How I will improve my cover:
This is the draft contents page for my magazine:
How I will improve my contents page:
Edited image for my contents page:
The artist featured in this NME article is Gerard Way from the rock/punk band My Chemical Romance, which suggests that the target audience are teenagers interested in rock. This band is famous within the under 24’s, which fits in perfectly with the target audience of the magazine – 19 – 24 year olds. The type of language used in the article is a combination of formality and informality. The voice of the interviewer is formal and academic, consisting of phrases such as ‘minor key synths’ and ‘infused victimization’. However this is contrasted with Gerard Way’s colloquial dialogue that appears very genuine and down-to-earth, particularly phrases such as ‘oh my god’ and speech and fillers such as ‘like’. This difference in language would appeal to the audience as it would emphasize the authentic attitude of Gerard Way, allowing them to like him because of the easy understanding. There are parts of the article that hold a humorous tone to engage the reader, such as ‘MCR did very well out of dying’ and ‘more than just pretending to have cancer in stadiums’. This suits the young target group who would continue reading the article. The general tone of the article addresses the reader as an informed intelligent fan; they should 
be informed to understand the comical references to previous MCR songs such as ‘cancer’ and ‘black parade’, they should be intelligent to understand the intellectual wording and must have an interest in the band or Gerard himself to even read the article. The article consists of many quotations by Gerard way that work often as titles. The text is clear to read, not bold, but still contrasted from the white background. The colours of black and green are clear to read. Black represents the music-style of the artist as well of the magazine, and the green often represents a colour of jealousy, so the magazine might be suggesting that Gerard’s music success is to be envied. The text for the titles is arranged in a slanting position, which could be a slight hint at the rebellious nature of MCR or a different approach to rock music, which in their case is for their music to be ’real’. The actual article information is arranged in columns to add a sense of formality to it and abide by the unspoken rules of layout for magazines. The interview is not a traditional “interviewer speaks, Gerard speaks, etc” format; instead it is a mash-up of different quotations and information from the artist, as well as the editors input of historical information to make it a combination of an interview, historical article and informative text. The whole article consists of four pages, only one of which is dominated by a picture. The rest of the article is primarily text-based, with a few pictures to engage the audience further. This is a reflection on the target audience who would be interested in rock and would want to know more information about it rather than simply look at pictures. NME often includes a poster of the main artist, therefore not many dominating pictures are necessary in the article. The main image is a mid-shot of Gerard Way; it is in direct form of address with the reader which is evident from the strong eye-contact. His shadowy appearance reflects the image on the front cover of the magazine, however this contact is a stern one; perhaps to show his uneasiness with the world or detachment from society – this engages the reader to want to find out more about him. The clothes he wears are the same as on the front, this ensures that the reader recognizes him as the lead artist of this issue. The caption going with the image is ‘this record is going to be the grand failure if people don’t get it.’ This shows that to Gerard, success and money isn’t as important to the understanding and connection with his music. The house style established on the front cover is developed across all the pages I have analysed, not necessarily in colour, but in the text, layout and design. It is also evident that the article requires prior knowledge such as MCR’s previous songs such as ‘cancer’ and the ‘black parade’. The article however does not exclude any readers that are not aware of this, it simply provides more interest and engagement for readers with prior knowledge.
The artist featured in this article of Q magazine is a solo artist Cheryl Cole, who has taken the world by storm in the past few years and is a central icon in the music industry today. This choice of artist would usually suggest a target audience of young males because of her sex appeal and those interested in mainstream music; but Q magazine has transformed her appearance into one of a ‘rockstar’ to suit the rock audience and detach her from the pop-image the band Girls Aloud had created for her. This article merges both formal and informal language, consisting of easier language phrases such as ‘up-to-speed’ and more complex phrasing such as ‘..eclipses harmonies of credibility’. This will engage both the academic reader and the regular guy on the street. The colloquial phrases that we use in every day life such as “I choked on my tea” and the phrases we hear on TV like “cutting edge” are small ways of connecting the reader with the artist, and consequently the reader and the magazine too. The tone of the magazine is an informed one, communicating with an informed intelligent fan, this is evident when they talk about the previous reputation of Girls Aloud, a group she was formerly in 
– ‘help steer girls aloud from the nadir of credibility’. The style of text used is clear to read and attention grabbing. The colours are reiterated as red black and white to establish the vixen power she possesses, not only literally on the page, but in the music industry as she has totally dominated that field. There are a lot of ‘C’s scattered around the page; to establish her initials and allow her name alone to dominate the page, which is a subtle reflection of her success in the music industry. The interview is laid out as a collaboration of historical text combined with snips of what she has said which together entices the audience in one entertaining article. The article consists of six pages overall which is a reasonably large amount of the magazine. About half of the article is dominated by images of Cheryl Cole, again to emphasize her great sex appeal and show her in a ‘rockstar’ light. Evidently, her speech and historical background aren’t very ‘rockstar’ and thus to not alienate the regular rock readers, the magazine shows picture of her from the eyes of a rock-magazine reader. However, the even distribution of images and texts portrays the values of the audience; that they are interested in the article, but need to be engaged by pictures too – can’t have one without the other. The main caption for the article dominates an entire page, including phrases like “All hail”, the words alone show the artist’s importance and power over the music world. By giving her such power and so many pages, they are giving her God-like features. The presentation of Cheryl Cole through the images demonstrates the idea that she is creating a new image for herself. Q has taken this ‘new image’ idea and made her into a rockstar; she looks comfortable and still powerful in such a persona which thus reveals an idea that she can formulate any image for herself and abide by it perfectly. This ‘rock’ image and colours of red, white and black are established further after the initial front cover. This builds up to a house style of simplicity and reiteration of the colours red, black and white which together form the rock genre the readers are interested in. The article demands no prior knowledge as it explains her background with Girls Aloud, her new solo career and success with her debut album. This is because she is not an artist the rock-audience would be familiar with and thus more historical background is necessary.
