Analysis of Music Magazines and their websites

The following are examples of music magazine's front covers, contents pages and websites

NME magazine:

This magazine covers all genres of music and is aimed at [FIND THIS OUT]. The cover has one main image which is of the singer Florence and the Machine which is centred which then has a few other coverlines around the main image and another image at the top of another main coverline. At the bottom of the page there is a small list of the other bands that there are articles about in the magazine so the reader can look and if there are bands that they are interested in they will want to buy the magazine. The contents page has quite a conventional layout with the main coverlines accompanied by large pictures taking up the majority of the page, there is then a list of the different sections of the magazine and their page numbers rather than the different coverlines so the reader can to look to the sections that they like first.

NME website:

Their website has similar ideas to the magazine in that at the top of the page there is different tabs for each different section for example News, Artists, Festivals. There are coverlines of a sort which are accompanied by images under the heading 'News' on the homepage and in addition to this a slideshow of other main coverlines at the top of the page. One way we can identify that it is for a magazine is that it still has the masthead at the top. Also the website has similar adverts on it to those that would be in the magazine.

Kerrang! magazine:

This magazine is different to NME in that it is aimed at mainly men interested in heavy metal and rock music. It features a lot of red, yellow and black which are quite harsh masculine colours which also reflect the style of the music. The front cover is very busy with an engaging main image of the band 'New Found Glory' and lots of other images placed around coverlines which have all been slanted to be parallel with the main coverline. The contents is interesting as it follows the common convention of having images of the main coverlines and setting the contents out in different sections, however instead of putting the names of the articles they just have the band names so the reader can just go straight to an article about a particular band which makes it easier for the reader to find the information it wants.

Kerrang! website:

The design of this website reflects the audience and the type of music genre greatly as the backgrounds are mainly black or differing shades of grey and the yellow headings are the same colour and font as toxic warning signs. This website also has the different tabs at the top but not quite as many as NME and they are more general, it also has the slideshow of coverlines as one of the first things the reader sees suggesting these are the main coverlines and the same masthead as the magazine.

Mixmag magazine:

This magazine is quite different from the previous two as it is aimed at a younger audience of 18-25 year olds and is based around the clubbing scene. We can see this from the neon colours used on the front cover, the model on the front has an outline of neon pink and purple almost like he has a strobe light behind him, also the main coverline is highlighted in a bright yellow which represents the bright lights of clubs and draws attention to the text. The contents is again, set out it in a generic way with images for the main coverlines, the numbers however on the images are in a font which suggests the neon tube lights used outside many clubs and bars. The content is arranged into different sections but far more general ones with two of them being 'Regulars' and 'Features'.

Mixmag website:

This website is quite similar to the previous two in that it has a masthead, a slideshow of the main coverlines and tabs for the different area's of the website. One thing that is different is that the image to text ratio on the homepage is much stronger towards images with little text on the webpage at all. It also has a tagline at the top of the page and advertising that would be seen in the magazine too like NME. The website appears quite exciting to the reader as there are lots of varying fonts, colours and photo's of people clubbing and having a good time.

Top of the Pops Magazine:

This magazine is drastically different to the other magazines as it is aimed at 11-14 year old girls and its content is more on pop music, celebrity gossip, shopping and true life stories. It is also the one magazine out of these four that isn't that focused on music despite it being a music magazine. The colour scheme suggests femininity with different shades of pink and lots of love hearts, the younger audience is appealed to the use of youthful slang like 'cringe' and 'fitties'. The contents page has an image of the front cover with arrows to the page numbers of each coverline, and the other coverlines are set out in five sections 'We ♥ shopping', 'All about you', 'Wins & offers', 'We ♥ boys' and 'Celebs & Gossip' none of these relating to music in the slightest, also there is an emphasis on boys as every article that has boys featured in it is highlighted which suggests this is what their audience is most interested in.

Top of the Pops website:

internet. The email that they send out looks like it could be similar to the sort of content that would be put on their website if it had more on it. In addition to this, the website is obviously quite old as the masthead for the magazine has actually changed suggesting that they don't really change the website either.