Front cover analysis 3

The music magazine ‘Q’ was first published in 1986, founded by Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. This magazine gives a comprehensive view of music targeting different genres of music for the older generation of music listeners. The name of the magazine was to at first be called Cue (cueing a record) however, they didn’t want their audience to be misguided into thinking it’s a snooker magazine and therefore changed it to Q.

The copy stands out, and is written in a mature font. There’s a use of two main colours (red and white) within the writing, this allowing the magazine to look neat, and the information to be clearly set out. The use of the red and white relates back to the logo of the magazine as its red and white making the magazine look professional.

The key image is of the band Green Day. This represents the genre of the magazine as the band targets more of the ‘older’ generation of listeners. The three band mates are looking directly at the camera this engaging the reader and attracting them. The mise-en-scene reinforces the fact that Green day are an American punk rock band as they are wearing dark clothing, this is stereotypical for a punk rock band. The background is plain green, this reinforcing and relating back to the band name.  The plain background also lets the band stand out as there are no other significant images on the cover.

As mentioned before, there is little amount of colour used within the copy. We see this within the sell lines. The use of alliteration helps information to stick in the reader's head, for example, alliteration is used within the sell lines 'Brucie Bonus'. In order for the magazine to attract readers and engage them, ‘Q’ use words such as SPECIAL and EXCLUSIVE - these words connote the content is new. The sell line ‘WORLD EXCLUSIVE’ suggests the magazine is the only music magazine to have this information allowing it to have a unique selling point from their competitors, this attracting audience’s. The magazine promotes an American indie rock band ‘YEAH YEAH YEAHS’ - and states their achievement of their five star album. This could attract the audience as the magazine associates with well known bands. By the audiences reading the sell lines and getting attracted, this allows them to expand their knowledge on music they like. The masthead states ‘The UK’S biggest music magazine’. This allows the audiences to acknowledge this magazine is well-known and is professional. This may draw in readers as they know they can trust the information in this magazine.

The front cover of Q has the conventions of a magazine. This is as they are able to attract their target audience through their key image, sell lines and masthead. However, also have other conventions such as the barcode, date and magazine logo.