Forms and Conventions of Music Magazines

Research Production – Print Contextual Research

The forms and conventions of a music magazine –

The forms and conventions of a magazine refer to the typical things you would expect to find when you look through it.

Front Cover –

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     Short memorable name: This is useful because it will stick in the readers head and when they next go to buy it, they will know exactly what they’re looking for. The name of the magazine usually has a specific font that makes it more memorable, and typically stays the same colour. For example NME (New Musical Express), this is typed in a san serif font, primarily red, but with a thick white and black double outline.

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     Mast Head: This refers to the section at the top of the magazine where the title is located, this usually contains a main head line or a sell line (like: The UK’s biggest music magazine from Q magazine). This also helps distinguish the magazine, as it typically retains the same layout and font; that customers will recognise. However it may change colour, to fit the feel of the front cover (depending on what they’re featuring in that magazine).

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     Main image: The main image is usually of the artist they’re featuring in the magazine; and it typically spreads over the whole cover. The artist’s faces can be clearly seen and they are making eye contact with the camera/reader. Overlaying the image of the artist’s there is usually text telling the reader who they are (for example above you can see NME is featuring Alex Turner & Miles Kane). This image accompanies the main cover line.

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     Main Cover line: The main cover line tells the reader about the magazines main story. For example in this issue of NME it is the Alex Turner and Miles Kane’s “First major interview as ‘The Last Shadow Puppets’”.

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     Thumbnails: The front cover may contain thumbnails illustrating other stories that the magazine is covering. For example on this issue of Kerrang, you can see they have a thumbnail of Kelly Osbourne, as they are also featuring a story about her, in addition to the main story about Muse.

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        Badges: Badges are used to feature information in a visually pleasing way that grabs the reader’s attention, as it stand out from the rest of the front cover, as the material is secluded in a badge.

 Contents page –

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        Page Title: The page title will usually just simply say “Contents”, this is usually in bold font at the top of the page, so it is easily accessible to the reader, and they can find exactly what they’re looking for.

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     Feature Sections: The features section outlines the main content of the magazine. This section can contain thumbnails and teasers of what will be in the article (This is usually a controversial or emotional quote from the musician they’re featuring).  For example at the bottom on the contents page for Q magazine, they have a feature section at the bottom, where page numbers are anchored to thumbnails from their articles.

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     Colour Scheme: There will be a clear colour scheme throughout the whole magazine, and the contents page will look smooth and fluent, much like the rest of the magazine.

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     Page Numbers:  The main functions of the contents page is to direct the reader to material of which they’re interested in. So the page numbers tell the reader where to look for specific content. The page numbers are always anchored to thumbnails or teaser headlines/quotes.

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     Language Techniques: The language techniques used are usually very simple and easily readable. This makes an impact and saves the page from becoming too cluttered.

Double Page Spread –

-       Large title: This title explains what the spread is about. For example this double page spread about Florence Welch from NME has the title “USA got the love” I think this refers to her successful touring in the USA, and the title incorporates the lyrics from her hit “You’ve got the love”.

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     Sub heading/paragraph: In the sub paragraph you are given the summary of the article, so the reader can see if they’re interested in reading it. This usually highlights the artist’s name, if it hasn’t already been done so in the main title.

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     Quotes: The quotes are usually used to entice the reader into reading the article. The quotes, much like the one featured on the contents page, are usually something controversial or gossip-related. This intrigues the reader so that they keep reading.

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     Columns: The articles are usually arranged into columns to give a professional and easily readable effect. (Also shown in the double page spread from NME).

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         Main Image: The spread usually features an image (from a photo shoot, done especially for the article, as you can see Florence Welch is featured on a whole page of the spread, this is so the reader can recognise who is the article is about, and it retains the glossy stereotype of artist’s and celebrities.

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Other images: The spread usually then contains more images of the artist, thumbnail size or slightly larger. These images may be of them recently on stage or out and about in the street.