Codes & Conventions of Music Magazine : Front Cover

    In todays lesson we looked at the codes and conventions of a music magazine front cover. We were given a number of various magazines to look at and had to make a list with the key features they all include. These features are:

. The masthead being in the top centre or top left of the page and taking up around 25% of the page. It is also in its own font. Its name usually gives an idea to the genre of magazine.

. The barcode, price and issue date all being next to each other at the bottom and a lot smaller than the rest of the of the features on the page.

. Buzz words in a different colour and bigger size font to make them stand out from the normal text.

. The theme of the front page uses 3 to 4 colours and this theme continues throughout the magazine. It is also designed to be aesthetically pleasing.

. The main image is either a close up or medium close up of the artist or if its a band it is a long shot. The main image is the biggest thing on the page. It stands out from a plain background. as well as this it also covers a part of the masthead if the magazine is well known.

. There is about 5 to 6 cover lines on the page. The main one is for the main image. They are a different colour and bigger size font to stand out.

. Puffs can also be used to advertise certain areas of the magazine.

. Smaller images are used to show some of the feature articles in the magazine.
. Only a few fonts are used on the page. Like Serif , Times New Romand and Sans.

    We then got in a group and shared our ideas. Here are a few examples of music magazine front covers.