First analysis of Music Magazine Cover.

First analysis of Music Magazine Cover.

This is going to be the first of three music magazine covers that I am going to analyse as part of my music magazine re-search, this will help me in the step by step process in producing my own music magazine cover. The three music magazine covers that I am going to analyse are going to be of the same genre that I have chose to base my music magazine on which is heavy metal / rock. The first music magazine cover that I am going to analyse is going to be an edition of “ Metal Hammer “. I will analyse the cover using the LIIAR technique.

Language – On the cover of this issue of “Metal Hammer”, the masthead is positioned at the top of the cover, the text in the masthead “ HAMMER “ is spread across the entire width of the page, the colour of the text is a low volume of white and features rusty black edges, almost a though this text has been spray painted on with a text stencil template, I think it has been spray painted on because there are drips of white coming off the “H” and the “ER”. The text “ METAL “ in the masthead is positioned on the letter “H” in a vertical position. It doesn’t look like it is sprayed on like the “HAMMER” text, it looks more like it has been inserted into the masthead with a stamp. Due to the unique use of dark elements on the cover, it helps make the masthead stand out. The main image featured on this magazine cover, is an image of famous heavy metal band “Avenged Sevenfold” at a long mid-shot, the way the camera is positioned it looks like the reader is looking up at them from the floor, if this magazine reaches its best aims for its target audience, by featuring a famous heavy metal band on the front cover, it will make the readers want to buy it because their role models are on the cover. “Avenged Sevenfolds” logo is positioned at the bottom of the cover in the centre. There is also a short quotation under the logo that says “our first thought was ‘its over’. It isn’t. This is how Jimmy will live on”. This is a short tribute to one of their former members who died recently when this issue of the magazine was published. Metal Hammer magazine keeps a consistent house style on the covers of their magazines that get published, even though the artist changed on cover at the release of each issue, the logo is positioned in the same place, this is to make the magazine noticeable and easy to spot.

Institution – Metal hammer is published by a company called “future publishing” which in 2006, was the sixth largest publishing company in the United Kingdom. Another example of institution being used on the front cover of this issue of “Metal Hammer” are the role models / celebrities that are featured on the front, which is famous heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. The way institution is shown here, is that the magazine publishing house,

 “future publishing” have used Avenged Sevenfold to help sell their magazine, and Avenged Sevenfold are using the magazine company to help promote their upcoming tour or gig, this is called synergy. Synergy is where both sides are getting something good out of the release of the magazine. The publishing company will make money due the mass amount of copies of their magazine that get sold due to Avenged Sevenfold mainly being on the cover and Avenged Sevenfold will make money because heavy metal fans will be enticed to purchase the magazine, because Avenged Sevenfold match the target audience that this magazine is made for, then this will defiantly help sell tickets to their upcoming tours and gigs. The publishing company for Metal Hammer, “future publishing“, only produce one type of music magazine for the one specific music genre which is heavy metal. They only produce one heavy metal magazine. They do this because if they was to produce more than one type of heavy metal magazine then they would be eating into their own budget. Future publishing want the magazine that they publish to be the best one out of their of that specific genre.

Ideology – The ideology in this magazine cover, are the messages, values and morals that the company/magazine has. “Metal Hammer”, their ideology is to get the latest music news from the heavy metal genre to their specific target audience on a monthly basis, to the best of their ability. They want to make the magazine as interesting as possible, to insure that the same people who purchase the magazine the previous month will buy it again when the next issue gets released.

Audience – This issue of Metal Hammer, appeals to a specific target audience. In my opinion the target audience for this magazine is for an audience who have a keen interest and enjoying listening to the heavy metal music genre. Just by looking at the front cover, you can tell it is aimed for heavy metal fans. Depending on the monthly income of the audience of this magazine will also depend on how many copies this issue or any issue of the magazine sells. This issue of Metal Hammer and all other issues are priced at £3.99. Which is a reasonable price for a magazine. People In the working class and students will probably be reluctant to purchasing the magazine because almost £4.00 for a magazine for that particular working class will be rather expensive. Those people in the middle working class and upper middle class wont mind paying £3.99 for a magazine and will probably see that as cheap for a magazine. I think that £3.99 is a reasonable price for this magazine but anything more then it will lose custom and anything cheaper then the audience wont get the quality that the magazine has to offer. If they drop the prices then the quality in which the magazine is produced and made will decrease. This is why the price of the magazine must appeal to the target audience that are going to be purchasing it.

Representation – When looking at the representational features on the cover of this magazine, its main message is that the main image represented on the cover represents the target audience and it does this really well. The image of Avenged Sevenfold looks strong and important by the way the camera is positioned, it is as though we are looking up to them, they look the real deal. It represents what the target audience want to be like, which is just like them. On this cover, Avenged Sevenfold are presenting aspects of society back to us, this is using synergy once again, by having Avenged Sevenfold on the cover is helping the company sell their magazine and the magazine company are helping the particular artist promote their upcoming tours and gigs etc.

Mise-en-scene – when looking at the mise-en-scene featured within the cover of this magazine. Black and dark clouds are used in the sky to emphasise that this is a heavy metal magazine. If the sky was blue and had a rainbow, it wouldn’t appeal to the music genre for the Metal Hammer magazine because we associate heavy metal colours to be darker colours and not bright happy colours. Being the reason the sky has black clouds in it on this cover of Metal Hammer. On of the members in Avenged Sevenfold are sat on part of the drum kit and three out of the four members appear to be wearing sunglasses. To give them the “it” look. They want to be positive role models to their fans, it makes the fans and the audience want to appear like them. The members of Avenged Sevenfold also have their arms fully tattooed, another example of a heavy metal band member look.

Using LIIAR I have been able to see the key conventions of a heavy metal magazine in place. When looking back at this post I will be able to create ideas for my heavy metal / rock music magazine cover from what has been used here.