Cover Analysis #1

To help me understand the main components to a music magazine cover, I analysed one of the inspirations because I would be taking a lot of influence from this cover. 

Masthead

On this text the masthead is partly covered by the main image. We see this with most mainstream magazines. This could be done for an artistic purpose or to make emphasis on the importance of the person photographed on the front. The magazine would have paid 'Tyler the creator' a sum of money in hopes that his face would sell the magazine. So to cover the brand name with him could have been a tactic to sell more magazines. 

NME uses its classic logo for everything it endorses. This makes it easy for existing customers to recognize its content and for new customers to discover them. I will be making a logo for my magazine that will be featured on the front.

House style

The house style of this text is red, gold and white. When someone sees all these colours put together, they might think of royalty. 

As seen in the image above, the main colours featured in the British royal family is red (Male clothing, red wall paint), gold (medals and background artwork) and white (the woman are wearing mostly white). 

In the text tyler the creator is seen wearing a crown which is directly related to the royal family and the queen. So the house style fits the generic conventions of the already established image of what the crown would wear (Queen or King) and what colours are associated to them. 

Plugs

Plugs ( mention a product, event, or establishment publicly in order to promote it ) are essential for magazines in todays market. The front cover main image isn't enough anymore to sell the magazine. Customers want more bang-for-their-buck in 2014 and demand to know what else they will be spending their hard earned cash on. Without good plugs it could ruin the entire magazine and make it not sell. 

This text has highlighted the main plugs in red so it stands out for the potential buyer. This takes any effort out for the reader to search around for more information and get distracted by another, more appealing magazine.