Detailed Analysis of one music magazine; Front Cover, Contents page & Double Page Spread

Billboard is an international news magazine devoted to music and the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis. The two most notable charts are the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top 100 songs regardless of genre and is based on digital sales, radio airplay, and internet streaming data; and the Billboard 200, the corresponding chart for album sales.

Billboards front covers show the housestyle of the magazine as the construction of the front cover is shown the way its set throughout all four pages. The use of the logo in the magazine keeps to its originality and the colours used on the logo stay the same throughout all the front covers also shows that they keep to their ethos and housestyle. The masthead is the same on every issue. This allows readers to recognise it instantly even if some of the words/letters are covered up. The colour of the masthead tends to stay the same on this magazine but sometimes changes in other magazine but the issue number situated in the same place on every issue.

The main images are really common and are mostly over the shoulder close ups of the artists also the fact they use pictures of well known and established artists gives out an idea of the genre of the magazine straight away which appeals to the target audience because they are people they’re interested in so they would buy the magazine to read about them. The main picture has been placed in the centre on the cover; also with two of the front covers the head covers the masthead which once again is a common convention in music magazines. The eye contact of all the artists to the audience gives a welcoming look also comes across as being direct and appealing to audiences. As there is only one picture on the front of these magazines, the magazine is not crowded which shows that the target audience is for a more mature audience unlike top of the pops magazine which is crowded with images and writing. By there not being a lot of writing this may make the magazine appeal to a wider audience. We can tell straight away which story is the most important as it is always in a larger font and is frequently associated with the main picture.

Text on these front covers is also similar as the names of the artist are on the front covers in big bold writings to make them stand out. The entire font on these front covers is in Sans Serif. This type of font is more simple, and modern and edgy. This will appeal to the target audience who will have modern and edgy personalities.

The language used in these magazines is simple and informal however colloquial language is not used on these front covers and there is no slang language. This appeals to the audience because it is language is not childish and therefore will appeal to them.

This Magazine has a very professional look as it contains more detail and looks more like a typical magazine front cover. The barcode is in the bottom left and for this magazine it seemed the obvious place because if it was placed in the bottom right it would have covered some of the picture and that is more important as the barcode is only for use of the retailer. Although this image is not very clear I presume the writing above the barcode is the essential information such as the date, price, issue number and website. The website is important as it gives the reader a chance to extend their music knowledge through the internet as accessibility to it continues to grow.

This Billboard contents page is well presented. Most things are in order. You have the No.1 charts in a big column on the left side of the page. This is separated from the rest of the contents by a thin blue line. On the right side there are features listed, some information at the bottom of the page and four images of artists. There is big variety of font styles on the contents page to possibly make it appeal well to the reader. A good font style has been used on the masthead, it associates well with the genre of the magazine. The font also ranges in different sizes as well. A lot the headings and sub headings use fairly big fonts to catch the readers eye. The language of the longer text is formal whereas the short snappy headings and sub headings are informal. The font of the main titles and subheadings of what’s on each page is serif font, this type of writing is more flicky on the edges sometimes this type of font can look feminine but here it looks more sharp and edgy, all of the other writing on this contents page is in sans serif, which is modern, and edgy, the types of font used is important as it defines the magazines image.

In the colour scheme there are a number of bright and dark colours used for example blue and black. The vibrant colours stop the contents page from looking dull whereas the darker colours add maturity. The colour blue is used for the sub headings, it causes them to stand out against the bland text. In the four main images the artists are wearing suitable clothing for the genre. The shot type used which is mostly mid shots emphasis their power and passion for music. The images seemed to be grouped up together, this is an effective layout. Billboard magazines has a lot of columns. This may be due to the high number of pictures on the page and is their way to squeeze more information onto the contents page which also makes the contents page more effective as it is visually good and the information is enough.

This double page spread is from billboard magazine whose target audience is mainly females of late teen to young adult age. The feature on this double page spread is of Rihanna who is a popular artist with this target audience. This double page spread has a lot of writing on it and few images with text set out on three columns on each page. The way this is set out I common layout often used in all magazine to help the aesthetics of the page.

There is a quote on the left-hand page it is in a larger font to the rest of the text which makes it stand out from the article. It also introduces the colour of hot pink, which makes it stand out even more. There are only 3 pictures on the page, one medium sized image of Rihanna performing, and two smaller images of Rihanna with other people. These break up the text slightly so it looks a bit more interesting. The font used on all the text on this double page spread is sans serif, this will appeal to the target audience as it is simple and modern and makes the page look edgy, this may also be a connotation of Rihanna’s music and personality. The first line of the article is in a bigger font than the rest of the text. This is once again used to grab the attention of the readers.

The colour scheme of this double page spread is black ,pink and white, the background is white and plain, however this makes the writing of black and pink stand out more and these colour scheme is quite girly and this will attract the female target audience. I personally think there is too much writing on this page and I do not think it is very attractive or interesting, but I do like the colour scheme.