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Analysis of Music magazines.

Omar Clarke

This magazine is effective for a range of reasons. They have used a masthead that has a background, this is a subversive feature as most mastheads don’t have a background. Through the red background on the masthead helps project it despite it having the main image layered on top of it. They have developed a consistent colour scheme through only using red and white. For the vast majority of the text they have used the colour white, this creates emphasis on the word ‘domination’ as it is the only word in red. Through it being the only word in red it captures the audience’s attention. Underneath the word domination, they have developed the phonology of the cover, as they have used alliteration, ‘rebirth of rap royalty’, through using alliteration it allows the magazine to stay in the audience’s mind. The main cover line is relevant to the main image, as you the audience is expected to generate a sense of domination through the focus expression in the faces of the artists in the main image. This magazine has only utilised one image, this also helps create dominance of the artists, as they are that powerful to be the only image on the magazine and it still generate interest. They have constructed the other cover lines in a subversive way as they have aligned them all to the top right of the magazine cover. They have placed the main image over the mast head, which also emphasises its dominance and effectiveness. Through the main image in this magazine gives direct address as they are looking at the reader, this allows the cover to generate a more personal approach.

This magazine displays a very extreme case scenario through its background, main image and main cover line. The magazine displays exaggeration to execute dominance of Jay Z in the rap industry, through having him taller than other tall towers of the USA infrastructure. The main cover line, has ‘JAY-Z’ in the largest font, this also accentuates dominance of Jay Z. The main cover line displays the usage of the rhetorical questions, which appears to be conventional for hip hop magazines to have rhetorical questions. The textual information is all in black apart from ‘Jay Z’, also generating dominance of the artist to make the audience feel as though he is bigger than hip-hop. The selling line at the top is in a small size font but due to it being bold it captures the audiences attention. I think the publishers of this magazine have used a dull grey and white as the main background colour to allow contrast with the ‘all black’ clothing of the main image. This allows the main image to look even more dominant in conjunction with the question ‚is Jay-Z(main image) bigger than Hip-Hop?‛

They have kept the text on the left of the cover aligned which helps develops the structure of the magazine. Through keeping the text aligned on the left allows the main cover line to capture the audiences attention as it is also on the left of the cover but it isn’t aligned and is in much larger bold font than the text above it.

This magazine generates a warm approach through its colour scheme. The cover consistently uses yellow and white. The use of a bright yellow and white help to make the magazine eye catching. In addition the cover has a masthead in large, bold font. This generates a sense of dominance of the cover. Above the masthead they have aligned both the sky line and strap line to be of the same length, this helps to enhance the structure of the cover. All of the cover lines along the left have been aligned and are in quite a small font. The publishers have done this as these cover lines are not as important as the main image and the main cover line. The main image and the main cover line take up three-quarters of the page, accentuating their dominance. Most of the main cover line is in relatively small font whilst the subjects are in yellow and much larger font. They have done this due to Eminem and Dr Dre being powerful artists and producers in the Hip Hop industry, such that they only need to make it clear that they are the subject of the cover line and that is enough to entice the reader.

I like the way this main cover line has been used as it is unconventional but yet very effective. Most of the main cover lines I have researched more a less keep the same size and colour of the font for each word in their main cover line. Whilst this cover line has the content of the main cover line in white and in small font compared to the subject of the main cover line in yellow and in large font. This accentuates the dominance of the artists. Despite using two colours, they have used two colours that compliment each other and work effectively together. This main cover line uses idioms which is relevant to the Hip-Hop culture as we are used to hearing rappers not pronounce the ‘g’ or ‘ing’ words in their lyrics, hence why the cover line has used ‘cookin’up’.

Main cover lines analysis:

This main cover line is effective for a range of reasons. They have used white font on a dark background which captures the audiences attention. The term ‚power‛ is in larger font then the rest of the cover line and is on a separate line. This accentuates the term ‚power‛. The typography they have used for the term ‘power’ creates a futuristic approach through it’s cut in the letters.

This main cover line is effective . Through using white font that is bold accentuates its dominance. The most effective aspect of this major cover line is the white font has a black gradient on it that makes the text look damaged and employs a ‘gritty’ approach. I think this is effective as it represents the Hip-Hop culture as Hip-Hop artists tend to be from a hard upbringing whereby they are used to this ‘gritty’ lifestyle, which is shown through a lot of Hip-Hop artists music.

Mastheads: (1)

This mastheads design is original and creates a unconventional approach. Within the masthead there is a picture of a microphone , this is a subversive feature of a masthead. From my perspective this makes the magazine more captivating and through the use of the microphone with a strong fist helps to enhance and develop the hip hop genre through the masthead, as hip-hop artists are perceived as strong characters through their lyrics normally being about hard experiences.

The font is quite bold and through the blue outline helps to create a graffiti approach to the writing. The publishers have used this as the hip hop genre rose based around graffiti in urban parts of America in the 1980’s. The have aligned the vertical word ‘the’ with the horizontal word ‘source’, this enhances the masthead and makes it subversive as it breaks the conventions of mastheads.

The size of the masthead isn’t that big in comparison to other magazines I have researched, however through it’s bold font and thick typography, makes the masthead appear big to the reader. They have placed the main image overlapping the masthead, perhaps to accentuate the main

image(artists) dominance.

Mastheads: (2)

This masthead contains subversive features as it has a background. This makes the masthead more eye catching, especially through a bright red colour. The typography is bold like the other masthead I analysed. The other masthead is clearer to identify it’s genre due to its design having an microphone with firm firsts around it. This masthead is more dominant and assertive than the other one courtesy of its bright red background in comparison to the ‘Source’ masthead.

Both magazines utilise typography that is relevant to the music genre as they both demonstrate a ‘graffiti’ approach, emphasised by them being bold and not rigid in their lettering.