Generic conventions of music mastheads

 

 

A lot of music magazine mastheads are black, white or red, the magazine uses these colours because they are gender neutral colours so they appeal to both male and females. Some magazines use the colour to show what genre of music the magazine is about for example RWD has used a mix of different colours which could suggest that the magazine has an urban or dance feel about it.Also NME have used red white and black as they are colours that are connected to the rock genre.The font used is very simplistic so that it stands out and is easily recognisable. The fact that the font is simple means that it doesn’t draw to much attention away from all the other features. The Masthead name is usually Something that has a connection to either music or sound or possibly both, for example KERRANG is a sound that could be made when creating music and Q relates to queuing, as in the next song in line ready to play. Also the masthead name relates to the type of genre that the magazine is, KERRANG suggests that the genre of the magazine is rock as that sound would usually be made when playing rock music. Rap-up suggests that the genre of the magazine is rap as it has used the word ‘rap’, and the masthead mixmag suggests that there isn’t a set genre for that magazine that there’s all different types of genres. The mastheads are usually very short so that they are easily recognisable and easy to remember, some of them have even been shortened to give them or a more modern feel, for example Q used to be 'Que' but to make it more modern and appeal to more people they shortened it to just Q which makes it a more appealing masthead.