Analysis of Magazine front covers

Analysis of Q Magazine - Rock genre

Colours

The colours used on Q magazine are again, a red, white and black style. As with NME, this is associated to rock, heavy metal and indie music. All the colours are very bold and stand out and are stereotypical colours for their target audience. This means that the target audience are attracted to the magazine straight away. All three colours mix well together yet stand out separately which draws the reader’s eye to every part of the magazine.

Design and Images

The design of Q magazine seems very neat, tidy and gives it a sophisticated look, yet the colours, big and bold words and image used means that it keeps that rock feeling. The huge masthead ‘Q’ in the top left corner on a bold red background catches the reader’s eyes straight away as it can’t be missed. The slogan below it reading, ‘DISCOVER GREAT MUSIC’ tells the readers that it must be a really good magazine about music and not celebrity gossip. The feature headline is located along the bottom of the page but is hugely visible as it’s in bright, large red and white letters. All the cover lines are going down either side of the page in fonts which give it an excited feel. This draws attention from the reader as they think that there’s going to be some good articles and stories inside. In the top right corner there is a pug used which catches the reader’s eye also.

The feature image used is taking up most of the page in the middle and is quite simple, yet very effective. The image Of Liam Gallagher’s face is very plain but in his glasses, there is a reflection of the rest of the band. This looks exciting and clever and readers want to know more about it. Although the image is plain, it still has a sophisticated rock style to it which is well aimed at the target audience.

Language and Words

The feature headline and feature image create a clever and effective pun. The headline reads “ Liam’s beady eye kick off” which works well with the image of Liam as the story is about him, yet the rest of the band is included into this story still and in the feature image as they are in the reflection of his ‘beady eyes’. This suggests that Liam has had a kick off with the rest of his band and creates excitement for the reader, attracting their target audience, music lovers. All the cover lines are interesting stories, using exciting quotes and random words. This automatically attracts many different people to the magazine which means that is has many different audiences as well as it’s focused one.

Overall Impression

I think that this front cover attracts its main audience and other readers extremely well. The house style of the magazine (sophisticated yet with a rock style) means that rock lovers and more mature music lovers will want to read the magazine and therefore, it has attracted more audiences than originally aiming for.  All the elements of the magazine stand out and your eye can’t miss anything.