MOJO magazine analysis

MOJO music magazine

The front cover of MOJO is black and white giving it its alternative edge straight away allowing the reader to determine the genre instantly. The page is also dominated by text as there are no spaces left which is a method some people see as cluttered and some see as professional because they are using every available space and not wasting paper.

Queen being about the same size as MOJO makes it more important because the band name can sell the magazine by itself. The colour scheme also includes rustic silver and gold creates royal connotations of “Queen”, but the rustic effect symbolises that they are an old band and haven’t been around for quite some time.

Freddie Mercury being the positioned in the centre of the page with his head in the top middle third with his eyes looking straight at you helps you to understand that even though the page says Queen first the article is all about him. The way he looks straight at the camera and is hugging himself suggests that reading the feature article you will find out about who the real electrifying front man once you stripped back his persona on stage and rock god image. I get this impression because the pose makes him look vulnerable. The fact that it is in black and white and not the best quality demonstrates that it is an old photo reused which is more apparent and noticeable saying he is no longer alive. This also means that readers can tell what type of feature article it will be by the cover artist; in this case it will be a look at the history of one of the most well known front men of the last 50 years.

The majority of the text is written in a sharp font except for the word plus which the editor has decided to take on the persona of the word and write bold and rounded. The main theme throughout the text is that artist’s names are more important than catchy headlines. At the bottom left of the page there is simply a list of artists who are also included in the magazine including massive classic rock names such as ‘The Who’ and ‘Airplane’.  Throughout the language itself MOJO uses a lot of superlatives as persuasive techniques on their front page but they are all included in-between the title of the magazine and the name of the feature artist in the centre of the page. They also seem to use a lot of exclamation marks to make the text look amazing to the reader.  

I have also noticed that every heading is rustic gold and then the writing underneath is rustic silver so they have an ongoing colour theme which is also used through the writing as well. They also use a top corner incentive of a “FREE CD” with the small print and helpful legalities writing in minute font at the bottom of the same side. On the opposite side of the page in the same place is the barcode which on this occasion is horizontal and includes: the date, issue, the price of the magazine when bought in the UK as well as USA and Canada.  

The contents page is image dominated because in this case the image is used to fill the whole page however like Q this contents page actually covers two pages however I have chosen one to analyse as I will only be doing one page in my product. For this genre I don’t mind an image dominated magazine as it brings vibrant colour to the page and doesn’t make it overly busy.

The quality of the photograph used for this page is amazing the way that the subjects are off centre and fully in focus whilst the background is just a blurred whirl of colour and even though there is someone standing behind the artists in focus it doesn’t matter because you don’t notice. The setting of the photo is abstract which is in keeping with the alternative genre.

The layout is spaced out but organised with the list of features skirting the edge of the main focus of the image. Each headline written in white bold and rounded font with a brief description underneath in smaller text which I would say is about text size 12. At the top of the page the magazine title is written again in its stylised sharp font and boldness, but in white this time to keep in with the colour scheme of the new page. The colour scheme for this is completely different to the front cover however it still uses two colours for the text. On this page the two colours are peach for the page numbers down the left hand side and white for the rest of the writing. The titles of the page sectioned which are lined out are also written in the peachy colour highlighting that general features are different from the cover story. The cover story is situated at the bottom of the page in a section by itself.

On the bottom right of the page a quotation is used to advertise the arcade fire feature article to the reader. It is written away from the rest of the features because the feature article is the one which is photographed.

Characteristics of a MOJO contents page are to always have the three cities where the MOJO headquarters are located within the countries in which it distributes its product to. It also always has the date and issue number in the transparent banner underneath the magazine title. Also not forgetting the tiny page number and the title of the magazine just made smaller still in a white font.    

The double page spread is a history article looking into the life of the classic and iconic front man of Queen, Freddy Mercury. This is a common feature of MOJO as they like to remember the legends of music especially those who have died before their time.

The page has three different fonts, not including the MOJO logo which is written at the corner of each page next to the page number. The first is used, next to the large bold drop letter which creates an obvious start to the article, is the initial paragraph to describe what the article is about similar to that of a lead in a newspaper article. The fact that it has characteristics similar to that of a newspaper summarises how good the quality of the structure and the content is in the magazine making the target audience of a mature age. This is due to the amount of writing included and the size of the font used for the main body of the text. The second type of text is used for the main body of the text and the third is used for the quotation underneath the main image on the second page.

Images are used in variety within the article as if an extra lining tactic by the editor as part of the layout. The margin image of Freddy’s head and flared and booted foot creates a straight line for the article to handrail down the page making it look more neat and sophisticated. The four images on the first page are laid out as a window act as a page break to break up the continuous prose which the article takes.  The images as well as the page continue the colour theme from the photography on the front cover through to complete the article with a running theme; in this case it is black and white.