Music Magazine Article Analysis

Music magazine articles, particularly double paged ones, can be displayed, laid out and visualised in many ways.

Article design can vary between not just magazines but the article contents. If you were to look at two articles in the same magazine, you would see they both vary in terms of colour, number of images, style of writing, etc. due to obviously the different people with different inputs. With that in mind, the three example below will demonstrate that point, however you will see how they all are still related by small conventions.

The first one displayed above can be described as busy, in the sense that there are a lot of items that catch your eye, the numerous pictures, headlines and quotes. The main colours being used here as you can see are red, beige, black and grey. This is the articles unique colour scheme and is used very effectively, for example "We're ready to rock" highlights the word "Rock" in red, contrasting the image behind it and therefore catching the reader's initial intention.

One convention obvious between any music magazine article is promotion. In this article for example, displays it obviously on the right in its own column, giving "teasers" into their coming album, meaning to tempt the reader to discover more about them and even buy their music. It even asks the reader to help promote them with a pug at the bottom stating "Get the word out".

The second here immediately contrasts the first. Firstly there is more text space than image space compared to earlier. There are only two images, quite simple. It doesn't have a title, it has an opening paragraph in bold, but otherwise is quite simple and plain, with a colour scheme of white, with purple from the lighting in the images. However, again promotion is obviously in effect if you read the article, it promotes the tour that Wickham was in the middle of.

The third is similar to the second example, but more developed. For example, it still maintains a use of two images, however, they both contrast each other in terms of colour and content. Also, compared to the other two examples, the article is written in a Question and Answer format, where the interviewer lists their questions and the artists response. This generates quite an informal discussion and reader opinion of the article. The title is simply the artists name with subsidiary text boxes listing her accomplishments and quotations.

In summary, articles vary in appearance and design, however typical codes and conventions are still maintained despite the differences. For example, the text sizes are always small and boxed.