Front Cover Analysis of Q Magazine

I have been analysing Q music magazine where I have analysed in detail, their music magazine front Cover, contents page and a article.

Below is the Q music magazine front cover analysis. I have chosen to deeply analyse the front cover of this particular magazine so I could have an insight of styles and layouts out used of a mainstream magazine as this is the UK's biggest music magazine. By doing this, it would help me construct my own music magazine front cover and perhaps challenge a typical and well known music magazine to make mine possibly slightly different or unique.

This is a music magazine and from looking at the front cover I know that there are going to be articles about Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Dave Grohl, as well as exclusive interviews from these stars alongside seven other musicians. This magazine appears to be only focusing particularly on the specific 10 musicians including Jay-z, Gaga and Dave as it is stated on the banner of the front cover of the magazine. On the magazine it’s written clearly that there are going to be 42 pages of reviews.

The magazine’s target audience seems to be ranging from teenagers to anyone who is interested in R&B, Rock and Hip hop / Rap Music as Lady Gaga is representing the R&B music industry, Jay-Z representing the Hip Hop / Rap Music industry and the Dave Grohl representing the Rock Music industry.

All three artists are looking directly at the camera but their heads slightly orientated in a specific way which emphasises their personality and their genre of music they represent.

The type of relationship this magazine seems to be seeking with the audience is someone who is a true music fan of a range of music industries and someone who really likes reading interviews with big named music stars.

Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Dave Grohl are on the front cover as they are representing a specific industry of music and are the growing artists across the world. This magazine contains 10 exclusive interviews and perhaps those three artists interviews are the one to read where they might reveal something about themselves.

There are anchorage texts which are the three names of the three artists. The font of their names is quite large in capital letters which could be emphasising that they are considered as the magazine’s top three exclusive interviews.

The overall message the artist is giving is that they are unique extrovert artists that are proud of music and the industry they represent as they are international music stars.

Each of the three music artists is in hair, costume, facial expression or in type of position of what kind of music star or industry they represent. For example Dave Grohl has his hair fairly long for a male which is slightly curled and in the way of his face, with a moustache and beard, dressed in black t-shirt and jeans which gives the impression he is a rock star. Jay-z is in jeans, black t-shirt and a chain hanging down his neck. His head is tilted a bit back with the facial expression of serious as his eyes are squinted a bit small and lips in some sort of a pout and his legs spread apart with his hands in his pockets, suggests he represents the streets and is likely to be a Rap artist. Lady gaga is known for her wild or bizarre costumes for a R&B artist. She looks like a soldier wearing a soldiers hat in all black with a gold chain around the chin, black bra and pants with black shoulder pads and she is saluting to the camera but one of her legs is bent frontwards which is not a soldier stands which implies that she is trying to create a change the music industry and at the same time challenge societies expectations and she isn’t afraid to do it.

The Buzz words would be the numbers which would give a clue about what to expect in the magazine and how much of it. The effect it has on the reader is that because they know what to expect, it might trigger a thought of interest into reading on further inside the magazine. 

Because the Magazine is called ‘Q’ and there are a lot of numbers to hint what could be in the magazine and it clearly states other buzz words such as interviews, could suggest the target audience likes reading and likes reading about celebrity interviews etc.

The images are of the stars themselves and only show three specific stars out of the ten stars that the magazine interviews, which could suggest that the interviews are only about specific topics.

The style of fonts, texts and images are over lapping which could suggest that interviews are related in topic wise. The font style is consistent but some texts are bigger than others which it is highlighting main issues of the magazine.

The puffs suggest that the type of audience that they expect to get is someone who like s a range of music from different industries and someone who likes reading interviews.

The colours that are used in the front cover of this magazine is Red, Pink, Black and white and i find them fairly attractive because they are not dull colours which won’t put me off. The colours are also fair to ender wise as it’s neither too feminine nor masculine.

Large fonts are used to highlight the main issues in the magazine and the smaller font will give a quote or a hint of details which might tempt you to read on further.

The strategies the magazine uses to attract the audience’s attention is by using no gender biased colours for attraction, large fonts to highlight main issues of the magazine and uses the big named international music stars to help win the audience’s attention to read the magazine further.