dark background, dark wet hair look, a pale face and dark red lips representing the sell lines talking about vampires. This makes the magazine seem themed, which may appeal to the audience as they may wonder what vampires have to do with Cheryl Cole – especially intriguing to Cheryl Cole fans. ‘3 Words CHERYL COLE ROCKS’ very captivating as it makes you question why does Cheryl Cole rock? What are the reasons for that? Has she done something I’m not aware of? Which leads to them buying the magazine.

Music. I chose this music magazine front cover as it is very diverse to NME and Q. It has a much more suttle and soft feel to it, which calls very different audiences. Underneath the girls name, it talks of her concerts and generations of violinists, this makes it appealing to an audience who play violin or are interested in playing violin. The image of Janine Jansen isn’t very intriguing like the images of Florence and Cheryl. The fact Janine is holding her violin and is dressed up very neat, shouts to the audience that the image was taken straight after a concert she had just done very well in, which leads the audience to think that is what the magazine is about. This doesn’t necessarily appeal to an audience who aren’t interested in violin, therefore this music magazine has a very slim, strict audience. The brown background, brown violin, brown hair, black dress and white writing make this magazine lack colour a lot, making it not stand out from the crowd on a shelf. The writing apart from Janine Jansen is not in bold, unlike NME and Q. Even the title isn’t in bold, not even a capital letter at the start, implying an indulgent, easy – going magazine. Similar to Q, music has a banner at the top of the cover ‘THE WORLDS BEST SELLING CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE’ the way Janine’s head is covering the ‘s’ in the masthead, supports that it is the worlds best selling classical music magazine, as people know what it is without seeing the entire title. We can see at the top left that this is a magazine by the BBC. This indicates it is more of an educating music magazine, than a gossip mainstream one.

Conclusion After researching NME, Q and music I have found that NME and Q share a very similar style and music is enormously dissimilar to the two. NME and Q have alike colours, fonts and images, they are also both very successful. They both have intense images on the front cover, which implies that that look is popular amongst those types of music magazines. NME and Q both went for simple, big and bold fonts, with not much information on the front cover. They are also both quite mainstream, unlike music. After researching music, it has given a clear impression it is a music magazine for people who already know about it because they were previously interested in music, I realise this as it is definitely not a magazine which would stand out on a shelf, due to dull colours and the BBC sign, indicating its leaning more towards educated than it is fun.