I shall now look at how one particular music magazine has changed over the years. To help me develop my own ideas on a front cover I will look at how the style of languages, font, colours and positioning of covers have changed over the years. The magazine I have chosen to base my research on is Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph Gleason founded Rolling Stone in 1967.
The first issue of Rolling Stones featured John Lennon dressed in an army outfit. The photo is very old looking and goes with the rest of the cover. the cover is in black and white this could be to save money on printing cost there is an article on the front of the magazine similar to a newspaper, this is to save money as well as illustrating the article and its importance as it is the first issue.
This issue was published in 1985 with two famous movie stars on the front. This issue looks more like a magazine as it has strap lines, headings and names of the article to draw an audience in, giving it a typical magazine layout. The font is the same as when the magazine first came out, however the magazine now has a theme that it follows white backgrounds with black font. It is a simple look which works.
IPC media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher. Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read an IPC magazine. Thats over 27 million UK adults. IPC publishes 80 magazines including Nuts, Uncut, Pick me up, Marieclaire, NME, Look and Now. The only music magazinesIPC publishes are NME and Uncut, where as Bauer another large magazine publishing company, publishes Q, Kerrang!, Empire, POP and MOJO. Bauer is the largest consumer magazine publishing company in the UK. It also publishes 238 magazines worldwide including Closer, Heat, Grazia and ZOO to 15 different countries. Both companies have a range of different media outlets in which the public can use such as internet sites, tv, magazines, events and radio.
I have chosen NME music magazine as a case study. NME (The New Musical Express) is aUK based magazine published weekly by IPC however NME.COM is Europe's biggest and most viewed music website.
Audience:
65% Male*
50% 16-24*
23% 25-34*
The website for NME (http://www.nme.com/home) is attractive as the layout is clear and simple, however is still eye catching, its main colour scheme is similar to the magazine as it uses yellow, red, white and black, helping it appeal to its wide target audience by keeping the design and colours simple. Although it is rather masculine it still appeals to the 35% of female readers. The layout of the website is clear and easy to use this is important as it saves the user having to spend time looking for what they want. The page isn’t too crowded to tempt an older target audience.
Rock and Indie music genres are mostly presented on the website, we can see this at first glance as the likes of ‘Blink-182’, ‘Rage Against The Machine’ and ‘Vampire Weekend’ are shown however there is some alternative music like dance but this is lower down the page.
They make extra money by selling products online as they have a NME store where you can by T-shirts, CDS, DVDS and vinyl they also have music downloads where you can download music straight to your phone. They also hold events for example the NME awards and concert. This is a good way for them to make money as lots of tickets are sold and it also connects with the readers as they then feel involved.
Young adults aged over 18 who can afford to go out each weekend and to buy CDs many of the articles are album reviews. In addition, the magazine is also aimed at DJs or people who enjoy mixing music as its gives advice and has adverts selling electrical equipment used to do this.
How does the reader ‘interact’ with the magazine?
With every magazine a free CD is given, they also have many Nightclub listings as well as there own events.
Mixmag is a magazine aimed at people aged over 18 who enjoy clubbing and going out. The covers always use a range of bright colours and clear bold fonts which suggests youthfulness, this is to attract its audience. The magazine gives away a free CD of specially featured music in each monthly addition this makes the magazine more appealing and helps increase sales and people are drawn to free gifts. The title of the magazine 'Mixmag' proposes that there is a range of different styles of club music. this makes Mixmag more appealing over other magazines as it is inclusive and saves the buyer having to buy three different magazine for three different genres that are similar forexample like drum & bass, dubstep and jungle.
The background colour of the magazine is a bright yellow to symbolize the liveliness of the music and young people reading it.
The font colours are white, black and blue which stand out clearly against the vibrant yellow background. The main heading for this addition has a black drop from behind it to make it stand out even more and to like it to the title of the magazine making the heading seem almost as important. All the sell lines and teasers are at a slanted angle this could suggest the creators of the magazine looking at a new angle of music. It also flows with the angle the two artists featured on the cover are leaning.
The image is of a man and woman in the band with the mouths wide open as if they are shouting this makes the reader wonder what they are shouting about and buy the magazine as they could find out inside. The two peoples lively facial expression and positioning suggests that they are energetic people who do things their own ways therefore, rebelling against the conventions of music and doing it who they like. The designs of mixmag covers and themes seem to challenging magazine conventions, which is what music does to our ways of living.
