Music Magazine Research Task Two: Q Magazine Case Study

For my second research task I am going to research a front cover, contents page and double page spread from Q magazine, again this will feature a few pieces which feature the Arctic Monkeys to see the difference between the two magazines. Like the post below (NME magazine) I hope to find out the various codes and conventions and how both magazines use them and how each magazine presents the same artist/band.

Front Cover

This cover of Q magazine features quite a well designed cover, using quite a professional look, with the front cover photo taken quite clearly in a studio, whereas the NME front cover was taken outside, which gives the NME cover a more casual look, where as this cover is going for a more star studded effect, fitting in with the 'awards' theme.

the whole cover seems to be very tidy, which gives the cover a professional feel to it, this is a completely different stance on the same band from NME and Q, this could be down to the subject, whether the fact that being the awards edition they have given it a different feel compared to a regular feature of the Arctic Monkeys.

Contents Page

This contents page of Q shows another method of setting it out. Instead of the one page contents like in NME, where it is mostly words, with one image, the Q contents is over two pages, with some writing still, but the images guide the reader to the main features rather than having to scroll through various different lists of page numbers the information is presented to you with pictures. I find that this contents page more matches the NME cover, this is because this contents page is a lot less formal than the NME cover from a layout point of view. The conventions that Q magazine use are present here with the fonts and colours used, there is a lot of information here that fills the page but doesn't feel cluttered, all of the information present is easily accessable and nothing is hidden because of overcrowding in the page, overall I think if I was to do something like this for my magazine I would have achieved what I set out to do and what I expect of my work.

As far as the target audience for Q magazine is concerned I think that this is something that is easily appealing, as there isn't much reading to be done, and all the images relate to something that teenagers and young people would read. 

Double Page Spread

This double page spread of Lady Gaga is fairly typical of most Q magazine articles, I think that this article, like many others by Q is quite glamorous, whereas NME are a lot more casual, suiting the indie teenager that the magazine is aimed at, whereas Q is aimed at people who listen to popular music, and the glamour of the magazine is probably to make the reader feel like they are reading a quality product, and this matters when you are aiming the magazine at a vast majority of the population, whereas teenagers don't need glamour, they need something they can pick up, read for 5-10 minutes then put it down and come back to it later, which is where I suppose NME and Q differ.

In this double page spread there are several things that lead me to believe that this is a more glamorous article than most, one is the black and white photo of Lady Gaga with the more vintage hair style, and the necklace come dress front, the tasteful nudity in the photo could suggest vintage glamor as well. as far as the text goes the font is quite small, using the initials like in the NME magazine, this time it is in a more traditionally English font, giving it that extra effect of glamor and high class. The main feature of the whole double page spread and the only colour on the whole double page is the red L in the background of the text on the right hand side, this adds to the effect of the article, and also makes it more visually appealing, contrasting the black and white that would otherwise make the article quite boring. In the top left corner it has Lady Gaga's name like the NME article, this gives all the articles in the magazine some form of unity, and can be easily found when flicking through the magazine, because after all, Lady Gaga is a massive celebrity and will be a major selling point of the magazine. Overall I think that this glamorous effect that I get from this double page spread is another technique for creating bits of a magazine, it may be a good effect for me to use in my magazine as the simplicity of it is quite effective.

Music Magazine Research Task One: NME Magazine Case Study

For my first research task I am going to analyse NME Magazine's front cover, double page spread and contents page, the next post (the post above) will feature Q magazines . All of these posts will gain my understanding of what a magazine will do to draw readers in, how well it is presented and how the cover relates to the double page spread, or section of the magazine that it it trying to sell.

Front Cover

The front cover features the Arctic Monkeys, which is a theme I have tried to keep with both magazines because looking at two different magazines and the same artist can give me an understanding of how the two different magazines produce articles, contents pages and a cover to suit the artist/group.

In this front cover there are several techniques, there are the obvious conventions of the bar code, date, the masthead etc. But there are some things used in the cover that may make this cover stand out. The first thing that comes to mind is looking at the band and the way each of them are dressed, for example Alex Turner in particular, the lead singer (middle left) has been given quite a vintage look with the aviator sunglasses and the hair style, as well as all of them being given or them opting for the vintage short back and sides look with their hair swept back. The font used, the main coverline, the bands name, matches the look in the photo, it isn't to garish and isn't an outragous font, with obscure colours, it matches the rest of the page with a similar font to the rest of the coverlines and tag lines on the page.

The box at the top of the cover also with the style of the box and the fonts used within them are almost like a banner from a 1960's American bar, advertising the next band, which in a way the coverline is trying to do ''Blur Exclusive... another crack at America''. this fits in well with the theme of the whole page, the way that it all fits in would suggest that Arctic Monkeys are being represented in the magazine like they are going back to the roots of popular music, as if the magazine itself was going for a vintage cover look.

Contents Page

The contents page of NME is fairly simple, and fairly uniform every month, all of the smaller titles have the same black box with white writing inside, like a black highlight on the white page. the title itself has the same effect, with page numbers in red, coverlines in black with a slightly bigger and more bold font than the description of each article, the text isn't to big and doesn't jump out at you, giving every part of the magazine a fair chance over the rest. The image in the centre of the page related the cover to a part of the magazine, in this case page 45, I hope to achieve something like this with my magazine as it will make my magazine flow.

apart from the obvious conventions that NME have used there isn't a lot that is out of the norm. The only other things to note is the fact that they have a box at the bottom of the page in the centre that describes how to subscribe to NME magazine, of which I feel that this box is probably in the magazine frequently a lot as well, this is a good bit of self advertisement and keeps it on the mind of the reader whilst they read the magazine.

Double Page Spread

This double page spread in NME magazine, of the Arctic Monkeys is a fairly simple design, with the image on the left, stylised, artistic writing, which could have also been an image, with the text below having an Initial (larger capital letter to start the various paragraphs). 'The Joshua Code' relates back to the fact that at the time of this NME article Arctic Monkeys had either just recorded or were about to record in Joshua Tree, California, which was where Josh Homme was born, the lead singer of Queens Of The Stonage, and a producer for many of Arctic Monkeys songs, and the album Humbug.

In the top right hand corner of the page it has the band name, it is highly likely that this is a covention throughout the magazine, and is something I am tempted to use depending on what I do for my magazine and how I set it out. I feel that this is a nicely layed out intro page to an article, with the colours not being too 'in your face', the page isn't to cluttered but gives you all the information you need with simplicity in mind.