All magazines whether they are Lifestyle, Fashion or Music, follow all the same rules. There are different types of magazines, the more expensive monthly "glossies" (Q, Marie Claire) or cheaper weekly magazines (NME, More). They will all include relevant images, logos and headers, modes of address, stars and celebrities, front covers, contents pages and feature articles.
The imagery included must always be relevant to the genre of the music and appropriate for the target audience, this also applies to the name (also known as the header) of the magazine. There will always be a set colour scheme throughout the magazine which will add to creating a "house style" and appeal to the target audience.
All magazines will also have modes of address; this is the way in which a text creates a relationship with its audience. The most common MOD in magazines is direct address- this is created when the person on the cover looks straight out of the magazine which invites the reader in. The opposite of direct address is indirect in which the person looks away, although this is not a convention it has been used on magazine covers. MOD can also refer to the writing in a magazine and how it addresses the reader usually in an informal way.
The front cover of a magazine is its main advertisement; here they usually include stars or celebrities to increase sales resulting in, increase of profits. The magazine cover should be bright, interesting and eye catching enticing the reader to buy the magazine. Not only should the colours and font types be attractive but they should be relevant and represent that particular genre of music.
All covers should include a title/header, slogan, one main model star and/or group photographed, a leading caption, subheadings and strap lines. The date and barcode will also be on the cover and sometimes a web address can be included too.
The magazine cover has to entice the reader in enough to read the double page spread also known as the feature article as this is usually the most expensive article of the magazine. Features articles should be bright and interesting and include multiple images of the artist/s. Grab texts can also be used to catch the readers attention.
