Music magazine front cover analysis

Izzy Walker 22 / 09 / 15

Analysing music magazine covers This front cover of the popular alternative magazine ‘Rock Sound’ holds typical codes and conventions for a rock magazine in the use of colours, however contains the expected use of techniques other music magazines hold.

The colours noticed first by the target audience will be the most dominant of red and yellow – these colours are typically used on rock magazines such as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘NME’, both of them being a more alternative magazine that appeals to the rock society. These are colours are dominantly used on rock magazines as the red conveys the rage in rock music and the power it has over people.

This cover also features black, white and a small amount of blue.

The main image features the newly popular band ‘Twenty One Pilots’. The red make up Josh Dunn (left) has smeared around his eyes links with the most dominant colour on the page (along with the colour of his hair). This is somewhat of a trademark for the band as any fan will instantly know who it is, even without the bold main cover line. Tyler Joseph (right) is quite ‘normal’ looking when being compared to his band mate and drummer Josh. The cover also features other rock / metalcore bands such as Paramore, Asking Alexandria, Fall Out Boy and Babymetal – the majority of which are bands I listen too, in which I consider myself as somewhat of a ‘metal head’ and general rock enjoyer. However, the band ‘5 Seconds of Summer’ is also mentioned, which shows this magazine features some pop punk bands as this is the genre this particular band specialize in - a band I do not enjoy myself.

The masthead matches the colour theme of red and yellow, however when looking at other ‘Rock Sound’ magazines, it is always in the same font and the same place, making it easy for the readers to spot at the font used will have become somewhat connected to the magazine. Examples of this can be seen in the picture to the left- also notice how yellow is used on the majority of ‘Rock Sound’ magazines, supporting my arguments of the typical colours used on a rock magazine.

Only around 2/3 different fonts are used on this magazine, one for the masthead which is seen as the typical font normally used by the magazine, one for the main and other cover lines and possibly one type of font used in the blue bubbles positioned towards the top of the magazine. They have limited the amount of fonts used to ensure the magazine isn’t overcrowded and difficult for the reader to identify the main stories featured in the magazine; however, they have used a variety of different font sizes on the cover, but not too many that it’ll confuse the target audience and make it difficult to read.

The target audience to this type of magazine would be people who are similar to myself, the magazine itself uses a nice variety of bands that cover all genres that have something in common with the alternative nature of the music type. This will attract an audience who are quite alternative and don’t pay attention to the chart music.

Izzy Walker 22 / 09 / 15 This magazine cover for the heavy metal magazine ‘Metal Hammer’ perfectly portrays the aesthetics of the metal head community. They have followed the colour scheme of orange, red, white, black and a colour somewhere between orange and yellow; this is almost the exact same to the previous magazine ‘Rock Sound’ however at different shades. The shades used on ‘Metal Hammer’ are a lot darker than the ones used on ‘Rock Sound’- even though they all come under the dominant colours of red, yellow and orange.

Excluding the two shades of black and white, all of the colours mirror the fire which has been placed behind the famous heavy metal band ‘Five Finger Death Punch’; in which they have used colours to represent the mood of rage, which is a mood strongly associated with metal and metal lovers due to the conventions of a metal concert of ‘moshing’ which is fighting in a large group to the sound of the music.

The main image, as already briefly mentioned, features the very popular band ‘Five Finger Death Punch’ (or ffdp for short); this conveys the idea that the target audience will be towards the older section of the metal society as the band members themselves are of the older generations and as the magazine ‘Metal Hammer’ itself covers both traditional and contemporary metal bands, the youngest reader would possible be early 20’s. The cover also features the band ‘Metallica’, who are extraordinarily popular in mostly the older generations.

The masthead itself appears to be rusted, reflecting on both the idea of the genre of metal music and the material of metal. It is in a dark yellowish / orange colour which will be connected with the element of fire and heat.

The main cover line has been placed over the main image in the brightest colour used on the cover. It is also in the second biggest font, after the masthead; this makes it clear to the reader what story the feature article will be based around.