2. Background information on Q taken from Bauer Media - http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q
Q is the legendary monthly magazine which celebrates everything that’s great in rock and roll. Since its launch in 1986 it has a
painstakingly built an international reputation for quality amongst fans, stars and the music industry. With world-beating
exclusives, definitive album reviews, outstanding production values and an inimitable sense of humour, Q shapes music in the
UK and beyond.
Q has featured the world’s biggest artists – from U2 to Adele, Oasis to Rihanna, Radiohead to Lady Gaga and more – on its
landmark covers. Every month the magazine creates new stars and identifies what’s coming next. With Q’s online presence, a
new interactive iPad edition, social media, Q Radio, live events and of course the world famous annual Q Awards – the most
exclusive event in the music calendar – the message is everywhere. Music sounds better with Q.
•Q is the UK’s number one actively-purchased music magazine.
•Q is about quality and character. Q’s readers prize its lavish photography, in-depth reporting and sense of humour.
•Q is about authority and opinion. It stands for the music that matters, the stars who make it and the people who love it.
•Q is trusted and influential. A positive review in Q can make a band’s career – and Q’s major interviews reverberate around
the world.
•Q gets unparalleled access to the biggest stars in rock and roll.
•Q’s audience is younger and more affluent than any other music monthly. 97% of readers rate Q as a quality magazine. In
research it outperforms competitors on measures such as best interviews, writing and awards winning photography.
3. Audience information from Bauer Media - http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/Q
4. Logo –
The masthead is the same font for every issue (excluding some that can be
slightly altered e.g. one Halloween issue). This makes it an easily recognisable and
identifiable magazine to all people and helps it to be well known and popular.
People recognise Q’s quality and character purely through looking at the logo at
the top corner as it is renowned for being the most popular and successful music
magazine; as well as maintaining quality, class and supporting influential music
artists. The logo is simplistic yet clear, bold and professional. The inspiration for
calling the magazine ‘Q’ originates from old-fashioned vinyl decks as not only does
the Q look similar to these record players, but the act of placing the arm onto the
record was known as ‘cueing’. This suggests Q is a traditional music magazine with
the original flare and passion music had when it started out. It exemplifies class
and style without being boring and too uniformed. The ‘Q’ is very large and takes
up just over 1/12th of the page merely on the logo. The background of the box is
bright red which is extremely eye-catching and recognisable and would easily
stand out against other music magazine covers in a shop. The colour red is a uni-sex
colour but can also be seen as predominantly male; therefore emphasising the
connection with Q’s target audience. Moreover, red has connotations of wealth,
dominance, class and royalty which highlights the fact that Q is a high end
magazine and is also quite highly priced in the magazine market– further
emphasising the ethos of Q and its audience as well as its representation as a
whole. The font is relatively masculine and bold to attract their target
demographic: primary target audience is ABC1 male demographic aged 15-35,
individualists with an interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going to
concerts/gigs, making/listening to/writing music.
The cover model, Florence from Florence and The Machine, is behind the
masthead; this is because Q’s brand image is a very important selling point when
it comes to selling their magazine. It is a trusted brand so it is understandable why
it is over the main image on the front cover.
Full Bleed –
The full bleed is a picture of Florence from Florence and the machine on her own
in a close up. Florence’s body language is quite vulnerable as she is touching her
face delicately, however it could also be portrayed as seductive as she is staring
straight at the camera, her face straight on, with her lips slightly parted. This pose
is commonly seen in music videos/posters when the artist is trying to seduce the
audience and lure men in to watch/buy the track/album through her sex appeal.
Florence’s makeup is quite dramatic as she has very bright blue eye-shadow, black
eyeliner and white eyeliner in the corners to make her eyes seem bigger. She also
has very pale skin and rather pale/nude lips, emphasising her eyes as her main
feature. This is another way to seduce the reader as it attracts attention to her
bright eyes that are staring directly at them. As it’s a close up, we cant see what
she's wearing but it looks like she may be wearing a rather nude/skin tone
coloured top. This alludes to the male skew audience that she may be naked,
therefore enticing them to read the magazine in the hope that it may reveal more.
Moreover, one of the main features is her hair. It is bright red/auburn and it is in
big messy curls with a messy fringe. This has connotations of fire and therefore
represents her style of music as well as the magazine. Moreover, the colour of her
hair further emphasises the logo of Q as both the full bleed and logo are
red/orange colours. Furthermore, Florence is lit in a certain way to draw attention
to specific parts of her face. The artistic lighting extenuates her dark eyes and
illuminates the rest of her face as pale and very fresh. This is more sensual than
sexual as it is quite subtle but still draws attention to the sexual parts of her face
e.g. her eyes and lips. She looks quite moody and sultry in this shot and sometimes
this kind of expression can be used to draw in the male audience, as well as
allowing the female demographic to aspire to get her look.
Audience – primary target audience is ABC1 male demographic aged 15-35,
individualists with an interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going
to concerts/gigs, making/listening to/writing music.
Secondary audience is ABC1 female demographic aged 15-35, individualists
with an interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going to
concerts/gigs, making/listening to/writing music.
Main sell line - The main sell line is ‘“I feel so alone” Florence,
Woman on the edge’. This draws in the reader and attracts the
attention of possible other audiences if they just like the artist
and don’t actually read Q. ‘Florence’ is in a bold front in front
of Florence herself and emphasises the importance of how
good and interesting the article about her is. The colour for
the font is a part of the Q house style of white and red and
stands out against Florence’s hair like the logo. This
demonstrates the importance of her in the magazine and also
the importance of her in the article.
Sell lines – Some other sell lines are ’16-page GIG blow-out!’
Barcode and price –
The barcode is there so that people can purchase Q. Q is published by Bauer Media Group, which
also publishes magazines such as Empire and Closer. When the barcode is scanned, this shows the
shopkeeper how many of the Q magazines have been purchased and this can also connect with the
publishing house as it will know how many magazines, under the same publishing house, have been
purchased. Moreover, the price of the magazine is fairly expensive and this is due to its target
audience being ABC1 – so they can afford it.
‘Skrillex, dance genius or noisy git?’ and ‘Meet the
new Simon Cowell’. All of these are adhering to the
house style as the fonts are all white with blue
separating lines. All of the sell lines are about similar
styles of music/events that you would expect to see
Florence at. This allows the articles in the magazine to
be linked to the main article as well as the front cover.
Moreover, the sell lines do have some swearing in them
and this is a good way of engaging their target audience
as the age bracket will most likely be of an age where
swearing is extremely common – this allows Q to
connect with its audience on a personal, social level as
the tone of the articles are relatively conversational as
well as professional looking.
Date and issue number – The date and issue number is mainly
used by collectors or regular buyers of Q. This will let the
reader know if they are up to date with the magazine issue
and if they aren't then they can back order previous magazines
by contacting Q or their publishing house, Bauer Media Group.
This connects with Q’s target audience, as most of them will
be individualists. This means that they aren’t mainstream and
want to be different or quirky so a magazine collector could be
a likely hobby. Also they would most likely want to be up to
date with new music information so would be interested in
each issue.
5. Logo –
The masthead is the same font for every issue (excluding some that can be
slightly altered e.g. one Halloween issue). This makes it an easily
recognisable and identifiable magazine to all people and helps it to be well
known and popular. People recognise Q’s quality and character purely
through looking at the logo at the top corner as it is renowned for being the
most popular and successful music magazine; as well as maintaining
quality, class and supporting influential music artists. The logo is simplistic
yet clear, bold and professional. The inspiration for calling the magazine ‘Q’
originates from old-fashioned vinyl decks as not only does the Q look similar
to these record players, but the act of placing the arm onto the record was
known as ‘cueing’. This suggests Q is a traditional music magazine with the
original flare and passion music had when it started out. It exemplifies class
and style without being boring and too uniformed. The ‘Q’ is very large and
takes up just over 1/12th of the page merely on the logo. The background
of the box is bright red which is extremely eye-catching and recognisable
and would easily stand out against other music magazine covers in a shop.
The colour red is a uni-sex colour but can also be seen as predominantly
male; therefore emphasising the connection with Q’s target audience.
Moreover, red has connotations of wealth, dominance, class and royalty
which highlights the fact that Q is a high end magazine and is also quite
highly priced in the magazine market– further emphasising the ethos of Q
and its audience as well as its representation as a whole. The font is
relatively masculine and bold to attract their target demographic: primary
target audience is ABC1 male demographic aged 15-35, individualists with
an interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going to concerts/gigs,
making/listening to/writing music.
The cover model, Lana del Rey, is in front of the masthead; this is because
although Q’s brand image is a very important selling point when it comes to
selling their magazine, people can recognise it if even a little bit is covered
by the cover model.
Full Bleed –
The full bleed is a picture of Lana del Rey on her own in a mid shot. Lana’s
body language is quite open as she has one hand at her side and the other
touching her head. This open body language partnered with her facial
expression could be portrayed as seductive as she is staring straight at the
camera, her face at an angle slightly looking down at the camera, with her
lips in a serious pout. This pose is commonly seen in music videos/posters
when the artist is trying to seduce the audience and lure men in to
watch/buy the track/album through her sex appeal. Lana's makeup is quite
plain as Q are trying to portray her as fairly innocent, in a slightly warped
and haunting way. She looks very angelic/ghost like as she has very pale
skin and is dressed in white with a silver crown and light brown ringlet hair.
This portrays her to be pure and innocent. However she has blood pouring
from her head down the side of her face which makes her look fairly tough
as her facial expression doesn’t make her seem scared, hurt or even phased
by this. This portrays Lana as a rebellious, punk princess. Furthermore, Lana
is lit in a certain way to draw attention to the background. The artistic
lighting extenuates a dark side and a light side behind her and also reflects
onto her body. this could allude to there being two sides to her which we
would most likely find out within the magazine article. She looks quite
moody and sultry in this shot and sometimes this kind of expression can be
used to draw in the male audience, as well as allowing the female
demographic to aspire to get her look and confidence
Audience – primary target audience is ABC1 male demographic aged 15-35, individualists with an
interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going to concerts/gigs, making/listening
to/writing music.
Secondary audience is ABC1 female demographic aged 15-35, individualists with an interest in
music, current artists/celebrity news, going to concerts/gigs, making/listening to/writing music.
Main sell line - The main sell line is ‘Lana Del Rey, So Whats So
Bloody Good?’. This draws in the reader and attracts the
attention of possible other audiences if they just like the artist
and don’t actually read Q. ‘Lana Del Rey’ is in a bold front in
front of Lana herself and emphasises the importance of how
good and interesting the article about her is. The colour for
the font is a part of this issue of Q’s house style of white and
pink and stands out against Lana’s white dress. This
demonstrates the importance of her in the magazine and also
the importance of her in the article. Moreover in the sell line it
says ‘bloody’ which is a play on words as it directly links to the
blood coming from Lana's head in the main image. Moreover,
this play on words is a good way of engaging their target
audience as the age bracket will most likely be of an age
where swearing is extremely common – this allows Q to
connect with its audience on a personal, social level as the
tone of the articles are relatively conversational as well as
professional looking.
Sell lines – Some other sell lines are ’140 songs you must
download now!’ ‘Jay-Z and Kanye West on the throne’
and ‘Exclusive Pro Green track’. All of these are adhering
to the house style as the fonts are all white with blue
separating lines. All of the sell lines are about similar
styles of music/events that you would expect to see in a
popular music magazine. This allows the articles in the
magazine to be linked to the main article as well as the
front cover as all of the artists mentioned are very
popular, well known influences in the music industry.
Date and issue number – The date and issue number is mainly
used by collectors or regular buyers of Q. This will let the
reader know if they are up to date with the magazine issue
and if they aren't then they can back order previous magazines
by contacting Q or their publishing house, Bauer Media Group.
This connects with Q’s target audience, as most of them will
be individualists. This means that they aren’t mainstream and
want to be different or quirky so a magazine collector could be
a likely hobby. Also they would most likely want to be up to
date with new music information so would be interested in
each issue.
Barcode and price –
The barcode is there so that people can purchase Q. Q is published by Bauer Media Group, which also publishes magazines such as Empire
and Closer. When the barcode is scanned, this shows the shopkeeper how many of the Q magazines have been purchased and this can also
connect with the publishing house as it will know how many magazines, under the same publishing house, have been purchased. Moreover,
the price of the magazine is fairly expensive and this is due to its target audience being ABC1 – so they can afford it.
6. Logo –
The masthead is the same font for every issue (excluding some that can be
slightly altered e.g. one Halloween issue). This makes it an easily
recognisable and identifiable magazine to all people and helps it to be well
known and popular. People recognise NME’s rebellious nature and
character purely through looking at the logo at the top corner as it is
renowned for being one of the most popular and successful new music
magazine; as well as maintaining quality, a rebellious image and supporting
influential music artists. The logo is simplistic yet clear and bold. The
inspiration for calling the magazine ‘NME’ originates from its original title
‘New Musical Express’. However, they changed it to NME as it is catchier
and easier to print out and put in the corner of magazine covers. In addition
to this ‘NME’ sounds like ‘Enemy’ so reflects the rebellious and rock-esque
kind of music, bands and celebrities they include in and on their magazine,
as well as reflecting their own target audience. The colour of the text is
bright red which is extremely eye-catching and recognisable and would
easily stand out against other music magazine covers in a shop. The colour
red is a uni-sex colour but can also be seen as predominantly male;
therefore emphasising the connection with NME’s target audience.
Moreover, red has connotations of wealth, dominance, rock and punk
which highlights the fact that NME is a high end magazine and is also quite
highly priced in the magazine market; as well as being aimed at people who
listen to more punk/rock artists– further emphasising the ethos of NME and
its audience as well as its representation as a whole. The font is relatively
masculine and bold to attract their target demographic: primary target
audience is ABC1 male demographic aged 15-35, individualists with an
interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going to concerts/gigs,
making/listening to/writing music.
The cover model, Tyler the Creator, is in front of the masthead; this is
because although NME’s brand image is a very important selling point
when it comes to selling their magazine, people can recognise it if even a
little bit is covered by the cover model. Perhaps they also believe Tyler will
help sell the magazine through his image and reputation better than their
brand will.
Full Bleed –
The full bleed is a picture of Tyler the Creator on his own in a mid shot.
Tyler is dressed in royal clothing however he has adjusted it to be more of
his style by wearing the crown to the side and wearing chains and a crown
as a chain. This represents his rebellious nature as he is not being very
respectful of the monarchy as he is renowned for doing what he wants and
not caring. He is looking directly at the camera to show that he doesn’t care
and is questioning the reader as to if they are going to do anything about
his behaviour. This attracts the target audience as they may class
themselves as rebels or look up to Tyler as a role model and this would
make them want to buy the magazine.
Audience – primary target audience is ABC1,2 male demographic aged 17-30, individualists with
an interest in music, current artists/celebrity news, going to concerts/gigs, making/listening
to/writing music.
Secondary audience is ABC1,2 female demographic aged 15-35, individualists with an interest in
music, current artists/celebrity news, going to concerts/gigs, making/listening to/writing music.
Main sell line - The main sell line is ‘Tyler the Creator’. This
draws in the reader and attracts the attention of possible
other audiences if they just like the artist and don’t actually
read NME. ‘Tyler the Creator’ is in a bold front in front of Tyler
and emphasises the importance of how good and interesting
the article about him is. The colour for the font is a part of
NME’s house style of white and red and stands out against
Tyler's white wedding dress. This demonstrates the
importance of him in the magazine and also the importance of
him in the article.
Sell lines – Some other sell lines are ’I don’t give a sh*t
about a royal wedding’, ‘Win festival tickets’’ and ‘Odd
Future Anarchy hits the uk!’. All of these are adhering to
the house style as the fonts are all white, black or red.
All of the sell lines are about similar styles of
music/events that you would expect to see in a popular
music magazine. This allows the articles in the magazine
to be linked to the main article as well as the front cover
as all of the artists mentioned are very popular, well
known influences in the music industry. Moreover, in
the sell line about Tyler not giving a ‘sh*t’ it further
emphasises his rebellious nature and also the rock and
roll ethos of the magazine in having swearing on the
front cover.
Date and issue number – The date and issue number is mainly
used by collectors or regular buyers of NME. This will let the
reader know if they are up to date with the magazine issue
and if they aren't then they can back order previous magazines
by contacting NME or their publishing house IPC Media. This
connects with NME’s target audience, as most of them will be
individualists. This means that they aren’t mainstream and
want to be different or quirky so a magazine collector could be
a likely hobby. Also they would most likely want to be up to
date with new music information so would be interested in
each issue.
Barcode and price –
The barcode is there so that people can purchase NME. NME is published by IPC Media, which also publishes magazines such as Marie Clare and Now. When the barcode is
scanned, this shows the shopkeeper how many of the NME magazines have been purchased and this can also connect with the publishing house as it will know how many
magazines, under the same publishing house, have been purchased. Moreover, the price of the magazine is fairly normal as it is £2.30 and this is due to its target audience being
ABC1,2 – so they can afford it.
