1. Conventions of a
Music Magazine!
How has my magazine ‘Mainstream’ followed the conventions of a real music magazine?
By Luca Abraham

2. My magazine front cover follows the basic layout conventions of a real music
magazine, it follows the line of sight which is a ‘Z’ formation shown on the
image to the right. The root of the eye ‘Z’ goes through the masthead, then
down through the main image, then finally across the main cover line. This
shows where most people look when they first look at a magazine front
cover, the masthead is on this ‘Z’ formation because its the title of the
magazine so it should be the first thing they see. The ‘Z’ then goes through
the main image which is related to the main cover line, this is an important
feature for the readers to see at a first glance because if they recognise the
artist then they will want to read the magazine. The ‘Z’ finally goes through
the main cover line, this is the main article in the magazine and so having it
on the ‘Z’ formation will attract readers because they will see the cover line
when they glance at the cover.
My front cover has quite a few cover lines, this means readers may think the
front cover is too cluttered. Compared to other music magazines my front
cover has a lot more cover lines, this may attract the reader to want to buy
the magazine or it may put the reader off because they may think the front
cover is too cluttered and that it doesn’t look professional.
The main image on the front cover slightly covers a section of the tagline, this
is featured in many real music magazines because it shows the magazine is
well known therefore the whole title doesn’t have to be shown. I have used
this feature, it will attract people to the magazine because they will think the
front cover looks professional.

3. The image on my front cover is of ‘Chad Taylor’ standing with his
arms to the side, pointing. This is a mid-shot which is commonly used
on a front cover of a music magazine to show what the artist is
wearing, which may relate to the genre of music he is part of. The
image has been turned grey by using Photoshop, this is commonly
used by music magazines.
The images on the double page spread have been Photoshoped to
make them interact with the colour scheme. The first image is of
‘Chad Taylor’ standing with a guitar, it is a mid-shot and Photoshop
has been used to make the word ‘Eagle’ on his t-shirt stand out in red
to react with the colour scheme on the double page spread. The
second image is also a mid-shot, it shows ‘Chad Taylor’ posing, these
kind of poses are commonly used in music magazines. The image has
been sent to the back of the page so it is behind the words in the
article, this has been used a lot by music magazines because it makes
the article look more interesting instead of it just being words.
I have only used one image on the front cover because I looked at a
variety of music magazines and a majority of them only have one
main image on the front cover, also the shot angle I used is used in a
majority of music magazines.

4. My magazine follows some of the typography conventions of a real
music magazine, the fonts I used follow the conventions for example
the main cover line ‘Chad Taylor is here!’ is in a bold font and is all
capitals, this makes it stand out and catches the readers eye. Many
magazines do this because it makes the main cover line stand out so
readers will notice it.
Also I have used bold and underlining on my cover line ‘ Win two tickets
to see Tinie Tempah!’, I have used underlining and bold to show a
certain word is of great importance, which many music magazines use
also to show the same thing. The word ‘Win’ has been underlined and
made bold so that the word stands out and attracts readers to it, music
magazines use it so that readers will want to buy the magazine to have
a chance to win this competition.
I have used feminine font on the cover line ‘Rihanna tour dates
announced!’ because the article is about a female artist. Music
magazines use feminine font on cover lines about female artists to
show the readers that this article is about a female, therefore I have
used this such technique on my magazine.
I have used many exclamation marks to attract the readers of my
magazine to the cover lines. Exclamation marks are commonly used in
real music magazines to attract readers to certain important cover lines
and articles. I have also used a kicker in my double page spread, a lot of
music magazines use these to make the article look nicer and more
professional. My magazine follows many typography conventions of
real music magazines to make it stand out and make it more
professional.

5. I have used language in my magazine that many music
magazines use, to make my magazine more professional and to
follow the basic conventions of a real music magazine.
In one of my cover lines I have used the word ‘WIN’ to show
that this article gives readers the chance to win a prize. Many
music magazines have competitions and use the word ‘WIN’,
usually in capital letters and underlined, to tell the reader that
in the magazine there is a possibility of winning a prize.
I have used the word ‘NEW’ on many different occasions in my
magazine, this word attracts readers to the magazine because
they know this is either, a new album, a new artist or new
information about a particular artist. Music magazines like to
use this word to attract readers and make them want to read
more into the article.
I have used pull quotes to attract the reader to articles in my
magazine, music magazines usually use pull quotes to make
the readers want to read the article, they pull out key quotes
from the article and show them on the front cover as a cover
line. I have done this on my double page spread to make
readers want to read the rest of the article.
I have used ‘Mainstream’ as my masthead because it is the
genre of music my magazine is about, music magazines usually
have words or phrases to do with their genre as their
masthead.