Magazine Analysis

1. Magazine
Analysis
In this I will look at several music magazines and
analyse them

2. As you can see this is a billboard magazine which has Florence
on the front of it. I would say that this is a medium long shot
because you can see from the top of her head all the way down
to her lower thigh, (just above the knee). She has her arms up
above her head and she is also doing direct address, which is
looking directly into the camera. Doing so shows that she wants
to connect with the audience in some way. They may have done
this because it might grab the readers attention. What I mean
by this is that they might pick the magazine up and see that she
that she is looking directly at them so it might make them look
at the page for longer, and then hopefully they would want to
read on and buy the magazine. I would say that this is not a full
bleed image, because she does not take up the whole page. If
she was too take up the whole page then there would be no
point in her doing that pose, because you would not see half of
it. You would most probably only see her, chest, neck, face and
possibly part of her arms. Furthermore for this picture, Florence
must be close to the background because you can see her
shadow quite distinctively. It could be that, or the shadow
could have been photoshopped in. As well as this the
background does not seems to be that clear on what it actually
is. I would say that it is a plain grey background but there are
shadows so there are other objects there. Additionally the
lighting seems to be coming from above of directly in front of
her, so this means the lighting is either top lighting or frontal
lighting. I would have to say that it is more liking going to be
top lighting but its not directly looking down at her, it would be
at a lower angle. I think this because if you look at her shadow
it is slightly lower than herself so the lighting must be coming
from above her. As well as this her facial expression is very
simplistic. I think she is doing quite a serious facial expression,
which brings me back to how it may grab the readers attention.
What I mean is that if you have a serious face and you are also
looking directly into the camera then it can draw the reader in,
because she is making eye contact with you, and having the
serious face adds emphasis. Within this magazine there are no
other images around the front page, there is only Florence and
all the cover lines.
The colours used for this magazine cover are very simplistic. The main
colours used are grey, white and maroon/burgundy. The grey is used on
the background, the white is used on the cover lines and the burgundy is
used on the dress Florence is wearing. They have made Florence's’ dress a
darker and bolder colour because they want her to stand out from the
page, and be the first thig that you look at when you pick the magazine up.
This magazine page is not as busy with its cover lines, but
it does have quite a few on it. The first cover lines is
right at the top and this across the width of the page; its
says ‘George Clinton Vs. Universal music group; what will
it mean for the old school.’ I'm not exactly sure what this
implies but the first part of the phrase is in bold which
emphasises on that particular phrase. On the left hand
side of the page you have some more cover lines. The
one at the top uses alliteration and it says ‘Power
preorders’. This is in bold white writing and stands out
from the writing underneath. The next cover line
underneath says ‘New management’ and this is also in
bold. And that last cover line on the left hand side says,
‘Genre expansion’. Just like the rest it is in the shade
white and is in bold. Similarly on the other hand side of
the page u have a few cover lines. The first one says, ‘25
years of hot Latin songs chart.’ This black writing is in a
grey text box that is slightly transparent. Doing so makes
the writing stand out than the rest, because it has a text
box around it, and the colour black. Below this it has a
list of some Latina singers. And they are, ‘Luis Miguel,
Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglesias, Prince Royce and Ricky
Martin.’ All of these words are in bold and in the colour
white, and also between each name you have a small
grey line which divides them apart. I would say that this
just adds design and effect to the page. Underneath this
there is another cover line which says ‘The boss team
that built Foster the People’. That phrase foster the
people is in bolder writing. This is a band name and
having it in bold makes it stand out from the page. This
means that anyone who's likes that band can easily see
whether a certain magazine talks about them inside. The
font used for the cover lines is very similar to ‘Agency
FB’. This font does not include serifs. In the centre of the
magazine there is grid which has 9 squares to it. In each
square there is a letter and these letters spell out
Florence. In the bottom right corner of the grid there is n
ampersand and underneath that in a smaller font it says
The machine. So overall it says Florence & the Machine
(this is the name of her band). This grid stands out from
the page because it is on top of the burgundy dress and
as the writing is white the colours stand out from each
other. The font that is used for writing is similar to
‘Century’. This font uses serifs which makes it more
fancy compared to the other fonts uses on the page.
The masthead is the word Billboard and it is placed behind
Florence, which implies that she is the most important
image on the page. Also it tells us that the company has
become so successful that they do not need to show their
name as much because they know that people will
recognise their magazine almost instantly. Also, the
masthead is in the colour white. The letter ‘b’ has its
centre filed with red, the letter ‘a’ is blue and letter ‘d’ is
yellow. These three colours stand out from the page.

3. This magazine is a billboard magazine and as you can see Adele
is on the front cover. The Masthead of this magazine is the
word Billboard. They have used the colour white for the
masthead because white stands out the most from black. The
word ‘billboard’ stretches across the width of the page,
however it is behind the main image which is Adele. This tells
us that she has the most importance on this page. She almost
seems to stand out from the page and looks slightly 3D because
she is in front on the masthead. Also Adele is the biggest image
on the page, which implies the same thing as before, (she is
the most important image on the page. You could also say that
they are trying to grab the audiences attention with this
image. Also they may have made her the most important image
so they can keep the artist happy, and Adele is a one of the
most popular British artists so why would they not want to
make her the main image. Furthermore, this front cover uses
direct address, because Adele is staring right into the camera.
This implies that she is trying to connect with the audience by
looking directly at us. I would say that the first thing you
notice on this page as soon as you pick it up is Adele, and in
more depth I would say you look directly at her eyes, because
they seem to be the feature that stands out the most. This
could be because of the fact that she has bold eye makeup on
which makes the eyes stand out more than anything else on
her face. Saying this brings me back to direct address. Her
eyes stand out more because she is looking directly at the
camera. Moreover Adele seems to wearing a plain black top,
but it is hard to notice as it blends in with the background. The
only features that are visible of her is her neck and her head.
This tells us that we only needs to focus on her face and
nothing else. Her expression seems to be quite simple. You
could say that she has quite a concentrated look, which brings
me back to the idea that she is trying to connect to the
audience which is why she has a concentrated look. As well as
that the lighting seems to be key light and fill light. This light
is generally the most appealing light to use, because it can
make you skin look smoother and clearer, however make up
can also do that same job. Looking at the image I would say
that it is a full bleed image, because the majority of the
picture takes up most space on the magazine cover. As I have
said previously this makes Adele stand out a lot more. Other
than Adele there is noting else in the background expect from
just the plain black background.
Below Adele is the word ‘music’. This is in
bold bright colours, (blue, red, yellow,
and green). They have purposely made
the word music in bold colours, because
they are wanting it to stand out. Also
they have outlined the word in white
which also helps it to stand out more. As
well as this the white outline includes
serifs, and each little serif that stands out
(these are the small round circular shapes
on the end on the letters) is a different
colour. This makes it more unique and
different. Around that word they have
included a leaf like pattern, and this
pattern carry's on all around the page.
The pattern seems to lead your eyes to
the next feature on the page, cover lines.
The cover line that seems to stand out
the most is the one that says ‘The year of
Adele’. This would be the cover line that
stands out because the main image of the
page is Adele. The rest of the cover lines
seem to be all the same size, font and
colour. The cover lines seem to talk about
a range of things, for example: The year
in dance music, the year in major-label
movies, the year in $5 CO’s and the year
in post-myspace world. They all seem to
repeat the phrase ‘The year in…’ which
could imply that they will only be talking
about this year and not last year or what
might happen in the future, only this
year. Furthermore the cover lines are all
placed around Adele, and in this case
they are just down both sides of the
page. For each phrase ‘The year in’ the
size of the writing is smaller than the
word after it. So for example: For the
phrase ‘ The year in Jason Aldean’, the
words Jason Aldean are bigger than the
phrase The year in. they might do this
because they want to emphasis on the
artists name or what the cover line is
about. They make the main point stand
out from the rest of the sentence.
The font used is very simple, its just a plain white
bold font. I would say that it is very similar to the font
Ariel narrow, however it’s a bit longer. This font is san
serifs, which is generally more common than having
serifs, however they do use it for the word music.
They use the flicks in a different colour for each
letter, so the letter M is in blue and the flicks are in
red. The two colours that r used for each letter seem
to be contrasting colours so they stand out from one
another. Also the flicks are connected to the white
outline and they are shaped as a circle.

4. As you can see this is a Q magazine. The main image of this
magazine is Florence and this is a medium shot, which involves
her from waist up. Her right hand is reaching out towards the
audience which implies that she is trying to reach out and touch
you. This is said at the bottom of the magazine underneath her
name. It could also imply that she is trying to connect with
whoever is reading this and also you could say that she is trying
to tie you in and read that magazine. From what it looks this is
not a full bleed image because she does not take up the whole
page. The reason why they may have made it not full bleed is
because it is a medium shot and I personally think that it would
have looked too much if you made the picture bigger.
Furthermore the angle of the camera seems to be a low angle
shot, what I mean by this is that the camera is angled below
Florence. This gives her some sort of importance because we are
looking up to her. This could be a metaphor because people could
quite literally look up to Florence, in other words she could be
someone's inspiration. Also she is the main image so she would be
the most important feature on the front cover. As well as that,
this image also has direct address, which is when the artist or
person is looking directly into the camera. This gives us the idea
that she is trying to connect with us and it also gives her some
significance. Moreover in the picture of Florence she is holding a
microphone, which tells us that she seems to be singing to the
audience. This could explains why she is holding her hand out,
because most singers do that when they sing as they are trying to
connect to the. I would say that the angle of light is coming from
above, but not directly above her head because otherwise the
light would not be as directed on her face. The light is in front of
her but it is up high up and at an angle. I would say that her
facial expression is almost serious but she is singing to the reader
so its as if she is trying to connect through singing, by doing so I
would say that she looks like she is trying to concentrate. The
place at which this shot was taken looks like a studio shot, mainly
because the background is quite dark and you are not going to be
taking magazine covers outside at night. The masthead for this
magazine is the letter Q, and it is in the top left right hand
corner. It is in the colour white and is in a red square. This would
probably be one of the focal points for the magazine.
The main colours that are used in this magazine are red, white,
black and a bit of yellow. I have not included the colours used in
Florence's clothing, but if I was then I would include cream, and
pale pink. I would say that they have used quite dark colours so
it gives the magazine quite an edgy/indie feel.
Just by looking at the magazine you can tell that the cover
lines take up a huge amount of space. The biggest cover
line is most probably the one at the very top which says 50
Indie Rock records you must own. The words ’50 indie
rock’ is in much bigger font than the rest of the sentence,
(records you must own). This is because if you like indie or
rock music they want to grab your attention by saying your
style of music in big bold letters. I would say that the font
used for this cover line is close to Bell MT, and this font
uses serifs. Most magazines don’t use serifs because
sometimes it does not work, but I personally think that
they have pulled it of, and that it really works well with
the page. Underneath that phrase you have a list of some
of the indie and rock artists that they said you should
listen to and they used a slightly different font. I would
say that it is similar to Ariel, and this time they do not use
serifs. Also the font is smaller than the cover line itself.
Underneath that cover line you have a button and they
have used a bright yellow to make this stand out from the
page. It says in white font ‘Plus, the A-Z of indie,
introduced by Noel Gallagher.’ Using the word plus draws
the audience in because they are saying it as if there is
more interesting and exciting things to read so it makes
the audience want to buy the magazine. The word A-Z is
in much bigger font than the rest of the phrase because
this is the more important part of the phrase. When you
say A-Z you know you will get a list of something to like
before they make it bigger to draw the audience in. In
smaller writing it then says ‘introduced by Noel Gallagher’
and his name is in the colour yellow. Doing this makes his
name stand out more. Underneath you have two more
cover lines which I would say are less important, mainly
because they are the smaller cover lines and they do not
stand out as much as the rest. Both involve names which
are in a bigger font than the information underneath. On
the other side of the magazine underneath the masthead
you have in big letters ‘Hit Men’. As you can see this cover
line starts with an imperative because it starts of with a
verb. Like before, having the phrase in big letters
emphasises it and makes it stand out from the page;
grabbing the readers attention. Underneath that they have
used syndetic listing, ‘Behind Rihanna, Beyoncé and
Coldplay. Also this cover line uses the same font used on
the other side for the list of 50 Indie Rock records.
Furthermore another big cover line says ‘Florence’
in big red writing which is found in the bottom left
hand corner. This is in a more fancy font to
everything else on the page, ( its very similar to the
font Lucida Handwriting). Doing this makes the writing
stand out from the page a bit more. Underneath
Florence it says, ‘wants to reach out and touch
you…’ This phrase emphasises on how Florence
connects with the audience. Also the font used is
the same as the one that says ‘50 Indie Rock’. The
last cover line is right at the bottom and goes across
the width of the page. Its says some artists name
and the first one is in red, then white, then red and
pattern carries on.