Magazine Case Study Billboard Magazine Background Information It

Magazine Case Study Billboard Magazine

Background Information • It is an American music magazine, headquartered in New York City. • It is owned by Prometheus Global Media. • It was first published on November 1, 1894, and is famous for being among the oldest trade magazines in the world. • The magazine originally focused on bill posting and outdoor amusements before specializing in the music industry in the 1960 s. • Billboard preserves several internationally recognized record charts, which track the most popular songs and albums across several categories on a weekly basis.

Design and Layout • I like the general layout of this magazine as it is very basic which I think is very effective as it makes the celebrity the subject of the front cover. • The fact that they have used three celebrities in the column inch I think is also effective because it shows that they are also featuring in the magazine which could make the magazine more enticing. • The background that J. Lo is situated in, I personally feel is the most effective part of the magazine as the basic background emphasises how good she looks and for her age etc.

Colour and Convention For this magazine the main colours used are red and white. Even the featuring artist is wearing red to. I feel that those colours are the most popular/ common colour schemes used In magazines and other colours aren't really used as much. I think these colours work well together and they also fit nicely with the genre as red makes J. Lo look more classy and sophisticated. The text also links well as it lists related artists to the genre and this also makes the magazine look more formal and professional.

Modes of address and Interviews Most interviews are very similar and very structured. They are normally written up in third person and they are reported what was said, and recording what the artist has to say. There are bits written by the interviewer, and the interviewee. Some interviews are simply written in a question and answer style format and they are often a lot shorter however the interviewer adds in other questions and responses to keep the interview going.

Front Cover I really like the front cover of this magazine, mainly because it is simply laid out and there isn't too much going on. Also the colour scheme looks smart and professional. The picture they have used links well to the genre and people are more likely to purchase this as J. Lo looks amazing considering she is 45. she covers the main part of the magazine and the rest of the front cover is made up of related text. I really like the fonts used for this front cover as the text used to write ‘J. Lo’ really stands out and looks really formal. The general layout of the magazine is really nice and it’s a different style approach.

Contents Page This contents page isn't from the same magazine however they are all pretty much the same sort of style and layout. They give small pieces of information about the contents of the magazine to give a small incite into what you will read about. It is separated into various different sections depending on the page and the information it consists of. They also use page numbers which makes the information easier to find. They also include pictures of the featuring artists in the magazine which I think is more enticing to the readers.

Photography Most double page spreads that I have seen tend to use one main image that is spread across the two pages in comparison to the small minority that have a picture on each page. In the example you see Adele and the title are the main focus’ of the page. The image is taken very close up and they have used soft lighting when taking it to make her look more angelic as no one could look that good that close up.