Magazine Cover Terminology, Layout & Analysis

L/O: To analyse music magazine covers below and answer the following questions, in full, about BOTH covers.

Magazine cover A.

Magazine cover B.

1.
    a) The masthead 'mojo' lets the customer know that the magazine is special and magic and isn't your usual angsty rock magazine.

  b) The masthead 'Billboard' is what the charts are referred to in America, this shows what the magazine covers very obviously, which is pop music.
2.
    a) The Mojo magazine cover is crowded and in your face, very fitting for the genre the magazine covers.
 
     b) The Billboard magazine doesn't hide the femininity of the magazine, the layout is quite easy on the eyes and appealing to women. The focus is clearly on Katy Perry and the main colour is pink.

3.
    a)The detail on Mojo magazine consists of the date which is October 2017 and the price.

    b) Billboard magazine tells the customer the date but nothing else.


4.
   a) Mojo magazine's main headline is 'The songs that saved his life'

   b) Billboard magazine's main headline is 'inside the court of the new queen of pop'

5.
    a) The cover lines on Mojo are bold and capitalised, the font is sans-serif and use colour to catch the eye of the customer.

     b) billboard has neat cover lines and don't jump out at the reader.

6.
    a) The font on Mojo magazine is bold, sans-serif and masculine,  this is appealing to male readers.

     b) The font on billboard magazine is almost the opposite of Mojo and very feminine with serif which adds to the classic look the magazine is going for

7.
     a) The graphics used for Mojo is a concert (assumably a Nirvana concert due to the tagline) and a picture of dave grohl to show that the magazine is primarily focused on him.

     b)Billboard uses katy perry and a pink background to give context to the tagline


8.
    a) Mojo uses blue for the background colour of the magazine to stand out to the reader, this is very reminiscent of the magazine's name because blue is typically a magical colour. It has Yellow, Red, White and Black as well, this colour scheme is unique and doesn't follow the usual stereotypes for the genre.

    b) Billboard's main colour is pink with black and white, it appeals to the audience because of the obvious femininity and connotations that come with the colour pink making it appeal to your typical mum for example.

9.
    a) On Mojo the amount of text is high, and is used to summarise all of the major topics and themes of this issue of the magazine. They do this to let the customer know what bands and singers are included because not all customers will like all artists.

     b) Billboard creates a simplistic vibe with the quantity of text on the cover, it is very organised due to font size in the cover lines, it becomes smaller to appear less in your face and more enticing to read. Like most of the characteristics of Billboard they use this to appeal to their target audience with a simple and minimalistic vibe.

10.
     a) In Mojo the non-verbal communication is mainly with Dave Grohl's serious facial expression and the blue mystical colour in the background. This lets the audience know that the magazine is masculine and tells them that the magazine is important

    b) The non-verbal communication is Katy Perry's posture which is very petite and delicate to relate to the audience, the colour scheme also has the same effect. 

11.
   a) Mojo includes a free CD titled 'Teen Spirit' to appeal to the average audience due to the obvious reference to the extremely popular song in the alternative genre of the magazine 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' the average mojo reader will see this and be nostalgic of the song enticing them to purchase the issue.
   b) Billboard on the other hand doesn't I believe this is because Billboard does not want to over-complicate the magazine and only attract an audience because of a freebie, so it chooses not to have one and instead gets its sales through the use of advertisement and cover lines etc.

12. 
    a) There is a menu strip on Mojo however, it is behind the preview of the free CD this covers the bands and artists discussed in the magazine.

   b) Billboard has a menu strip in the pink circle to the right of Katy Perry.