Masthead research and analysis

This is the masthead for NME magazine, which covers all of the latest music mainly covers pop, RnB and some bands etc. so this magazine aims to a wide audience as it covers a lot of the popular music that is out. It uses a sans-serif font as it is a more modern, simple and bold font. It uses a drop shadow effect which gives the masthead a 3D effect and in result makes it more eye catching. Another aspect of the masthead that noticed was it is all in uppercase letters, this is probably because as the name is only three letters the producers would want to make it pop as much as they can in order for it to stand out from everything else on the front cover. The colours the masthead incorporates is a red uniform fill, a white stroke and a black stroke around the white stroke. This makes the masthead pop because all three colours are contrasting which makes it stand out.

This is the masthead for Rolling Stone magazine, which is aimed towards younger readers like teenagers/young adults, its content focuses on popular music and big music artist like for example, Rihanna and Ed Sheeran etc . It uses a serif font as has brackets, hooks and feet. By using a serif font it could suggest that the magazine is a more popular and upper class music magazine compared to others, as the serif is a more upper class, formal and conservative font. It also is written in lower case letters other than the 'R' and 'S' in the name. The masthead also uses a drop shadow which makes it look 3D and stand out on the front cover. Another aspect of the masthead was they choice of colours it uses. The three colours used in the masthead are red, white and black which are all colours that contrast with each other. It has a red uniform fill, a white stroke and a black stroke after the white. The colours the masthead uses and they way the colours have been used makes the masthead eye catching.

This is the masthead for Vibe magazine, which mainly covers the genre RnB, hip hop, and rappers in general. the magazine's intended audience is meant to be a younger audience like teenagers around the age of 16-18+ years old as the magazine covers a genre that typically people of that age are more interested in compared to a person that is in their 40's. It uses a sans-serif font as it has no brackets, hooks and feet. The use of the sans-serif font makes the masthead look modern and sleek. It also uses a mixture of both upper case and lower letters, for example, the 'B' is upper case but the 'e' is lower case. This gives the magazine a more creative flare than if it was either all written in upper case or lower case. The masthead only incorporates the colour black and therefore gives a simplistic look to the magazine, especially with the use of a sans-serif font.


This is the masthead for Billboard magazine. It uses a sans-serif font which makes it look simple, modern and bold, this can suggest how Billboard is a modern magazine that will keep the audience up to date on all the popular, new and up coming music. Billboard magazine is known for publishing a 'Billboard hot 100' which will keep the audience updated on what music is hot and trending. The target audience varies widely as the magazine doesn't focus on just one particular genre of music and therefore, starts anywhere from around 16+ years old. It also uses all lower case letters other than the 'B' at the start of the name. The masthead keeps it simple by using black for the text however, makes it stand out by giving it a pop of colour in the circles of the letters. The colours it uses are red, yellow, blue and green.


This is the masthead for Q magazine, which is an alternative music magazine, and mainly covers the genres pop and rock with mostly influential artists as their features and some older artists. The magazine's intended audience are adults aged 30-40 years old who are interested in alternative/rock music. It uses an upper case 'Q', this is probably because as the name is only one letter they want to make it big and bold so it pops from the rest of the stuff on the front cover. The masthead uses white and red. These two colours contrast and therefore makes the white text stand out and be more eye catching to the audience than if the two colours complemented each other. Another aspect of the masthead I noticed was it uses a drop shadow. This has been done in order to made the 'Q' look 3D and in result stand out on the front cover.