Codes & Conventions of a Music Magazine Contents Page

As well as researching a music magazine front cover, I also reviewed a successful music magazine contents page so that when I created mine it would fit in with the typical codes and conventions. Here are the ones I found and a Kerrang! music magazine contents page to reflect this:

Conventions of a Music Magazine Contents Page

Layout

• Normally contents pages in most magazines you read from the left to the right.
• The editor’s letter is usually separated from the rest of the contents page and the language used is quite colloquial and friendly.
• Subheadings are typically in boxes with a font that is easily readable.

 Types of Images

• The main image relates to the main feature
• Small thumbnail images to relate to other smaller features in the magazine
• The images may be of an artist at a concert, outdoors, or in a photography studio.

 Language

·        Not too much information to overwhelm the reader and the language used is usually informal and chatty

·        Usually the language relates to the age group that the magazine is targeted at

Font

·        The fonts used are typically easily readable and the colour of them associates with the genre of music the magazine is about. For example a rock magazine would use a lot of black and red. 

 

As is typical, you would read this contents page from left to right and the editor's letter is separate from the rest of the contents page by being right at the top. The main image, or largest image in this case is of band 'You Me At Six' as they will be the main feature in the magazine. There are other smaller images of 'We Made God' and 'Machine Head' which relate to smaller features in the magazine. The smaller images used in this contents page are in a variety of locations, come in photography studios and others at a live concert (bottom right). Lastly, the fonts used are easy to read and the colours consistently used are yellow black and white.