Analysis Of Existing Contents Pages

NME Contents Page.

This is the contents page for an NME music magazine.
It is a non symmetrical layout, which consists of headlines and a variety of images. This sort of layout and construction would not be ideal in most magazines, due to the lack of organization with the structure, however, in this magazine, the layout is like a notebook, with the assorted sizes of the photo's, and the unsymmetrical layout in which they are placed.
The images are a variety of colour and black and white, this is so that the overall page isn't too overwhelming, but isn't completely drained of colour. Therefore this is directed to a niche audience.

The aim of this page is to grab readers attention and to inform them on what is in the magazine, this works by using the appropriate imagery and text.

This layout works well to the target audience, as 74% of males are likely to read music magazines, therefore the design is not feminine, however it isn't sexist either, and still appeals to females. The age range of this magazine is approximately 13-25, therefore it has a messy composition in which will appeal to this.

The contents page is not as important in representing a magazine as it's front cover, however, it does give an insight as to what is inside the magazine, therefore it has to be appealing, easy to read and gives lots of accurate and appropriate information.


Kerrang Music Magazine.

This is the contents page for Kerrang music magazine.
It follows the same design scheme/layout as the front cover, E.g Disorganised layout, similar to NME's.

The choice of type face is interesting, as it alters between the two colours, and is in a bold font which is recognisable and eye-catching. The text displaying the contacts is surrounded by a black box. This is usually a technique used when text is needed to be shown over an image, However, in this case the text is being placed over a plain white background, therefore the box isn't necessary, but finishes the design off and making it more interesting and eye-catching.


Kerrang is produced by a well-known company called Bauer. Bauer produces some popular, successful magazines such as Heat, GRAZIA, Mojo, Closer, etc..

In the main image here, the musician is displayed playing a guitar, there is also a bassist and a drummer positioned in the background. In most music magazines this is how the band members are portrayed, holding or playing an instrument.
This is so that the public are aware of their profession, and to advertise their music.
However, this intertextuality looks very stereotypical and fake, therefore when producing my own magazine cover/contents page, I will display only the models against a background, without any props. This makes it looks more realistic and proportioned.

The aim of this contents page is to not only inform and give an insight of the magazines content, but also it is following the design scheme from the front page to keep the idea of consistency and recognisable.

Q contents page

This is the contents page for 'Q' Music Magazine.

Q, also like Kerrang, is produced by Bauer, therefore it is well known and successful.

Q magazine was first introduced in 1986, and is still successful today and known as the UK's best selling monthly magazine.
Q is not mainly a music magazine, but also introduces sport, comedy, film and politics.
Therefore the audience for Q magazine is wide, "the Q audience don’t define themselves by the music they listen to. Music is an important passion, but their love of music will never be to the detriment of their other passions, such as film, sport and comedy." and the contents page defines this due to the specific choice of iconography and codes and conventions.
Like the two previous Content Pages, the images are neither symmetrical nor aligned, they overlap and this is a consistent scheme throughout the music industry. This is used to make the page look more interesting and uses denotation to suggest that those who love music and read this magazine, may not be as organised as those who don't but have fun and enjoy the fact that sometimes things are a bit disproportionated.

As mentioned above, the layout is disorganised, however this contents page, in comparison to others, the contents are in a straight line. This also follows the scheme off the front page, as in NME and Kerrang, the text is distorted and placed at different angles, sizes, fonts and positioning. Whereas on the Q front page, the text is all aligned to the right in a straight line, in the same font, colour and size, therefore the contents page shows the idea of consistency and organisation in contrast do the lack of structure with the pictures.

The moral authority of this magazine is the use of the range of ages, as they not only use young musicians, but the artist on the front cover for this magazine, and the one placed on the left hand side in black and white portrays a middle-aged sophisticated man, therefore this is showing a variety.
However, in all these magazines I have analysed, the band members/models are all white, this is not ethnic discrimination, but purely to identify the genre of the music, as black people are usually associated with Rap/R&B/etc.. Therefore the specific choice of models used are selected carefully and with reason.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/brands/Q/