Evaluation of the front cover, contents page and double page spread

XPLODE is a modern rock music magazine that also has roots to olden music. This is to show that we will not forget the history of music as it is very important to us. We take our music extremely seriously and is very passionate about it. XPLODE also helps the reader to be interactive as we have many competitions that can win big prizes. This is because we consider this as being important. I think there is a gap in the market in the music magazine industry that could be filled. The reason why I think that there is a gap in the market is because most music magazines are either aimed at modern audience or an older audience. Examples of these are Kerrang. This has a massive audience due to its genre and is very famous. However their demographic are late teens who are interested in modern music. NME is another famous music magazine which is aimed at late teens who listens to olden music. Therefore I think a gap that needs to be filled is to have a music magazine that is aimed at intelligent male teens who listen to both olden and modern rock music.

The targeted demographic of my magazine are young to late intelligent male teens who listens to olden and modern soft rock music. People who are really interested, passionate and take their music seriously. The reason for choosing the genre of rock is because rock magazines tend to survive much better than other music genres and also has a huge audience. Therefore I will a fill a gap in the market as it is aimed at the demographic of young to old intelligent male teens who listens to modern and olden soft rock music.

I have used qualitative and quantitative data in my work. Before deciding the genre of my music magazine I did some research by using quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data is facts and figures. I have used quantitative data on my questionnaire. The results from the questionnaire helped me to come up with my final decision on choosing my genre. The hip hop genre had the lowest rating therefore I was sure this will not be my genre for the magazine. The most popular genre was rock also the audience I gave the questionnaire stated that my magazine templates also suit the genre of rock. This made my decision very clear on making rock the genre of my magazine. I also used qualitative data. I did this by creating three templates for my magazine with different colours. I then asked 50 people on their opinion on which template suits my genre better. The colours that were favored the most were qualitative data. This helped me towards choosing my final template. I took the results into account and decided not to use yellow in my magazine as it was very unpopular with my audience. I stuck to a similar version of the template that my audience chose. The reason for changing the look of the template slightly was because it did not look as professional as it could for a music magazine.

The name of my magazine is called XPLODE. I chose this name because it means that anyone who is in this magazine is famous because of their talent. It is saying that their talent is so huge it is exploding. You can’t keep it locked up. Also the name XPLODE sounds interesting, appealing and exciting. The name I chose initially was called Rocker. The reason I changed it to XPLODE was because Rocker sounds boring, unexciting and cliché of its genre. The masthead of the magazine is in big letters as it is meant to be clearly visible for the targeted audience. It is on the top of the magazine as this is a convention of a magazine. A convention is a rule that can be broken. The name “XPLODE” is in the colours of white and red. The colour red has connotations of passion this tells you that this magazine is passionate about music. The colour white has connotations of hope which links to success. This tells you that people who are in the front cover of the magazine are very successful. This will also make the readers hope and aspire to be successful singers aspiring to be in the front cover of this magazine someday. The typography of the word “XPLODE” is in capital letters this has connotations of being strong, powerful and masculine. This links with the targeted demographic as it is aimed at male teenagers. The letter “X” in “XPLODE” is stylized in a way that it looks like it is stamped. This links to the rock music genre as when people go to rock concerts they get their hands stamped. In the word “XPLODE” the O is replaced with a record. This is Mise En Scene. This is a French term that translates everything in the scene. Records have connotations of olden music. Therefore this suggests that although this magazine is modern it is not forgetting the icons of rock just because they are olden. It shows that this magazine is not forgetting the roots of rock music.

The brand identity of a magazine is very important. The brand identity is what creates the identity of the magazine which would help the readers recognize the magazine just by seeing its pages. On top of the magazine there are three lines a black, white and red line. These three colours are constantly seen in rock magazines such as kerrang and Classic rock. Also the fact that in my qualitative data people chose these 3 colours to be most compatible with the genre of rock. Therefore these colours have connotations of rock. I have also used these lines to create a brand identity. The magazine has four main colours that are consistent. The four main colours are black, white, red and grey. As these colours are the four main colours of the magazine they create a brand identity. If the magazine pages were laid out on a table because of the brand identity is should be easy to recognize which magazine’s pages they are. This is called a flat plan. Underneath the feature story it says “Xclusive Interview” The word “Xclusive” is written similar to the way the X is written in Xplode. This is a brand identity. So the masthead contains references to the ethos of the magazine for example the “X” is young and modern whereas the vinyl disk represents rock history. Tapes have connotations of seriousness as tapes can be used to record information in police stations for statements. Also tapes have connotations of music. Which can link the magazine as the magazine is a music based magazine. Tapes are also retro.


The background is white fading onto grey. The targeted demographic for this magazine are late teens who are male. The colour grey has connotations of masculinity as darker colours are considered to be more masculine and the colour grey is boring and is not vibrant as a woman’s personality therefore it is masculine as it suits more for a masculine personality. Therefore the background colour of the magazine suits the targeted demographic. There is also a blue retro design in the background. Retro is a word used to symbolize culturally outdated or aged patterns. This links to the magazine front cover as this magazine is represented as a modern rock magazine that also has roots of traditional rock. This is done to show the readers that they are not forgetting the icons of rock. The colour blue is used in the retro design as blue also has connotations of masculinity which suits well with the targeted audience. The background design looks curvy and almost like floral designs which are very feminine. This can tell the targeted audience the girl in the main image is feminine.


On top of the word “Xplode” on the right corner it says DOWNLOADED EDITION. I have done this to create a theme for this particular magazine. This is an issue that talks about downloading. This was chosen as many people download music illegally and it has a massive impact on the music industry so we want our readers to see how much this magazine values and is passionate about music as we want to save the music industry and stop the illegal downloads. This also indicates the fact that this magazine is catering for a more intelligent young audience.

On the top of the magazine it says “Kings of Leon free posters” this was done as this is an additional incentive. This is a free item that you can get when you buy the magazine. This is there to attract the audience’s attention into buying this magazine. Additional incentives help to promote the magazine. “SEX IS ON FIRE” this is a feature story. This is a name of a song there for this is called a pun. By having this as a feature story not only it grabs the reader’s attention due to its words it also is a way of personal identification. The audience would know this song as it is in their music genre so they would have a connection to this song. Underneath it has a tagline saying “KINGS OF LEON MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUM OUT”. The word “Anticipated” is there as it is a buzz word. Buzz words are there to take the audience attention.” SEX IS ON FIRE” is in red letters because it stands out so the audience can see it immediately as feature stories are quite important as they are what is inside the magazine so the readers should be able to see it clearly in order to be interested. The letters are in capital as capital letters have a sense of masculinity and this suits the targeted audience well. The second feature story says “Justice for all” This is also a pun as it is an album name of Metallica. The feature stories do not have to make much sense as the tagline would give information on what the feature story is talking about which then would make the feature story much clearer. “Justice for all” is in the colours dark blue, red and white as these are the colours of the American flag. This has connotations of justice because the American flag also has connotations of Independence Day which is all about freedom and freedom links with justice. Under the feature story the tagline says “Hell– Music Industry is down falling” This feature story links with the theme “DOWNLOADED EDITON” as it is talking about illegal music downloading. The last feature story says “SUE ‘EM ALL” this is also a pun because it is a famous Metallica song. “SUE EM ALL” is an “in joke” this makes the audience feel as though they are a part of something. Recognizing this would make them feel special. This also links with the downloaded edition theme. This gives the readers an idea of what Metallica thinks about illegal downloading of music. Therefore it can speak out to the audience as they might consider to stop downloading music illegally as its being said by their favourite music artists. The word “SUE” is in red as red has connotations of power. This is done as Metallica is using powerful words to make it clear on what they think of illegal music. It also says “Metallica speaks out loud” This would make the readers curious on what their favourite artists would say which would lead them to buy the magazine. There is a tape next to the tagline. Different fonts are used in the front cover of the magazine as it is a convention of a magazine to have different fonts for feature stories. This relates to the different stories and facts that can be found inside the magazine. It is there to portray the range of contents in the magazine. The Xclusive interview is there so the people who read Xplode would feel special that it is Xclusive. This would make them feel special and happy as they are one of the people who would know about this interview. This would make the readers happy and want to buy more of this magazine. This can also be a way of social interactions.


When the readers read this magazine and they would go and talk to their friends about this as a conversations topic. This is called social interaction. By having the Xclusive interview in my magazine it gives the change of social interaction to take place. Social interaction is one concept of uses and gratifications Theory. This theory also says people read or watch media for these reasons. The focus of the uses and gratification theory is to attract the audience by using this concept. One other reason is information which is always there in any magazine. Examples of this in my magazine are having information about the music industry going down, reviews and having a gig guide. As one of my taglines says “Hell – music industry is going down” Entertainment is also a reason as the text provides pleasure for the audience, this is often characterized as being “escapist”. Entertainment is also in my magazine as it says “OMFG THE GODDESS OF ROCK IS BACK” for my main cover story. This wording and language used in this creates excitement and entertainment for the reader. This is also text speak which also indentifies the youthful audience. The last reason is personal identification. This is when we can get a sense of ourselves and our peer group from films or stars. We may identify with particular films stars, music artists who we may even use as role models. This can relate to this magazine as the celebrity “Natasha” who is in the central image is a famous rock star. Therefore this can lead people to personally identifying a part of them or their lifestyle with the artist. All these four reasons are things why people use the media.

The way the words are used in a magazine is always according to the targeted audience. The way they use language. This is because the magazine is being aimed at them. For example the “X” is Xplode is written instead of Explode is because the targeted demographic understands this and to them it looks better rather than having “Explode”. This is called Mode of Address. This is a way in which your media product speaks to its particular audience. It can be things like graphic designs, representations, language used and typography. In the cover story it says “OMFG” THE GODDESSOF ROCK IS BACK” The word “OMFG” is used as it is suitable language with the targeted audience. This is suitable as my demographic are male teens and they use informal language that is abbreviated quite often. This is done because of the Mode of Address. The word “GODDESS” is used because in many rock magazines they use the word “GODDESS” rather than using worlds queen as that is appropriate language for its genre.

In the top right corner it says “Xplode Radio” This tells the audience that there is a radio station for this magazine. Many magazines these days have radio stations. This is a way of promoting the magazine. The magazine could promote the website and the website can promote the magazine. This can be done by having the radio station being mentioned in the magazine like it is on my front cover and having the magazine being mentioned in the radio station. This is called having a symbiotic relationship. In the bottom of the magazine there is a banner a banner is a convention of a magazine. In the banner it says “Enter our competition to win free tickets for the rock festival. Visit Xplode.com”. This shows that there is a website for this magazine. This can create a vast audience. Having a website is suitable for my magazine as it is aimed at teenagers and they spend most of their time on the internet. Also having a website is extremely important for the survival of my magazine. Just like the radio station and the magazine the website and the magazine can also promote each other. As it says to enter the competition that you need to go to the website this is forcing symbiosis to happen. Multi platform presence promoting synergy.

In the main image I have made up a celebrity called “Natasha”. She is represented as a beautiful, smart, teen that is passionate about music. The representations of her are positive. Having an Asian girl in a front cover as a rock artist breaks the dominant ideology. Most of the time you would expect to see men in a magazine aimed at men however these days you would see many women in a front cover of magazines that are aimed at men due to their attractiveness .I have applied this to my magazine by having a girl in my front cover .But most of the time these women are usually white. To have an Asian girl breaks these rules. In the ideology it is seen “abnormal”. Ideology is a way of viewing the world, common sense, normality. The man who controls dominant representation thinks race wise the only race that is normal is white anything outside it is considered to be abnormal. Sexuality wise only straight people are normal.ETC. It can be thought as a broad visualization as a way of looking at things. Therefore to have an Asian teen in the front of a magazine front cover that is aimed at late teen boys is seen abnormal or strange in the common ideology. However this is starting to change in modern times.

Maslow came up with a theory called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He suggested that in order for a human to survive they need things. He made a pyramid showing what humans need the most to least. The pyramid starts at the bottom which consists of what humans need the most. It starts of by safety. Things like shelter and goes right up to self actualization which means dreams and aspirations. This is very important and relates to my magazine because I have a made up celebrity called Natasha in the front of my magazine cover. This is a way of attracting more audience to my magazine. Despite most of my audience being male some girl will read or buy this magazine therefore when they see the front cover and recognizes her it would lead them to buying this magazine. Also the fact that she is a celebrity and she is attractive would also lead readers to aspire to be her as they would aspire to have her talent, attractiveness or lifestyle. Therefore this links with my magazine. This would also attract my main demographic who are men because having an attractive girl in a front cover that consist the male gaze pose would attract them to buying this magazine. This is because men like to see women in these poses that objectify them.


Women are often photographed in a way that objectifies them. The frame cuts the female form into abstract shapes that identify or represent the subject purely by attractiveness to men therefore this is called The Male Gaze theory the camera is the point of view of a man. This can be proved as women are mostly shown lying down and it shows vulnerability and submission. Women are often posed bending their heads or bodies at an angle which is called the “cant”. This is applied to the model in my magazine front cover as her body is at an angle therefore she consists of the male gaze as she is posing according to male gaze. The process of looking is generally seen as an active male role while the passive role of being looked at is immediately adopted as a female characteristic. This positions the male as dominant and the female as submissive. This also links with ideology as men control society in that ideology men are seen as aggressive and dominant and the female is seen week and submissive. Ideology links with Hegemony as because although we know these things as a society we sign up to these ideal structures and we let ourselves be ruled by a set of desires that may not be our own. Male gaze can be seen I a different view. Looking at this in a woman’s point of view she is trying to tell woman she can be successful by striking that subordinate pose. To be like the music artist she is you have to be good at controlling men. So this is why woman aspire to be submissive and subordinate. To attract men you have to be submissive and subordinate. Many women believe following the male gaze makes them be a successful woman. They think this because in images that consists the male gaze women are often staring right at you. They are making eye contact. This is a sign of power because she knows you are looking at her, she is controlling your gaze. She isn’t childish. She is doing this on purpose. They know they are being looked at. These poses are strategic and a sign of controlling the gaze. This follows for my magazine. As men are my targeted demographic they would see her as being attractive, submissive etc….. Although women are not my targeted demographic if they do buy this magazine they would see her as powerful strong women not only because she is successful at controlling men’s gaze also because she is a successful music artist. This would lead the females who buy this magazine to aspire to be successful as her to control men’s gaze.

Jean Baudrillard was a social theorist. He came up with a theory called hyper reality. The media and especially in digital technology are key to creation of this hyper real world. He termed examples of the hyper real as simulacra. Hyper reality is when reality is exaggerated in order to make our life more exciting and fun. Hyper reality links to my magazine as the celebrity Natasha is hyper real she is airbrushed to exaggerate her beauty. People who see this would want to be like her, to be perfect as her. They would aspire to be something that is not real. This could affect people in our social life. People can become anorexic by aspiring to be something that can’t be done. This can also lead to obesity as it would give pressure to our society as the hyper real version of models is what people have to live up to which lead to stress which then could would lead to obesity by eating food as a comfort.

A content page is there so it gives the reader information about what is going to be inside the magazine and where they can find these. For e.g. In my contents page it says “METALLICA GONE YELLOW” if the reader is interested in this they could easily find out what page it is on by looking at the content page which in this case says it’s on page 32.A content page helps the reader to find out where the stories are. It guides you through the magazine.

The contents page consists of the four main colours that are in the front page which are red, black, white and grey this is because the brand identity has to be consistent and be seen throughout every page. The three lines that were visible on the front cover that were red, white and black are also seen in the contents page. On the left bottom side of the page I have my editorial. This is a convention for a magazine. I have also put the published date of the magazine. This is done so the readers would know when this issue of the magazine was published. The reason for making my editorial fairly short is because as it is aimed at male teens they would be more interested in the magazine rather than the editorial so having a short editorial would be more suitable and appropriate rather than making it long as the readers would loose interest.

On the right side of the magazine you could see the content of the magazine. It is broken down to smaller parts with titles like news, features, live review and gig guide. This is there to direct the reader on which page they want to go according to what they want to read.

In the contents page you could see a featured story saying “METALLICA GONE YELLOW” it also has a tagline saying “meet the simptallicans” This is an “in joke” Metallica and Simpsons fans who read this magazine will feel special when they realize this word mash up. This is also suitable as the demographic I have chosen would know both Metallica and the Simpsons as Metallica is an iconic rock band and The Simpsons is a famous cartoon that many teenagers watch and recognizes. The image shows Metallica being on the Simpsons. This is intertextuality as the Simpsons are using reference of Metallica. Intertexuality is when a media text references another media text in this case the Simpsons are referencing Metallica. Just under the tagline there is a light description of that story. This is done to get the reader’s attention so they would want to read the full story later on. There is one more feature story in the contents page it says “Gemma : romance or showmance?” This sounds entertaining as the text provides pleasure. You would want to read it on to know what it is talking about. This sounds like gossip. The reason for doing this is because all thought the demographic of this magazine is males some women might also buy this and having a hint of gossip makes the magazine entertaining. Excitement is also portrayed by having an image for a o2 festival saying “don’t miss out on the hottest even of the month” The way the wording is used sounds exciting and interesting. The word “hottest” is in red as it stands out to the audience. This is because teenagers use this type of language often. It is the mode of address. Using language that the targeted demographic uses so they understand it.

On the bottom of the contents page there is a light grey banner that says XPLODE THIS WEEK this is done because when I was researching in existing music magazines I found out that this is done in many music magazines. Therefore I did a similar thing. I chose to keep the colour of the lettering same as the logo colours.

There is an additional incentive that is being mentioned on my contents page. The magazine is giving out a free poster that can be found on page 40. This would attract my audience as anyone would like to receive free gifts. Next to it you could see a free subscription offer with a 25% of discount. This is for readers who buy this magazine weekly and has missed an issue which they want to have. To get the 25% discount I have put the website of the magazine leading the readers to get their discount. This will force them to go visit the website if they want to get a missed issue of XPLODE with a discount. This is forcing symbiosis to happen.

A double page spread is when a main article is laid onto two pages. It can even be a questionnaire or an article about a singer etc…
I have decided to focus this page on illegal downloading as it was one of my feature stories that was mentioned in the front cover. Therefore I titled this page called “Crash and Burn” and the tagline under this says “music industry going to hell”. Taglines often help the reader understand what the feature story is talking about. The feature story does not give much a way about what they are talking or does not have to make sense. This is why the tagline underneath it helps the reader to make sense on what they are talking about. Appropriate modes of address have been used language wise as it says “music industry is going to hell”. The idea of rude language is attached to the Rock genre as they use it quite often. Therefore using the word “hell” is appropriate for my targeted audience and the music genre itself.

Interactivity is considered to be very important as it is a way of engaging with the audience therefore I decided to have a weekly competition that’s gives out prizes in my magazine. The questions for the competition will be on the double page spread. On my double page spread it says “Enter our competition to win free tickets for the rock consort visit www.XPLODE.com”. Once again this forces symbiosis to happen. This way the magazine promotes the website and the website can promote the magazine as you will have to go to the website to enter the competition and you will have to buy the magazine to see if they have won the competition which will be shown on the double page spread as well.

On my left side of the double page spread I have decided to have a weekly spotlight article. It talks about the current rock music artist who is in the spotlight. In this issue it is Gemma Merrick. Therefore I have decided to call it “EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT...” It then talks about her success on why she is on the spotlight. This would give the reader satisfaction of being able to keep up-to-date with celebrity popularity. As for many teenagers this is important. I have chosen to colour the letters “Gemma Merrick” in white and purple. The reason for this is because the colour purple has connotations of royalty this links with the star as it is telling the readers that this is how the media is portraying her at the moment. The colour white is used as it represents hope. It tells you that this star is successful and she is giving hope to the readers of this magazine telling they can be successful if they really want it. In this column I have put an image of her with a guitar showing that it is the closest thing to her as she is passionate about music. Around her are small multicolour balls that looks like disco ball lights. This reinforces the idea of her being in the spotlight as when you are under a disco ball it means you are on the spotlight. I have also created a shape around her using circles. The shape I created looks like a knuckle duster. A knuckle duster is mostly used by young people. It is used as a weapon to punch someone. It has connotations of violence. This therefore is a representation of the rock star named Gemma Merrick. It tells you that she is a violent and strong person. In the dominant ideology the youth culture is represented to be violent. Therefore Gemma Merricks representation also links with the audience according to the dominant ideology.

As the theme for this issue’s magazine is illegal downloading I have written “downloaded edition” and “downloading is a crime” on my double page spread as it shows how much this magazine cares about the music industry, how passionate they are about their music and does not want it to be destroyed. Therefore I decided to have circular hole like shapes around this statement. These holes look a lot like bullets it is trying to get the reader’s attention saying downloading is a crime just like using a gun. In the double page spread I decided to have a Metallica interview. This would make the readers excited and feel special to find exclusive information about their favourite band. In the interview there is a question that asks what Metallica thinks about illegal downloading. By doing this it shows how much the magazine wants to stop these downloads they are letting the readers hear their favourtie band’s opinion hoping this will encourage them to stop these illegal downloads. In the left side of the magazine there is a small column on what rocker Natasha’s been up to. She has also given her view of illegal downloads hoping the fans would stop by listening to her. There is also an image of her posing in away so it fits the male gaze.

On The Metallica image I created a logo that says “I love XPLODE” This was done to show the readers how much Metallica cares about Xplode and their fans. This would make the readers feel special. I decided to name the interview Metallica speaks out loud. It is trying to say that they are giving you a statement in the interview; they want you to hear them loud and clear.