Summary of conventions

The front cover of a music magazine uses a plug to bring in readers however some magazines use the plug in a different fashion such as this one which places it at the top, making it the first thing you see when picking it up.

 As well as using a plug at the top they use a skyline just below it,which has another feature story. The magazine name is then placed below that so the plug is the first thing you see that could bring you in and then a feature story featuring a big name artist followed by the name of the magazine, this then places the potential selling points above the title to draw in new readers. The front cover then also has a world exclusive on the main image which is another plug. Below this there is the main story and the feature stories which stand out on the main image. The term "world exclusive" is a term usually found on magazines to make the magazine seem unique and to grab the readers attention when they pick up the magazine.


The contents page uses a wide range pictures of several artists and summary of all the stories found in the magazine. Many contents pages contain a message from the editor to the reader making it a common convention. With the magazine in question this is what their contents pages normally look like:

 

The convention seen with the metal hammer magazine is that they always feature a girl at the bottom of the page in stereotypical metal fan fashion. This due to the majority of the audience being male. Another convention of these magazines is the split between regular stories and feature stories to make some stories easier to find for the reader. Most of the page is taken up by the pictures of artists with the page number attached, making it even easier for readers to find certain artists.

 

For the double page spread they normally look like this:

 

 

 

 

The picture normally takes up one page while the interview takes up the other one. This is a common convention of music magazines as are the quotes from the interview/story that are enlarged and focused on. The main title of the story is normally the biggest writing on the page followed by the quotes from the interview/story. The double page spread picture has the person in question looking at the camera while sitting and looking tough/aggressive. This is to fit in with the genre and to make the artist look gritty and edgy. He's sitting on a throne to imply he's a king because of the fact he's been in the business for a long time, this adds character to the picture rather than just have him standing looking at the camera.