Conventions Of A Music Magazine

Within house styles they also use a strict layout for the structure of the magazine. They have to keep this consistent to result in having a very official looking magazine. To keep the front cover of this music magazine serious they have kept the layout of the pictures and texts very plain and simple. So that the main subjects that are on the page is the musical artist, in this case Matt Bellamy along with the band name in a big, bold font so that it is very clear to fans that their favourite band is in the magazine and the name of the magazine itself would also make people buy it if they're a loyal customer and buy every edition.
           The colour scheme and layout to this brand of music magazine is always quite classy and understated, it isn't too busy.

On the right is the classic Q Magazine Masthead, but on the left is a different slant on the masthead used on the issue I'm using for my example. The Masthead of this magazine has a distinctive bold, capital font of the letter 'Q' This is to enforce that the name of this magazine is recognisable straight away. Also this is to ensure that it is different to all the competition and other music magazine that are out containing similar genres of music. They want this one to stand out from the rest, and the crisp white against the red certainly does the job.

The main photograph used for the front cover has vivid mis en scene. What with the guitar in his hands. If you were unaware of the band or type of music they played the fact that there is a guitar involved strongly hints towards to more rockier genre of music. Also the fact that his face looks serious and angry could also persuade people into thinking that the music genre is rock. The masthead smashing into pieces is also highly eye catching.

This is the main cover headline. Because the font is in white it stands out contrasted with the dark grey background and the black clothes. The band name 'MUSE' is all in capitals because the bands logo is all in capitals and bold. So it is their own trademark signature which will interest their fan base and people that just enjoy their music.

This music magazine also contains the buzz word 'Plus'. This is to try and persuade the possible buyer that you are getting a decent amount of magazine material for your money. In addition the colour of the word 'Font' is in the classic house style Q shade of red to keep the consistency of the scheme.

This is the barcode of the music magazine in my example which also contains just above the barcode details about the magazine like the issue number and the price. This is a generic convention of a magazine.

Other than the main article there is also this section on the front cover. Showing you an extra band name, which so happens to be one of the worlds most famous bands of all time. This may appeal to a Beatles fan that may not be interested in MUSE but due to 'The Beatles' being on the front page they might buy the magazine just for that part.
        This technique is to basically show the buyer quickly what else you will be able to read if you purchase this magazine.

This is the tag line of Q magazine, it is on all of it's issues. It is a very bold statement, which would interest a lot of first time music magazine buyers. It will make buyers think, well if it is on the front page and on all issues there must be some if not all truth behind it.