After this, I created a contents page for the magazine.

With my preliminary project completed, it's time for me to start with the main project; starting with the analysis of 2 music magazines.

First was Rewind magazine:

Rewind magazine is a free self-published monthly magazine about grime, dubstep and hip-hop music. The low price makes it easily accessible to its readers but also means that there is a lot of advertisements. It also means artists pay to get featured in the magazine which seems unattractive but because of the reasonably-sized readership, it gives low profile artists lots of publicity.


Front Cover
The title of the magazine is relevant to the genre of music as it refers to an aspect of DJing in response to high quality music, but it can also refer to music in general. To get around this, the title in the masthead is shortened to RWD, making it seem aimed more at a younger audience.

The picture uses direct mode of address, looking straight at the reader. It's the only picture on the cover giving it a simple look. Giggs has a serious face which suits the anchorage text "Working The Ardest" as it makes it appear he is taking his music seriously (this could also connote the same about the magazine). This anchorage text is a play on words of a famous line of the artist, which can act as a reminder of who he is if the reader doesn't recognise him by his picture or name. This could help a lot in a genre of music where the artists aren't well known.

There is a fairly long list of plugs that contain a mixture of well-known artists in the genre and lesser-known artists; the big names are placed in between smaller artists which makes it seems like there is a good range.

The font used is bold and stands out, making it look commanding, but is also quite blocky, which makes it difficult to read.

3 main colours used are red, black and white. Red connotes excitement, energy, passion, power and aggression which are either positive for the magazine or fit in with the genre of music and the artist featured. Black is a mostly negative colour, connoting anger, evil and death which would appear to be negative but fits witht he genre of music; it also connotes the underground which fits with the non-mainstream music and the culture. White connotes purity, good and peace which connotes good things for the magazine, but seems at odds with the genre of music, although it does also connote youth.

Contents
The contents are very simple; there is around a 50-50 split between pictures and writing. The picture has some connection to what is in the magazine, but remains non-specific so it doesn't have to be of an artist or band.

The writing is then split into the regular parts of the magazine and the different features. Within these two groups, the pieces are listed in a block of text with the only things splitting them up being the bold page numbers. There are some small teasers next to each feature title; for example, lists or countdowns mention who appears in them.

The main colours used are black and white which are contrasting and make the writing stand out. The use of capitals also does this, although using it entirely diminshes the effect.


Double page spread
Because the artist is paying to appear in the magazine, the articles are generally positive. They don't want to be too obvious in their praise though and so try to inform the reader about the artist, giving them their back-story and so on. This generally works because the subject isn't well-known and so not many people will know their backstory. Therefore the article falls somewhere between publicising and promoting the artist.

Any negative things about the artist are overlooked unless it can be painted as if the artist has overcome this hurdle, slightly making them into an underdog, and keeps to a factual/serious look at the artist as they don't want to make fun of them and therefore be less positive. The writing is mostly quite formal apart from the occasional word choice such as "biz" and "bitchy" or use of slang, although the latter is usually more music specific.


The second magazine I analysed was NME:

New Music Express is a weekly magazine about music published by IPC Media and available for £2.30.


Front cover
The title of the magazine makes it sound like a newspaper and "New" makes it sound immediate, although this effect is lost by by its abbreviation. The magazine is high-profile though and doesn't need a clever title to sell.

The pictures use a direct mode of address with the various artists looking straight at the reader. The pictures rely on the audience knowing who they are or knowing their names in the plugs at the bottom. The cover looks a bit busy because there are so many pictures.

Buzzwords like "special" and "souvenir" make the issue of the magazine seem special. "Souvenir" also makes it sound as if the reader was part of the award ceremony, making them feel involved.

Teaser like "& everything they couldn't show you on tv...." make it seem as if the magazine is offering something that isn't available anywhere else.

Main colours of blue, black, white and pink. White gives plenty of positive connotations to the magazine, meaning goodness, purity and peace. Black, like with Rewind magazine, suits the genre of music NME mostly writes about, but has generally negative connotations like anger, death and fear. Blue is another positive colour, with its associations witht he sky and water giving it connotations of peace and tranquility. Pink is a shade of red and so has the same connotations of excitement, energy, warmth and passion; it's also possibly more eye-catching than the normal shade.


Contents
The contents seem unimportant to NME as they combine it with an article. The contents is little more than a list of the artists featured in red and their page numbers in black. The feature it combines it with seems to be a mini-introduction to the issue and an important photo for them that week.



Double page spread
The piece is around a 65% picture to 35% writing and features one large photo of the artist, this makes it look simple and clean. The writing is very positive, even stating "NME loves Jay Electronica", as the the artist is being promoted by the magazine.

The language is informal and attempts to be humorous, such as when it says "Stop. Take those Biros out of your nostrils...." It also occasionally uses slang like "duffed up". The voice of the writing is trying to sound like a friend and talks in the second person a lot, making it appear personal refferring to "you".