Magazine Research-Q cover

     Q magazine is popular music magazine in the UK. First published in 1986, the magazine separated themselves to its rivals with the use of extensive photography and a higher quality of writing. The magazine was originally meant to be named 'Cue' magazine yet this may have caused the readers to be mistaken about the content magazine suggesting it may be a snooker or pool focused magazine.
     The content of the magazine itself focuses on bringing current and up to date music styles and artists to their audience. The magazine has a focus on reviewing current music with an extensive music review section accompanied by film, books and video game reviews. However the majority of the magazine focuses of interviews with extremely popular music artists. Its also extremely common for the magazine to consist of a compilation of lists such as '200 things you didn't know about the Beatles,' and '100 greatest music videos.'
     Published monthly by Bauer media, the magazine covers a wide range of different music varieties from Lady Gaga to Muse. They also use a wide range technological convergence to create an effective synergy between the brand and its audience. The use of a radio station, music channel and website allows the magazine to currently keep updating its audience with current musical trends without them having to wait until next months issue. The use of Q awards also allow the audience to get fully involved in the brand as they have input into who wins the award. With a large readership and a circulation of around 80418, the magazine targets a wide range of different audiences.

Annotated cover of Q magazine

      The actual target audience is any age range but the majority of the audience is male with over 75% of men reading the magazine. The demographic is ABC1 and Bauer media describe the audience as 'composed of passionate, engaged and open minded fans driven to continually discover new music.'
       The cover of Q magazine itself appears again, similarly to NME, as being very monotonous with the use of a running colour scheme of black, white, grey, and red. Yet unlike NME, Q fails to incorporate a stand out colour to represent any idea of individualism such as the fuchsia pink. Yet the use of running colour scheme suggests order and organisation, this is something which contrasts vastly with the idea of spontaneous rock music and concerts suggesting that reading the magazine is much more civilised way to experience music.
       The image used on the cover of the magazine automatically appeared posed due to the nature of the shot with the use of a dark plain background to ensure focus is on the foreground image of Matt Bellamy.      The costume incorporates colours such as black and red which matches in with the colour scheme giving the cover more of a flow. Matt's jacket appears to have a militaristic edge again insinuating the idea of form and organisation. The use of a slight fuzzing from the movement of the guitar (an effective prop used to convey and inform the reader of the magazines genre type and style) automatically illuminates the fact that the guitar is moving. This paired with the obviously manipulation and distortion of the headline suggests the idea of destruction and messiness, something which Kerrang! also does to help convey the atmosphere of a typical grungy, rock music concert, which is also extremely destructive and messy.
       The icon used on the magazine links in to the main headline of the issue with the use of Matt Bellamy from Muse. This again gives the magazine a sense of flow. The fact that Matt appears to be destroying such a key item to the music industry suggests a sense of rebellion as this is the industry in which he is in. This rebellion helps reflect the idea of teenagers and teenage angst which helps the magazine reflect the target audience. The anger displayed on Matts face also helps reflect this.
        The actual text included in the magazine cover is also use to convey certain things and also helps to attract audiences. The use of slang in the word 'nutjobs,' stimulates the idea of relaxation insinuating that the magazine it self is slang. The magazine also appears to manipulate phrases such as 'sex, drugs & yeah, right,' suggesting that the magazine is traditional as it incorporates traditional phrases yet with an modern, unique and individual twists.' The idea of using second person pronouns such as 'you,' enable the magazine to directly address their reader making them feel involved. Quotations from the main headline of the issue is used to give the reader an insight into the content of the magazine yet doesn't give to much away. A similar effect is also created with the listing of the people incorporated into the issue yet not saying what the stories are covering giving an element of mystery.