Music Magazine Construction- Double Page Spread Inspiration

I was very much inspired my the use of the L from Lady Gaga placed int he background of the DPS for Q Magazine. When I created my DPS for Harmony, I wanted to incorporate these as I knew the background would look very bare. I think the use of the letters make it very much realistic.

Music Magazine Construction- Double Page Spread Cover

I decided to create a front cover for my double page spread. I was not going to be able to use this photo in either my front cover, contents page, or double page spread so i decided to create the cover so I could use this image. I was inspired by an issue of Q Magazine and a past pupils work to create this, and I am very happy with the way it turned out.

Music Magazine Research- Q Finding

When analysing the double page spread on Q Magazine I found the symbol of the arrow on the bottom corner of the text box on the second page of which I would like to include in my magazine as I thought it was very creative and cool.

Music Magazine Research- Q Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis-Foo Fighters

I decided that when analysing the front cover and contents page of Q Magazine, I should also analyse the Double Page Spread since I will be creating one when it comes to the production of my Music Magazine Task.

The band featured in the article is the Foo Fighters, as we have seen this from the front cover page and from the first page of the double page spread we see a large image of Dave Grohl the front man of the Foo Fighters. The choice of band in the article tells us that the target audience will mainly be fans of the music genre known as rock. The Foo Fighters is an American rock band who have an extremely large fan base throughout the world and especially in the UK, so all the fans will be buying or subscribing to this issue.
The double page spread featuring the Foo Fighters is situated over nine pages with advertisements placed throughout. The first page contains a large image of Dave Grohl , and the second has a large sticker like image saying "Dave Grohls Big Idea" followed by a black text box at the bottom containing a small blurb telling the reader what is going to be featured inside the double page spread. On the next page we see plenty of text and various images. The feature is addressed formally. The text starts off with a small blurb with information of how Taylor Hawkins has started his day, which makes him seem like a normal dad rather than a rock star. It connects with the audience of fathers and mothers who have to do this every morning, and know that not just normal people have to do it, but celebrities too. The writer addresses Hawkins in a formal style asking him questions, of which we cannot see. Hawkins answers in a very informal style saying "Me and the wife" rather than "The wife and I". He also refers to the interviewer as "Dawg", showing the audience that he is a very friendly man, and this pleases the reader as he is not like other snobby pop stars. We also see that Hawkins is not in it for the money or the fame but for the love and for his passion for music. We can also see how he does not care what other people think of him because he uses foul language such as "I always shit the bed!" and "You Dumb-ass!"

Colour is employed throughout in very basic ways. There are no bright colours used to catch your eyes out. The main colours are White, Black and Grey. This goes along with the colours employed on the front cover, but instead of a the large use of red, we clearly see that grey is one of the more dominant colours. These colours go n contrast with the genre of rock as you would usually tend to see dark colours rather than bright.

The font is the same throughout the article. We clearly see that it is a small black sans serif font around size ten. The writing is probably so small so they could fit so much information from the Foo Fighters within nine pages. The font is the same throughout the magazine which tells us that the font must be associated with the typical house style in every issue of Q magazine. At different parts throughout the feature we see large letters at the start of most sections which makes it more accessible for the reader showing them that this is going to be a different paragraph with different information. There are quotes pulled throughout the feature and blow up into a text box at various different points throughout the spread which entices the reader to read on further for certain pieces of information.

The spread is laid out very accessibly with images and text boxes separating different sections for the reader. certain pages like the first one have images that take up to 100% of the page, while others are reduced with ones taking up around 40% or 50%.

The first image used on the first page of the feature show the Foo Fighters lead front man Dave Grohl, shows us that the band are very relaxed when it comes to interviews as he stands against a door leaning on it with his left leg balancing him. He has a red cup in his hand, of which in America is usually situated with alcohol. He is taking a drink to calm his nerves possible, before he goes on stage at the House of Vans, Waterloo, London. WE know this as there is a small piece of text telling us what Dave is doing and where he is doing it. Further on into the article we see nineteen images throughout. These images consist of the band men with their family, performing on stage, drinking and images of their studios where they recorded the songs for their new album released on November 20th 2014.

The writer plans too ask band members such as Taylor Hawkins questions about the future of the band "The Foo Fighters" but Hawkins is under strict orders that he is not to open his mouth. At the end of the article we see a small line of text in italic writing saying "Go to www.Qthemusic.com now to see exclusive video interviews with all the band." This not only entices the reader to see information about the band but it is also good advertising for Q, for the readers to go on and look on their website where they also may find other interesting information.

Music Magazine Research- Q Magazine Contents Page Collage

Below, I have created a contents page collage. I found it difficult to create this collage, as there is not a lot of contents pages posted on the internet due to copyright purposes, so that is why there is a limited amount compared to my front cover page collage.

Music Magazine Research- Contents Page Analysis Q Magazine

Contents Page Analysis

Below I have analysed the corresponding contents page to my front cover page as they are both from the same issue.

Throughout the contents page we can clearly see that there is a variety of different images throughout the page. When we start off at the top right we clearly see a large image of Noel Gallagher. The large image is fitted with very neutral colours like blue and white. Noel has no particular facial expression, but we can tell from the image that he is a serious man because of the straight face he is holding.  With the image being quite large, we can see that this is another feature within the magazine, as it is also featured on the front cover as a large cover line.  Further on down the contents page, we directly look at the left hand side of the page, as the images go in height and page order. The second image is a picture of Dave Grohl singing during one of his performances. the image stretches out of the border as we see his hand moving up into the box above. From the front cover we can clearly see that the magazine is going to have a large feature about the Foo Fighters, and this next image directs us to where we will next go to read about the band. To the right of the Foo Fighters image, there is another picture of a female singer names Kate Tempest. Below is Jack White, followed by Lucinda Williams on the left and Prince in a cut out form to her right. At the right side of the page we see an image of FKA Twigs in a separate section called “The Q Review”. There are plenty of images on the page leaving it very accessible. In my opinion if there was any more the contents page it would look very cluttered and the reader would find it harder to access information as there would be a reduced amount of words in the blurb, pulling the reader into certain articles.

The typical house style is carried throughout where we can visibly see that the colours of red, black and white are applied very well on both the front cover and the content page. The contents page also features a range of different colours such as blue, orange, pink, yellow, green and turquoise to fill in the speech bubbles where the page numbers are placed. These colours are eye catching, but not as eye catching compared to the colours of red, white and black as they stand out more to the reader.

The information is extremely accessible in this issue. You clearly see the direction that they want you to read, starting from the top of the page, to the left hand side down and then to the right hand side down which is the typical way that you read anything in a newspaper, text book, or magazine. The different sections are sectioned off by lines or text boxes. The main thing that we can see that is sectioned off is the Q Review, as it has a very thick bold black line surrounding it. The format of the contents page tells me that this is a very formal magazine.
Within the contents page there are no promotional features, but when reading the front cover page and opening the magazine you open up to a large double page advertisement of males Chanel aftershave “Bleu de Chanel”. We then move to another double page advertisement of Hugo Boss aftershave which shows us that this is quite a male dominated magazine as both advertisements are for men. After the two advertisements we move to information about the enticement which was attached to the front cover. The next page is a single page of a new film set to be released in 2015 called “Black Sea”. Then we have the contents page. This is usually not expected in a magazine as you would usually turn the front cover and see that there is an advertisement and the contents page.

The Logo is placed in the skyline of the contents page along with the issue date and beside it saying contents. This is usual for Q Magazine. The other brands that Q has are not promoted on the contents page which is usually not expected. This shows that the magazine does not promote anything on their contents page and sticks to what the readers really want to see, which is information about music and artists.