Magazine Cover Analysis

Monday 2nd October 

Magazine and Cover Terminology, Layout and Analysis

L.O. Analyse music magazine covers using appropriate terminology.

1. Mojo means a magic charm, talisman, spell, or influence by magic power. Billboard is a large outdoor board displayed for advertisements and the American word for 'charts'. The magazines may have used these names because they both link to the genre and the contents of the magazine.

2. Both of the magazines have a celebrity in the middle using a mid length shot for both. The mastheads are written behind the celebrities and the cover lines are written on the sides. The choice of celebrities and cover lines both fit the genre and will appeal to the target audience.

3. The required information on the cover is the celebrities, masthead, dateline, cover lines and main cover lines.

4. The main headline on both of the covers is the celebrities names, so 'David Grohl' and 'Katy Perry'. The use of the celebrities will appeal to the target audience because of the genres of music they come from.

5. The cover lines used are the main cover lines and normal cover lines including teasers and quotes.

6. Both of the magazines use serif fonts however the masthead of both have a sans serif fonts. The use of the serif font and block capitals on Mojo's masthead appeals to the target audience because it looks masculine. The use of fonts on Billboard's cover appeal to the target audience because it looks quite modern and the serif fonts make it look quite feminine.

7. Graphics used in these covers would be the celebrities pictures and the picture in the bottom left corner of the mojo one. The graphics have both been purposely put there to link to the genre.

8. The main colours on the Mojo cover is blue, black, yellow, red and white- this is aimed more at men. The main colours on the Billboard magazine is pink, black and yellow and these colours are aimed more at women.

9. There is more text on the Mojo magazine than the Billboard magazine. Billboard may have less writing because it is trying to come across with a more modern theme.

10. The images that have been used is the picture of the celebrities and non-verbal communication like facial expressions are neutral and David Grohl's pose is also neutral whereas Katy Perry's pose is more feminine.

11. Yes, there are freebies that come with the Mojo one you get a free CD or something to go with it.

12. There is no menu strip on either of the magazine covers.

13. In Mojo, the main genre is music focussing on rock, country, folk, etc. In Billboard the main genre is pop music.

14. Mojo appeals more to men because of the colours and the celebrity whereas as Billboard is aimed at women because of the different colours and celebrity.

15. They both appeal to their readers because of the contents, celebrity cover and genre.

16. The USP of Mojo is that it comes with a freebie and the USP of Billboard is that it doesn't stick to the same music genre each time and has a colour theme.