Rolling Stone magazine is a genre magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture. It has a younger target readership who are interested in pop music and young television or film actors. The magazine is distributed in Russia, the United States, and South Africa. The front cover uses a color scheme of red, black, white, and blue to represent both innocence and danger. It features an actor on the cover to broaden the audience beyond just music.
2. * Genre – devoted to music, liberal politics and
popular culture.
* Reader – younger, focussing on young television
or film actors and pop music.
* Distribution – sold in Russia, United States,
South Africa.
*
3. * Red, black white and blue is
the colour scheme, which
should normally represent
innocence, added to a sense
of danger and authority with
the black and red, however
the blue sea in the
background keeps the colour
scheme calm and innocent.
All aspects of the colour
scheme, could connote the
actor on the front – innocent
but old enough to be in
control.
*
4. * The masthead ‘Rolling
Stone’, is shown in red so
it stands out against the
background. The name of
the magazine is
interesting as it has more
than one reference to the
music industry – the band
and the songs. As the
magazine is so well
known, it is easy for the
magazine to cover some
of the masthead with the
main image, as the
masthead is so
recognisable.
*
5. * The skyline on the magazine
is written in black, which
makes it stand out against
the light blue background,
however does not stand out
too much, therefore not
outstanding past the sell
lines and the anchorage
text. The text in the skyline
states artists that are
included in the magazine,
which range through genres
therefore appealing to a
wider audience, by including
a wider range (Dave Grohl –
the Foo Fighters e.g rock,
and Norah Jones who is
jazz).
*
6. * The person is an actor
onscreen which suggests
that the music magazine is
trying to widen the
audiences by adding actors
as well as music acts to the
cover. The actor looks
relaxed and calm – to go
with the sea and the colour
scheme.
*
7. * The anchorage text would
appeal to a young
audience e.g. the target
audience, as words such
as ‘wild’ and ‘teen’ are
used. The ‘teen wolf’ is
emphasised in red to show
that this is the anchorage
text. Only the masthead
and the anchorage text
are in red, to show that
these are the most
important things on the
cover.
*
8. * There’s a lot of blank
space, so that the picture
dominates the cover. This
is to perhaps emphasise
that the magazine is well
known and has loyal
readers so that not many
sell lines etc. are
necessary.
*
