Genre Research - Task 2 - Magazine Analysis

Task 2: Magazine Analysis

Rap Magazine

XXL is a music magazine largely centred on American Hip Hop and rap. The magazine has been running for 18 years now and it still has a following amongst music fans. The content of this magazine is often interviews with popular rap artists and information on the best newcomers in the music business. The target audience is largely focused on hip hop and rap sympathisers and fans from 17-35 year olds.

The magazine is published by Townsquare Media, who also host a variety of radio channels. The cover shows an artist (Waka) in front of the masthead, pointing towards a quote from the guy himself­­­­­. This tells you some info about the artist and engages you to perhaps read more.

The words ‘Everybody Loves Waka!’ are the heading for this magazine in bright green (which follows the colour scheme (red, green and black)) with a black stroke and a minor shadow behind it. This is very eye-catching and immediately points you towards the sub heading. Waka is overlaying the masthead of the magazine, this is to make the magazine pop-out. The left third shows the masthead and a Waka quote, so the magazine can easily be picked out when in newsagents.

In some of my research, I've found that XXL’s mission is to take a realistic and experienced approach to covering hip hop with emphasis on artist’s lifestyles which feeds the heart and soul of hip hop culture, which may be perhaps why the magazine cover sometimes seems arrogant. On the right third is a table of artists presumably covered within the magazine itself, these artist’s names have a pattern of black, green, black, green etc. this is to naturally bring each other artist out with contrasting colours, and make understanding the content quickly with ease, the green and black combo are also the magazine’s unofficial colours: along with red. The feature names also have a slight shadow beneath them.

These fonts are san serif (as they do not have decorative pieces), but they are however still very informal, with it seeming to have a cartoon style almost. The uses of this font, I can infer, is to seem more personal; perhaps in an effort to capture the soul and heart of hip hop ethos of identity and community.

Below the list of features in the right third is a ‘plus’ sign to give the illusion of more content separate from the rest of the magazine. Further down, there is a rhetorical question to successfully persuade and impact others.

The root of the eye make you focus on the title first, then past the cover story towards the feature list. Then back past the main act to the heading and then to the bar code/price.




























The contents page is simple and easy to read. It shows that the magazine has much more substance than it looks like, and the consumer has made the right choice. The layout is very modest, and less cluttered this suggests that the magazine is targeting men, instead of women’s magazines that look cluttered and filled completely with information. The magazine’s features are displayed on the right third of the page with a large heading and a sub heading explaining the subject matter that the rapper B.o.B covers in the magazine.

To the left it is a wide shot image of, presumably, B.o.B himself. Towards the bottom of the contents page is the date the magazine was published. This allows for more accurate archival later on.



The most striking aspect of the double page spread is the gold text on the story headline and by-line and the gold in the pull quote. The gold connotes success, achievement and triumph, as well as wealth and prestige. The gold colour gives a sense of warmth, along with the less arrogant image than most of the other images the magazine uses. The magazine's text is also uniform with the artist's chosen colours of black, white and gold, this feeds the upcoming artist's brand identity.

The black contrasts well with both the white and the gold. It makes it look more pleasing to the eye, and, most importantly easier to read the text.

The image is a medium shot with a large light shining on the left of the talent, that is looking towards the header, this gives the idea that he is optimistic and looking toward the future.

The second image on the right page shows the main talent on stage with a blue (melancholy, sad, depressed) hue that accentuates the 'Struggle' quote on the left of the image.

The most striking page is the left and it immediately pulls you in. The headline is unusual as it uses special characters, unique to this story. The right page engages the reader further with slightly more information about the next few paragraphs with the pull quote.




Rock Magazine



Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music. The magazine, started in 1981, is published by Bauer Media Group. The content of these magazine is mostly interviews and reviews, as well as extras such as posters and competitions. The cover shows the logo in yellow which contrasts well with the gradient of red and white in the background so it can be identified easily in newsagents. The small grungy effect on the capitalised and bold masthead of cracks reflects its rock association of loud expression and the simulated aggression of rock stars.

Above the masthead is the slug which persuades the potential reader with free promotions such as '5 killer posters' and the competition. Below the logo is a mid shot photograph of the band, Green Day.

The photograph of the band contrasts well with the background and are behind the bright foreground text showing the exclusivity of the article within the magazine and the name of the band. The text used here adopts the house colours of the magazine that are red, yellow, white and black. The red connotes aggression, danger, strength and power. Connoting danger and caution, yellow contrasts well with the black suits Green Day are wearing. The colour white connotes innocence and purity, as well as perfection. The colour black connotes power, death and evil. The cover story has a thin, black stroke around the text and the words; 'Green Day' is overlaying a copy of the same text that acts as a shadow.

The Kerrang! cover is cluttered, which is conventional for the genre of music the magazine is following. Most of the fonts used on the cover, if not all, are San serif (as they do not have decorative pieces). The fonts used suggests formality, contrasting with the wacky and informal XXL magazine fonts I analysed earlier. It gives the Kerrang! cover a more grown up vibe, mature through cluttered organising, perhaps reflecting the rock ethos of controlled chaos. The poses the band is displaying is playful which reflects the attitude of the band, as well as the band being in front of the title, bringing more attention to the band and the headline. Towards the bottom of the cover is a yellow banner which includes more cover lines following the magazines colours of blacks reds and whites.

The root of the eye is similar to the the XXL Magazine cover in a 'Z' shape. The magazine is organised for you to recognise the Kerrang! logo first, designed to be easily picked out amongst other magazines at newsagents as well as any promotional incentive, such as free posters etc. Then the route of the eye sends us past the photo of the band and the cover story right to the the yellow banner of cover lines, towards the bar code.



This contents page is less simplistic and minimalist compared to the contents page in my analysis of the XXL magazine. To coincide with the scattered cover page, the contents page adopts similar techniques to the page before it.

The first thing to note is the conventional use of a Contents title. As well as the issue number and date, these features are required for a professional magazine for structure and organisation sake, and will allow for more accurate archiving of multiple issues.

We can notice that the contents page mirrors the house colours established on the front cover. Yellows, blacks, reds and whites. But the two most prominent colours are yellow and black as they contrast very well together.

You can see that the main image for the contents page is presumably of Framing Hanley as it suggests with the text above the image. To the bottom left of the image are screenshots of the features (double page spreads etc.) this is instead of telling the potential consumer what's within the magazine, it shows what's within the magazine.

A technique used throughout various other magazines (NME for instance) is the use of the words 'This Week' just after the re-occurrence of the masthead. Scattered around the contents page are images followed by articles they relate to. Another thing to note is the photograph of the editor with a foreword beneath, this allows for some informal personality in the magazine.

The contents page is structured in a column fashion with subheadings to allow for traditional, clear, easy reading. Another convention of form is the employment of a advertisement towards the bottom of the page to encourage subscription.








The most striking feature of this double page spread is the rip-aesthetic bright yellow strip beneath the the name of the band in red and black. Reminiscent of old newspaper letters joined together to create a message, the band's name adopts the style made famous by criminals. This style of capitalised, bold and italic letters reflect the rock connotation, I mentioned earlier, of aggression.

The text above the name of the band then draws your attention. With a red text background and a white capitalised typewriter style font the text is drawn out with contrasting colours. The colloquial sentence giving the idea that 'Fall Out Boy' is the next big thing makes use of taboo language to bring attention and engage through shock value.

Under the large, middle banner is a stand first engaging the reader to read on. The text here is primarily black but with a few specific words coloured in red to draw more attention to said words.

To the far right is the article above a slightly transparent red banner. This makes the white body of text easier to read against the red background.