This is our interpretation of a magazine cover and how each ingredient in a magazine cover helps the cover to be powerful and have meaning, aspects such as colour add to the visual attraction of the cover. The two-shot of cover stars being two men help to gain audience attention as the colour of their eyes stand out and naturally draw attention to the cover, furthermore it is a mid-shot makes the cover more intense as they are looking right at the camera. The dark background contrasts nicely with the white typeface masthead further gaining audience attention, the red typeface stands out against the black background drawing eyes towards the cover.

The pug in the magazine tells the audience of the other articles in the magazine, it is in bold as it draws more attention making the audience want to read it. The way it is set out helps catch eyes, the plugs further help this as it is the bold typeface in the centre of the cover. The many inserts included in the cover tell the audience what they are buying and what other articles are in the magazine. There is a freebie located in the bottom left-hand corner further expressing that the money the audience pay for this magazine is worth it as they receive a CD of the music within the magazine.

Overall this is a powerful magazine cover as the main cover line stands out grabbing the audience attention and making them want to know what the magazine is giving them, the freebie CD further emphasizes the audience’s interest. The camera angles and shot along with mise en scene convey as a story of the two-shot and look inviting, the layout of this magazine is very well produced.

Within other music magazines, the same ingredients can be seen that assist the cover to look intriguing and attention-grabbing to the audience and certain demographic. The cover lines are smaller and are almost always located on the left-hand side of the cover as they are clearer to see as that is the way the magazines are presented, the mastheads are always presented in a typeface that stands out and looks bold and bright. Furthermore, the cover stars trend to look into the camera to give the cover an intense feeling as almost to single out members of the audience, the inserts in the cover give the audience a taste of what other articles are in the magazine.

The pug is normally a small box or circle that contains more information about what the magazine includes, the plug in the cover promotes the magazine and makes it look more appealing to the audience helping to sell the product. The main cover line is also in a bold typeface and stands out against the background, lastly the barcode, price, and date are always in the bottom right-hand corner giving the audience the information about purchasing the magazine, it tells the audience how recent the information within the magazine is and how much they are paying for the magazine. All these aspects in a magazine cover really help to sell the product and help it be successful in the media and with the audience.

All magazine covers include certain aspects, this includes:

Pug, plug, masthead, captions, main cover star, issue/date, cover lines, inserts, price, bar code and the main cover line. All these details help to sell the magazine to the audience and help it look attractive.