MUSIC MAGAZINE TEXTURAL ANALYSISJames Case

Introduction to textural analysis• I have now completed my initial magazine research.

• I am now going to choose three magazines that are similar to the one that I want to create.

• I am going to analyse the front covers, contents pages and double page spreads of the magazines.

The three magazines that I will be analysing:

1. Q

2. Mojo

3. Kerrang!

Q and Mojo are general music magazines. They do not focus on a particular genre of music. They focus on many different genres of music.

Kerrang is a magazine that focuses on one genre. Kerrang only focuses on rock music. However, rock music has lots of sub genres.

I think that the magazine that I am going to create is going to be more like Q and Mojo. This means that it will focus on many different genres of music.

I will be doing a textural analysis of Kerrang, Q, and Mojo.

I am doing a textural analysis of Kerrang, even though the magazine I will be making probably won’t be like Kerrang.

I am doing this analysis so that I can see the differences between the features of rock music magazines and the features of more general music magazines.

QMagazine 1 out of 3

Front cover for Q

Main image of the band covers the entire page. Their heads are even in front of the main ‘Q’ logo. This tells us that this they are the main feature of the magazine and it attracts the attention of the reader to this image. The fact that the image covers the name of the magazine also shows that Q is such a well known and recognisable magazine that people do not even need to see the entire logo in order to recognise it.

The red and blue colours and the star shows that Green Day (the band) are American. These are colours that are associated with America. This could possibly attract American readers to buy the magazine.

The ‘Q’ logo is in the top left corner of the magazine cover. This means that people will see this part of the magazine first, because in the UK and other ‘western’ countries, we always read from left to right. This means that they want us to see this section first. The logo is also the largest and most prominent part of the cover, which also shows that they want us to see the logo first. It is important that people see the logo so that they can immediately see recognise that the magazine brand they are looking at is Q.

The background of this ‘banner’ section is white. This bright colour contrasts with the overall ‘dark’ theme of this magazine cover, which makes it very prominent and it attracts the reader’s attention to this section of the magazine. This shows that it is an important part of the cover.

The majority of the text on this magazine cover is in bright colours, such as blue, red and white. This is because the main colour scheme of this cover is dark colours. This makes the text contrast with the background, so that the reader can easily see the text. This contrast in colours between the text and the background points out that the text is important, and it attracts the reader’s attention to the text. The smaller text in the ‘banner’ section and the text at the top of logo is black. This text is black because the backgrounds behind the text is made up of bright colours (white and red). This means that this smaller text also contrasts with the backgrounds that the text is in front of.

Contents Page for Q

This contents page is mainly taken up by pictures. The creators of this magazine have decided to use lots of pictures rather than text. This allows people to immediately see what is in the magazine without even having to read the much text. This reduces the time that people take to decide whether to buy the magazine or not, because it takes less time to look at pictures than it does to read text. Pictures are also effective on contents pages because it is more exciting to look at pictures than read lots of text.

The subheadings, which tell the user briefly what is on each page, are in bold, black text. This makes them stand out, and therefore this allows the reader to locate them on the page quickly and easily. The black and bold text also shows that these bits of text are important parts of the page, and they should be read before the smaller text is read.

The contents page is spread across two pages. This is more effective than one page, because having two pages suggests the audience that this magazine has lots of contents and information inside it. This could lead to more people buying the magazine.

The page says that Q review is “the world’s biggest and best music guide”.This attracts people to buy the magazine, because most people always want to buy the best and the biggest of something.

All the large title text on this page is always in a colour that contrasts with the background that the text is in front of. This makes the text very easy to see. This also shows that this text is important.

The largest image is at the top left of the page. This shows that it is important, because we read from top left to bottom right, which means we will see this image before we see anything else on this page.

Double page spread for Q

The title text that says‘in full bloom’ is very large. It takes up about half of the first page, and about a quarter of the two page spread. This clearly shows that it is the main text on the page, and it is important. This attracts the reader to look at the text.

The text looks as if it has been spray painted on to a wall like graffiti. Graffiti is a symbol of being a rebel and not following the rules of society in general. This could be showing or implying that the band featured on this page (The Blossoms) are rebellious and going against society.

The photo on this double page spans across the entire two pages. The very large size of the image shows that the band in the image this is clearly the main focus of this article.

The photo is in the background, and all the text boxes are on the layer above the photo. The title ‘in full bloom’ has been edited into the photo to make it look like it has actually been spray painted on the wall. There is no text on the second page of this spread. This re enforces the fact that the band are the prominent feature of the page and it shows that the band are so important that an entire page of text can be given up to show this image.

The sections of the text that have been highlighted in red to show that they are important. They attract the reader’s attention to these certain bits of text. They stand out against the white text next to it.

Four members of the band are wearing leather ‘biker’ jackets, which are often associated with being rebellious. This reinforces the point that the band are rebellious against ‘normal’ society. This also shows that the band is different to others.

MOJOMagazine 2 out of 3

Front cover for Mojo

The masthead (the name of the magazine) is covered up by 3 pictures and at least 2 bits of text. This suggests that the reader does not even have to be able to see the entire masthead to recognise that this magazine is Mojo. This shows that Mojo is a very recognisable and famous brand of music magazine.

This section of text says ‘the ONLY interview’.This suggests that that the interview is rare and it can only be found in this magazine. People are more likely to read a magazine with rare and exclusive content in it. This could attract people to buy this magazine.

Most of the text on this cover is white or grey. The white text is on top of a dark background. This makes the text contrast with the background, which makes the text easy to see, and therefore it attracts the reader’s attention. This could imply that the white text is important.

In the top left corner of the cover, there is text saying ‘FREE CD!’.This attracts people to buy the magazine, because people are more likely to buy something if you are going to also get an extra free item with it.This also attracts people to read the magazine, because the front cover does not actually say what the free CD is. This makes the audience want to read the magazine to find out what the CD is (it draws in the reader to buy and read the magazine to find out what the CD is).This part of the cover stands out because it has a blue background, which is different to the rest of the magazine cover, so it attracts readers to look at this part of the cover. Also, this part of the cover is in the top left corner, which is the first part of the cover that people look at, because we read from top left to bottom right. The fact that this is positioned in this corner of the magazine shows that it is important and attracts the reader’s attention.

Using the words ‘also’ and ‘plus’ suggests that there is a lot of content in the magazine. This attracts people to buy the magazine, because people are more likely to buy magazines with a lot of content in them. These sections of text are bold and they are in a red and yellow font. This contrasts with the rest of the cover, which makes this text stand out.

Contents page for Mojo

The majority of the first page is taken up by one image. This page only has a small amount of content on it. The fact that they are willing to give up a lot of room to put this picture into the magazine shows that it is important.

The picture is in black and white, which could be suggesting that the band are authentic. Black and white filters on photos are put on to add effect. They are also often associated with being old fashioned and traditional. However, black and white photos can have other meanings as well, because black and white photos are often found in modern music magazines, such as in this issue of Mojo.

Most of the subheadings on this page are in bold, white text. The subheadings are also on top of red ‘banner’ sections. The rest of the contents page does not have this (the text is just on a plain white background). This makes these subheadings contrast with the rest of the contents page, which makes the subheadings stand out. This shows that the subheadings are important and they attract the reader’s attention.

The ‘Mojo filter’ subheading has a blue banner behind the text. This is different to the other subheadings, which use red banners. This makes this subheading stand out against the other subheadings. This implies that it is a completely different section of the magazine.

This contents ‘page’ actually spans across two different pages. This creates the illusion that there is a lot of content in this magazine. If the contents page was only on one page, it would seem like there is less content in the magazine. The contents page is actually mostly taken up by images of bands. There is only a small portion of this contents page that actually includes the contents. People are more likely to buy magazines with lots of content in rather than magazines with only a small amount of content

Double page spread for MojoThe ‘O’ at the very start of the double page spread looks like a record. This has been done purposely, because records are a way of playing music, and this is a music magazine. It helps create the theme of the magazine, because it fits in with the fact that there are two other records on this page. Records are an old and classical way of playing music, so the record on this page could be suggesting that James Booker (the artist that this article is about) is quite an old musician, and he has been making music for a long time. This shows that he is a very experienced artist.This letter is very large, much larger than any other letter in this article. This attracts attention to it, and it shows the reader that this is the start of the article.

In the ‘star turns’ section, which is on the right side of the second page in this spread, the background is different to the rest of the article. This makes this section stand out against the rest of the article, because the grey background on this section contrasts with the bright white background on the rest of the page. This attracts attention to this section.

There is lots of very small text in this double page spread. The small text shows that there is a lot of text to fit into this page. The fact that there is a lot of text suggests that the story of James Booker is a long and interesting story.Only having text on the page would make the magazine look very boring, and it could possibly make readers not want to bother reading this section of the magazine. Many pictures have been added to the page, which add colour and make the page look a lot less boring for the reader to look at.

The quote in the middle (from Charles Neville) is in much larger text than the rest of the article. The text is also in the colour red, which contrasts with the black text which covers most of the rest of the double page spread. The quote also has a thick line around it, which makes it look like somebody has circled around this section in pen. All of these things make this section of text stand out against the rest of the article. This attracts the reader’s attention to the quote.

KERRANG!Magazine 3 out of 3

Front cover for Kerrang!The letters on the mast head look like they have been shattered or broken. The shattered text could be suggesting that the rock music is so loud that it has shattered the glass. This could attract fans of ‘loud’ music to read the magazine.

Magazine covers are often split into three columns. There is a left column, a middle column, and a right column.The masthead very large and it is spread across all of the three columns of this page. The size of the masthead shows the reader that it is the title of the magazine because it is the largest section of text in on the page.

The background on this page is a dark grey. Most of the text on the cover is in white. The white text is almost the opposite of the dark background, so it contrasts with the background. Therefore, it attracts the readers attention to the text. However, the masthead is in yellow. The masthead is in this colour to make it stand out against the other text, because no other text on this cover is yellow. This makes the masthead even more noticeable than the other text, which attracts even more attention to the masthead, thus enforcing the fact that it is the title of the magazine.

Most of the text and information on this front cover is on the left column of the cover. This has been done because we read from left to right. This means that we will see the left column first, so we will see all this information first. This quickly informs the reader about what is in the magazine.

Two of the three columns of this front cover are filled with a large photo of the band ‘Asking Alexandria’.This means that this photo takes up approximately two thirds of the front cover. This shows that it is the main feature of the front cover. The large image size attracts the reader’s attention to the image.

The band member on the left takes up much more space than the band member on the right of the photo. He is also in front of the other band member. Both of these factors show that he is more important than the other person on the page. His head is even in front of the masthead. Part of the masthead is cut off by this image. This attracts the reader’s attention to this image and also shows that he is important.

In the bottom of the middle column of the front cover, there is text that says ‘the truth’. This text is underlined with a red line. No other text on this cover has this underline. This shows that this text is important and it has a special reason for it being underlined. The underline attracts the reader’s attention to the text. It also enforces the fact that this magazine is definitely telling the truth, and they are not lying.

The majority of the left column of this cover is enclosed in a box with a red line around it. This shows that this part of the cover is separate and different to the rest of the front cover.

Contents page for Kerrang!

Most of the left column and the middle column of this page is taken up by two logos. The logos are the symbols of two bands (Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica). The fact that these logos take up such a large area of the screen shows that they are important and they are very popular bands. This attracts the reader’s attention to this part of the page.

The background behind the Avenged Sevenfold logo is white, but the background behind the Metallica logo is black. This creates a contrast between the two parts of the page, because white and black are the exact opposite of each other. This allows the reader to clearly see that these are two different sections of the page. This could also suggest that the two bands shown on the page (Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica) are two very different bands.

The subtitles on this page are in large, black text. The text has an italics effect on it. Also, there is a yellow background behind the text.All of these features distinguish and separate this subtitle text from the other text in the magazine. Most of the other text on the page is standard black text with no effects on it. This makes the subtitles easy and clear to see. This also makes it clear that this text is subtitle text, and it is not just normal text. This shows that the subtitle text is more important than the other text.

This contents page only takes up one page of the magazine. This is different to the two other magazines I have analysed, because both of their contents pages are spread across two pages. This makes the page quicker and easier to read, because it takes less time to read one page than it takes to read two pages. This stops the reader from becoming bored, because they don’t have to spend as much time reading the contents page.

Most of the actual content on this page is in a strip, which is on the right column of the page. This makes the contents page look like it is much less cluttered and full of ‘stuff’ than it would if the text was spread across the entire page. Compacting the text into a small space like this also allows more space on the page, so that extra images can be fit onto the page.

The black and yellow strip that runs down the far right side of the contents page looks like yellow and black ‘warning’ tape.This means that this strip down the side of the page could be implying that the magazine is dangerous and it is warning people that the content inside should not be read. This could actually attract people to read the magazine. This is because many ‘Kerrang’ readers are mainly teenagers who think they are ‘different’ and they want to rebel against the rules. In this case, the ‘rules’ are telling readers that this magazine is dangerous and you should not read any further.

Double page spread for Kerrang!

In the top left corner of the first page, there is a yellow box containing text. The text says ‘the big story’ and ‘the most important thing ever’.This will make readers want to carry on reading this article, because readers will want to read an article that is big and important. This section of text is in the top right of the page, which means that readers will see this part of the page first, because people read from the top left to the bottom right. This shows that the people who create the magazine want readers to see this.

The entire background of this double page spread is an image of the band ‘Mallory Knox’.This fact that this image spans across the entire two pages shows that it is an important image.If a reader is reading through the magazine, and they are a fan of Mallory Knox, they will see this image and instantly recognise them, because the image is so big. Readers who look at this image will instantly assume that this article is about the band shown in the picture. This allows the reader to know what the article is about without reading any text in the article.

The title of the article, which says ‘opportunity Knox’ is very large. The size of the text shows that it is the title of the article. The word ‘Knox’ is in yellow. This distinguishes this text from the rest of the text in the article, and it shows the reader that it is not ‘normal’ text.

There is almost no text on the first page of this spread. The entire page is there just for the sole purpose of showing this picture to the readers. This shows that the picture is more important than the actual text.Having barely any text on this page allows the readers to see this part of the image more clearly.

The two band members on the right side of the double page spread are partly covered up by text. However, the three band members on the left of the page are not covered by text. This could be suggesting that the three band members on the left are more important and famous than the ones on the right. However, the band members on the right are still quite important. This is shown by the fact that their heads partly cover up the title text. This shows that the band members are more important than the title of the article.