G321 - Front Cover - Q

Q

The masthead is on top of the image of Alex Turner, instead of his head covering it, so this could mean that Q were having a sales issue and needed to promote the magazine more than the artist. It’s also eye-catching to viewers and makes it easier to identify which magazine it is.

“Inside Alex Turner’s Head” represents the relationship he has with his fans as he trusts them enough to let them ‘have a look’ at what sort of things he deals with inside his head. It’s quite a personal interview as some musicians prefer to keep their personal things private whereas Turner has allowed his thoughts and feelings to go public.

 

Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys is the only artist mentioned on the front page, so this could show his importance in the music industry as well as the fact he’s very well-known artist with a lot of followers. His facial expression is a slightly absentminded one, so it's as if he's thinking the thoughts on the page behind him at the moment in time. 

The strapline, “Inside Alex Turner’s Head” is reflected through the writing in the background, which are supposed to represent his train of thoughts at that moment in time as well as generally. They're linked with the picture of him as well, since it shows him looking away from the camera, perhaps looking at the words surrounding him.

It is assumed that the readers of Q already know what style of music Arctic Monkeys creates as it doesn’t expand much on what they’re about and what kind of band they are. This adds to the idea that Arctic Monkeys are a well known band and that a majority of people who read Q are a fan of their music. The editors of Q most likely did this special edition due to Arctic Monkey's popularity, so this is a clear indicator that Q knows who their readers are and what they want from the magazine.

The idea that it’s only Alex Turner on the cover of this magazine tells the reader that it’s an exclusive article. Along the bottom, it says “Exclusive Subscriber's Only Cover” so it’s a limited edition cover. This makes the reader value it slightly more. As well as this, Q knows that it’s audience are Arctic Monkeys fans, otherwise they wouldn’t have made this special edition for them.

Readers of Q are similar to Kerrang! readers as they won’t be into pop music like Top of the Pops fans, but they’re different as they wouldn’t be into that “teenage rebellion” music that Kerrang! artists produce. The readers of Q expect different things from this magazine to readers of Kerrang! and TOTP, such as different, more ‘mature’ artists like Arctic Monkeys, Oasis etc. 

The recurring colour scheme for Q is a common feature of the magazine as it makes the cover recognisable to the readers. On this cover, the main colours are black, white and red. These seem like quite sophisticated colours and so reflects the content of the magazine as well as the demographics of the readers (ABC1). It also adds to the effect of the cover being easy on the eyes and not too overwhelming for the readers when they look at it.