Magazine article analysis

Hip-Hop Weekly

The person featured in the article is Terry Kennedy. He is a pro skateboarder but is also establishing rap group and new clothing line. This makes me think that the target audience is teenagers and people who are in their early 20’s who enjoy rap music or skateboarding. The language used is very informal and a lot of slang and colloquial language is used. The language appeals to the audience because they can relate to it, in other words they usually use the same type of language, and because it is informal it makes the interview more relaxed and enjoyable to read.

The tone used by this magazine for this particular article is an informed intelligent fan. For example it says “Pro skateboard aficionado Terry Kennedy has made his mark on the industry, but he’s taking the sport to a new level on his upcoming BET reality series.” Because the magazine is telling us information we don’t know, it is as if they are an informed friend telling us this new information we want to know.

In this interview the style of the text for the question is San serif and the style for the answer is serif. This is similar to other interviews in the text because they all use two different font styles for the questions and answers. The way the interview is laid out makes it easy to understand and more enjoyable to read because after every question and answer there is a gap so you know the next question is separate. Also the question is in yellow font and the answer is in white font, making it easier to understand the interview which makes it more enjoyable and less of a hassle to read.

Most of the pages in this magazine use images that outnumber and overshadow the small amount of text used on each page. This shows that they believe that their audience prefers to look at the different images they produce than the text that would go with. They value their images over their text, probably because they think their audience prefers their images compared to their text.

The image used to present the artist makes him look happy with life, powerful and a confident person. They have done this by using a low angle shot, to make him look like he is looking down on the reader so we get a sense that he is a strong and powerful person. Also, the fact he has a big beaming smile and he has his thumbs up shows his happiness and that life must be going well for him at the moment. The caption used below the image is “Being Terry Kennedy” and his name is in bright yellow text. This makes the reader think that the following article is going to give us a competent insight into the artists life making the reader know more about the artist. Also the fact that his name is in bright yellow text could represent the sun and show that his life at the moment is bright and happy, which is often associated with the sun.

The style of the front cover matches the style of the article because they both use bright yellow text and they both have a main central image. A house style is used across the whole magazine as every page has a similar format and uses the same font style and colour. I don't think the article really needs the reader to have any prior knowledge because the content of the interview gives the reader a lot of information about Terry Kennedy and also the caption before it tells us a little bit about him. I do think it helps though if you have know a little bit about him beforehand though so you can enjoy reading about him more.

           

NME

      The artist in this article is a very popular musician called Hayley Williams. Her genre's are alternative rock, emo and pop punk. This suggests to me that the target audience for this magazine is people who enjoy these different genre's of music. I also think that the target audience would be mid teens to late 30's, because this is the age group that mostly enjoy these different genre's of music.

     The language used in this article is standard English and no slang is used. This language would appeal to the audience because it makes the magazine look more academic and if the magazine just used magazine and slang all the time it would make the magazine look ridiculous and discourage their target audience from buying the magazine. An example of standard English they used is " While her time in the spotlight has served to fortify her belief in herself..."

      The tone of the magazine is an informed intelligent fan because it informs the reader about facts, quotes and opinions about Hayley Williams which they are likely to enjoy. For example the articles tells us she was born in Meridian, Mississippi and it also tells us that Hayley Williams says "We're worth listening to. There is no one else like us." This type of information would be well received by Hayley William fans and NME readers.

      The style of text used throughout the text is San serif. This same text style is used throughout the whole magazine. This shows the magazine is very consistent and there isn't much variety. It also shows that the readers prefer a more consistent style throughout the whole magazine. The way the article is layed out is a mixture of facts opinions and quotes from Hayley Williams.The pages in this magazine are all very similar. The posters in the magazine all have a similar colour scheme.



Original mock cover picture

This is the original picture I used for my mock-up magazine cover.

Front cover analysis

NME is a rock genre magazine that combines features from glossy magazines and also tabloid newspapers. The title block is located in the top left hand corner of the front page in bold white letters. This contrasts with the dark background making it eye-catching so that NME stands out. Just below the title block is the magazines' full name in unabbreviated form, which is ‘New Musical Express’ which happens to be printed in the font Times News Roman. I believe this is done to help readers understand the magazine more and help readers who want to know what NME actually means.

Further down the cover the features of a magazine appear. For instance, the central image spans the entire cover. This is done to express the importance of the featured artist as he dominates the page it sets the president for the rest of the magazine as the reader knows he will be featured in the main article/interview for this issue.

Moreover, the headline partly covers the central image, the secondary leads and cover-lines also do this. I believe this is to show that although the image is important, the text is also important as it is not overshadowed by the central image. I believe this is very clever as it makes both the central image and text both dominant without one being more dominant than the other. Looking the text itself I can see that the magazine will predominantly feature album reviews, music news, artist/band interviews and gossip, all of which the majority of music magazine readers buy them for. Their is also an advertisement for free classic posters on the front cover, this is used to attract people to buy the magazines over other magazines because offers them something rival magazines don't.

This magazine is aimed at rock music lovers from late teens to late thirties. I believe this because even though their are young music artists featured in this magazine, their are a large number of older artists also featured that many younger people may not be so interested in but an older audience definitely would.

The cover’s central image seems very natural and not staged at all, this is because image looks as if it was just taken while he was having fun playing his guitar, making him seem like a fun and more real persona s many other music front covers are obviously staged, so it seems like he doesn't care about that and he just cares about his music.The man also looks very sweaty, this shows that he is hard working but likes his work because he has a beaming smile on his face.

The anchorage text reads ’48 HOURS ON THE ROAD – MUMFORD'S MANIA!’ This suggests the band (Mumford & sons) is extremely dedicated music because of how long they spent on the road touring, but it also shows they care about their fans because they are willing to travel for so long for their enjoyment.The fact that only the lead singer is shown on the front cover shows that he is more important than the rest of them and that he is the most recognisable member of the band because only he is needed to promote their band.

  

The main colours used on this front cover are black, red and white. These colours do work well together, they don’t clash with each other and are bold colours which help draw attention to the magazine. The fonts used on the cover are mostly sans serif fonts which are simple and bold. The large size makes them attracting and noticeable while the simplicity if the fonts make them easy to read.

Music magazine 1st draft

Meeting in studio after just recording her 2^nd music video photo shoot outside

So Amy M, what’s it like being back in London after touring America for so long?

Well, I’m not gonna lie, It kind of a relief. Don’t get me wrong, I love America, the people there are fantastic, so welcoming and friendly, and everyone loves music, there is such a great variety of different genres all across the States, from country to blues, it’s wonderful. Their food is too good as well (laughing) I miss the cheeseburgers and fries already, but I also missed London so much, it’s great to get to see all my family and friends after so long, plus I’m going to a party tonight to welcome me back and congratulate me, so I couldn’t be happier really.

How were you received across the pond? How well did people receive your music and did you pick up any new fans along the tour?

To be honest, I was a little nervous about touring the States at first. I wasn’t sure if many people knew me or if they would like my music. All my family, friends, fans and management here reassured me that after my first single came out, I was sure to be popular over there because my first single was such a big hit in the UK. They made me feel a lot better but I was still a little unsure. Thankfully though, the Americans seemed to like me and my music and I feel that tour has been so helpful in gaining me more fans.

So now your back home, there’s not much time for you to rest or celebrate because your back recording your new single and recording a new music video. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

I’d love to. My new single coming out in a couple of weeks time is called ‘No love lost’. Basically it’s about a previous relationship I had with someone which sort of fell apart. But it wasn’t one of your typical break-up’s, we both never cheated or anything like that, we just weren’t really clicking as boyfriend and girlfriend so we split up, but we are still really good friends, so I just wanted to make a song expressing my feelings that not all break-ups have to be bitter or end on a sad note, It is a really upbeat song and I think my fans will really like it.

And the new music video?

Oh, yes, I’m also recording the video for it and I’m having so much fun. I love getting dressed in extravagant costumes and having people put make-up on me. I think quite a few artists don’t enjoy shooting videos, but I love it, especially seeing how well the music matches the video, I just feel it gives the lyrics more feeling and it just helps you to enjoy the music more.

There are loads of artists out there these days that are collaborating and making music together, are their any musicians that you would like to collaborate with?

That is a great question. I would love to collaborate with an artist whose genre is different to mine and make a unique sound. There are loads of fantastic musicians performing right now, like Tinie Tempah, Professor Green and so on but if I had to choose some one to collaborate with I would have to choose Plan B. I love his music and he is like a one of a kind artist the way he mixes together a very jazzy sound with rap, the best of both (laughing), I just think it would be a pleasure to work with him, so if your reading Prof (winking and laughing) you think maybe we could get together (more laughter).

For our readers who want to be like you when their older, have you got any advice for them if they want to get in the music business?

Well I suppose the best piece of advice I could give is to never give up. I was rejected by many record labels and I was not well received at many small gigs, but I never stopped giving up on my dream and I kept on going until I finally got my big break and signed up to my first record label. So I would say that if music is your passion and if being a music artist is your dream, don’t let rejections and criticism get you down, many well known artists were rejected early on in their careers, so don’t let anything stop you from becoming what you want to be, whatever you want to be. 

Analysing a magazine cover

The magazine I am analysing seems to be a mixture of both music and gossip. I know it is a music magazine because the main title at the top is Hip-Hop, a genre of music but I also know it contains gossip because the letters in yellow font are gossip and it reminds me of other gossip magazines on the market. Including the puffs on the right side of the cover, it makes me think this magazine mixes together popular musicians with gossip about them.


The target audience for this magazine seems to be young, mainly black people who like hip-hop. I say this because the majority of the people on the cover are black and are idols to alot of young black people. The age-group of the people who would read this would be 14-25 year olds because the people on the cover are also young so you they can feel similar to them.


The whole purpose of this front cover is to make the audience want to buy it and read it. This cover uses different techniques to achieve this. Firstly, The main two people on the cover, who we both got mid shots of are soulja boy and kat, who are both well- known celebrities, so the audience will want to find out why both their pictures are side by side and what is there connection, plus the yellow writing and bullet points give the audience a little taste of the gossip about them and makes them want to find out more and buy the magazine.


The puffs on the side also make the audience want to read the magazine because it tells us only a small bit of really juicy gossip, so it leaves you wanting to find out more. For example, the puff about Timbaland says 'Attempts suicide after robbery !?' This is a very clever way of making the reader want to find out more because the question mark makes you want to find out if that really amazing piece of information is true or not.


The part at the bottom of the magazine says plus inside and gives the names of various well known hip hop musicians. This makes you want to find out why these various people are in that edition of the magazine and what exclusive interviews or information the magazine has on them.

To make my preliminary college magazine I used Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. When using Photoshop I learned some new skills. For example, I learned how to use the magic wand tool to delete the background of my picture. I also learned how to effectively use the lasso tool and the magnetic lasso tool. I can now also use the rubber tool to delete some of the background. In Illustrator I learned how to put text on to my front cover using different sizes, colours and fonts. I also discovered how to change the background cover without blocking out my image by lowering the opacity. I also learnt how to put boxes around my text by using the rounded rectangle tool and lowering the opacity.