Analysing Magazine Covers

When researching music magazines, the main genres there are seem to mostly be rock or hip hop magazines. Due to this I have decided to look at these two genres of magazine in particular and compare both styles of magazine adverts due to the genres being very different.

Rock Magazines

Kerrang magazines mostly all have a similar style due to the ranges of colours such as lots of use of yellows, reds, blacks and whites. They also both have the star image right in the centre of the magazine so that your attention is drawn to them and know what the basis of the magazine is about. The title of the magazine is also hidden behind the star images head on both magazines, this is because most people who are interested in the magazine will know it primarily due to the style of the magazine. This also helps to show the star image more as well. The use of font is also very similar as well, due to the same 'KERRANG' logo at the top of the magazine and the titles and other fonts around the edge of the magazines are also the same as well. 

The main style of the magazine is that our focus is the star in the centre of the magazine and the rest of the information creates a sort of border around them so that we are not distracted from the star in the centre of the magazine.

After analysing other rock magazines it is clear that they all have similar conventions such as the colours of the blacks, reds, yellows and whites. The star is also in the middle again. 

Hip Hop/R'N'B Magazines

 Just like the Kerrang magazine these Vibe magazines all have similar covers, however the Kerrang magazines meet the conventions related to the rock genre and the Vibe magazines meet the R'N'B genre. Each star is very stylised and the voyeurism is strongly used within most of the covers, such as Trey Songz in the middle having his top off. He is made to look 'sexy' by the facial expressions he's pulling and he is made to look like he has just gotten out the shower. Beyonce is also made to look very attractive due to her low cut top and her body language. They all have the same colour scheme such as red, white and black. These magazines are all about the star image and do not have much information around the side of the star so that we are not distracted from the star in the middle. These magazines also have the star covering the title of the magazine, this is because people will mostly recognise this magazine due to the generic style of the magazine.

Our Chosen Magazine
The magazine we have chosen to look at is 'The Clash' it is not a specific genre of magazine but we feel that the artist 'James Blake' relates to our genre of song and he was on one of the covers to 'The Clash' magazine.