Electronic Musician Analysis

Front Cover - 

The masthead of this magazine runs across the entire top of the front cover of the magazine, and the text: “Electronic Musician” is typed in a san serif font. The main cover image is very slightly overlapping the mast head, which suggests that the musician from The Black Keys is slightly more important than the magazine itself.

The Black Keys band members are facing the camera, with a direct gaze, this engages the audience. I think as they are slightly less known than other bands, it would suggest this magazine is for an audience with a more obscure taste in music.

The cover lines of this particular magazine are not necessarily controversial like most magazines tend to use, instead these cover lines just hint at what’s inside, so that the audience becomes interested; for example: Make money writing jingles, the readers will wonder how that is achievable, therefore will read on to find out how.

The main colours used on this cover are white, yellow, red, and grey. The white for the title is vibrant and engaging, it also makes the name stand out from the grey background. Yellow has connotations to mellow and calm emotions, which I think is the type of music The Black Keys aim to create, as they are said to be “Capturing a Vintage Vibe in the studio” and the vintage feel also suggests calm music.

However the grey background and mise-en-scene suggests that there may be a dark element to their music, whether it be lyrics or melody.

Red is used to highlight the first few words of each cover line, red is commonly known to be the colour that most attracts the attention of people, so I think it was used to draw the eye to the main bulk of their magazine. 

Contents Page - 

The contents page is given the title Electronic Musician written in the same font as the front cover, however the colour has changed to black. There is one large image roughly in the centre of the page. The page has a white background, which gives a neat feel to the layout.

The articles are broken down and listed in sections: Cover Feature, Listen, and Lust. The main title of the articles are written in bold, and there is some anchor text explaining a little bit more about what the articles are regarding.

The colour scheme and layout follows the same house style as the front cover, with the red, white, and black colours, and clean cut layout.

Double Page Spread - 

 A large images is usually used on a double page spread, to attract the attention of the reader, as they are likely to recognise the face of a musician or someone they’re interested in. Also a large image detracts away from a lot of text, which people tend to find more appealing.

The main image is of Afi from Davey Havok. You can tell that the band he is from is a rock band, from his alternative styling: multi tonal scruffy hair, graphic prin t-shirt, tattoos etc. This shows that the magazine is aimed at people with a more obscure taste in music, as the band seems to be fairly alternative. Also this implies that the magazine may be aimed at the younger generation, as the band seems modern and young.

The main colour of this spread is grey, which gives a moody feel to the piece, which have been used to accompany the band they’re featuring. Pink has been used to highlight key pieces of the headline, which shows that the artist they’re talking to has a fun/quirly personality, which is contrasting to the duller grey feel of the page.

Black and white text has been used in the article, white to indicate the questions asked by the interviewer, and black to indicate the answers given by Afi. This helps the reader distinguish which particular section they’re reading.

The page has a light bulb/ glitzy border which indicates diva/rockstar connotations.

Overall I think this magazine is aimed generally at the younger generation, and to both genders. However it may be marketed slightly more towards males as the colours used are fairly masculine, and the band they’re featuring may be more appealing to males.