Double Page Spread Analysis

Use these questions to help you to analyse at least 2 magazine articles:
1) how does the choice of band featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?

The band is an unsigned, new band called “Little Boots”. The target audience would be girls aged 16-25, judging by the image of the woman with extravagant eyelashes. The section of the magazine is called “New Noise 2009”.

2) What type of language is used in the article? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine?

The article uses quite colloquial and conversational language, attempting to relate to the target audience by using friendly language. There are a few buzz words included such as “cool” and “hot”.

3) How is colour used?

A monochrome effect is used on the image, to show that bright colours are not needed to make the image look effective and attractive. However, the colour used on her face is effective as she has bright pink lips, with blue eyes and obvious eye makeup. A few bright colours such as purple and pink are used in the actual article to make the article look a bit more attractive for the young readers. Also, the music logos in the corners are a range of blue, purple and pink, relating to the favourite colours of young people.

4) What style of text is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience?

The title used on the double page spread is in black and white, being quite different to the other articles. The pull quote is quite funny, amusing and random, which is what most young girls want to read. There is a drop cap at the beginning of the article, giving it a kick-start feel, preparing the reader for the article. There is a use of sans serif and serif font in one page, with the article text being serif font and the slug font being sans serif.

5) How is the double page spread laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value?

The double page spread is laid out in a very orderly way, with the image and slug on the left hand side page and the article on the right hand side page, being a very ordinary article. The image is quite big, which is why it took up one whole page, with the article only being one page, being very short and simple compared to other articles.

6) What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence

The tone of the magazine is, like I mentioned above, quite conversational and talking as if we are close friends. The article can be read in two ways, a conversational way and a formal way, which can confuse the reader but also seem more interesting to actually read. An example of conversational language is, “She was at a fashionable east London fashion hangout”. A formal part of the interview would be Intuition is a key part of Little Boot’s thing. She has a rare ability to stay focused on her own interests and beliefs, unfettered by what’s happening around her”.

7) How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis.

The artist, “Little Boots”, is presented with an image of herself, wearing extravagantly strange eyelashes, with strange triangles at the tips, referring to her genre of music being unique and different to other genres of music. She is looking up, which has connotations of her having high hopes, dreams and ambitions in life and her music career.

8) How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover?

The style of the article does not match the front cover at all, because the front cover has the colour red as the key theme, whilst in the article the key colours are black and white.
9) Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples.

To understand a few of the programmes mentioned in the articles such as “The X Factor” or consoles such as Nintendo Wii, you would have to be familiar with the popular culture and youth values, because music magazines are for entertainment purposes and they include popular content for their target audience.