Research: The Generic Conventions of Magazines

Through out the genre of music magazines are a series of techniques called conventions - different ways of layout, editing, use of text etc. That fits with what the audience expect of the magazine and what usually sells the most copies. If a magazine follows any and all conventions it is most likely going to be successful.

The conventions of a Front Cover.

• The title of the magazine, is refered to as the mast head, which would feature the house style, the colour code, that the magazine follows. It is usually placed at the top of the page as that is where the audiences eye is dragged to when shopping for a magazine.
• The small sections of text placed around the left and right edges of the page are called tag lines, or cover lines, these inform the audience of other artists featured within the magazine. These tag lines often come in the form of many different fonts and almost always stick to the house style of the magazine.
• The bar code will almost always feature on the front cover of the magazine; this bar code allows the store that are selling this item to track whether or not it has been sold or stolen.
• The main head line that fits with the main image of the front cover is called a feature article line, which can either be placed at the top or the bottom of the page and is usually the largest form and text and dominates the page. The image that goes with the featured article line is almsot always of the featured artist in a medium shot or an extreme close up (here, we can see, that this artist is breaking the conventions as she is shot in a long shot.)
• These images of the artists, regardless of shot, almost always feature direct address to the audience. Direct address is where the artist or subject of the shot focusses their attention to the camera lense, when the phtograph is taken, this creates the impression that the subject is staring out into the audience, creating a relationship with them thus encouraging them to buy it.
• Many magazines also straplines which appear at the top and bottom edges of the front cover, advertising other artists or features within the magazine.

The conventions of a Contents Page.

• The mast head, the title from the front cover, always features on every page, including the contents page. It is usually placed at the top of the page, if not it is placed in the corners with the page numbers.
• There are usually a series of small photos in placed in the contents page however, it is becoming more common to have a dominating image of the main feature, from the front cover, instead.  This image would usually be a similar shot to the front cover image, shot in the studio, or it would be an image similar to the ones used in the double page spread.
• There is a list located, usually to the left of the page, of the magazines content. They are often sorted, not by page number, but by feature - for example, all posters would be under the sub heading "Poster", all reviews would be under "Music Reveiws" etc.
• It is also common to see the images of the featured artist with the page number next to or in the image itself. The use of the large amout of photos, or just one, dominent one, is for the audience to graze and focus on the only things that stand out to that individual, which would usually be the featured article.

The conventions of a Double Page Spread.

• The house style of the magazine will always reappear through out the magazine, especially on the double page spread.
• The feature article will usually be on two pages, one of the main pages dominated by an image and some text and the remaining page dominated by text and, on some occassions, have another image to accompany the text.
• White space is always present in double page spreads, as long as there isn't too much white space in the image or in the text then the double page spread will look professional.
• There is usually a small text box above or below the image of the artist, this is called anchorage, this will usually explain the image of the artist or the main point of the interview.
• In most interviews there are text grabs, usually placed in a larger, bolder font that the one used for the interview, and is laid out in the centre of one of the collumns. This text, usually a contrivirtial quote from the artist in the interview, grabs the audiences attention and encourages them to read on and find the quote.
• The style and writing of the interview should be clear and easy to follow; language and vocabulary should be considered when trying to pin point the target audience of the magazine.
• The mast head and page number will be placed together in the bottom corner of the magazine, usually, or else the mast head will be somewhere around the the double page spread.
• There is only one reason for the artist to be in the magazine and that is to sell their product, be it an album, a live EP, a concert coming up etc. This is how the artists make there money.
• Headlines are also commonly used in the double page spread, they will sometime be the artists name however in the example above, we have a lyric from the artists song "got the love".