Analysis of music magazines contents page

Colour: There is not alot of colour within the contents page and only the image adds slight colour to it. This relates to the audiences style and preference, the indie genre is normally associated with dark colours and the colours of the clothes in the image show this. This creates the impression of the indie genre and the audiences style.

Design: The design of the contents is very simplistic, one trend i have noticed simlilar to Q magazine not all the stories in the magazine are listed on the contents, this will help me to design my contents page. The stories are located on the left hand side of the page making the image the main focus (another similarity to Q magazine). The main feature of the magazine has a summary of the article on the image in the top right hand corner. This draws the readers eye to it and directs them to the page where the story continues. By putting the summary on the image it tells the reader that it is about the image.

Images: There is only one main image on the contents page, which takes up at least 3/4 of the contents. The clearly shows the reader that this band is the main feature of this issue and is worth reading about. Also the summary about the image is in a different colour to the rest of the red colour storylines, making it exciting to look and find out about.

Pose, hair style, Make-up: The artist in the image are in a very casual, laid back pose portraying there image. None of them are making eye contact with the camera giving us the impression there chilling out behind the scenes making music. They are all using music equitment showing that they are very focused on what they do. Their hair styles are very sharp and well styled and take care of there appearance. No make up is used that is prominent that stands out. This tells the audience that the band look after themselves although they have a laid back image.

How are the words used: The word "snapshot" is writen as the masthead of the page, this is very clever as it tells the reader this is a brief outline of what the image includes and also links with the shot of the band below the title. There is a promotion about the magazine at the bottom of the page which can intrest the reader in suscribing to the magazine and the magazine will gain regular readers.

Language: I think that the word "snapshot" address' the reader and is a exciting phrase that makes the reader look at the image and see what is inside the magazine. Also the "albums for 2010" in colour makes this storyline stand out and is advising the reader to look out for certain albums this year.

Overall impression - How effective is the contents page: The contents page goes into detail about features in the magazine which is a good indication of what they can find inside to the reader. The photo is designed to appeal to the audience and the genre of music they like while representing their interests. This make the target audience buy the magazine as they can see that it includes features they like.