Magazine comparison of two magazines

 

The institution that owns Blender is Alpha Media Group and the institution of Kerrang! is Bauer Media Group. Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities. It compiled lists of albums, artists, and songs, including both "best of" lists and "worst of" lists. It started publishing a print edition in 1999. Alpha Media Group closed Blender magazine March 26, 2009, which went then turned into an online format. Blender's final print issue was the April 2009 issue. Kerrang!'s institution, Bauer Media Group, is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 16 countries worldwide. Magazines published by Bauer include Kerrang!, Q, Mojo, Empire and heat.

Blenders magazine include girly topics and are all about celebrities, fashion and gossip. Blenders magazine would attract to 16-19 year olds. The singer on the front cover, Alicia, is a young role model which therefore appeals to the younger audience. However, Kerrang!'s target audience is made up of 60% males and 40% females. Kerrang!’s demographic falls into social class D-C. The target population for this magazine would be 16-24 year olds. The magazine appeals to a specific niche audience because it concerns topics and themes that are relevant to people who listen to and are interested by rock music and its background.  

On the 'Blender' front cover, Alicia is the only main image on the magazine, this shows her importance. Whereas, 'Kerrang!'s' front cover, there is a main image but there are other subtitles with little pictures of well known pop artists. This shows that Hayley from Paramore is just another artist like the ones on the page.

'Blender' includes many feature stories. 'Madonna & Mariah on the prowl' this article is all to do with two singers seeking for love. Another article 'Nothing stops the old snorter' this features Keith Richards story of him sniffing his fathers ashes. These feature stories are exciting as they make the reader want to read on about the celebrities life. In 'Kerrang's!' magazine there are a few feature stories such as 'I have nothing left to prove' which leaves the audience static and leaves them hanging as to why Hayley has nothing to prove. However 'Kerrang!' mostly has feature stories which promote artists album's and posters rather than stories of celebrities.

The colour scheme on 'Blender' is light colours, blue's and red's. Alicia's name is written in light blue which connotes calm and pure which may be defining her personality. However the colour scheme on 'Kerrang!'s' magazine is yellow and black, which match the artists' top 'Security'. This matches the genre of rock and the live dark colours that come with it.

Analysing music magazinesMagazine 1:

The title of the magazine is 'Billboard' this comes under the category of pop music. The institution that owns Billboard is Prometheus Global Media. They are an American publishing company based in New York City.

The company Prometheus Global Media being based in New York City has a big impact on the content the magazine includes of. NYC is where mainstream music is produced. 

The mise en scene:

The target audience for "Billboard" magazine would be people who have an interest in main stream music. Mainstream music denotes music that is familiar and unthreatening to the masses, for example music that is played on a local radio station. The target audience for Billboard magazine varies from young teens, from the age of 16, to young adults, at the age of 26. This is because the magazine provides its readers with the latest updates from the charts, but of different and various types of genres.This is to widen the range of the target audience as its acquired to people who listen to different genres such as; rock, metal, pop, R n B and plenty more.

On the front cover is a mid-shot of canadian pop-star Justin Bieber. He is a perfect example of what a typical pop star looks like;  he has no piercings/tattoos visible, he looks clean and he is portrayed as a "teen heart throb" all of his appearance represents connotations of "innocent"which pop genre is usually associated with. His facial expression is innocent and stunned this goes along with his image of the 'boy next door'. His  hand is held onto his necklace which could show connotations of material possessions and status. 

The colour font used is white, red and yellow which flow well together and are clear against the blue background. If I decided I wanted to shoot a "pop" genre magazine, I would be looking for a model who is young and represents someone like Justin Bieber, to build up connotations of fun/innocent. 

The tone of the writing is fun and exciting as its in capitals which is eye catching and gets the point across. Justin Bieber's name is slanted next to him which is underlined in big writing as he is the main focus point. The singer Ellie Goulding is presented bigger as she is also another fabulous artist and people that like her might be interested in buying this magazine as they get to read more on this artist. I would use the element of using big pop stars in my magazine to show status and importance to persuade people to buy it.

Magazine 2:

The title of the magazine is 'Vibe'. The institution that owns vibe is Spin Media, which are a company and blog network based in Los Angeles. The title 'Vibe' could have been used to link in with music as you can get vibes in music so it fits in with the genre of the magazine. E.g- Hip-hop music gives off fun and exciting vibes.

The company Spin Media has a big impact on the content included in the magazine as it operates over 40 pop culture websites and Hip Hop was founded in New York so the company has good knowledge of the origins of the music genre.

The mise en scene:

The target demographic for this magazine is young, urban followers of hip-hop culture. The age range that would read this magazine is around 18-34.

The mast head 'Vibe' is big, bold and stands out to the background and automatically catches the audiences eye and fits in with the rest of the magazine cover. The mast head is the biggest text on the page which shows its importance is higher than the rest of the text.

The colour of the font is black and blue. The mast head is big bold white block writing which stands out compared to the black and white image and bright background and also runs over the top of the image to ensure that the audience can understand the name of the magazine 'Vibe'. The names 'Rihanna & Chris' are presented bigger and are in black writing to stand out as they are the big topic of the magazine. 

The image on this magazine cover is a close up shot of a celebrity singer called 'Rihanna'. She isn't looking straight to the camera which shows she isn't directly addressing the audience. The image is in black and white which makes it stand out from the  brightly coloured background, this makes it the focal point on the page. In this image the singer is presented to be stylish and caring about her appearance as she has make up on and her hair done and also has jewellery on, which makes her well presented and by using a celebrity on the front cover appeals to a larger audience, as Rihanna is a woman who the target audience will recognise and even aspire to be like.

The tone of the writing is exciting as the font is in capitals and the name of the artists are on the right hand side presented underneath eachother. The phrase 'Whats love got to do with it' comes from a song which is playful, which shows the magazine isnt serious its more upbeat.  I would use this element in my magazine as I like the idea of using lyrics on a magazine to make it more fun and less serious.


Magazine 3:

The title of the magazine is 'Blender'. Blender was an American music magazine that classed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It consists of lists of albums, artists, and songs, including "best of" lists and "worst of" lists. Blender was published by Dennis Publishing.

The institution that owns this magazine is
Alpha Media Group. It was founded in 1995 and is based in New York. They publish websites such as Maxim.com and Stuffmagazine.com.

Mise en scene: 

The genre of music is r&b/pop culture and  its demographic is targeted at young lovers of r&b/pop.  


The masthead is in capitals and has a slash through it which could show an edgey vibe to the magazine. The word blender could mean that there is a mix of genre and the magazine is a blend of r&b and pop. The mast head is the biggest text on the page which shows its importance is higher than the rest of the text.

The main image is a mid-long shot of the singer Fergie. Blender is known for sometimes using steamy pictorials of celebrities as their main image. Fergie is shown in her underwear and a light jacket. This shows off her body and makes the magazine look playful and attracts male attention. She is wearing golden shades of makeup and long lashes which make her look attractive.

The colour fonts used are blue and black which stand out against the white background. The blue matches the singers nail polish and the black matches her underwear. The colour of the the title 'Blender' is in gold which portrays glamour and it also goes well with the skin tone and hair. The font used is Sans Serif which is bold and clear.

The tone of writing is informal as it is less objective and uses a first person style of writing.