Analysis of BBC Music ~ Front Cover, Contents Page

and Double Page Spread

Similar to Top of the Pops magazine, the BBC logo is in the top left corner so as to indicate which company owns the magazine. This is quite conventional, given that logos are often placed in the corner so as to make it blend into the magazine, and allow for the readers to focus on the other features, however, it is still quite noticeable due to it being a bright gradual shade of purple, contrasting with the dark, mahogany colours of the rest of the colour.

The masthead – the title of the publication – is at the top of the cover, which conforms to the conventions of many magazines. However, they develop this slightly by making it go across the entire width of the cover so as to emphasise it further and the fact that it is in white text, which contrasts with the dark background, further emphasises name. The centre of visual interest, being the portrait image of the musician, covers the masthead in the middle, but due to the popularity of the magazine, readers are still able to make out what it says.

A tag line is used at the top of the magazine to further indicate the magazine’s significance and popularity, by informing readers that it is ‘the world’s best-selling classical music magazine’. This encourages potential buyers to also buy this magazine if they are interested in this genre of music as it makes them curious as to why this magazine is so big. In this way, the magazine is both niche and mainstream; niche in the sense of its ideology, as they focus solely on classical music, which is rather a unique taste for most people, and mainstream in terms of the circulation they must receive – which can be inferred by the statement in the tagline.

A puff is used on the cover to promote a feature which is inside the magazine, and given that it is in red and white, creates a sense of urgency for readers to flick through the magazine immediately.

The centre of visual interest lies with the image of the woman, who is clearly the subject of the cover story in this issue. In terms of mise-en-scene, the prop she is holding is a violin, which further indicates that the magazine is solely about classical music. Moreover, the musician appears calm and friendly, and extremely respectful with her hair done up beautifully, wearing a rather formal dress. This suggests that she must be of some relative importance with the world of classical music, which may encourages people to buy it. She is also looking directly into the camera which suggests confidence, but also in that she is trying to create a connection between the reader and herself.

The splash consists of the name of the musician, which accentuates that she is a big feature within the magazine, encouraging people to find out more about her.

There are sub-heads along the right margin of the cover, which indicates the variety of features the magazine includes. The headlines themselves are in capitals, along with additional information below.

The bar code has been placed in the bottom right corner which helps to blend in with the white box which contains another major feature which appears inside the magazine, given that the box Is also white.

The picture boost has been used to promote another feature which is inside the magazine, to encourage the readers to look through the magazine.

The main three images take up just over half of the page and appear to be within the centre of visual interest. They also appear to have used a grid to position the images neatly and in an aligned fashion. The larger of the three images is in a black and white fashion, as with the third one below, and this suggests that these images are rustic and from a time before now – they appear old fashioned. Indeed, the people in the photographs are wearing clothing from another era and may relate to an older audience. On the other hand, the other image is in colour, and appeals to have been taken only recently. The significance of this is that perhaps the magazine is trying to link the past and present together through music, not to mention, uniting the target audience between young and old together.

Each image consists of a caption so as to inform the reader on what is happening in the scene so as to help them understand more. This conforms to the conventions of many magazines in general.

The title of the page is called ‘CONTENTS’ which is noticeable as it is the largest text on the page. However, due to the positioning of the images, it means that this title is towards the centre of the page, which is rather unusual, therefore it is a unique feature to their own magazine.

The contents of the magazine has been divided into two main categories: ‘every month’ which are what appears regularly in the magazine, as well as ‘features’ which are not regular at all. This conforms to some of the conventions of existing magazines as they often separate their features according to what their magazine usually offers or not.

The list of contents have also been split into three columns, and one could argue that the editor has used the golden ratio here, which is typically 1:1.6. This allows for an optically pleasing result as it enables reader to scan the contents with ease; it doesn’t appear too overwhelmingly. Moreover, this layout makes the text appear neatly aligned.

The magazine appears to have at least over 120 pages which is rather a lot for a music magazine, thereby they are developing this convention. This may confirm the tag line on the front cover in that it truly is the biggest classical music magazine in the world as you can suggest from the number of pages it consists of, it will cover a lot of news, reviews, etc, in depth. Therefore, consumers are getting a good value for money.

The font appears to be similar to the ones used on the front cover, which demonstrates their consistent house style. Moreover, the colours used, which are black, white and burgundy reflect the colours used on the front cover also, to further indicate its professionalism. These colours, particularly burgundy, connote prestige, class and sophistication which are the values clearly reflected in the magazine.

The name of the magazine has also been written in the footer, so as to remind the reader that this a professional product.

The main image takes up the entire recto (right page) and bleeds onto a fraction of the left page. This is the centre of visual interest as it is the main visual aspect across the double page spread, which makes it instantly recognisable who the subject of the article is. He is wearing a smart looking shirt and blazer which represents sophistication, which is what the magazine wants to capture him looking like, as that is their ideology.

The deck is disguised as a quote from the subject himself which actually form part of the headline. This makes it even more engaging because it means that the headline consists of his own words, which makes it more personalised and encourages the reader to read on.

The overline above the headline gives a brief mention about who and what the feature is about, and this is instantly recognisable as it has been highlighted.

The stand first is on the same line as the by line. The stand first gives a little more information about the article and the artist, and this is somewhat common for most magazines. The by line is simply the name of the journalist who wrote the piece to give them recognition, and the fact that they are both underneath the headline makes it extremely noticeable.

The article itself has been separated into 3 columns, so as to make it somewhat easier to read as it is more visually pleasing. The WOB – white on black – effect further enables the reader to understand the text as the white contrasts well with the black. The article is generally about the musician’s talent in playing the violin, and how his life has now become revolved around it. This will interest people who are fans of him, not to mention those who are simply interested in violin music.

There is a unique feature on the recto, which is the ‘CV’ feature, which is simply a brief fact file about this violinist. The fact that it is meant to look as though it has been ripped out of a notebook allows for a humorous, light-hearted, informal feel to it, which shows that the magazine itself doesn’t want to be flaunting its sophistication and class in order to belittle readers, but rather to project their familiarity and relatability.

There doesn’t appear to be a caption to provide more information about the main image, however, there is one below the image of the violins which is used to illustrate the article, but also break it up into readable columns.

There is a pull quote in the centre of the DPS, which is part of a sentence taken from the chunk of text, and is recognisable due to the emphasised speech marks. This is meant to be interesting, in order to engage the reader, and encourage them to read on.