Rolling Stones Magazine Contents Page
This example of a music magazine contents page is taken from Rolling Stones magazine. Rolling Stones magazine is an American based magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture. It is published every two weeks and in the 1990's has changed it's format to suit younger readers and now often focuses on television and film stars and pop music.
Firstly the main picture which is dominant on the contents page is of a music artist Kanye West. He is well known and for anyone who like pop music which is what this magazine focuses on, he will easily be recognised and people will be drawn into the picture and want to know what is happening with him and what the story is about. Underneath the picture of the easily recognisable star who will draw peoples attention is a small paragraph of information as to what the story around him is about. The main text says Kanye's Big Return. This sums up basically what the story is going to be centred around with his return to the pop music industry. The picture also shows kanye West holding two fingers up in the air like the peace symbol. Quite a lot of the pictures which i have looked at, has the singers and bands holding two fingers up in the air. I would imagine that in each contents page of this magazine they choose to place a picture in the same place which would highlight one of their main stories, probably the biggest story as it attracts the readers attention and automatically draws them in.
Down the side of the page are 7 different small paragraphs of writing which gives a brief insight in what stories and articles can be found on what pages of the magazine. This is helpful as readers wishing to look at a particular article can straight away look here and turn straight to the page which it is on. All 0f the stories are listed down the right hand side of the page, after looking at many different contents pages for music magazine i have discovered that this layout is the same as it is in quite a lot of other music magazines and is like a typical covention of how the contents paes are laid out.
Most contents pages in magazine are title as 'Contents' or other things such as 'Coming up' or 'This Week', 'This edition' or 'Inside', however for the rolling stones magazine the main title which is in bold and black and runs across the top of the magazine says 'RS 1068/1069' The strap line running underneath the main headline which is in a smaller font, however still in black and bold says 'All the news that is'. This must be the strapline in either a lot or all of the magazines as part of the writing is missed out as the Kanye Wests hand in the picture covers over part of the strapline with his peace sign hand gesture. This makes it difficult for the reader to see what it says and what word is missing and this technique is usually used ie. In magazine titles where the reader already knows what the word says and so it doesnt matter if part of it is missing.
In the top right hand corner is the magazines main cover story. In this case it is ' Brad Pitt; The Rolling Stone Interview.' The magazine producers know that most people know who Brad Pitt the film star is and so putting his name first will automatically attract readers attention and stand out against the rest of the writing. The writing then gets smaller and more plain looking underneath as the headline is the main line that catches people. Most people who know who Brad Pitt is and like him will not probably even bother reading the rest and so the main headline with the stars name has to be bold and eye-catching to hold the readers attention and draw them into the story. The rest of the articles follow the same idea having hooking and catchy headlines to draw the readers in. This is because the small introductory paragraph many people will not bother reading, as they just scan the headlines and turn to the pages which interest them.
At the bottom of the page, the title of the magazine, the date and the issue number are printed on. This is to let people know what issue this is, it will help them to know when the next issue will be on sale if they liked this one and also reminds them of the title of the magazine.
NME Magazine Contents PageThis is the contents page of the NME music magazine. Firstly they have chosen to place their name and logo straight at the top of the magazine. Out of all of the music magazine contents pages i discovered that this is not the same in all of the music magazines. The magazine are highlighting their name so that anyone new to reading the magazine can easily see the name of the magazine. The title of this magazine is 'This week'. This is straight forward and immediately lets the reader know exactly what stories and articles are going to be in this magazine. Straight away they know that this is the page to look at to find out whats inside this issue. The date of the issue is also on underneath the main bold title. This lets the reader know what issue this is.
The column on the right hand side is all about the NME magazine awards which go out to various bands and artists depending on what the readers of the magazine decide. This lets the readers have more of a say in the magazine and makes them feel like they have a part in the magazine which will encourage them to buy and read the magazine more. There is also a 'Band Index' on the left hand side of the magazine. This is a column which runs nearly the full length of the page and lists all of the artists represented in this issue of the NME magazine and in black next to the name are the page numbers which shows readers what page they can look at to find their favourite artists or bands. Also straight away the reader can turn straight to this page, look at the type of artists represented by the NME and they can then decide if this is the type of music they like and if so it encourages them to buy the magazine. At the centre of the page is a bright blue box, with writing which says 'new noise 2009' written in a white font on a colourful boxed background. Straight away this is bright and stands out to the readers. Underneath this it says '10 Acts for the New Year'. This straight away tells the readers of the new and upcoming stars for the new year and will encourage them to look and see who the new artists are, and if they are going to like the new music which iscoming out. Below this text is two small images of pages inside the magazine with a pink arrow pointing to the inside of the magazine. 'Get Turning to find out who where backing'. People who read NME will be influenced by this as they like the NME and like the type of music and so they will be interested to know who the NME are interested in for 2009 as they are most likely to be the artists who are going to be published in the new years magazines.
Underneath this is a section headlined as 'PLUS'. Immediately this tells the reader there is more in the magazine which hasn't yet been mentioned. It also gives the impression that he magazine is full of so many articles that it cannot talk about them all and so has added a small section 'plus' which briefly explains other articles inside the magazine. Underneath this is eight more stories with small captions of information underneath and page numbers so that readers who are interested in certain articles can turn to the pages they want.
Underneath this and at the very bottom of the page is an article about subscribing entitled 'Subscribe today and save over £45'. This text is done in a bold and bright yellow font. The yellow looks sharp and stands out against the black background and is eye-catching to the readers, who are going to be more likely to subscribe to the magazine because of the low discounted price and the great savings which they will recieve if they subscribe now, this will encourage readers to subscribe now as they will get a cheaper deal. This is also vital for the magazine as it is a great oppertunity to make sales and improve the sales of the magazine to bring themselves more money in. Therefore they have chosen to do it this way so that it stands out and immediately draws the readers attention and lets them know of the deal which is on.
Hip Hop Magazine Contents Page.
Straight away this contents page is dominated by the picture of the artists. This is because the artist who they have choosen is 50 cent who is well known and easily identifiable with the readers of this magazine. Straight away people who like R&B and Hip Hop and this type of music will recognise the artist and can straight away look at the story around him. Near to the bottom of the picture of 50 cent is abig '48' underneath this in a smaller white and bold font it says '50 cent. Curtis carps on about his 'candy shop'. Straight away people know who the artists is, and 'candy shop' is one of his big hits and so the line entitled 'curtis carps on about his candy shop' is a clever play on words as it features the name of his song.
In the top left hand corner of the magazine it says HCC230 which is a black outline with a white fill which almost blends in with the white background of the magazine. This makes it quite difficult to make out at first. The HCC stands for 'Hip Hop Connection', and im assuming '230' is the issue number. Underneath this in a black and bold font saying 'Jan/FEB 2009'. This informs the reader which issue this is and helps them to work out when the next issue will be coming out.
Down the right hand side of the magazine is a list of all of the articles and stories in this issue of the magazine. After researching lots of different contents pages for music magazines i found it quite strange tht this contents page doesn't have a title. I also found this contents page quite plain.
Rock Sound Magazine Contents Page
This contents page for Rock Sound magazine is dominated by the completely black background. All of the text on the page is done in a bright white font which stands out sharply against the black background and he words looks as if they are almost jumping of the page and stand out to the reader. The picture at the bottom of the page also looks nearly black and white.
At the right hand side of the page the main feature inside this issue of the magazine are listed. In nearly all of the music magazines which i researched he main features, stories and articles where displayed down the right hand side of the page. This is done in again, the same format as most of the other magazines which i looked at, with the main headline in a bold white font so that the catchy strapline stands out and grabs the readers attention and draws them into the story. Underneath this in a smaller white font is a small brief summary of the story, which gives the reader a little bit more information as to what the article is about. In a bright blue font to the left of the articles main headline are the page numbers. These again stand out against the dark black backgroundand highlights the page number to the reader so that if that article interests them they can easily find and turn to the page which it is on.
In the bottom right hand corner in a bold and big font which again almost leaps of the page and demands the readers attention is the title of the magazine entitled 'Rock Sound'. This is important for the magazine as it highlights their name and can boost sales and reputation of the magazine as people know the name of the magazine which they will remember when going to buy it. Underneath this they have displayed the issue number which in this case in 'no.118'. This also highlights to the audience that this is a highly sucessful magazine as it has been running a long time with over a hundred issues. It also tells the audience that this magazine is popular with its intended audience and may encourage others to purchase the magazine.
The picture at the bottom of the magazine doesnt dominate the page as the colours blend in the the dark background. The picture i think is of a band called the gallows as above the picture is a small piece of text. 'It sounds like having a glass smashed in your face for 49 minutes and then you just smile-Frank Carter on the Gallows new album. This has been placed in a bold font which stands out directly above the picture of the band and so i believe the two are linked. All of the people in the picture are all made to look tough.
