Rock Music Magazine Cover Analysis

I first looked at a range of different music genres and music magazine genres. I also looked at the different magazines that are available within these genres. I then decided that I would do the rock magazine genre. I chose this genre as I felt it would be the most interesting one for me to do as well as be a commercially viable option as these magazines have high readership and so would be a profitable option. 

To help find out how to best gain an audience and a part of the market, I will first analysis three different covers of existing magazines in my genre. I will do this because, as Bentley stated in 1997 ‘The making of the new through the rearranging of the old’. This means that I shall look at the current conventions of my genre of magazines before making a new one, which will be original and fresh however it will still clearly be from the genre and will still attract the target audience for my publication. This will mean they will still buy it and it will still be profitable and commercially available, however it will still be something new.

Through the research I have done, I have found that three of the best selling rock music magazines and therefore those who would be my competitors are: Classic Rock, Q and Mojo.

I shall now analyse a cover from each of these three magazines and then discuss them in terms of the form of the magazine, the magazines audience, the institution, and representation. I will also look at the genre and the media terminology.

Classic Rock

Classic Rock is a magazine, which is published on a monthly basis. The magazine is published by Future Publishing for a target audience of males aged between 30 and 50 years old. It would be appealing to people of social classes D-C1. The magazine is priced at £5.50 per issue. The circulation for this magazine, during the period of 1st January 2012- 31st December 2012, was, on average, 59,322 per issue with 100% being actively purchased. These three screenshots below show these statistics.

The image on the cover shows an older man, supporting the target audience, as opposed to a younger male or female which would be appealing to youths. This is showing how the cover represents the primary target audience of older males. However there would be a secondary target audience of younger males, and possibly some older females, however, females do not normally listen to Rock. Having the main image of an older male would not always appeal to a younger target audience and does not always represent them. It would, however, appeal to younger people as it shows a style of fashion which would be appealing to this audience of younger males who would be into rock music. Wearing a style of leather clothes would suggest the person would be rebellious which would then suggest that these younger people would also be rebellious and so would support these theories. 

The magazine features a large, bold masthead, with the word 'Rock' being much larger and prominent than the word 'Classic'. This will appeal to fans as they can clearly see, and instantly know it is a magazine about rock music. The masthead is also in white on a dark grey background. This is a several which helps for the title, again, particular 'Rock' to stand out on the magazine. With this, the cover follows a three colour palette of black, white and red. However, one of the headlines, 'Rolling Stones' is in a golden colour. This helps it to stand out as it would be appealing to the target audience as it features a popular band who the target audience enjoy. The use of gold and black and white colouring can connote that the magazine is a high quality luxury product. This  would be appealing, particularly, to the people of a higher social class.The colour palette the magazine uses would be the colours which most men of the age would like. They generally, like darker colours as well as colours like reds and golds.

The cover features one main, central image. It features a popular rock star who would be instantly recognised by the target audience. This would be appealing to the audience and so would drag them in to look at it. The image is in black and white which follows the colour palette and would be appealing to the target audience as they generally like this style of images. The clothing the man is wearing is also the style which is normally associated with the rock genre and so the clothing style would also be appealing to the target audience. These people would be consumers for the identity (Blumler and Katz,1979) Many people may look at the magazine to find new or good fashions. The image itself is a medium shot which is in focus and not blurred. Being a quality image, it would be attractive to the audience.

The cover uses bold typography on the page which are brighter colours on the dark grey background, which, again, helps it to stand out and attract the target audience. Colours like the red and the gold are used for the headlines as they are brighter colours and would stand out more than the white does so people will be drawn to these headlines. The white is then used for the text below the headlines, which talks about the article or feature. This is the less important text and so does not need to be as large or as bold.

At the top of the cover there is a bold red bar. Because of the way magazines are stacked, this will be one of the few things that are seen at first and so this pulls in the audience as it is bold and bright. It also features the free items that are being given away with the magazine so it would pull people in who are interested in this. This would help promote the magazine to attract the target audience and become more appealing to them.

Mojo

Mojo is another rock music magazine which is published by Bauer Consumer Media. It is a monthly
magazine with a cover price of £4.60. It has an average circulation of 79,345 per issue with 99% being actively purchased. It's primary target audience would be for males, again aged 30-50 of a social class D-C1.

This cover features a large, bold white masthead along the top. This mast head is much like Classic Rock's being white on a dark background. This helps the masthead to stand out and so will draw in the audience. The cover also uses a colour palette of white, black and red. The test on the cover alternates between red and white. Some headlines are in white, others red. This helps it to stand out. It also helps to draw the reader into some more important or well known headlines which are in red. These stand out and will attract the reader more than those in white.

The cover uses a black and white image, like Classic rock, of a popular rock star. This image is in a style which appeals to the target audience as they prefer darker and black and white images. It also helps stylise the magazine and the genre. It also features a smaller image in the top corner of another well know musician/band. This is at the top where people would first be looking. This helps to draw in both fans of rock and fans of the band. This image is a mid-close up, but also a wide shot to get all artists in. This image use lighting coming only from the right hand side. This lighting casts a shadow on their left hand side creating darkness. This creates a simple yet attractive image which will draw in the audience as it creates this idea of black and darkness which would appeal to the target audience for both the artists and the magazine.  In the other corner there is a circle with the union jack. This, again like Classic Rock, shows a free item with the magazine which would be attractive to the target audience and would then draw them in and make them buy it. The cover also uses bold typography, however it does not feature as much text as Classic Rock did.

The word 'mojo' is a earthier unusual word and it almost sounds like a slang word for some form of
drugs which are stereotypically linked to rock stars as they are famously linked with them. This would be appealing to the target audience as they may feel that it is a good use of a strange word and so may be attracted by this.

This cover follows similar conventions to Classic Rock's cover. This helps to keep the rock genre a
clear indentity and so the target audience would know what to be looking for. This would appeal to them and so they would be more likely to buy it. 

These three screenshots show the statistics of the magazine. The second screenshot shows the 

breakdown, showing how most of the magazines are distributed as print, however many are still 

bought with digital. The first one shows how much the magazine is being sold for in both basic cover prices and with subscriptions. The third screenshot breaks down the sales into different places.

Q

Q is another rock music magazine which is published by Bauer Consumer Media. It is a monthly publication with an average circulation of 58,980 per issue. 98% of this is actively purchased. The cover price for Q is £3.99 per issue. It's target audience would, again,  be males aged 30-50 in the social classes of D-C1. 

This cover features a main colour palette of red and white, with black and gold being more secondary. The masthead, of the Q logo, is in the top left hand corner. This would be one of the first places someone would look when looking at a magazine. It has a large white Q inside of a bright red box. This stands out on the cover and so would pull in the audience. 

The cover features a large image which fills up most of the page. This image, again, shows a popular rock star which would attract the target audience as they see someone they like. This image, unlike the others, however, is not in black and white. The colours are still a large part of the image, through his shirt and hair. This is a clear and quality image and so would again be appealing to the target audience. This image again, does not immediately represent a younger audience. However it does show large tattoos which would, again, suggest a rebellious character and would support the ideas on youth being so. 

Around the edge of the cover it features a gold boarder. This is used to show it is a special issue and so would attract the audience through being interested as well as possibly collectors. The colour gold would also connote that it was a premium magazine. This would attract people to it as they would think of it more as a luxury product and so would want it, possibly, for identity.

Down the left hand side, there is a long column of text with a list of popular artist. This would be one of the first places that are seen when the magazine is stacked on the shelf. This would appeal to the target audience as they may be interested in these or a few of these artists and so would be drawn in 

to read it. 

This cover follows many of the common conventions, I have found, for rock magazines. These conventions include a mainly red, white and black colour palette white some use of gold. This genre also commonly uses black and white images and are made to look much like a premium or luxury product. 

These screenshots again show how the magazine is distributed. It shows how, again, most are sold in print at stores. It also shows that it also has some free circulation which is not controlled. This may be used for promotion to gain larger readership. The other screenshots show how the magazine is sold 

throughout the world. This data, and from the other magazines, show me that I would be selling my magazine mostly at stores, however, I may also have a large amount of subscriptions so this may have to be promoted on places like the contents page. It also shows many will be sold in other countries and so it needs to be appealing to both British audiences, and fans, as well as for other audiences like Americans who may have slightly different tastes and so some American rock would also have to be featured.