Analysis of a front cover

Many Music Magazine covers are recognisable by the colours which have been used. For example Q always use red in their title. Whereas NME use different colours to match the bands or artists which have been presented on the front cover. You can also tell magazines apart by looking to see which bands/artists have been used on the front covers. Here I have three examples of music magazines:

As you can see Arctic Monkeys have been selected as the front cover of this NME, released in 2011. The thing in which I notice straight away is the way that the band have been positioned, with Alex being at the front and the rest of the band more towards the back. They have been placed in order of importance, the lead singer first and so forth. The reason that this has been done is so that when we, the audience, see the magazine will straight away recognize Alex, the lead singer, who is slightly more famous than his band members, this will then make us, the audience, want to then buy the magazine. 

Another thing in which I am drawn to is the colours that have been used. The connotations of green, to me, are fresh, clean, which directs you to the introduction just beneath the title, 'back in business', this indicates that they have possibly been away for sometime and have just returned with a 'fresh' new style. The white has been used to complement the green and also give a clean vibe off to the reader. This then brings me to the clothes in which they are wearing, as you can see Alex is wearing a plain t-shirt, this shows that they are there to purely show their fans that they are back, they preferably want to draw attention to that, rather than themselves. 

After reviewing this magazine's front cover I have decided that I would like to incorporate the models stance, the way in which the lead singer, Alex Turner, is standing is very powerful. He is made to look extremely important. I like this. The way in which he is looking very deeply into the camera creates a mysterious vibe and really entices the audience, therefore I would like to include something like this in my work to make it stand out.

As you can see for this NME, Peter Doherty has been chosen. The most noticeable thing on here is that Doherty has no clothing on, from what we can see. This immediately makes you think that this interview will be very stripped back and will focus a lot on him rather than his music. You also believe that this will be aimed more so at females, simply because he has no clothing on and the palette of colours which have been carefully selected; white and pink, are both really very girly and plain, which is what we assume the interview will be like.

Just underneath the title there is a quote from Doherty which reads "I'll say sorry to every single person from the depths of my heart", this will attract the reader a lot, as it makes you want to read on and find out what he has initially done wrong, it also makes the reader falsely assume that he could be a really nice person because of the wording in which he has used, but he could in actual fact be a bad person.

Again I have analyzed this front cover and have came to the conclusion that I will use the text used on this magazine cover as a template. As I mentioned previously, I thought that the editor was very clever in fooling the audience into believing that Pete Doherty could be seen as a positive role model. This is ironic because we know what Pete Doherty is known to be a notorious celebrity and is actually a bad role model to teenagers. 

Finally, this issue of Q magazine has Lily Allen plastered on the front. To start off with you can tell that this magazine is aimed mostly at men. She has been presented in quite a sexual way, she has no top on and her hand has been placed in her mouth, this shows that she is teasing the reader. Next to her are two panthers, which are known to be quite dangerous. She is letting off the effect that she too, is quite dangerous, but also quite vulnerable (the way in which she has her back to the camera).

The magazine, this time, is quite colourful compared to the rest. The colours red, white and blue are the colour of the British flag, which shows that this artist is British and is aiming this at her British fans. The black, I believe has been added to make the magazine stand out even more. 

Although this is a very good magazine in my eyes, I wouldn't personally choose to use anything from the front cover, I don't really think my model would feel comfortable wearing the clothing that Lily Allen is wearing and I obviously can use Panthers. And finally the color scheme. Although this works well together with the rest of the magazine I wouldn't really like to use these colors, they are too plain and boring in my eyes. One thing I may take away from this magazine is the layout. Its very simple and easy to follow.