Research

History of magazines (and music magazines), close analysis of three music magazine covers (including contents page(s) and double page articles).

Music Magazine - Research

Music magazines are magazines that are dedicated to music i.e. different artists, bands, song writers et cetera, and usually include written interviews, news about the music industry, photo shoots, song/music reviews, and concert reviews et cetera. Other magazine genres include: sports, gaming, fashion, celebrity gossip, and more.

Music is one of the best selling magazine genres today and has thus far survived the test of time, whereas other magazine genres are dying out. This being said, there are new magazine genres which are selling quite well – i.e. celebrity gossip - in an age of digital news and entertainment.

UK Magazine Publishers

IPC

Founded – 1958

Country of Origin – United Kingdom

Headquarter Location – London, United Kingdom

Published Magazines/Newspapers/Media – ‘25 Beautiful Homes’, ‘Amateur Gardens’, ‘Amateur Photographer’, ‘Angler’s Mail’, ‘Beautiful Kitchens’, ‘Chat’, ‘Chat – It’s Fate’, ‘Chat Passion’, ‘Country Homes & Interiors’, ‘Country Life’, ‘Cycle Sport’, ‘Cycling Active’, ‘Cycling Weekly’, ‘Decanter’, ‘essentials’, ‘European Boatbuilder’, ‘Eventing’, ‘Golf Monthly’, ‘goodtoknow’, ‘goodtoknow Recipes’, ‘Homes & Gardens’, ‘Horse’, ‘Horse & Hound’, ‘Housetohome’, ‘IBI’, ‘Ideal Home’, ‘InStyle’, ‘Livingetc’, ‘Look’, ‘Marie Claire’, ‘Motor Boat & Yachting’, ‘Motor Boats Monthly’, ‘Mountain Bike Rider (MBR)’, ‘Mousebreaker’, ‘NME’, ‘Now’, ‘Nuts’, ‘Pick Me Up’, ‘Practical Boat Owner’, ‘Rugby World’, ‘Shooting Gazette’, ‘Shooting Times & Country Magazine’, ‘Shootinguk’, ‘Soaplife’, ‘Sporting Gun’, ‘Style at Home’, ‘SuperTacht World’, ‘The Field’, ‘TrustedReviews’, ‘TV & Satellite Week’, ‘TV easy’, ‘TVTimes’, ‘Uncut’, ‘VolksWorld’, ‘Wallpaper*’, ‘What Digital Camera’, ‘What’s on TV’, ‘Woman’, ‘woman&home’, ‘Woman’s Own’, ‘Woman’s Weekly’, ‘World Soccer’, ‘Yachting Monthly’, ‘Yachting World’, ‘YBW.com’.

EMAP

Founded – 1947

Country of Origin – United Kingdom

Headquarters Location – London, United Kingdom

Published Magazines/Newspapers/Media – ‘Architects' Journal’, ‘Architectural Review’, ‘Construction News’, ‘Cooling Industry Awards’, ‘Ground Engineering’, ‘Heating & Ventilation News’, ‘Lighting’, ‘Materials Recycling Week’, ‘MEED’, ‘New Civil Engineer’, ‘RAC’, ‘Local Government Chronicle’, ‘Drapers’, ‘Retail Jeweller’, ‘Health Service Journal (HSJ)’, ‘Nursing Times’, ‘Broadcast’, ‘Screen International’, ‘Shots’, ‘Planet Retail’, ‘Retail Week’.

Future Media

Founded – 1985

Country of Origin – United Kingdom

Headquarters Location – Bath, United Kingdom

Published Magazines/Newspapers/Media – ‘T3’, ‘Total Film’, ‘Classic Rock’, ‘Guitar World’, ‘Official Xbox Magazine’, ‘GamesRadar.com’, ‘BikeRadar.com’, ‘TechRadar.com’, ‘MusicRadar.com’, ‘PhotoRadar.com’, ‘Cyclingnews.com’.

Music Magazine – Cover Analysis

 

This magazine cover page conveys the theme of “’rock’ and ‘heavy metal’” very well with its use of metal chains wrapping around the masthead, header, and central image. The chains give the impression that the band in the central image, Disturbed, are perhaps insane and are breaking free, free from the chains that kept them down. They also imply “danger”.

Furthermore, band members in the central image are all bearing teeth and growling and screaming, thus conveying a subtheme of “anger and pain”. A long shot of the overall band is used to clearly show every member, thus showing more growling faces and teeth. As well as this, the ‘out of the asylum’ text is in red coloured font, which resembles blood; and blood implies “death”.

The colour palette used for this cover is that of a dark and dull one, with the main colours being greys and blacks, but with some red as well. The typeset used furthermore adds to the previously mentioned themes: the font of the masthead is very bold and has sharp points and edges, the font of the header resembles shattered glass, and the rest of the text is also quite bold. The bold fonts imply “heavy” which refers to the genre of “heavy metal”.

The genre of this music magazine is that of the “retro” genre; this is made apparent by the cover’s colour palette, which primarily consists of black and white. The central image is a medium shot of former Beatles member, Sir Paul McCartney. The Beatles were a very popular and famous “rock” band who formed in 1960. The image used of McCartney is one of when he was in The Beatles; therefore he looks very youthful and has a “retro” hairstyle.

Furthermore, the typeset used for this cover page is large and bold, yet simple. The simplicity of the typeset also adds to the “retro” look of the cover. As well as this, the flash on the top left corner of the cover is plain grey with white text on it, and the flash has been made to look as though it is crumpled like an old photograph from the 1960s would probably be.

Music Magazine – Contents Page Analysis

This contents page uses a rough and worn-looking font for its titles, which “ties-in” with the chaotic music genre, "heavy metal". To continue the chaotic theme, the flash in the centre of the page is red and designed to look like a splatter of blood.

The page is split vertically down the middle; on the left is the content list, whilst on the right is an article by the editor, advertising the free CD they had included in the magazine and informing the readers of a ‘game’ and other topics in the magazine.

Also, the colour palette used on the left of the page primarily consists of the colours: red, white and black, with black text on the white background. In contrast, the right side of the page uses the same primary colour palette, but with white text on the black background. As well as this, the red resembles blood.