My Magazine Brainstorm

For my music magazine I have decided to produce one based on the music genre techno and dance. I thought that this would be slightly different from the rock, punk, indie, emo and pop ones that seem to be popular. My target audience is going to be teenagers.
To get started I thought coming up with a masthead for my magazine would be good as the name of the magazine attracts attention of possible consumers. It should be short and make them think "wow" and want to read it.

- Sync

- Pulse

- Groove

- Funk

- Rhythem

- Pumpin'

- Boom

I decided that I liked the name 'Pulse' Better than all of the others and that it was short and to the point.

Examples Of Double Page Spreads

All of these double page spreads have similar conventions. There's a main image that takes up at least one full page, the image doesn't have to be in colour and black and white works just as well. There's a story about the band that appear in the image this can be placed anywhere and be as long as you want it to be as long as there's a strapline that introduces it.

Textual Analysis Of "NME" Contents Page

This is a contents page from NME. The layout is simple but seems a lot 'busier' then the other contents pages I have analysed.
The layout seems to be aimed at a more teenage consumer, there's a bright pink background which stands out in comparison to the other text boxes used. The list of contents themselves are on a white background with lines dividing each page, black and pick text is used of various sizes. Down the left hand side there's a black box with white and pink font "club NME this week" giving a list of locations and dates.
The logo "club NME" appears in the top right corner, images are scattered around there's a main one placed in the middle of the page at the top being slightly bigger then the others.
Advertisements also appear on the contents page "£2 off entry" into their gigs.
These things are typically aimed at a much younger consumer however these things market the magazine and give people a reason to buy it.

Textual Analysis Of 'Rock Magazine" Contents page

This is a contents page from Rock Magazine. The layout is a little different from the previous contents page I analysed. Again it looks pretty basic with the images dominating the page, the way they are presented gives a more professional and vintage look they ain't scattered around as you would expect from a magazine typically aimed at teenage consumers. However contents of the images themselves are of of bands more likely to be associated with the younger audience.

The background is plain white with the only colour variations appearing in the images and the black and red text, the font again looks simple but stands out with the red writing being the main story and the smaller black writing giving the reader more information about it.

The images make up some kind of montage with them having numbers on them corresponding to page numbers within the magazine. The bands that appear in the images are well known such as My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy.

Textual Analysis Of 'Hip Hop' Contents Page

The layout of the Hip Hop magazine contents page is fairly basic. The background is plain and white a contrasting with the image of 50 cent wearing dark clothes and his ethnicity. This connotes that the magazine itself is not so much simple but that it gets straight to the point.

The layout of the text is fairly simple yet effective, the page numbers and stories appearing on them in bold red and black lettering, further information about each of them in a smaller font size and not bold underneath. The date appears at the top left corner.

Textual Analysis Of 'NME' Front cover

On this front cover of NME the masthead is big taking up the top left of the page, the font is red with a white 'stroke' bordering them, they are placed on a black background.

The image is of a close up of a "music legend" John Peel the image takes up the entire cover appearing behind the magazine title. Again the artists face pale against the dark background contrasts standing out.

The text used is bold simple and the same colour used as that of the logo (white, red and black)

The main story "John Peel" instantly tells the audience who the artist is on the front cover if they didn't know already, the straplines "one year on..." and "Rock stars remember a music legend" says all that needs to be said.

This particular issue of NME may appeal more to a slightly older age group due to the artist appearing on the front cover.

Textual Analysis Of 'Q' Front Cover

The front cover of Q magazine always has their logo in the top left corner the letter Q in white with a red background.
The main image is of Madonna a well known singer she dominates the whole cover covering the logo slightly. She's wearing dark clothes and is portrayed against a black background, her hair s blond and the makeup she has used makes her look lighter this contrasts starkly with the background. The image and the boldness of the cover appeals to the consumer.
The font used is very bold and stands out instantly drawing attention to it, the colours used are white and red the same as the Q logo this keeps the colour constant throughout.
The main story "Madonna" with the strapline "Stupid question! next!" answers it all it gives the impression that it doesn't matter what the story is actually about its about Madonna therefore is to important to miss that they don't feel they need to put any details on the cover.
Representation of the Britain is also used, "the best 50 British albums as voted by you!"
This issue of Q seems to be aimed more to the female consumers due to the advertisement "free inside! women in music" however a lot of men like female artists for various reasons...
Again all of the traditional conventions of a magazine appear.