Music magazine analysis

Q magazine has already reached it's 200th edition since it was first published in October 1986. It is published monthly in the UK. It is known for its red and white logo that is always in the top left-hand corner. It makes it easier to find in a news agents and is easily identifiable.

NME stands for 'New Musical Express' as it was originally a newspaper dedicated to music when it was first published in March 1952. It slowly started to become a music magazine in 1998. It mainly uses the same layout in each issue, but the masthead colour sometimes changes to match the cover image. NME magazine is easily identified from the masthead, so it stands out and is easy to find in a news agents.

Vibe is more of a R&B and hip-hop magazine. It stopped publishing in 2009, but was re-purchased and is now issued online every other month online. It uses the same masthead and bold colours so its easily recognized and the sell lines match the colours and fonts on the cover.

  

Billboard is an internationsal magazine devoted to music and the music industry. It was first published in November 1894, when it was originally for advertisements. In the 1930's it started publishing music charts and that is how it became a music magazine. The masthead is easily recognized for its black and white writing with the filled in colours red, yellow, blue and green. It has the same layout most of the time, with a central image that overlaps the masthead and the sell lines and other writing on the cover.

Kerrang! magazine was first published in June 1981 as a one-off supplement to 'Sounds' newspaper. It is  a rock music magazine and the design/font of the masthead goes with the them, as does the colours they use for that black, white and red. The masthead makes it recognizable.

Template for my music magazine

 These are photos of my drawn up templates for my music magazine front cover and double page spread. 

 These are the plans for my music magazine front cover. I think I prefer the second one to the first as there will be a lot of things to persuade potential readers into buying it. The first one is a bit plain compared to the second, so the cover image would need to be very eye catching to grab the readers attention.  

These are plans for the layout of my double page spread. I quite like both of them, though I'm not sure which one I prefer yet. The first one gives the reader a a little bit of text but half of the double page spread is taken up by the main image (poster). I think it looks more like a newspaper article and not a teenage music magazine article. I think it's because I used a standfirst and a byline. I like having the two smaller images between the body text, it would give the reader something to look at. The second one I think is a bit more balanced, there is a lot more text and there are two images.  I like having a quote in the middle of the text body, so it stands out and would make the reader want to read more. One thing I did forget to do is put in page numbers, so I would need to do that when I actually make the double page spread.

Moving on!

 I am now moving on to the main part of my media course, which is making a front cover, content page and a double page spread for a music magazine.

I have decided that my magazine is targeted at teenagers, maybe teenage girls like We love Pop magazine or Bliss etc.

Names I am considering:
Parade
Standing Ovation
Encore
Bass line
Plectrum 
Unsigned

The main feature will be an exclusive interview with local four piece girl band Failing Chemistry.
I have to use at least four of my very own images. The photo shoot will hopefully be in a library or something, I want the theme to be very British heritage.