Analysing Existing Feature Articles

After creating a Prezi discussing the main types of feature articles in the genre of rock music magazines, I will now analyse two feature spreads from existing rock magazines in order to understand the conventions of a successful feature article in; layout, images, colour palette, typography and lexis. These analyses will guide me in creating my own professional-looking double page spread that represents the needs of my target audience. 

The first feature article I am going to analyse comes from Kerrang magazine and takes the form of a biographical feature as it informs the reader of a band’s story from a point after their break up.

The layout of this spread is fairly simple, following the convention of columns, four in this case, approximately two per page, and displays a lot of text, due to the in-depth nature of the article style. This gives the reader a natural and linear journey through the information, and could connote the sadness that the band’s break up brings.

The main of the article sits in the middle of the spread, going across the fold, and is a medium shot of the band’s lead singer front man. His positioning follows the connotation of sadness in that he is looking down, with a ‘straight face’, and not facing the camera and the sizing lets him take up basically an entire page of the spread and allows him to be the main attraction of the article, as if just him being on/in the magazine will make the magazine worthy of buying. The dressing of him is coordinated with the colour scheme. Furthermore, there are two symbols which are part of the band’s identity used in order to personalise the page and the arrow possibly indicates that the article continues over the page, helping the reader to navigate through the feature.

The colour palette consists of black, white, red and blue and represents both the colours associated with the band and also the main colours associated with rock magazines. The use of inversion here could represent the rebellion that the band promoted and "going against the norm to be yourself". This scheme works well for the article because it shows sadness and I guess a kind of state of grieving whilst sticking true to the band and how they’re everything that rock stands for.

The typography used for the spread is very simple, like the rest of it, with only two, possibly only one, fonts used. The first font is for all for all of the lexis in capital letters, and is italicized for the heading quote to recreate the main font associated with the band’s final album. This makes the quote recognisable to the reader as being for this particular band in case the name and/or image isn’t. Using an initial is used to indicate the start of the text, making the first letter of the text extra large, seems to be a convention that I will need to include, as it is shown here, on the next feature I will analyse and on other features I have looked at. The font for the main body of text is fairly standard, following the simple style of the article, but is simplistically inviting for the reader to read for a substantial amount of text and time.

The lexis used within the article is very informal, opinionated and humourous, whilst providing the reader with a detailed account of many aspects of the band’s history. The use of a quote as the article’s heading is good because it sets the tone for the article and adds the band’s point of view to the information in order to back up the writer’s biography and make it a more personal biography.

The second feature article I am going to analyse comes from Metal Hammer magazine and takes the form of an interview feature, in the style of a question and answer.

The layout of this feature is slightly different to the previous one as it has all of the text on one page of the spread and the main image on the other. I think this is a more mature looking layout that is perhaps aimed at a slightly older audience. For the text, three columns are used, so this is a vital convention for me to use in my own print work. The quote on the image makes the quote seem more important and it is very obvious to the reader due to it being in a position where it will be the first thing that the reader sees after they have turned the page, therefore it’s used as a teaser to draw the reader into the whole article. Due to the audience of classic Rock magazine, you can say that this article will be aimed at people in social grade B-C1, which Gandal theorizes as the "social norm" and therefore having a masterclass with such a prestigious rock artist would be advertising to the primary audience.

The main image used for the article is coordinated with the theme of the article as it is about how to be a good musician and it shows two people very involved with music, one of whom being a very influential musician whose presence makes the image work.  The image seems fun and not too serious, setting the tone for the whole article. The image is in black and white, which controls the images coordination with the colour scheme and it kind of opposes the fun and not serious tone that the image itself creates, making it looks more serious. This could correspond to the article being informal and fun, however connoting how serious music is, especially rock music, in how it brings everyone together and helps people get through situations. On the text page there are small cartoon type images; in the form of skulls on the text outline and this add character to the page, making it look more interesting to the reader and fills empty space to make it look more packed with information.

The colour palette follows black, white and red, which are the main colours for rock magazines in general and this makes it look clean and not over powered, but with sufficient brightness to make it look fun and informal.

The typography used is more complex than on the previous feature due to the use of a few more font types as opposed to the two that were used before. The heading is large and very obvious, with a very original style that could be continued thing for all articles like this within the magazine. This alone makes the article look interesting, with the sword through it and the scrolls making it look almost pirate-like, but connoting a lesson from a master of the, in this case, rock music. The sub heading that is situated about the heading contains two different fonts, one very recognisable font that looks a lot like a blood and a slogan type like underneath in a more standard looking font. This subheading may be part of the heading and is continued for all articles of this type. The red caption below the heading and the main body of text is all in the same font, which makes it look professional and not over-designed, which makes the reader more inclined to read it. The quote on the right page has its own font that could correspond to what the quote is saying about sequencing, which is a technical thing and the font looks quite computerised.

 The lexis used is quite simple, and words used like “masterclass” and “visionaries” really make the article sound unique and important. There is also at least one swear word in the article, and this is a theme with the magazine and with rock in general, so to the audience, this doesn’t seem like a band thing, just a sign of awe and interest.