Music Magazine Cover Research

This is the British music magazine Q. This is their summer issue of 2009. This issue was released in the June of 2009 when Michael Jackson was set to perform his last tour 'This is it' at the O2 arena in London, however at this time was the untimely death of Michael Jackson. I think they kept his image for this cover as after his death his music entered the charts again and his song 'Man in the mirror' went to number one. Even though the magazine would have sold well originally, I think Q would have kept his image and interview as it would have made a high increase in sales as the magazine was sold out in many shops. A serif font is used on this cover for the main cover line, the rest of the cover lines have a sans-serif font. I think a serif font was used for the main cover line as it seems more professional and was probably used as Michael Jackson is a music legend who still has the best selling album of all time - 'Thriller' also the use of this font is showing authority over the other stories featured in this issue of the magazine. Also on the bottom right hand corner of the magazine is a bar code, this is a conventional look of a magazine.
Q magazine always uses a colour theme of red & white for their masthead and their cover lines. Instead of changing the colour theme every month the person who is on the cover is normally dressed to suit the cover, usually by wearing the colours red, black and gray. Continuously using the same colours shows consistency within the magazine, this shows that every month it will still contain high quality interviews and articles. At the top of the cover is the sell line - 'THE UKS BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE'.

This a magazine cover from the music magazine Rolling Stone in the USA. This was their summer issue of 2010. On the cover is Lady Gaga. At the time of the interview she was in the UK on her tour 'The Monster Ball' in early 2010 (February - March) but the magazine was not released until the summer for when she returned to the USA to continue her tour. At the time of the release of the magazine was when Lady Gaga was about to release her latest 9min music video 'Alejandro'. The image on the front uses an outfit from the video so is therefore going to generate more interest in this issue.
On the cover the masthead is in a sans-serif font however the rest of the cover lines are all used in a serif font. The main cover line is in a larger font than the rest of the cover lines this makes the main cover line standout more and makes it obvious to the reader what the main article is featured in this issue of the magazine. In this issue the masthead is pink, the colour changes with different people on the cover but is mostly red. By using a pink masthead this shows that this issue could be of importance for example this issue is a summer double issue. I think the colour pink was used for the masthead as it matches with the lipstick that Lady Gaga is wearing, which is her lipstick for Mac Cosmetics and her Viva Glam campaign raising money for aids, which has become Mac's best selling lipstick. The pink colour in the masthead may also have been used to coincide with Lady Gaga's skin tone.
The cover lines are all in a bold black font, this is keeping the colour scheme of pink, black and gray. The black font matches with the guns which Lady Gaga is wearing and underneath each cover line is a small description of the story in gray font, this will be used so that you are not distracted from the actual cover line. On the cover there is no sign of a bar code so therefore it must be on the back of the magazine or on the spine/side of the magazine.

Here is the magazine cover from when Cheryl Cole was the cover image for Q magazine. Once again Q magazine has kept the same colour scheme of black, grey and red. Q organise their own photo shoots for the people who are on the cover so therefore they don't need to keep changing their colour scheme to match the image but make the artist suit the colour scheme. On this cover Cheryl Cole is dressed in black against a grey backdrop, also the fact her hair is wet gives the image a more darker feel and also the fact she is wearing a dark red lipstick is used to match the masthead.

Every cover line and even the main cover line are all in a sans-serif font. The main cover line and the cover lines down the right hand side of the page.