Research of front covers

Well I found a few different music magazines, all aimed at different audiences who all listen to different genres of music. I am going to analyse them to take away points from each that i can use in my own magazine.

NME has a very similar audience to the audience that i want to attract, it aims it's magazine at people who are dedicated music followers and people who enjoy new artists.


I chose these issues of NME to write about as i think that they are good basis's for the design of my magazine.

• As seen here the style of the NME front cover changed from issue to issue. On the issues with Lily Allen and Morrissey on the covers are very busy, they are covered with writing and graphics introducing other articles in the magazine. Where as the covers with The XX and Arctic monkeys on are quite plain, they don't have any other pictures, any boxes containing writing and they have information on only a few articles.
  
• This, i feel, reflects the importance on the main article. In The XX's issue, the band a fairly unknown and so the magazine wants to focus on making them known, it's an introducing article. Where as with the Lily Allen issue it's as though the main story isn't as important because she's very famous and doesn't need the attention drawn to her, people will buy the magazine because she's on the front cover.
• From these images we can also see the conventions of the magazine, the house style. As in every magazine, the style and font of the mast head does not change from issue to issue, this makes the magazine recognisable and gives it a brand. We can also see from these covers that NME usually has a tag line at the top of it's cover. This highlights other important stories, not just the cover story, drawing the reader in even if they do not like the band that is on the cover.
  
• The images on the front covers of NME are very varied in their styles, sometimes they are studio shoots, sometimes outdoor, sometimes location. This gives me a lot of versatility with the images that i want to take, meaning i can do what is best for me and it still look professional. I think i would rather take an outdoor image, and the magazine will look more like a music magazine than if it were a studio shoot, there is a danger it could look like a fashion or women's magazine.

The next magazine that i analysed was Q magazine, Q is a very well established magazine that reports on well established artists,, the music in it is very mainstream.


I chose these issues of Q to analyse because they ave various different genre's of artists on their covers.

• Unlike NME, the Q front cover very rarely changes it's style. We see a very consistent layout with the same amount of text on most of the covers shown here. I think this is because the genre of music is so varied, there needs to be consistency for the magazines customers. There is one large cover story, then many smaller inside stories on each of the issues. There is usually a graphic of some sort, on the Madonna cover there is a rectangular box containing the main feature of the issue 'women in music' this shows that this magazine was a special.
  
• The artist on the front of NME is not usually a band, although one of these covers has Metallica on, it is more likely to see a solo artist on the front of Q. This means that my magazine is similar to Q in the fact that it caters for more than one genre but dissimilar because there will be a band on the front cover. Also, Q only publishes stories on very well established artists, it's very hard to get a story, especially a cover story, in Q. This is the total opposite to the type of artist i want to write about, i want my magazine to be an introducing magazine promoting up and coming artists.
  
• Unlike NME, most of the cover images are shot in the studio, this gives Q a more formal and grown up look, again the opposite to how i want my magazine. This reaffirms my decision to use outside shots on my cover, but also shows me that i want my magazine to be classier that NME but not as formal and muted as Q.
  

The final magazine that i analysed was AMP, unlike my other magazines this one was based in America.


AMP magazine is a fairly new magazine and specialises in alternative/rock/metal music.

• Unlike Q magazine, AMP specialises in emerging bands that are not very well known, they're bands that already have a large fan base, but a fan base that is very specific to the genre of music that they produce. They are not well known outside of the group of people who are very in to this music. This is the type of magazine i want to make, dedicated followers of their genre will already know about these bands and will probably have seen them live but the rest of the world won't even know their name, this is the reason i chose the student population as my audience. It is similar to NME in that it writes about bands that only music enthusiasts will know about and will become main stream a few months after the magazine has written about them.
  
• The images on the cover of AMP are very male orientated, but the genre of music that AMP reports on is very male dominated. I feel that in my magazine i would like to represent females more than AMP do, because the music industry is very good for females at the moment. The genre of music that i want to aim my magazine at also has more female artists than the rock music that AMP writes about.
  
• One thing about the layout of AMP that i really like is that they use the band's logo/font on the front cover. An example of this is 'Four Year Strong' the way it is written on the front of the magazine is the band's trademark way of having their name, it is in the same font/colours that is on their albums/website etc. I like this idea as it gives a brand to the band and people will recognise this immediately, this will attract readers who are fans of the band that are on the front.
  

My audience is the student population, so between the ages of 16 and 26. The magazine will aim
to introduce up and coming bands, promote unsigned acts as well as speaking to and reviewing well established musicians. Up and coming, unsigned bands are very important to the 'trendy' student scene as going to their gigs allows students the chance to see great live music at a fraction of the price that they would pay for more established artists. I have taken ideas from all of the magazines that i have researched and have decided to used an outdoor photo shoot for my front cover, like NME. I will also be similar to NME in the way that i will be promoting up and coming artists that only have a very specialised fan base, music followers. The genre of music will be similar to NME, too, indie/alternative/electro/pop. I will use a similar page layout to Q, with very few graphics but a lot of writing, in similar fonts that fit well together. AMP has inspired me to use personalised fonts in the band names, to advertise the band's more.

i am now ready to take my photo's!