This document analyzes and compares the layouts and designs of several music magazines. It notes key elements like mastheads, color schemes, placement of images, use of text, and how these elements are used to highlight artists and stories. Overall, the magazines displayed simple, colorful designs that drew attention to the main artists through large, central images and emphasized the primary articles through large text.

1. Music magazine analysis.
The main image is dominating the magazine
because it is covering part of the masthead, and
the text is surrounded around the image. When an
image is covering part of the masthead on a
magazine, this is usually ok because this means
that the magazine is popular and successful, so
having an image cover it lets people know it is
already a well recognised logo. The masthead has
a creative design with a variety of colours in a bold
font. It is nicely aligned at the top of the page.
There is no barcode, but under the masthead it
contains the date. The colour scheme used for this
magazine are the simple colours of pink, black and
yellow which are warm colours. The main
image, ‘Katy Perry’, is wearing a floral patterned
dress and is also covered in pink and yellow
sunflowers. This gives the magazine a summery
vibe, therefore we can see that this is a summer
issue. There are a variety of cover lines that give
us an insight on what each article in the magazine
is about. As Katy Perry is the main image, we
know that the main story will be about
her, especially as her name is in an increased
bolder font, standing out on the page.

2. This Billboard magazine compared to the
previous one of Katy Perry, we can see that
this one has a more professional look as it
contains more details. For example in this
magazine there is a barcode alongside the
date, the price and a website. It is always good
to include a website on magazines as this
gives the readers a chance to expand their
music knowledge through the internet as it
contains videos, audio tracks and more news
about artists. The colour scheme here works
well with a darker shade of colours; black and
grey, with the main image, ‘Lady
Gaga’, dressed in a black coat with bright
purple hair, this nicely contrasts against the
background. The masthead once again is
covered by the main image, giving the
appearance that this image is dominating. The
cover is simple with just the image of the artist
however, it works effectively as she has bright
hair which stands out and this brings attention.
There aren't too many cover lines which is a
good thing otherwise it would make the cover
look too cluttered and this can make readers
lose interest. We can tell straight away which
story is the most important as it is always in a
larger font and mainly associated with the
main picture.

3. A salmon orange and a simple blue colour
scheme on a plain white background is what
we notice straight away on this ‘RWD’ front
cover. What makes this magazine really
appealing is that the main image ‘Alesha
Dixon’ is wearing a very attractive dress that
is the same colour as the colour scheme.
She is looking straight into the camera, with a
sexy pose which makes her look
seductive, this will capture the readers
attention straight away. Underneath the
Masthead there is headline ‘FASHION
SPECIAL’ which alerts the reader that the
magazine has an element of fashion apart
from music. Based on my research, I learnt
that ‘RWD’ magazine features a variety of
topics from music, style, sport, films
etc, which is good because this means that
the magazine will have a wider range of
interests for their readers. Alesha is the only
dominating image on the cover, as she is
placed in front of the masthead, covering the
letter ‘W’. As there is only one image on the
front cover we can expect there to be a main
article about this artist, as there is a headline
at the bottom of the page with her
name, ‘ALESHA let her entertain you’. The
readers are also informed about what there is
to expect further into the magazine as the
column on the left side of the magazine is
only mentioning other music artists. There
isn't a lot of text surrounding the image
however, the layout is simple and effective.

4. This second ‘RWD’ magazine that I chose to
analyse has a very simple layout as
there is not a lot of text around the
image, only on the top right corner of the
page under the masthead which can
make the reader lose interest as there
isn't a variety of headlines and subheads
telling the reader what to expect
inside, which is what readers are
normally used to. This cover has a
mixture of vibrant colours such as
purple, yellow, green, blue and
red, which makes the magazine look
very colourful and fun and this will
definitely appeal to its audience. The
colour scheme is yellow and white, the
masthead is also in yellow, again the
image is dominating the cover and is
placed in front of the name. We are told
who the image is as her name is placed
at the bottom of the page. She is posing
and looking straight into the camera with
a slight smile which will make the
readers feel connected with her.