Conventions of Magazines pt.1

I've been looking at magazine covers and making comparisons between the different genres of music magazines to find out the conventions of music magazines. To start out, I just analysed an online picture of a past edition of Mixmag. A lot of them have the same key features that is also shared with other magazine industries other than music, but there are also many similarities within the music magazine industry.

The first one I looked at was an edition of Mixmag. Compared to most magazines, this appears to be lacking in colours but it could be possibly due to the model on the front cover wearing a robe that blends well with the background.
Like every magazine, the cover features a masthead which shows the brand's title. For the purposes of this coursework, 'masthead' will be used to refer as the title of the magazine, as there are two debated definitions for 'masthead'. The 'g' in 'Mixmag' is a descender and covers up some of the blank space left around the model.
This magazine also has a tag line which is a short, memorable piece of text that sums up the mood of the magazine. "The world's biggest dance music magazine" is a buzzword which makes the magazine sound dramatic and grand, which makes it enticing to the audience. The main buzzwords on this front cover are 'biggest', 'glam', and 'overload'.

This section here is an example of an overline and a splash.
Overline: introductory headline in smaller text above the main headline ~ "Goldfrapp's". This is not a proper example of an overline, but the typography makes it seem like one.
Splash: main front page story

Wob is also present on this cover. Wob is just a term used to define white text on a black or other coloured background.

This magazine cover shares many similarities with the previous magazine cover. They both have a masthead and an overline, and also buzzwords such as 'epic tales' and 'twilight of a god'.
A new feature is the dropshadow, which is used in the masthead to give it a more 3D appearance. It is also used in the headlines.

This front cover also features a boost picture underneath the main model's face.



One notable thing about these music magazines is that they both have consumables for the readers. Even more notable is that in the majority of the music magazines I've seen, they always show this offer in the top left corner of the front cover. Another important thing is to make sure the barcode is noticeable, and in both of these magazines the barcode is placed on the bottom right corner.