Magazine Write Up - Representations and Conventions

I looked at four magazines which were different genres. I looked at a Pop magazine called Top of the Pops, two Rock magazines called Q and Kerrang, then finally a hybrid which focused on R&B, Hip Hop and Urban music called RWD (Rewind). I am writing this report to compare all the magazines and find out how magazines use conventions and use their images to represent different things to attract their target audience.

Front Cover

Front covers are all very similar when it comes to what they contain. They all follow certain conventions like banners, cover lines, main images and a masthead. Most of these conventions are used to grab the attention of potential readers and make their magazine stand out more than others. I noticed that all magazines had a colour theme which ran through the whole magazine. The colours used on some magazines like Kerrang and Q are quite dark and rebellious which represents the rock genre which both these magazines offer. The masthead, on all the magazines I analysed, was at the top and the biggest typeface on the page making it stand out the most. I also noticed that all the magazines had a bar code, except RWD which is free, which noticeable but was kept out of the way as well, so it did not draw attention to it. It made the magazines look much more professional. The best magazine I analysed was Kerrang as it contains the most conventions and represented its genre through colour effectively. The colour also helps readers interact with the magazine as they are mature and more masculine colours and Kerrang’s target audience is the ages of 14-20 and males.

Contents Page

 When I was analysing contents pages I noticed that they all varied. You can have double page spreads and most commonly single page spreads. However even though they were different they still contained the same conventions. The most common conventions were headings, gutters, captions and cover lines. An unpopular convention used was an editorial which I only found in one magazine. I think the best contents page I analysed was Kerrang as it included all conventions clearly and neatly which made it look professional and good quality. I also think Q was a good contents page because it was a double spread so even though there were fewer conventions used, when using certain conventions they used them more than once and also effectively.

Articles

The articles are the pages which have the least conventions but use them a lot. They have a heading, feature, gutters and a stand first. Gutters are used on all of the articles and they are very effective as they make the article seem more professional and newspaper like. All conventions are used to entice the reader, for example the stand first makes the reader want to read the article as it gives a brief introduction about the article. I think the double page spread articles are much better than the single spreads as more can be fit and spread across the page and does not seem tightly packed. This ensures that everything is read on the page.

In conclusion I found that every page in a magazine will use similar conventions to attract the attention of the audience. The images which are used in music magazines are always to attract the readers attention. For example, Cheryl Cole was used on the front cover to attract males because of her sex appeal. I will use all these conventions and techniques when I construct my own music magazine hoping it will have an excellent layout and if it was to be put on a shelf it would be successful.