TYPICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE

CONVENTIONS

Masthead

Main cover story

Date line and barcode

Cover lines

Main image

Strapline

The main focus of the front cover as it is recognisable to the audience as well as the main image. It needs to stand out on the cover. It is the name of the magazine so it needs to be readable to establish the brand.

The main cover story and image are usually related. This gives a clear impression of who is on the cover and why, with metal music magazines specifically a common thing to use as a cover story or cover line is a band name and logo as it attracts the bands fans.

The date line shows when the magazine is released as magazines are normally weekly or monthly and the barcode will usually also contain the price of the magazine.

The main image is usually related to the main cover story and will usually contain a full band or the most famous / recognisable member of the band. The person usually has eye contact with the audience and in metal music magazines they are usually unemotional or angry looking.

Coverlines tell us the stories which are in the magazine apart from the main most popular story. They use different colours and fonts to the rest of the magazine in order to stand out as a small aspect. Most magazines have multiple coverlines.

The strapline is above the masthead and will sometimes contain more stories an add ons like posters and competitions.

Title of page, usually with issue number and date

Clear page numbers to help people find the articles they want

Feature section on specific band or person

Sections that appear in each issue. Things to look forward to in each month.

Interesting images to get the attention of the reader

Subscription offers and the name of the magazine is also very common to find on a content page.

If not in the main title, the name of the band is

usually mentioned to attract fans

Language features in title making it more interesting, this one

also uses different fonts to make it match the

image

Neatly spaced writing in proper columns making it understandable and

readable

Opening to article a different size font and larger to make people

interested to read more

Small tagline explaining who is in the image and what

the context is

First letter of article larger and in different colour, to make it fit in with the colour scheme

and to stand out.

Quotes, usually controversial with the

purpose to attract attention

Main image can be of one or many people, usually spans onto both sides of page to make it look as one page,

usually to grab attention by using famous faces