Rolling Stone and Q magazine are both music magazines. While Rolling Stone is designed to target younger, teenage audiences, Q is aimed at quite an older audience. This is obvious mainly because of the model featured on the front cover, which is Madonna. Madonna is 50 years old and therefore middle aged women can relate to her and will be more inclined to buy the magazine. Rolling Stone, on the other hand, has a relatively young model- Britney Spears, who is 27. She has much more in common with younger people, and so the magazine will appeal more to teenagers.
Q magazine seems to be aimed mostly at women, firstly because the Madonna is a big female figure and secondly because some cover lines suggests that the magazine is inclusive to women- ‘WOMEN IN MUSIC’ is a feature clearly aimed at women only. However, although Rolling Stone also has a female model, it doesn’t seem to be inclusive or exclusive to any gender. The inside stories, such as ‘How the democrats screwed the anti-war movement’ are not aimed at solely women or solely men, it is a general issue that both genders may be interested in.
By looking at these front covers it is obvious that there are going to be articles on the models featured as they are the main cover lines of the magazine. On both front covers there is a list of artist. This shows that they too will have articles in the magazine. The two front covers are very different. While Q, like a typical magazine, is crammed with cover lines, buttons, banners and promises, Rolling Stone is a lot simpler. The main focus for this issue is clearly Britney Spears, as other than her as the main cover line there is only a list of names and a small banner in the corner of the page to keep the focus on Britney’s photo. The banner is to do with the anti-war movement and politics, which has nothing to do with music and shows that Rolling Stone is quite a varied magazine in terms of content, appealing to a wider audience while Q magazine tends to revolve solely around music. This means that it has a more select audience and is more inclusive to people with musical interests.
The mode of address used in Q is very direct towards the audience. It uses phrases such as ‘AS VOTED BY YOU’, making it more personal to the reader. The magazine does this to create some kind of attachment to the reader. It also uses informal language (e.g. ‘Stupid Question! Next!’) to make the magazine more familiar and also attract a younger audience who is not looking for very serious articles. The mode of address used in Rolling Stone is very different to this. It is more detached as it does not make any direct connection to the reader other than appealing to their emotions by using a clearly sad model and the cover line ‘BRITNEY SPEARS // INSIDE AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY’. The magazine looks a lot more serious than Q- it is in black and white and the few other cover lines are written very factually and in a neat list. However, there is some informal language clearly meant to appeal to a younger audience in the banner: ‘HOW THE DEMOCRATS SCREWED THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT’. This relieves some of the seriousness in the rest of the front cover.
The main cover line for Q is ‘…ALL INTERVIEW MADONNA ‘Stupid Question! Next!’’. The name ‘Madonna’ is written in very big font and goes across the whole page. This implies that she is a very famous and iconic artist. The quote: ‘Stupid Question! Next!’ also gives the message that she is not very serious as she is using informal language; this image will attract younger readers. The main cover line for Rolling Stone is ‘BRITNEY SPEARS // INSIDE AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY’. This implies that the artist featured has had some problems and that they were very big as they used the words ‘American Tragedy’, meaning that the issue was known nationally and is relevant to the country’s people. The word ‘Inside…’ was used, suggesting that the magazine has detailed information on this popular story. All this will attract more readers to buy the magazine as it will arouse interest into the story.
Q magazine uses some buzz words to attract readers. For example with ‘FREE INSIDE’, ‘FREE’ would be the buzz word. It promises the reader more than just a magazine for the same price, perhaps guaranteeing him/her more than other magazines it is in competition with. This persuades the reader to buy the magazine. Rolling Stone, however, does not have any buzz words as it is a more solemn front cover for a more serious issue. The effect of this on the reader is that he/she will focus more on the main cover line and on the most important article dominating the magazine.
The design of Q’s masthead is very simple. Although it is quite hard to tell, it looks more serif than sans-serif. This type of font is the most formal, suggesting that the magazine is quite serious. Since I know that this is not the case, the effect of the masthead’s font is that it suggests class and some kind of sophistication. This idea is reinforced by the fact that the magazine is so expensive (£3.90) and that the title is a very basic 1 letter Q (instead of a longer, more creative name). The plain design of a white ‘Q’ on a red background suggests that the rest of the magazine will have a simple layout and colour design, and that the house colours will be red and white. Simple, sophisticated mastheads rather than colourful ones in decorative fonts will appeal more to an older audience with quieter tastes. The masthead is also quite an unconventional one for a magazine as it is so small and is in the left hand corner of the page rather than expanding the length of the top of the page as most magazines do.
The actual title of Rolling Stone is very different to the one letter Q. It is a longer title and takes up the length of the cover as is conventional for a magazine’s front page. It also gives the magazine some meaning, whereas the name Q’s significance is very ambiguous and unexplained. The name Rolling Stone has a direct link to music as it is very similar to the famous band ‘The Rolling Stones’. Since this band was a rock band, it can be assumed that the magazine is mostly rock-orientated. The genre of rock appeals to a middle aged to young audience, attracting a large number of people but excluding the elderly and young children who do not usually take an interest in this type of music. The font of the masthead is bright red, suggesting that the style of the magazine is quite loud and colourful. The serif font gives the magazine quite a classy image and also quite a lot of status, just like Q.
Unlike many other magazines, Q has only two clear theme colours- red and white, and these are the only ones used for all of the text on the front cover. By sticking to these two colours the magazine becomes more recognisable on the shelves. The bright red with the white, which contrasts against the dark background, also makes the magazine stand out more. I find the colour red quite attractive, but I think that its use on this front cover is to make is as eye catching as possible. The banner is in a grey colour, which draws attention to it because it is different from the other colours being used on the page. The button is in the colours of the British flag, which shows that the magazine’s target audience is British and also attracts interest. Other techniques that Q uses to attract readers are to put a big promotional banner in a contrasting colour with the buzz word ‘FREE’. It also uses an eye catching promise in the upper left hand corner. It is eye catching because it also uses a contrasting colour and it has a shadow to make it come out from the page more.
The Rolling Stone front cover for this particular issue is not very colourful at all. The only bright colour used is for the masthead as this is its usual colour, while the rest of the text is either white or light yellow. The main image is in black and white, making the page quite solemn. The magazine is aiming to create a serious, slightly sad mood on the front cover to match the main story which is Britney Spears’ ‘tragedy’. This makes the magazine appealing as it is a special edition of the usually more colourful magazine. This will arouse interest and attract people to the magazine. Another technique that the magazine uses to attract the audience is to include a banner over the masthead. The contrasting colour used and the fact that it is on top of the title makes it stand out and attracts attention. By listing the bands and artists featured in a clear and structured manner the reader can easily recognise someone they are interested in and this will attract them to the magazine. Q magazine also uses this technique.
Q magazine’s sell line is ‘Britain’s Biggest Music Magazine’. This acts like a guarantee to the audience that they are buying a popular, good quality music magazine, because they are interpreting the sell line as meaning that Q is Britain’s best music magazine. The sell line tells me that the music magazine is an important one in the UK, and to do this it has probably been around for quite a long time.
Rolling Stone does not have a strapline. This could mean that the magazine has already established a good name for itself, and is well known enough to sell well without having to include many persuasive techniques. This would also explain the lack of coverlines and simplicity of the front cover.
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