What do these covers have in common?These 5 music magazine covers all use the same mix of colours, black and white (the convention colours). All 5 of the magazines contain a shade of red as well as the black and white colours and 3 of the magazines also have some sort of yellow shade introduce on the front. All 5 of the covers splash images have been taken in a studio setting, this in to allow a solid colours background to make the cover easier to work with and to allow the colour scheme to be maintained.

Who might their target audience be?Each of the 5 magazine covers are targeted at a different genres such as rock, dance, metal, etc.-‘Mixmag’ is aimed at readers who are interested in the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect of dance music. This is reflected but the simple and minimalistic approach to the cover layout.‘Q’ is aimed at more middle aged music listeners. It includes a lot of different styles of music. ‘NME’ is aimed at a more younger teen/uni age. The buyer is drawn in by the band/ artist that is on the front every time the magazine is realised.‘Kerrang’ is aimed at emo/punk stereotypes who are interested in rock style of music and use the same conventions as a gossip magazine but within there genre and about the bands within that genre. ‘MOJO’ is aimed at

What makes these covers different from each other?Although all of the covers use similar design and colours they are all aimed at totally different age ranges, readers and social class. Each magazine has a completely different contents hence the wide range of cover appealing to different people within the magazine market.

Multiple Magazine Analysis

Magazine Analysis – Billboard CoverLayout: Billboard has the same conventions and sticks to these in every magazine that they produce, allowing the reader to recognise the magazine instantly. The title ‘Billboard’ is always at or as close to the top of the page it can be, the top of the photo/image generally covers most or a part of the magazine title. As we can see there are 3 MAIN colour combinations in this cover, we have black, found in the writing, the models hair and her eyelashes. We then have blue which is found on the models eyes, in the title and some of the subheading writing. Finally we have various shades of pink found in back background/cover colour, the models dress and her lipstick (slightly darker shade). As we have noticed that the colours are in multiple areas of the magazine we know that it is a planned colour schemes so that the cover looks more formal, a lot more expensive and clean. The light blue colour has been used as it is associated with health, healing, and softness, it is also seen to be a very masculine colour so the idea of the model being there to cater for the male audience would then be pushed even more to this as she is wearing blue. The pink/purple colour is said to be associated with royalty and also that is symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. These ideas of colour would then contradict them self's firstly the model being framed as an object rather than a person to cater for the male audience but then being dressed in the pink/purple colours asserting her authority and power. The typical colours for the ‘Billboard’ logo are black, red, yellow, blue and green in this cover the red and the

Image:The image in this cover is of pop star Katy Perry from what we can see she is wearing a pale pink dress. We can tell that the image has been taken in a studio as there is a solid colour background. The backdrop colour has been deliberately coloured a pale pink to match the colour of the dress. As the image has been taken in a studio it is able to be highly edited (which we can tell it has been). The way in witch Katy Perry has been positioned in this image is to appeal to the male gaze (introduced by Laura Mulvey). This image is aiming to cater for a male audience (even though the buyers of the magazine is primarily purchased by women) and is framing her as an object rather than a person to cater for this male ‘audience’. Sometimes even women are invited to see them self's like this, trying to make them self's look exactly like the image that the men are wanting.

Target Audience:The target audience for this magazine is primarily American college graduates at just under 70% of there audience followed by senior managers and then post graduates.

Billboard is primarily based in North America, as well as there Billboard is sold in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Korea and Russia.

Language:The language in this cover is extremely positive, the cover story's are all positive things about what can be found inside the magazine, beyond the cover.

Font:The main title is in a sans serif font, this is used to give a more modern look about the magazine. In comparison to this most of the sub headings are in a serif font aiming to be more classic and sophisticated. Using both of these types of font to create variety across the magazine.

Magazine Conventions:Most magazines contain a date, issue number, bar code etc. this cover had a date and website and that is al, I suspect that there is no barcode as this actual magazine will have been a delivered subscribe to copy as for this particular magazine that is the most common method of purchase.

yellow have been covered by the main image to allow this specific colour theme to be used without distractions. When looking at other magazines we can see that different aspects of the logo being shown depending on the colour theme present.

Magazine Analysis – Q CoverImage:The image in this cover is of pop star and extremist Lady GAGA. From this image we can see that it has been taken in a photography studio due to the clean solid colour backdrop. Her clothing is extremely revelling and appealing to the male reader. The background has been made a colour that almost blends in with the clothing on the model. Because the image has been taken in a studio setting it allows the model to be the main focus of the cover rather than there being a distracting background.The way in which Lady GAGA has been positioned her self in this image is allowing her to be drawn to the male gaze (introduced by Laura Mulvey). This main image is aiming to cater for a male part of the audience that would buy this magazine. It is framing her as an object rather than a person to cater for this male ‘audience’. Sometimes even women are invited to see them self's like this, trying to make them self's look like this image that the men are wanting.

Target Audience:The target audience for this magazine tends to be for the more mature music lovers aiming to provide a magazine that caters for the past and present music bands and solo artists. The magazine has a large review section, featuring: new releases, reissues, music compilations, film and live concert reviews, as well as radio and television reviews. Q is published monthly in the United Kingdom

Magazine Conventions:Most magazines contain a date, issue number, bar code etc. this cover follows these conventions will the bar code, issue number and date in the bottom right of the cover.

Layout:Q has the same cover conventions and sticks to these in every magazine that they produce, allowing the reader to recognise the magazine instantly. The title ‘Q’ is always at the top left hand side of the cover and it is always white text with a red box placed around it. Depending on the colour schemes depends on the colour band used at the top.As we can see there are 3 MAIN colour combinations on this cover, we have red seen in the title and some of the subheadings. We then have shades of black and grey found on the background, some of the subheadings again, a strip of black on the top and bottom of the cover and on most of the models clothing. Finally we have white, this found on the models hair and the majority of the subheadings on the cover. As we can see the different colours are in multiple areas of the magazine from this we know that it is a planned colour schemes so that the cover looks more formal, a lot more expensive and clean, rather than just using random colour selections. The red colour has been used as it is associated with energy, strength, power, determination as well as desire and love. Black is used a lot in this cover it is known to be associated with things such as power, elegance, death, evil and mystery. Wearing black clothing can make the model look thinner, this colour contrasts well with bright colours such as red and when combined with these colours it creates a very aggressive colour scheme. Nearly every cover of Q has this colour scheme on the cover indicating the magazine is trying to portray this within there magazine. Other colours are used but 90 % of the covers use these colours on the cover.

Language:The language in this cover seems to just be of the informative type, telling the reader what they are going to find in the magazine. Some of the subheadings contain quotes and slogans to draw the reader into the magazine.

Font:We can see that the main title of the magazine in a serif font , the idea of using this style is used to give a more classic and sophisticated look, they have used this to aim at the more mature music lovers this magazine is aimed at. On the cover we also have sans serif fonts as well as the serif font to create variety across the magazine. The sans serif fonts are used to give a more modern look to the cover and magazine in contrast to the serif fonts. The modern sans serif fonts tend to be used in the sub headings rather than larger main headings on the cover as they are wanting to continue the classic serif fonts from the title into some of the headings.

Magazine Analysis – Blender CoverLayout:Blender has the same conventions in every magazine they produce to allow readers to recognise the magazine instantly on a shelf with many others. The title is always at the top of the cover and is always a block solid colour. In this cover we can see that there are 3 MAIN colours, these are white found one on the background of the magazine. We then have solid back colours found on the title of the magazine and in 50% of the subheadings around the model and the models hair. Finally we have shades of pink found on the other 50% of the subheadings around the model and on some areas of her outfit. There are also shades of blue but these are primarily found on the models outfit and are not transferred onto the magazine cover at all. As we can see the different colours are in multiple areas of the magazine from this we know that it is a planned colour schemes so that the cover looks more formal, a lot more expensive and clean, rather than just using random colour selections. The pink/purple colour is said to be associated with royalty and also that is symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. The blue colour found on her outfit has been used as it is associated with health, healing, and softness, it is also seen to be a very masculine colour so the idea of the model being there to cater for the male audience would then be pushed even more to this as she is wearing blue. Although the black is said to have connotations, it has only been used here as it is a common colour to be used in a magazine and it has been used to contrast against the solid white backdrop. Having these colours together creates a soft and subtle colour scheme appealing to a feminine audience due to the colours used.

Magazine Conventions:As with any magazine it should contain a barcode, issue number, date and price. This cover does not have a barcode or any of the other conventions other than a date. There is a gap next to the date where I would think that these other conventions would go.

Target Audience:Blender is aimed at the genre of pop. The typical target audience for blender magazine tends to be male and females aged 16-19. This age bracket tend to be the most common magazine target audience as they are most interested in buying magazines and the content of them, yet not so common for music magazines.

Image:The image in this cover is of pop star Katy Perry, as we can see she is wearing a bikini style top and large/short shorts both of which have the same pattern. Her outfit is gain revealing as with most of the female stars on a magazine cover. The way in which she is stand showing her back bum and breast to us is almost revelling all of her self to us and us engaging with her body image and stance. We can tell that this image has been taken in a studio due to the perfect white background, this allows the model to stand out more against the crisp white backdrop. We can also tell that this image has been edited in areas, allowing her to be this perfect model people look up and aspire to be.The way in which Katy Perry has been positioned her self and the outfit that she is wearing in this image is allowing her to be drawn to the male gaze (introduced by Laura Mulvey). This main image is aiming to cater for a male part of the audience that would buy this magazine. It is framing her as an object rather than a person to cater for this male ‘audience’. Sometimes even women are invited to see them self's like this, trying to make them self's look like this image that the men are wanting.Font:The title of blender is in a sans serif font aiming to appeal to a modern more relaxed audience. All of the other writing within this cover uses this style too. In comparison to other magazines they use a combination of sans serif and serif fonts to create variety, where as Blender has a target audience that is younger than most magazines. Using all of the same style of font creates similarity and comfort to grasp the younger audience.Language:The language on this cover tends to just be of the informative kind. The text is simplistic and gets to the point instantly. Therefor there is no room for ‘waffling’ or unnecessary points, the readers want to know the content of the magazine using key points and quotes relating to the story's inside.