Tuesday, 30 November 2010

Textual Analysis of Mojo Magazine Front Cover

This is a textual analysis of existing magazine Mojo.


                Textual Analysis of Front Cover Mojo

Colour Scheme: The colour scheme of this magazine is mostly black and white but with use of dark gold to highlight different aspects of the front cover. There is also use of grey. These colours connote old fashioned, vintage effects. Mojo could have used these colours to link to the artist appearing on the front cover, which is Queen. They are an old, classic and iconic band. The colour scheme used is also classic. It could be described as old fashioned as the main photograph is black and white and also most of the writing and font around it is black and white, like a greyscale photograph. This gives the magazine a sophistocated edge. Like it is trying to appeal to the most dedicated and knowledged fans of "real" classic music sound. The audience then wants to be part of it and would buy the magazine.
Photography:
               
The photography used on this magazine is a medium close-up of Freddie Mercury. He is the most iconic member of the band as he had a lot of publicity, and he is the lead singer of the band Queen. He was also the most outrageous. This photo takes over the whole page and there is use of superimpostion. Freddie's head covers the middle of the masthead, this is automatically assuming the audience will know what magazine it is and will be loyal readers. The band name "Queen" stretches from one side of the magazine front cover to the other and is over the top of the photograph of Freddie Mercury. The pose he is doing makes him look reserved and shy, like he is hiding from the camera behind his big black fluffy coat. His hand is holding his arm in even further like he is hugging himself, making himself as small as possible. This is a complete contrast to his actual personality, which is outrageous and confident, he likes being in the spotlight. The main focus is then drawn to his eye, which is looking directly at the camera and stands out against the darkness of the background of the magazine.

Writing Style:
As it is the front of the magazine there are short pieces of text giving the audience an idea about what they can read about. The language used on the front cover relates to the effect the magazine is trying to get across to their audience. Words like "modern", "legend", "revolutionaries" and "ultimate" show the reader what type of magazine it is and what lifestyle they want the audience to associate with Mojo. On the front cover, it also refers to the music and bands talked about in the magazine. Bands like "Radiohead", "Kasabian" and "MGMT", this shows the audience what type of music Mojo represents. In this edition, Mojo makes you think about what type of music they represent because it would be thought of as Indie but mentioned on the front cover is Cee-Lo Green who is a soul artist and Queen would be classed as Rock or Classic Rock which means the lines are blurred on which type of music magazine Mojo is.

Text/Picture Ratio:
On the front cover of Mojo there is an equal amount of picture to text because the photo takes over the whole page and the text surrounds it in small paragraphs. In the rest of the magazine there is more text than pictures, which shows the audience of this magazine is different from Q. Mojo is supposed to be taken more seriously and the audience would be older. If you read this magazine you will find out about bands in and in-depth way compared to other magazines, it is more mature. There are also a lot more articles Mojo than there are in Q.

Fonts:
The fonts used on Mojo's cover are the same all over the page. This makes it look sophistocated and professional. It is a block style font with a vintage effect. They have used gold and grey for the colours of the fonts making them stand out against the white and black background. Over the top of the masthead at the top of the page, they have used a gold handwritten style font where it says music magazine". This makes it seem more personal as though the editor or maker of the magazine has gone in at last minute and added it themselves. It gives the effect of spontaneity

Publisher:
The publisher of this magazine is Bauer Media. This company also does Empire and Kerrang magazines. They target a range of audiences. For example, men's magazines, women's magazines, gardening and motoring.

1 comment:

  1. Much better again. Just need to work on the presentation. Ask if you need help with this. It will make the difference.

    ReplyDelete