Research on Music Magazines Front Covers

To get some ideas for the music magazine that i will be producing i have decided to use the internet to research music magazines to see their layout and how they are portrayed to the public

The first magazine I looked at was the very popular NME Music Magazine.
The issue that you see on the left is the issue that featured the hit band "Foo Fighters".

Analysing the front cover

For its front cover NME sticks to the same layout through-out issues. It uses the bright reds and yellows along with neautral blacks and whites to attract the customers eye towards the magazine.
The magazine title (NME) is an extremely clever one. When said phenetically it can sound like the word 'enemy'. The title can be said as having a hidden message to its target audience, who are the younger generation as they are oftern seen as 'enemies' to society. The magazine emphisises the title by using large, bold, capital letters with a bright red font and double outline. These bright colours draw the eye straight to the title. Also, they magazine has stuck to conventions by placing its title on the top left hand side of the magazine. The top left hand side is the most important place on a magazine front cover as it is where the eye is naturally drawn to due to the fact that most people start reading from the top of a page, and from left to right.
It also sticks to the conventions with the full size background. The image has the key element of eye contact and is a full front face image of the subject. The image also follows the magazines theme of "rock". The subject having scruffy hair and untidy facial hair suggests that he is part of a rock culture.
NME uses three major colours through-out its magazine ; Black, white and red. The black and white are both neutral colours and so do not favour to any gender, they are also opposite to help to make things stand out when put together. Finally, Red can sometimes connotate "danger" which ties in with the ethos of the magazine.

The second magazine that i looked at was Kerrang:

Just like NME, Kerrang uses black, white and red as their main colours through-out their whole magazine.

Kerrang is marketed towards the more "emo" side of music instead of rock. This can be seen in the way the magazine is portrayed. Firstly, the magazine used a large amount of black spread across the entire page. The title is a bold black font which is centered, this makes it stand out. However what is more interesting is the cuts and slashes across the title. These could be said as having connotations with "emo's", which could cause it to appeal more to that market.

Secondly, the catch phrase used in the middle of the page is a clever one : "Unfold the puzzle of life..." makes it sound as if by reading the magazine you are going to be able to solve all life's problems. It makes the reader want to pick up the magazine and see what is inside.