Codes and conventions of a Music magazine

To get a better understanding of music magazines, i researched the codes and conventions of the music press. Firstly i looked at the fron covers of music magazines. The codes and conventions i found are as follows:

• Masthead- So the reader can recognise the title of the magazine.
• Lures- To give the reader an isight to the magaizne of what type of articles will be shown.
• Straplines- To show readers the different articles that will be in the magazine.
• Date/Issue/Barcode- To show when the magazine has been published and how often it is being published. Also a barcode to be scanned in shops to make it look realistic.
• Price- To tel readers how much the magazine will cost.
• Cover lines- To link to genre of magazine.
• Main images- To show the image of the artist/band.

Next I looked at the contents page codes and conventions. i found that this includes:

• Editorial - This is done so that the magazine connects with the audience. They have an appropriate mode of address
•  Page number- The consumer knows what page it is an can find articles easier
•  Images (several) that relate with the music and genre- This is to get the audience hooked and want to read the articles to discover what the pictures are about.
• One main image- This is the focus of the magazine the main article the one that is the cover story so it is clear to the audience that this is the main story.
•  Connects with the front cover- image, masterhead- This is so that the target audience can find what they were looking for on the front page.
• Different fonts- This is used so that it is not boring but catchy and you’re drawn to different pieces of information
• Ordered- this is so that the target audience can easily access the articles they want to read as they will be under headings so it is easy to find
• Colour theme (connects to the front cover)- So that the audience can easily recognise the magazine in the more issues and also it looks serious. Doesn’t look messy and unorganised
• Captions with images- So that the target audience can understand what the pictures are and who of.
• Magazine title- So that the reader is constantly reminded of the title of the magazine so that it stays in their head.
• Date of release/ issue number-so that the reader knows if it is the most recent magazine
• Columns (3 or 4)- Shows that there is plenty of content within the magazine showing the reader that it is not only the main story in the magazine
• Focus on the cover story- So that the reader knows that, that is the main story
• Separated into subheadings example, regular features, news- So that the reader finds it easy to find what they are looking for
• Web address- So that the target audience can access the internet address

I then read over all my research and tried my best to make sure my music magazine included some of the contents