Front Cover Analysis 6 - Research

Black Sabbath would be a band that I would consider featuring in my magazine, they are an older band that still could be interesting to a younger audience and to fans of bands with similar styles. This cover is mostly black and white, again something I would like to emulate in my magazine, and also includes bright reds to draw attention to important points.

The masthead is placed directly above the image and uses about a quarter of the page itself, this is a consistent house style throughout all of Classic Rock's magazines, along with their sell-line underneath that, reading "HIGH VOLTAGE ROCK'N'ROLL". Classic Rock have created this house style throughout their publishing years and this allows for the magazine to be easily recogniseable on the shelf. The large font makes the name of the magazine easy to read and the dark colours will allow it to stand out more in between the usual pinks, blues, yellows and girlier colours of kids magazines and the stereotypical pastels or bright colours of other magazines, for example this edition of Top of the Pops.

There is a red puff used on the cover, this is a brighter colour used than the rest of the page all together and therefore draws the eye of the reader. It is used to advertise an article in the magazine and is a clever marketing strategy as it allows more than just the Black Sabbath interview to be the main focus of the cover. The puff is advertising more interviews on the inside of the magazine, and uses large named bands like The Rolling Stones, Metallica and Fleetwood Mac to try and attract a larger fan base to their magazine from existing band fan bases. The white text on the red background allows the subject to be clear and read easily.

The other red feature on the front cover is right at the bottom centre of the page, in block capitals it says "THE FINAL INTERVIEW?" and then underneath in white lists a few points that will have been discussed in the interview. This is again eye catching and will draw in the reader with the bright colour, then when the question is read it will encourage them to want to read the possible last interview and find out more. The word "bloody" is also used, to some people this will be seen as bad language, and may be off-putting, or may remind them of bands like Black Sabbath which are slightly taboo, similar to the use of the bad language. To other people, the word bloody and the use of the red font may connect and link symbolically to danger, which is something else that could remind them of Black Sabbath, Metallica, The Rolling Stones etc. all of whom have been featured on the cover in different ways.

All along the cover, there are gold coloured additions and borders for the texts, this all creates synergy across the cover as the colours and patterns are similar to that of the jacket of one of the band members. The other two members of the band are dressed in plain clothing, this would allow the audience to recognise the lead singer more as he stands out, and also allows the themed cover to continue without other colours being added to ruin the effect.

This image also allows the additions place on the cover like the puff to stand out more on their plain, darker background. The lead singer is wearing a cross necklace, this is an indexical sign linking to religion and therefore suggests that the band may have something to say relating to religion and how it may have influenced them or been a part of their life in an influential way.

The other addition to the cover that describes an article is this gold puff. The colour is the same as the rest of the elements on the cover which adds to the synergy and also the white colour is easily read on top of the black background.

How this research has influenced my ideas and creativity:

This cover has allowed me to see that I would definitely like to use a black and white theme to my cover, and that adding a small amount of colour allows the effect to come across classy but also very effectively. In my updated ideas, I thought that a black and white image may work effectively to get across the vintage theme of the magazine, however after looking at this cover, I think that understated colours are just as, if not more effective in having a lasting impression that works well with the genre.