Compare the covers of two music magazines

The two magazines I will be comparing are ‘Guitar’ and ‘Total Guitar’. Both are specifically aimed to be read by the audience of people who like guitars and music by guitarists or the guitarists themselves. Both magazine covers share similar features which can explain why they both attract similar audiences.

The cover of ‘Guitar’ is presented in a way that shows all the information in a spread out way. The title ‘GUITAR’ is coloured bright pink with a white outline around it that makes it stand out. The colour of the title could also attract females because of the pink, associated with girls. The title of this magazine is the only text on this page which is bright pink. The other magazine cover ‘Total Guitar’ has also done the same thing with the colour. Words such as ‘Greenday’ and the background of ‘100% Accurate’ is bright pink, made to stand out, but on this cover, other text such as band names; ‘Mumford & sons’, ‘Arctic Monkeys’ has been written in bright pink font, which is different from the cover of ‘Guitar’ as the bright pink text has only been used for the title.

The title of ‘GUITAR’ at the top of the page is blocked at the end of the word by the picture of Jimi Hendrix that overtakes the page. This shows that the picture is the selling point of the magazine and the item that attracts the most attention because it’s the biggest thing on the page, and is the only picture. The magazine cover designer has done this because it’s easier enough to read without being able to see the whole word of the title ‘Guitar’. A similar thing has been done for the cover of ‘Total Guitar’. The picture of the guitarist on this cover blocks off the ‘I’ of ‘guitar’ in the title. This has been done for the same reason, that you can understand the title without needing to see the whole word.

The pictures on the covers also play a huge part of selling the magazine. For ‘Guitar’ the only picture on the cover is the picture of Jimi Hendrix holding up a guitar, a very famous guitar player. Because it is big and takes over the page, no other pictures have been put on, purely because no other pictures are needed. Other multi-coloured graphics are splashed across the picture of Jimi; this is to add colour and more excitement to the cover. For ‘Total Guitar’, there are 4 pictures on the cover. The main and biggest picture is of the man holding the bright yellow guitar. The rest are smaller and one is a small picture of a guitar to add entertainment, and the other two are pictures of bands that are explained on the cover. The both are similar with the big picture on the magazine, but the ‘Total Guitar’ magazine cover is slightly different because it’s got 3 more extra pictures than the ‘Guitar’ cover.

The text used on both magazine covers persuades the reader to buy the magazine. For the ‘Guitar’ cover, it uses words that get the reader involved. ‘Poster! 9/11 tribute guitars’. The stories the designer has included can be known by most people, and using a ‘poster’ in the magazine keeps the audience involved and interested of what the poster is of.

From these two covers, I have learnt that music magazines can differ and be similar depending on the features including on the cover. Even though music is a big industry, the pictures and text used on these covers are related to the genre. From these covers, it has helped me and given me ideas for when I create my magazine cover. The ideas it has given me are; to use pictures related to the articles, to give a variety of stories, not just the same ones and to use bold font and colours to make it stand out to my audience.