Print Music Magazine De-constructions - Q

The action performed by Matt Bellamy smashing a guitar the the 'Q' logo on the front cover connotes a rock band due to the energetic and aggressive action being performed. The clothing worn is dark in colour (mostly black) which connotes a rock genre. Matt is also wearing black eye make up which is iconic of this type of music. The font used on the main article about 'Muse' is in a very large font and stands out from the dark background, this is so the magazine appeals to the reader. It also shows that 'Muse' is going to be one of the main articles. The colours used on the front cover are also iconic of the rock genre e.g. black, grey, red.

Print Music Magazine De-constructions - KERRANG!

The front cover of KERRANG! Magazine shows Fall Out Boy; an alternative rock/emo band. Their clothing represents the genre they are wearing dark colours and chequered shirts which is iconic of this and other genres. One of Fall Out Boy’s lead men Pete Wentz is making a gun with his hand and pointing it to his head which kind of connotes an emo genre.

Similar to most music magazines the picture of the band is covering the masthead slightly showing that they do not need to completely show the masthead which shows they have anchored the title. The title is an important part in expressing what the theme of the magazine is; it is in a large white font on a black background, the font has a shattered glass effect on it and the edges of the wording look like they have been torn which connotes a rock genre. The actual name of the magazine is also important in the magazine being recognised as a rock magazine; it is called KERRANG! This is representative of the sound a guitar would make.

The structure of the cover and contents page are all very informal; some of the pictures and article titles are tilted and the edges are fuzzed out, again connoting the rock genre.

The contents page is relatively brief compared to other magazines such as NME. In the contents page half of it is a picture of ‘Shinedown’. This shows that this band features as one of the main articles.

Print Music Magazine De-constructions - NME

The first thing you notice when you look at the magazine is the main band on the front cover. This is a common technique used by music magazines to get the reader interested. The picture on the front shows a relatively new band called ‘Them Crooked Vultures’, NME may have picked this band to feature on the front cover due to the fact it features 3 member from different band who most people will have heard of so it will get them interested. The picture shows them wearing typical clothing of the genre for example dark clothing gothic necklaces etc. The font and size of the font is also very important in capturing the reader’s attention- the font used is very large and bold which connotes the genre of rock or something heavy. The font takes up a fair amount of room on the front cover this denotes that the band featured is going to be the main article.

The picture of ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ is slightly overlapping the masthead which denotes that they have anchored the masthead and do not feel the need for it to be the main focus of the cover. The colour codes of the magazine are generally red, black and white which are iconic of the genre.

There are also a number of secondary articles featured on the front cover such as an advertisement for an article featured in a bubble which could suggest that it is a special article for this edition of the article only.

The contents page carries on the colour scheme of the front cover. The contents page has a very disorganised layout to give an informal look to it to relate to the music genre which is indie/rock. The clothing codes worn are generally bright colours and strange designs which is typical of the genre. The fonts are also very similar to the front cover as it is bold and stands out a lot which connotes a rocky genre.

Print Preliminary Task

I think the front cover came out reasonably well for a first try. I decided to make the main focus of the cover the 'editing' article. I did this by making the title of it the biggest font, put it centre page and making the page background fairly mellow compared to the rest of the colours used to get the readers attention. I also put the 2 other main articles in a fairly large font for the same effect. I think i could have improved it by including more information on the cover and by make it more appealing to the reader. The programs I used were Microsoft publisher, GIMP photo editor, and Paint. I used gimp to manipulate the main front cover picture by using the path tool to cut around the main focus of the image as the background was not an important focus on my cover. I think I could of improved on the background of cover and contents page by making it more fitting for the type of magazine it is and by making the mast head and article wording a bit smoother round the edges.