Textual Analysis!

Front Cover 1

I am going to compare 3 front covers, 2 contents pages and 2 double page spreads! I am going to talk about each of these and compare them, what they have the same and what they have that is different.

The first front cover that I will be analysing is NME. NME stands for new musical express and it has been published weekly since march 1952. The background of the front cover is a mid close up shot of Amy Winehouse which tells the reader that there will be a section or a bit about Amy Wine House in the magazine. As you can see there is a banner which says "World Exclusive NEW ALBUM STORY, AMY INSIDE HER SECRET STUDIO SESSIONS" which backs up the fact that there is going to be a section about Amy Winehouse, the word exclusive means that the information is only available at NME. Also they only use Amy in the banner which suggest that readers will be familiar with her. Also there a different colours used in this banner, white and red are used as they compliment each other and make the banner stand out to attract the readers attention to it! The cover line that says "free Amy posters" may also attract new customers to the magazine due to them being interested or showing their respect to Amy Winehouse, The price of the magazine is £2.40, which is quite a reasonable price, the price is placed underneath the masthead so we can see exactly how much it is as when we look at a magazine we look at the masthead first and then we see the price straight away! There is a strap line at the top of the page which says "Kasabian Vs Bombay Vs Noel Vs Monkeys Vs Vaccines!" this tells the reader that all of these bands/artists will be included in the magazine and spoken about. So if fans of these bands/artists see this strap line this might attract them to buy the magazine. The use of the word your is directly involving the audience to have their say in the NME awards.  Lure is used to make the reader want to read some of the stories. NME compete with Kerrang the most out of all the other magazines due to also being weekly as well.

Front Cover 2

Q is a popular music magazine that is published monthly. Q was first published in October 1986, was founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, Q is now edited by Paul Rees and published by Bauer Media Group. Q usually features main stream music that is in the charts who everyone knows. As you can see the back ground of Q is Cheryl Cole who most people know. Her music is very mainstream, pop, chart music! The banner says "3Words, CHERYL COLE, ROCKS" and this tells the reader that Q will be saying that Cheryl Cole is good and maybe an article on what she is doing. The colours that are used are red and white, these colours complement each other and make the words stand out from each other, the word "ROCKS" stands out a lot due to the words "CHERYL COLE" above it in white. The Strap line at the top says "THE UK'S BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE" which stands out when the magazine is covered by others due to the black background and the white writing, also the strap line attracts the readers due to it being the biggest music magazine which may make the reader want to buy it because they may think that it is the best due to it being the biggest. We can see in the top left corner that the Q has a red background and a white writing, as the colours are complementary so it makes the magazine stand out and everyone knows that it is Q. Also the masthead of Q is very well known and is always in the same position which is creating brand identity. There is a graphic in a sticker shape which suggests to the reader that there is more in the magazine. We can see from a banner that U2, Paul Weller and White Stripes that will be included in the magazine, which once again is very main stream music.

NME and Q both have the same colour scheme, white red and black, maybe because these colours complement each other and go well together. Also the back grounds of Q and NME are both mainstream female artists who are looking straight at the camera however the picture of Cheryl on Q has had more attention on the Mise en Scene due to the rain in the back ground and her makeup and hair however the picture of Amy on NME is more natural and just trying to capture her face. Both Q and NME are both successful magazine who cover mainstream music, they are the both in competition with one another but are both the most successful magazines. People may buy both due to Q being monthly and NME being weekly!

Front Cover 3

This magazine looks like that its targets market is DJ's. Also the Banner underneath the masthead says "living and breathing dance music" so we can gather that the magazine will be for people who are into dance music or fall under the category of a dance music magazine! The front cover of the magazine is used to attract possible customers/readers to the magazine using bold and vibrant colours and a interesting picture that will interest them into what the magazine is about. The colours of the magazine front cover are possibly to do with the colour scheme of the mask! Along the top of the magazine you will notice it says "*FREE SANTOS MULTIMEDIA CD! MUSIC AND DATA GALORE*" , this is something that will help sell this magazine as obviously the thought of paying for the magazine (what they may have purchased anyway) and getting free music with it,(that the viewer will most likely be interested in as it is bound to match the magazine genre, which is of course the base reason why the viewer is buying the magazine in the first place) sounds like a very good deal. the price of the magazine is set down in the right corner a long with the number issue of the month along with the number of tunes that they have reviewed which to some of the readers may make up their mind whether they buy the magazine or not. The price of the magazine is £3.95 which some people may think is a reasonable for a monthly magazine which includes a free CD.

Contents Page's Analysis!


Uncut Magazine, Contents Page 1

 The first thing that comes to the readers attention would be the large picture which takes up most of the page. We can see on the top of this picture there is writing which says "64 DAVE DAVIES" which tells the reader that the article on Dave Davies is on page 64 and also from the way that the picture takes up most of the page we can assume that Dave Davies may be quite important in the magazine! We can also see that the colours used are white and red which contrast each other which could add a bit of class to the magazine but it also makes the magazine look good. We can see that there are 3 different sections to the page numbers, we can see that the bigger page numbers would be the main features of the magazine which would interest the reader to purchase the magazine. Then we can see what the magazine would call the "Regulars" which we can learn from this title that feature in every magazine that they release, this means that the customer/reader Can always expects these articles to be in the magazine. Then we can see that there is a title saying "Reviews", we can gather that this is where the magazine has reviews about different things that readers of this magazine would be interested in.



NME, Contents page 2

    The first thing that comes to the readers attention is the title that is placed at the top of the page which says "INSIDE THIS WEEK" so we can assume that these articles are only going to be inside this magazine. The next thing that comes to the readers attention is the big picture in the centre of the page which has "46" int the corner which tells us that the article on that specific person or band is on page 46. We can see that there are a number of different pictures all over the page which could represent what the articles are about in the magazine. In the bottom right hand corner we can see that there is a red patch which is standing out from quite a dull contents page. The red patch is advertisement for subscription to NME magazine!



Double Page Spread Analysis

Mojo Magazine

 This double page spread is from the magazine called
Mojo. On the right hand side of the double page spread there are a number of different pictures of a female solo artist, which we can assume that the feature is about. We can assume from how there are a number of different pictures of the female solo artist that the readers of the magazine will not know who she is as the producers could be trying to promote her or introduce her to the magazines readers. In the top right hand side of the large picture there is a white piece of writing saying "mojo promotion" so we know that the magazine producers of mojo are trying to promote this solo artist. We can see in the top hand corner of the left hand side that there is a black patch which stands out from the white background so it is meant to attract the readers attention, there is in big bold gold writing which says "NEW YEAR, NEW VOICE" which is suggesting to the readers that this solo artist is going to be the voice of the new year which maybe gives the readers something to look forward too. We can see that there is a large bit of text on the left hand side which the reader can assume is introducing this new solo act to maybe her target audience as she has been featured in Mojo magazine.

NME double page spread

This double page spread comes from NME, we can see three large pictures spread across the right side of the page, large titles in red and black writing on a white background so they stand out and attract the readers attention and large piece of text which the describes and tells the reader what the pictures are about.