Textual Analysis (front covers)

Q was published by Bauer publication, the name of the magazine in fact means to queue up for albums and concerts. The magazine has a shiny look and feel to it which makes it sem more expensive. The magazine looks of high quality due to the amount of effort and work put into the front cover, the first thing an audience sees when making a decision on what magazine to buy. Q magazine was actually created for males but has attracted a much wider audience since it took off. There is a large Q on the front cover and remains the same colour in the same place on every magazine; the colours gold, red and white are often used as they're bright and stand out. These colours are also often associated with quite expensive-looking colours, adding to the expensive look of the magazine. The front cover of Q always has a celebrity on the front cover that is involved in music or entertainment, this is Q's brand identity along with the red and white Q in the corner; the magazine is noticed for these particular things. The cover lines theme is often to do with music and entertainment, interviews and key articles, however the price is hidden away due to the expense this is because they want to grab the readers attention without them being turned away from the price.



Kerrang was also published by Bauer publication. The title Kerrang is an onomatopoeia of a guitar sound; related to rock. The magazine front cover appears crowded making the reader feel like they are getting more for their money; Kerrang includes different brand identities it uses its own font in every magazine and it remains in the same place and mostly the same colour, Biffy Clyro also used their own well-known font for the Kerrang magazine front cover; brand identity. The 'Kerrang' title remains black and white whilst the rest of the colours on the magazine often change colour to compliment each other including reds. The front cover always has a celebrity on it and attracts readers that are particularly interested in that musician. The cover lines also often focus on the theme of music and entertainment; especially rock music as kerrang focuses on a rock and metal genre.

NME (New Musical Express) was often associated with punk rock but has expanded to a much wider audience in recent years. The front cover is mainly dominated by writing and cover lines related to music and entertainment (what the magazine is about) however the image looks as if it was not originally taken by NME and more of a picture someone else took, this front cover looks as though a it was a performance at a concert. Compared to Q and Kerrang this magazine looks slightly cheaper as it has not had a proper set design, it looks as though less money was put into it. The colour scheme remains black, white and red in each magazine, simple colours that don't particularly relate to an expensive magazine such as Q's gold. NME's brand identity consists of using the same simple font in every magazine and a famous musician similar to other music magazine front covers.

These three well-known magazines are now currently music channels with their own websites; it helps the publications and companies become more popular and well known. Nowadays they are more known as a brand than a music magazine.