Front Cover Analysis

Mojo, is a music magazine that mainly features the genre classic rock. Through the front cover, we are clearly able to see that it focuses on classic rock icons that were known purely for their music as one puff says ‘manufactured pop music is sinful!’

The target audience for this magazine is 30-55 years old, with particular interests listening to music that is meaningful and pleasant to hear.

The central image uses an indirect mode of address where the main cover artist- Johnny Cash seems to be looking away from the camera instead of directly at it. This tells you that the relationship the magazine wishes to have with the reader is to be an informer, who would just be able to inform you news on these artists compared to having a close and personal relationship. The body language shows a dominant and superior image towards the audience, which can be referred to his ‘legend’ status. Apart from having this title, he is also known as ‘The Man in Black’ showing you the reason why he is dressed in all black. The background shows that he is in a field of flowers, representing his death and the possibility of this being heaven. The fact that he is clearly dominating over this ‘field of flowers’ gives you the idea of him being dominant even in heaven, showing you his legend status once again.

The artist on the main front cover is Johnny Cash, a well-known country singer who is considered to be one of the most influential musicians of the 20^th century. This would be reason on why he was chosen to be that artist on the main cover for the magazines special anniversary edition issue as his reputation is the type of image, a magazine would wish to present on their anniversary edition-iconic.

The anchorage text says ‘CASH, THE BIRTH OF THE LEGEND & HIS LAST DECADE’, by only having his surname used to advertise him shows the type of icon he is in the music industry and how well-known he is as only using a surname or one word for the artist indicates the height of their status and popularity an example for this would be Madonna, Beyonce and Elvis who are all well-known singers just from their first or last name. Being nicknamed as a ‘legend’ shows the impact he has over the music industry, as not every artist is called a legend. We are clearly able to identify through the anchorage text that this artist is already dead yet he is still remembered in this way and having been on the main cover for a special issue indicates his legacy and what he left behind, having not been forgotten. It also tells you what type of article to expect from the anchorage text, which shows that it would mainly cover his life and the highlights of it all, into becoming one of music’s icon.

The design of the title block is very simple, big and old style in terms of using shadowing effect on its font. The use of shadowing could tell you that they feature artists who are the backbone and shadows of the music world as they have all come and gone.

The title ‘mojo’ means a magic charm or magic power. The style of the magazine tells you through this that it would mainly focus on artists who have made it big and became iconic through time as they are artists who have accumulated these ‘magic charms or powers’ to draw its audience and fans. The image the title gives you seems to be very mysterious and makes the audience curious, especially because the magazine covers artist who are dead and alive, it would it unpredictable for the audience to know who would be on the cover for the next issue, which could indicate is one of the unique charms of this magazine as other music magazines mainly focus on artists right now.

The puffs ‘there was unfinished business…’ suggests you inside scoop on these artists, that may relate to the reader in a personal level especially with ‘manufactured pop music is sinful!’ as it gives the artists opinions on current events such as the use of auto-tune. This tells you that the type of audience the magazine wishes to get are those who love classic rock music, old school style. The type of music where you are able to feel the hard work and time it took in order to make this,  a big comparison to music produced nowadays in this internet-era.

The colours used are mainly black, white and red. I found the colours attractive as it is very old-school black and white back to basics theme for a magazine. It uses red, which a pop of colour that can be found from a far distance and the use of black and white contrasts to the neon and bright colours that are used in other magazines today, making this magazine only appeal towards its readers easily and clearly. The fonts used are very simple, white and red bold and capitalised fonts that is readable and directly appeals towards its audience of 30-55 years old.

The strategy used to attract the audience is the addition of a cover mount, having this attracts the readers who are fans of the main cover artist who would wish to receive an album of their greatest hits. They use a variety of artists who are very well-known that younger generations would have heard their names; this is the magazines strong point as they know that they will never run out of an audience as they mainly feature the royalties and changers of the music industry.