The Anatomy of a Music Mag / First Ideas

The Anatomy of a Music Mag

Whatever the genre, whoever the star, music magazines adhere to a few specific rules when it comes to laying out their front covers for maximum eye-catching effect. The example I've chosen to bring to my blog is an old issue of Kerrang!, featuring metal legends Avenged Sevenfold.

As per the usual rules and Kerrang's familiar in-your-face style, this cover plays upon a number of common aesthetic conventions:

• Large masthead: The large, angry, instantly recognisable font and black and white colouring make the header stand out on the shelf and grab the attention of passers-by.
• Feature photo: In this case, Avenged Sevenfold are the focus of the main feature. This particular photo catches eyes in two ways; it's a frontal shot that makes the band look as if they're looking right at the reader, and it's been expertly cut and laid on top of the masthead to make them look like they're jumping out of the page to grab readers' attention.
• Varied fonts: The number of fonts used is nice and varied, but not excessively so. The hard-edged type is eye-catching and the definite colour scheme visually prioritises features on the cover, drawing the reader's attention primarily to the main article.
• Tag strap:  Aside from informing the reader of other articles of interest aside from the main features, inciting them to read further, this bar along the bottom also serves to neatly frame the page.
• Barcode: It's inconspicuous and out of the way, just as it should be, but it puts the mag's price and date of issue in an accessible place so readers don't have to go looking for them.

These conventions, each with its own purpose, are brought together with great proficiency to create a front cover that gives the reader incentive to read the publication and is very effective at catching and holding their attention. I will make use of these tools in my own work in hope of achieving the same eye-catching effect.

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First Ideas

 As I might have suggested with my choice of example above, I have chosen a rock/metal magazine as the subject of my coursework. With the myriad of layouts and styles demonstrated by Kerrang! and other such publications, I believe I will have all the inspiration needed to put my own aesthetically sound creation together.

What truly cemented the idea in my head, however, was not the availability of inspiration, but the choice of photo model that immediately came to mind. This student has shots of her own amateur modelling on Facebook, and judging from the incredible quality of the photos I've seen, I believe she will be the ideal model for this particular genre and medium.

Potential titles for my print include:

Stratosphere

Louder!

Breakdown