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Detailed Analysis of Music Magazine Rolling Stones

Masthead The name Rolling Stones stands out as it is red and looks like the only colour on a black/white page. The font is quite stylish but it is in bright red, it needs to be easy to read as this is how the reader will recognise the brand of the magazine. The fact that it is covered by the models head suggests it is not as important as the model and the audience should only read the masthead to recognise the brand.

Front Cover

Header The header is used a s a selling line as the reader will want to know about the best albums and songs of the past year which will interest them in reading the book to find out more. The fact that it is on the top implies that it may be one of the first things the reader sees.

Main cover line When the reader reads the main cover line they will not know it is about the model as his name is not mentioned. It just states the 50 greatest hip hop songs of all times which clarifies that it is a hip hop magazine. It is white and the biggest text on the page suggesting it is what will sell the magazine.

Main image The main image is of Tupac Shakur who is arguably the biggest rap/hip hop artist of all time, he occupies most of the front cover and the fact that his head covers most of the masthead suggests that he is bigger than the magazine which portrays how big of an icon Tupac Shakur really is. He has a balaclava wrapped around his head suggesting criminality, as criminals wear this to cover their face when conducting a robbery. This is also a stereotype given to rap stars that they are all criminals, and the fact that Tupac is wearing one suggests he is trying to give the Media something to talk about. The shot used is a medium close up getting his facial reaction with his mouth opened suggesting he is shocked, this makes the reader want to read on as Tupac was the kind of person to never be scared and reader will want to know what has shaken him up.

Left third The left third is full of the other cover lines which are not as important as they fill up the dead space left. This suggests that they are not really as important as the model or the main cover line and it will be like the last thing the reader sees.

Rule of thirds The layout uses rule of thirds to follow the convention of a magazine. The image of Tupac Shakur covers most of the page and the text is almost there to cover the other space; the background is plain (black and white) but it blends in with the text as it is white. The text is quite big but the image dominates the cover to illustration how big of an icon the Tupac is.

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Contents Page
Title The title of rolling stones is actually the magazines issue number which shows a bit of attitude as it is not really a title and the bad attitude is a stereotype given to hip hop artists.

Contents The contents have three titles and are the other stories/articles present in the magazine, the titles are bold and red to stand out and they are the topics of the different stories. The text underneath has a subheading in bold of the names of the stories with page references. Also there is text underneath these subheadings which gives more of an idea about that particular story, this acts as a strapline. Also it only states the pages which the editor feels the audience will most likely want to read and it is not in chronological order suggesting it is in the order the editor wants the audience to read.. The title itself features suggests it does not list everything on the magazine but just the main features.

Images The images are of four front covers and one of them being the actual front cover of the magazine; this suggests that this magazine is part of a series which will interest the reader to buy the others generating more income for the company. In these covers the images are of four of the biggest rap artists in hip hop which will encourage the reader to buy them to find out more about the artists.

Footer - The footer is at the bottom of the page with the date, masthead and page number however it is small which suggests that it is only there to fill the space left at the bottom of the page. The masthead is there to make the magazine more consistent and to re-literate the brand of the magazine.

Caption There is a caption under the frame of the four covers confirming the names of the artist, however their names are quite small suggesting they are not as important in this issue.

Rule of thirds The contents page also follows the rule of thirds (same as the front cover) by the way everything is layered on the page, the images again occupy most of the page suggesting that it is the most important information. The right hand side of the magazine (readers left) have text with features found in the magazine with page references so that the reader can find the page they want to read but it is not the main focus. There is footer on the bottom of the page with the masthead, date and page numbers suggests that it is just used to occupy the dead space at the bottom. The heading at the top is the issue number which is the largest text representing how important it is.

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Double Page Spread

Quote There is a quote about 2pac to give the reader an idea of the person he is. It is just in the background and not covering the model showing that the model is a big figure and it would be wrong to cover his image.

Illustrations There is one main image of Tupac which is in black and white, it covers one half of the double page spread to follow the normal convention of magazines, it is in black and white to show that he was from a dark time and it blends in with his personality.

Drop Cap The text uses a sort of drop cap but instead using numbers in chronological order which goes down in a list of songs. The numbers are in this format to stand out so the reader can see what number it is in the chart as easy as possible.

Titles The titles are the names of the songs which are in bold to stand out which could be used to help the reader identify the song as it is easier to see. Also being in bold makes the song seem more important than the artist (not bold) to show that the list of the greatest songs and not the artists and the artist may not be as relevant.

Rolling Stones magazine is not really about hip hop or rap but this particular issue uses hip hop to reach out to the hip hop audience. Rolling Stones looks at popular culture and the politics behind music, if it did focus on a particular genre I would say it uses more pop music as many of the artists that have featured on it are pop artists such as John Lennon, Tina Turner, the Beatles and many others, however I decided to analyse this magazine as on the cover of this particular issue they had the artist Tupac Shakur who is considered to many as the biggest hip hop artist ever and I wanted to analyse the politics behind hip hop, which at Tupacs time was very violent as all the artists wanted to be the best so they used violence to take out the competition. Tupac himself felt this wrath as he was shot dead in September 1996.