MAIN COURSEORK - ANALYSIS OF EXISTING MAGAZINES

For this part of the main coursework I will be analysing the front covers of two dance magazines. The first magazine i will be analysing is"mixmag". This magazine is the worlds biggest selling dance magazine aimed to young adults aged 18 and over and to both female and male. The cover image on the front of the page is large so it attracts more attention, some of it overlaps on the title which is at the top of the magazine. The cover image is singer "Goldfrapp" she is used because inside the magazine the main article is about her. Goldfrapp is dressed in pink this is to go with the writing and labels on the magazine.
You cant use lots of colours on a magazine because it costs too much money, so they usually just stick to 4 colours. The colours that they have used are pink, purple, white & black. The tag line for the magazine is "THE WORLDS BIGGEST DANCE MUSIC MAGAZINE" which means that they are the worlds biggest selling dance music magazine. This magazine isn't formal its informal this is because it is based to the younger generation, and because if it was formal then it would be mostly news and text. They have used the same font on the whole of the magazine cover but the font is larger and bolder than some other bits of the cover. This is too make the main and more important story lines stand out.


The second magazine i am going to be analysing is "DJ Mag" this magazine is also informal because it is only aimed to the younger generation. And the younger audience wouldn't have as much interest reading it if it was formal.
There is a main photo centred in the middle of the magazine, this is because the main article is about who has been nominated for the "King DJ". The colours on this page stand out because the background and the text is in black and white. Then the main image is black and white but is covered in different colours of patterns and odd shapes on it. This would of cost more money because they have used so many colours. They have also used different colours on a background to make text stand out. the tag line for this magazine is "LIVING & BREATHING DANCE MUSIC", this has a meaning because the magazine is based on the genre of dance music. The main title is big and centred left. which covers some of the photo this is too make it stand out from the photo. They have used many different fonts on this magazine.


This is a double page spread for the magazine "MixMag". In this double page spread there are two main images, on each page.There is only a little amount of text on these articles because the page is mostly filled out by the image. The target audience in this magazine is 18+ because it is about raves and rave is one of the most favourite music genres for teenagers because the beat to the music is quick beat. The images in this double page spread doesn't really have much to do the style of music, this is because there are random pictures of toilets, and peoples legs. But they also have images of people raving in the clubs, but they aren't just teenagers they are older people in there late 20's. Which means that the target audience is also to older people of the age of up to the age of 40. The colours they have used for "MixMag" are yellow, red, green, blue and pink. I think they use these colours because these are the type of bright colours that are classed as "rave colours" and body paint usually comes in this colour which a lot of people wear. Also the lights in clubs are usually this colour. Because these colours are used on the magazine more people would buy the magazine because it will stand out more with the bright colours which catch your eyes. The back background of this page makes all the text and pictures stand out more. And it will draw more customers to buy the magazine because most magazines usually have a white background with black text and a few colourful pictures. The text on the double page spread doesn't stand out at all, because the font size is so small.


This is the contents page for "MixMag", the main image is centred in the middle of the page with all the text round it. The text around the image is the page titles, which tells the reader what is in the magazine. The layout of the text is neatly layed out because they are in a column which is on the left hand side of the image.


The colours that are used are yellow, white and red; these colours make the contents page stand out, these colours also attract the reader because yellow is a bright colour and the audience will look at the yellow first and see what is written there. The black background on the yellow writing makes the yellow stand out more so the audience will definitely be attracted to this piece of writing. I think the pictures stand out more so I think this is a disadvantage because no one would really look at the writing on it. I think the pictures attract the audience more because they are big, bold and neatly done. The colours in the contents page are not the same as the front cover, there are two colours the same white and red but the front cover stands out more because the writing is bigger. The font in this contents page is quite bold and big so it does stand out but not that much, the font will not attract the audience the colour will so the colours are an advantage in this contents page.The information is organised not that well because the writing is not that bold so no one will really read it they will look at the images, the writing written in yellow stands out but the rest of the writing does not. It tells us that the magazine focuses more on the images than the text; on the front cover of the magazine the title is clear and bold.There are promotional features on the contents page and that is that you can have Kerrang! Magazine delivered right at your door for £6.00 a month. I think this is a good idea because Kerrang! Directors will get more profit for the magazine if the audience buy this, they will get more money if they will buy the magazine regularly. The magazine logo is not on the contents page I think this is a disadvantage for the magazine because having the logo on the contents page is promotional. Overall I think the magazine contents page is good and well organised they just need to make the writing stand out more and change the colours.