This document analyzes front covers, contents pages, and double page spreads from alternative rock magazines. It finds that front covers typically feature both male and female models equally, unlike other genres, and use bright colors like yellow despite the dark themes of alternative rock. Contents pages stick to dark colors and large images to represent the genre's attitudes and catch readers' attention. Double page spreads use full-page images of bands to draw attention to interviews and stories about new tours or interesting band anecdotes.

1. ANALYSIS OF FRONT
COVERS, CONTENTS PAGES
AND DOUBLE PAGE
SPREADS
By Bethan Revill

2. FRONT COVERS
By researching five different alternative rock front covers, I have come to a conclusion of
how this genre magazine portrays certain genders and classes and how they portray them
in the sense of stereotypes, ideologies and how they appeal to the audience through the
use of conventions and layout choices.
For starters within the front cover of the genres magazine, the cover models are a mixture
of men and women. The does not fit with the main ideologies of gender when it comes
to music magazines. Women are shown as being equal to men in the alternative rock
genre and this is uncommon in other genres. Quite often the female cover models are
shown to be smiling and laughing, whereas the male cover models are shown to be
serious.

3. I was surprised by the amount of different house styles in this genre. The colours
are red, black and yellow. I didn't think yellow would be one of the main colours as
it a very bright colour and doesn't seem to fit the ideology of alternative rock. Also
the bright colours tend to contrast the dark, making the words pop out more. The
typography tends to looked smashed and broken. This hints that alternative rock
music is loud and doesn’t fit the norm. The colours of text and pictures contrasts
and really stands out, for example yellow writing on a black background. The main
clothing colour tends to be black; this fits the dark representation of the genre.

4. CONTENTS PAGE
After analysis five contents pages, I have found out how they appeal to
audience and they represent the alternative rock lifestyle. The contents
pages all stick to dark house styles, black and dark blue. This represents
the attitudes portrayed by artists from this genre. All the images are large,
this catches the readers attention and makes them more noticeable.
The ‘pick and mix’ theory applies to the majority of the alternative
magazines I have analysed. This shows the magazines want to appeal to as
many audiences as possible.

5. Iconography is used massively in the contents page. The cover models
are wearing dark clothes, leather jackets and jeans. This shows them to
have a ‘bad’ attitude. In most of the pictures the cover models are
serious and not showing any expressions.

6. DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS
I have analysed several double page spreads. While doing this I have found out their
portrayal of alternative rock artists as well as they sort of stories that the audience
likes to read.
The images in the double page spreads usually cover a whole page (sometimes two),
this instantly attracts the readers attention and makes them notice the article next to
it. The images are usually the band messing around or acting seriously, there is no in
between. This shows different ideas of the genre.
The stories are mostly interviews about a new tour coming up or an interesting
story that grips the reader.