AS

1. Analysis of a front cover- Rolling Stones
The front cover(s) I will be analysing is a rolling stone magazine, which targets the Rock genre. I will
analyse how a rolling stone magazine is effective through the creation of a house style and the use of
language. House style is where a magazine uses the smear/similar structure and layout in every
magazine they produce. House style is used across every magazine genre, not only is music. For
example Rolling Stones use house style:
You can see the use of house music through the following front covers (above). The masthead shows
the use of house it’s located at the top of every magazine. This is effective as the audience don’t have
to look where the masthead is, but they know through previous experiences the masthead is at the top
of the page. Another use of house is through the layout of the text, as you can see with the 6 front
covers above they’re all similarly laid out; for example the sub-heading is always in bold, the biggest
on the front cover as well its normally always in white. Likewise in
every Rolling Stones front cover, a midshot or a close up is always
used never a long shot. This is effective as a midshot or a close shot
can evoke more emotion that a long shot as you see the person in
detail. But this is effective to a Rolling Stones magazine, as you
always know when you pick up a rolling stones magazine that on the
front cover you’ll see a front image of a person; this is effective as the
reader know when he sees a front image on the front cover he
definitely knows it’s a Rolling Stones magazine. Furthermore the
structure is very similar on all magazines, each rolling stones
magazine follow a similar structure and this is further proven by each
one looking identical to one another. For example by using kickers
and menu strips on the side of a magazine. This is a common
convention in all magazines, not only in Rolling Stones so it’s good to
include it inside the front cover as the audience probably expect
it. language used in Rolling Stone magazines varies depending on the
artist. For example on Adele’s front cover, then language used is standard
English as she Adele isn’t a informal person and the use of language
describes that. However on most of the magazines, the language used is
informal for example the term ‘Pot’ was used on the Jay Z front cover.
This shows the use of informal language, but it also describes the
magazine name Rolling Stones which was a rock band, and rock isn’t
clean and friendly music and informal language is used to describe this.
Similarly Rolling Stones sometimes use provocative language to describe
the person; in this Justin Bieber is considered to be one of the biggest
singers in modern music and fan favourite with the girls. The use of sexy,
provocative language is used by Rolling Stones to show off this attractiveness to the girls. Rolling
Stones uses language on the front cover dependant on the image of the person and their genre. Jay-Z
is a rapper,and due to rapping being linked with drugs and ‘Pot’ Rolling Stones thought the use of the
word ‘pot’ was okay in this front cover. In contrast to Jack Nicholson front cover, Jack Nicholson is
being portrayed as a kind old man and Rolling Stones believe the use of informal language in this
situation is not applicable.