3 Inspiration Music Magazine Covers

Freddie Mercury/Queen Rolling Stone Magazine Cover

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This magazine uses the basic colour scheme of red, white & black. This is a very good colour scheme because it is one of the most appealing colour schemes that you can produce for a magazine that somebody is using. The layout works because it is all featured around the picture of Freddie Mercury live, this is a good picture to use because he is simply an icon in the music industry. The picture of Mercury is made to draw the readers attention. I can justify this because it is in the centre of the cover while being a bold confident picture which makes you look at it. The fact that his head is also over the traditional 'Rolling Stone' magazine logo shows that he is the main focus of this magazine. The masthead is also red, this creates a very bold & bright cover for the reader to see as they pick up the magazine. The background is black & features nothing except for Freddie Mercury which again backs up the fact that he is the main focus of this magazine along with his band Queen. The general font used on this cover is good because it gives the magazine a vintage feel to it which fits in with Mercury's era, it is also bold therefore the reader will look at the less important articles as well as the feature article. On this cover, another article is featuring Madonna, this is fairly clear because of the bold writing. Finally, the dates below the 'Rolling Stone' logo are important because this informs the reader of what the article will be featuring on, therefore it attracts fans of both Freddie Mercury & Queen because of the way that the magazine is presented. I like the simple basis of this cover because it is comes across to the reader very well therefore I would consider making my magazine cover like this.

Paramore NME Magazine Cover

This album cover is simply featured all around the band Paramore, in particular the lead singer Hayley Williams. The photo of the band on this cover is made to look quite basic & the band aren't dressed in anything over the top. This makes the band & the magazine appeal to people that aren't trying to find bands for just the look, this is for people that want to experience a band that can produce 'proper' music. Hayley Williams is featured in the centre of the cover & in front of the other band members because it is quite rare to see women in rock bands like this, therefore creating a whole new appeal to the reader of the magazine. The colour scheme for this magazine is quite complicated. It uses black, white, pink, grey & red as the main colours, however the trademark Hayley Williams orange hair could be classed as a major colour too because it could draw a reader to the cover of the magazine. The pink heading is very eye catching & it could draw a reader in to see what it says, then the smaller white text around it works well because it just contrasts the pink. The font is basic & it is obvious that the cover is trying to make you look at Hayley Williams, nothing else. The white circle used to promote an article with Mumford & Sons is also effective because this means that the magazine will appeal to a wide audience because of the different styles of music advertised on this cover. The circle also works very well because it stands out from the grey background used behind it & the font used for advertising the article to the reader is bold, using a good colour scheme of red & black. I like the sub-headings in the bottom left corner, this is because they don't draw too much attention to themselves yet if the reader looks at the cover in detail they may see more artists featured in the magazine that they like. This again shows how broad the music range is in this magazine.

Bob Marley Billboard Magazine Cover

This magazine cover featuring Bob Marley is very good in my opinion. This is because the whole cover is based around the feature article 'Is The Ghost Of Marley The Next Blockbuster Brand?', the picture itself gives off a very ghostly, haunting vibe. Therefore showing that this article is going to be aimed at his legacy after his death. This will appeal to both his old fans & the younger generation that like to find out about new artists. The picture of Bob Marley is used as the whole background in this magazine & uses washed out colours in the photo, giving the haunting vibe to the reader. The shirt that Marley is wearing also appeals because this kind of shirt is back in fashion therefore appealing to readers that like looking at various artists fashion senses. The shirt is also fairly basic which shows us that Marley was a very laid back man along with his hairstyle, which indicates a stereotypical reggae artist. This would therefore make this magazine appeal to an audience that likes reggae music. The masthead for this cover is very bright & bold, this catches the eye of the reader. The font for the masthead is also good because although it contrasts Bob Marley's work, it also shows the reader that the magazine will probably feature other types of artist other than Bob Marley & his trademark reggae music. The headings on this magazine are placed around Marley's face which shows that they are less important than the feature article, however they may be advertising articles that appeal to a different audience. The cover uses a very basic colour scheme, the main colour used is white which is used for all of the fonts used while the picture consists of a orange & a blue. Therefore creating an alternative colour scheme to the usual cover.