Essay comparing covers

Essay

The two magazine covers I am comparing are "Drummer" and "Total guitar". They are music magazines and have the same kind of titles because they both focus on a musical instrument. "Drummer" would be aimed at older people, from age 30 – late 50s, whereas "Total guitar" would be aimed at teenagers to people in their late 20s.

Both magazines use a picture on their front cover as the main focus with the person over lapping the title of the magazine. This is used because it grabs the reader’s attention as it is the first thing that catches their eye. It is also used to show what the magazine is about. "Total guitar's picture is a man holding a guitar and Drummers’ picture is a man playing the drums. Both the pictures are also the biggest thing on the page.

Both magazines also use a sentence near the tittle of the magazine to promote there magazine as being one of the best. Total guitar uses ‘Europe’s best selling guitar magazine’ and Drummer uses ‘The UK’s best value drumming magazine’. By having these on the front cover they promote the magazine by making the reader want to buy it and read inside the magazine. If a reader was trying to look for a magazine they have never read before and saw that written on the front in bold writing they may be more likely to buy it.

The magazines are similar because they both used a big bold tittle against a darker background featuring what the main article is going to be about in the magazine. The use of the bright writing against a darker background makes the writing stand out to the reader. It would also catch the readers’ eye and they would read to see who the article was about. This would then make the reader more likely to buy the magazine if they see who the main article is about and they like them or are interested in them.

The magazines are different in the way that language is used. Drummer uses plainer, straight forward sentences whereas total guitar used more complicated and interesting sentences. For example drummer says “Plus Carl Palmer and Rick Allen” and total guitar uses “new album, short songs… SOLOS?! Billie Joe Armstrong takes the lead” This may have been used because younger people are more interested in buying and reading magazines so the magazines write about more and keep them interested so that they will buy it and read on but drummer is aimed at older people who may just want to know what is inside the magazine so they know whether they want to buy it or not so it used plainer and simpler writing.

Both magazines use Imperatives. They both use the word “Learn”, this is directly telling the reader to do something which may make them more interested in the magazine as it is telling them what to do so they feel more like they should do it. It is also more direct and personal to the reader which may make them more likely to buy it. Especially as younger people and older people want to learn something new.

From looking at these magazine covers I have learnt about the main things music magazines use and thought about what I want to include and not include in my magazine. For example the main picture is good to use on the front cover of a magazine along with big and bold writing against a darker background. I want to use more interesting and bright colours on the front cover of my magazine like total guitar as I want it to be aimed at younger people whereas drummer uses plainer writing and plainer colours which makes you think it is aimed at older people. Both magazines used a theme of colours which I think is good and would want to include in my magazine as well as there is not too much colour but enough. The style of the font is also better of total magazine as it is less boring so I would want to make the font styles, sizes and pictures interesting to catch my audience’s attention. For my main picture I will also use someone around the same age as my target audience for my main picture because it is more likely to attract the right audiences like total guitar and drummer.