MOJO magazine deconstruction

The front cover shows a mid-shot of a band member, he is singing into a microphone this could pursue that the picture is a candid shot, the man appears to be not posing for the camera. The image is a plain photograph which has been turned to high contrast and there appears to be an orangey-red tint to him, this means he fits in with the colour scheme of the magazine (red, white, grey and black). The blackness of the background man makes the man stand out well, showing that he is the main focus of that month’s magazine. I think this works well because the high contrast of the man on the sharp black background creates a grungy kind of feel to the magazine. The picture looks as though it is a candid shot as the man appears to be not posing for the camera.
The masthead says ‘MOJO’ which is clearly the name of the magazine. It is placed behind the mans head which I don’t think works well because all you can really see is the M and the O, this means that if you have never seen the magazine before you probably would not know what the title is, as its not very clear. There is a banner along the top of the magazine that shoes the free CD and a few things that are inside the magazine, these things stand out well so this entices the reader to read on. There isn’t a clear headline on this front cover because all of the cover lines are pretty much the same fonts and colours however it says “IGGY & THE STOOGES” in a large white font (like the title) which could suggest that it is supposed to stand out well. The cover lines appear to be all about bands, there are lots of band names placed all over the cover which suggests that it is a music magazine. I think all the band names work well because if people are browsing magazines in a shop and a band that they like is on the front cover then they might take a double look, and end up buying the magazine.
The magazine cover is quite unique in the way that they have used a black background, you don’t tend to see black as white is usually used. Also the changed contrast of the image is quite unique as they never do that on glossy fashion and gossip magazines however this magazine is quite a lot like ‘Uncut’ music magazine because they both used sans-serif fonts that are bold as well as being dark and grungy looking, unlike the freshness of the life-style magazines.
The font plays a lot of importance in this front cover as the colours and fonts help to create a modern, comic-book feel to the magazine making it easy to read from a first glance and from a distance. The font on the front cover appears to be a lot like the font on the front cover of NME (also a music magazine). I think this is good because it draws people in easily. The font is Ariel narrow. I think the dark colours along with the red and white suggest that this magazine could be for a male, this is because there are no stereo-typical “girl” colours on the front. I think the age would probably be for young/middle aged men. This is because all of the bands are not “new music” they are generally old bands that are perhaps making a come back. I think the occupation of the person buying the magazine varies as the magazines specifically about music, I think it’s probably for someone who has a great deal of interest for music. I think the person buying this magazine would be quite wealthy as it costs £4.10, this is expensive for a magazine and there are other cheaper music magazines. This makes me think that the reader would have to be dedicated to music so much to want to buy it monthly. I think the reader would either be a mainstreamer or an individualist, this is because the bands on the cover are very well-known (mainstream) however it’s quite individual to have such a passion for music- the read would clearly have to be fanatical about music.