Evaluation of magazine

http://www.slideshare.net/Caren10/evaluation-of-magazine-7860018

MUSIC MAGAZINE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD 2

MUSIC MAGAZINE FRONT COVER 2

Music Magazine- Double page spread

Music Magazine Front Cover

Analysing a contents page

This contents page is from a Hip Hop magazine. The layout is not like a usual contents magazine, as it focuses less on the text and more on the main image. The text is aligned to the right hand side, in small white font and it not as emphasised as it could be, because of the size and where it is placed. The white font contrasts with the orange and red background. The effect that these things have on the reader is that instead of reading what else the magazine contains, they are automatically drawn to the main image of GZA. This may prevent readers from actually taking notice of the contents of the magazine because it is placed in a very unusual place and the small white font does not enhance this.
There is only one main image, which is of American Hip Hop artist, GZA. It relates to the written content because, whereas all the other contents of the magazine is aligned to the right hand side and is in small font with no images associated to them, this is related because onto the image it says page '52', and has a quote from him underneath. This suggests that he is the main subject of the magazine because the attention is being drawn mainly to him by readers.
The image has been taken in a rather effective way, there is a lot of head room to the right hand side and a minority of the left hand side of his face and the top of his head has been cut off. Also, we can only see the top half of him. This is effective because instead of the image being taken in the centre with a full shot image of him, it has been taken with part of him cut off and standing more the left hand side, giving the image more depth and making it look edgy.
In this image, GZA is wearing an orange hoodie with white and blue stripes on the edges. This may be rather unusual for people to look at because you would not really expect to see Hip Hop stars wearing these sort of clothes; however, this may send out a message that he is independant and wants to promote his individuality to others.
The image relates to the genre and target audience of the magazine because it is a Hip Hop magazine, and you would expect mainly teenagers to be attracted to it, and mostly teenagers would have head of GZA.
The typeface that has been used is mainly small white bold font for the contents on the right hand side, and small black writing for the page numbers.
They have been placed to the right hand side and have an effect on the readers because you would not usually expect to see the text here, you would expect to see it either to the left hand side or the centre.
The genre of the magazine has been shown through the contents page because of the image of GZA, you automatically know that it is a Hip Hop magazine. For example, you would not see GZA in Kerrang! magazine, and Panic! at the disco, in 'XXL', therefore through this image, we know that the genre is Hip Hop.

3) Analysing a magazine

The music genre of this magazine is R&B/Hip Hop.

The target audience is mainly teenagers and young adults in their early 20s. You can tell this from the main image and the colours used, e.g. black which is edgy and cool.

The main image is of two famous singers, Nicki Minaj and Drake.

This image relates to the music genre because they are R&B/Hip Hop stars, which is the genre of the magazine itself.

The image is framed in the centre, and has been taken mid-shot eye level, however Drake is standing straight towards the camera, whereas Nicki Minaj is standing at an angle, giving the image more depth and making it look edgy.

We can only see the top half, the bottom half has been cut off so we focus more on the main image itself instead of including unnecessary parts of the image.

In the main image, Nicki Minaj is wearing a corset top, blonde wig, a lot of jewellery and a leopard print coat, off the shoulder to show her tattoo on her arm. Drake is wearing a camouflage jacket with a white top, jeans and a necklace. Nicki Minaj is portraying a rather provocative look, whereas Drake is more casual. However, the two outfits being worn contrast together making the image effective.

The colours that have been used are dark colours for the image such as black, camouflage green, etc. however for the kicker, it is in big bold red font and the strap-lines are in white. The red and white colours contrast with the dark black background, making them stand out. They contribute to the mood of the image because from the title ‘DOMINATION’, we see that this could be a serious, informative story so the colours may need to be mature and standard.

The image relates to the target audience because they are both fairly new singers, and they have become popular with teenagers and young adults in their 20s very quickly. However, people in their thirties may not have heard of them as yet or their music may not appeal to all ages apart from the target audience, which are mainly teenagers.

The magazine is called ‘XXL’. This reflects the content and target audience for the magazine because ‘XXL’ means extra, extra large, suggesting that their may be a lot of interesting information in the magazine and a lot more popular artists in there such as Lil Wayne, etc.

The typeface that has been used is simply red for the kicker and the background of the masthead, and white for the strap-lines and the sub-heading. This is effective because we have all the dark colours from the main image and background, so the red and white brighten it up a little bit and lets us focus more on the writing and what else the magazine contains.

The masthead has been placed in the top left hand corner in big white font with a red background, and a minority of it is being covered by Nicki Minaj’s hair, suggesting that it is a very popular, well known magazine. The kicker is at the bottom, in the middle and is written in white font; however the big bold red ‘DOMINATION’ gives us a sense of control and what the magazine is mainly about. The strap-lines are coming down vertically from the top right hand corner in white writing, and are important because they tell us the other contents of the magazine, rather than just Nicki Minaj and Drake. The texts have been placed in corners and at the bottom, to make us focus on the main image and attract us to what the main subject is.