Rock Music Magazine Contents Page Analysis

To help the creation of my own magazine, I have also looked at different contents pages from, again, three different existing magazines from my genre. I will also analyse these as, again, as Bentley stated in 1997 ‘The making of the new through the rearranging of the old.’ This will allow me to create a fresh and new contents page, yet still follow and clearly have the common conventions of my genre.

I will analyse three contents pages from, Q, Classic Rock and Mojo. I shall then discuss them in terms of its form, the audience, the representation and the institution.

Q

The primary target audience for this magazine, Q, and therefore this contents page, would for both genders aged 25+, however it will be more attractive to males rather than females.

Q’s contents page has been spread across two pages allowing for more content, information and for larger and/or more images. In the top, left hand corner of the magazine, where most would first look, is the Q logo and the word contents beside it. These two are at one end of a thick, bold red bar, which goes across the whole of the top. At the other end of the bar are the issue number and an image of the front cover beside it.

Down the left hand side the page has a single column with the ‘Features’ of the magazine. At the top it features a small image to accompany the first feature. As this would be one of the first places the audience would look it has the main articles that can be found within the magazine, which would be one of the pieces that would be attractive to the audience. At the bottom of the column there are two, mid-sized, images which are previews of a couple of spreads that are shown in the features column. On the far right hand side there is another column, below the image of the cover page. This column is titled ‘Regulars’. This column is placed to the far right, as it is one of the less important sections of the spread as it shows the features, which are always, or usually, in the magazine. So regular readers would know about this, and would be less attracted to it and so is not important to be seen first.

This contents page follows a three colour palette of mainly red and white, and then a third colour of black, which is not as present as the other two colours. The red is the most prevalent colour as all the bars, like the thick one at the top, and the smaller ones, which split titles from descriptions. It is also used for some text and photos. The use of red, which is a bright red on this page, draws in the reader and moves their eyes towards the important parts of the page, like the bar at the top and the largest, main image. The white is used for most of the numbers on the images, apart from 70, even those on a brighter image where the numbers are surround by a black box. Here, this uses a reverse, which will highlight the number to draw attention to it and to help people to find the page number quicker and easier. It is also used in the Q logo and the titles at the top of the columns. The black is used for the smaller text, boxes around the numbers on images, the number 70 on an image and the word contents. The use of black on the number 70 would draw in the readers to that particular image, and page, as it may be a more important feature and so would want people seeing it clearer.

The main image, the largest and most centred image, follows the colour palette of the red and black, through the lighting being red and his hair, glasses and shirt being black. This draws the audience into this central image, which feature one of the best-known, and current person on the contents page. The second largest image, at the top of the second page, although does do not closely follows the colour palette, it does use a bright pink that mixes well with the red being used on this page. This change in colour also draws in the reader and attracts them to this particular feature. The second page also features four other images, which I have not yet mentioned on this analysis. These are the smallest images on the spread. Two of these images, one of the smallest ones and the largest of the four, do not follow the main colour palette. They do however, feature black, one being black and white image. These photos do not feature any red, or much white. The other smaller image, and the one below the title The Q Review both feature red, in the form of the lighting and then in the smaller one with red in the form of the logo and the pink wall. This will attract people towards the images which they may not otherwise be as they are smaller images.

The main audience for the magazine, of males, are represented as very manly people who are also shown as normally being, and looking, rather serious. Most of the images feature younger males rather than people who are much older, such as 45-50+. The use of pink in a major image may appeal to both men and women but will also represent a wider range of people whose gender is male. The three images which feature females- the spread, the image below The Q Review and the cover page- all sexualise the female gender. This will attract and draw in the male target audience, supporting Mulvey's theory of male gaze, and will be likely to not be attracted to these images. 

Mojo

 Mojo's target audience is males aged 25-50 with a social class of D-C1.

Unlike Q's contents page, Mojo's is only over a single page. This page has a colour palette of black, white and red and yellow. This pages uses four colours as opposed to three however, they are all used quite a lot within the page. This restricts the amount of content allowed on the page, however quite a lot can still be put on here.

The page uses the masthead at the top of the page, in the centre, much like a cover page would do. This helps the audience instantly recognise the magazine without having to look at the cover page. This helps for Mojo's brand to be spread throughout the magazine and so it will be easily and instantly recognised by the audience. This cover page, again like Q, has a bar which goes across the top of the page. This bar is not solid and is made up of two dotted lines. It does, however, still have information within it. This being the date and issue number. This also allows the audience to tell, easily, which magazine and issue they are reading without having to turn to look at the cover page.

The page has a column down the left hand side which show the content of the magazine. this starts off with the title of 'Features' this is a bold and colourful title which help it to stand out so the audience can easily find the thing that they are looking for on the page. The column also has a second title at the bottom for 'Cover Story' this has a yellow line both above the title and below the description. This helps the audience to find this feature, which the institution would believe to be the most important or interesting feature, as it is highlighted and it is the cover page feature. This makes it easy to find and so they don't have to look around the page for it.

At the bottom of the column it includes a quote with a description of it's article and the page. This, like the cover story, highlights this particular article so that the audience will easily find it. Including this quote would also interest the audience as they will want to know more about what the quote is talking about. this allows the institution, again, highlight the article as they may feel it is an important or one that is more interesting. This column follows the yellow colour palette as the titles and the page numbers are all in yellow. This follows the bar at the top of the page.

The main, and only, image on the page takes up right hand side of the page. This image is a long shot of a popular artist. This image though has a main colour of red which uses much of the image and so would add it as a large part of the colour palette. this helps the image stand out on the page and would attract the audience because of such a different colour than the yellow. The use of a long shot shows the whole of the artist and so would attract the audience as it shows his whole style and fashion. this would help show how the audience may be reading the magazine to find a style and their own fashion and to copy their favourite artists.

The primary audience for the magazine would be for males aged 25-50. The artist in the image would be of this age and so it would be representing the target audience well.  This page only features this single male and so it does not sexualise either men or women and so would still appeal to men, it may also help it appeal to some females as they are not being sexualised so they will prefer this page than to ones that do, like Q.

Classic Rock

The primary target audience for Classic Rock is males aged 25-50 in social classes of D-C1. 

This cover page, like Mojo's, is only on a single page and so, again, less content can be put onto the page, however, a lot is still possible to put on here. The colour palette for this page is black, white, red and brown. This page again has four colours as opposed to three like the cover pages and Q's contents page. The red is used for the page numbers and one of the circles, highlighting the interviews. The brown is used for another of these as well as the image in the page. 

On this page, it too, has a bar which goes across the top of the page. This one is black and is not as thick as Q's or Mojo's. It is, however, solid. At the end of the bar is has the word 'Contents' with the date and issue below that. This page, unlike the others, does not have the title of the magazine at the top. This makes it harder to recognise the magazine instantly, however, through the typography, it still helps to form a recognisable style and brand throughout the magazine and so will still be easily recognised by the audience. 

This page has the column of information on the right hand side. It does though only take up around half of this and so leaves a lot of blank space below it. This column is titled with 'Features' much the same as the other two contents pages have. This follows the red colour palette as the text is in black, on a white background, with the page numbers being in red. This helps keep a recognisable colour scheme throughout the pages and to keep to entire magazine both recognisable and so the colours do not change too much over each page. 

This contents page features only one image, like Mojo. This image does not really contain colour as it is more of a black and white image, however, it does still follow the brown colour palette as this is where the majority of the brown can be found. This image features a long shot of the four band members. This again shows the whole of each person's style which would allow for the audience to be inspired and follow their styles. This, again, shows how people would be looking to the magazine for identity. This image only shows four men and so it represents the younger males of the target audience. In this image they are not older and, like in Mojo, these people are not represented. This gender is also not sexulised like females in Q. No females are shown on this page and so it will not be representing them. It may also attract them as they are not being sexualised within the page. 

Conclusion

Overall, these three contents pages follow common conventions. They always have the text laid out in columns on the sides of the page. Each one also has a bar and, at least, the word contents at the top. They all have at least one long shot or mid shot of a younger male. Some also have four colours rather than the normal three which are found on all their cover pages. Overall there are many clear common conventions being used which I will use for my own, however I may change some things such as how Q's looks very different from the other two.