Music magazines are publications dedicated to specific music genres like pop, rock, and hip hop. They contain news, interviews, reviews and photos related to artists within that genre. Readers expect to see images of musicians associated with the genre as well as content reflecting the target audience. Magazine covers aim to attract their target readership through large mastheads indicating the genre, central images of famous artists, and headlines about featured content.

1. General questions about music magazines

2.  A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture.
Music is a specific genre of magazine which contains sub-genres of different
music categories such as: Pop, Rock, Hip-hop, Classical etc. They are created
for a specific target audience that are interested in the specified music genre.

3.  You would expect to find text about individual music artists. Music
magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays,
record reviews and concert reviews. The news is likely to be about new or
upcoming singles and albums, they might include the music chart according
to the genre of music that the magazine is focussing on.

4.  You would expect to find images of the music artists associated with that
genre of music. You might also find images of things generally associated
with that style of music, for example: violins and pianos on a classical music
magazine and drums and electric guitars on a rock music magazine. The
images might be stereotypically darker on a rock magazine to reflect and
appeal to the target audience. Whereas they may be brighter and happier on
a pop magazine.

5.  Masthead that links to the music genre
 The cover lines and main image will link to a music artist who is likely to be
well known or a newcomer within the genre.
 The date, price and barcode are a legal requirement
 You are likely to have direct address in the main image
 A skyline/strapline will call the readers attention to special features and
featuring music artists
 Anchorage text about a main artist

6. Questions about music magazine front
covers (looking at 4 covers)

7.  Large masthead is positioned at the top of the cover
 Main image of a music artist or band
 Main sell line/anchorage text linked to the main image
 Cover lines are either side of the image
 Rule of thirds is used and the main image is most likely to be central

8.  The masthead instantly tells the reader the name of the magazine and often
suggests the genre by the use of font and colours
 The main image is likely to be of someone that the target audience are
familiar with so this attracts the right audience to the magazine
 The main cover line will tell the audience who the main image is and may
give a quote or link to the article about them
 Cover lines are placed either side of the image so that they do not obscure
the image up.
 Rule of thirds is used to follow conventions of magazines and so that specific
images or text are positioned in hotspots.

9.  The sub-genre of this magazine is Pop.
 We instantly know that this is the sub-genre
because the masthead is ‘Top of
the Pops’ which was also a well known
pop music show. The main image is of the
famous boy band One Direction who fall
into the genre of Pop. Other more subtle
things suggest the genre, such as the
bright colours which you are unlikely to
see on a Rock magazine. The cover lines
show images of the other music artists
that feature in the magazine who also
sing pop music. The header ‘50 Huge
Chart Hits’ suggests the sub-genre of Pop
because the main music chart is
dominated by Pop music.

10.  The target audience is likely to be pop
music fans and particularly One Direction
fans. These tend to be children or young
teenagers, the magazine is also likely to be
targeting girls because the colour pink
features a lot and the puff in the top right
hand corner says: ‘132 Perfect Party Buys’
and girls are stereotypically interested in
clothes and shopping.
 The magazine may have a second target
audience of parents because children
interested in the magazine are unlikely to
be the ones buying the magazine. The
cover appeals to parents because it is
appropriate for children and looks childish.