Background of Q magazine: Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs —then still a new technology. Q was first published by the EMAP media group in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing. In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled "The modern guide to music and more". Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands.In January 2008 EMAP sold its consumer magazine titles, including Q, to the Bauer Media Group.Information from Wikipedia

Genre: Music Magazine.

Target audience: Teens-adults interested in music itself and artists.

Frequency: printed in the UK monthly.

Institution/distribution- Q is published by adult men this may be why the magazine is less ‘gossipy’ as gossip magazines are usually published by women as they are more interested by gossip. He has published other magazines or been an editor of ones such as NME so therefore specialises in music.

Overall impression, how effective is the front cover: overall the front cover is very effective as it had one main, clear, iconic picture relating to their main story on a musical legend, using dark colours to show it is a sad, deep serious story- a clear reflection of what is inside. The cover also uses blasts of red to highlight important bits, give the magazine some colour to intrigue you more also match the logo. The Barcode is clearly displayed at bottom right of the magazine which is the expected position of a magazine, making it look official and professional. It is clearly deigned to appeal to an adult audience interested in music. By using serious main stories rather than childish ones, and mature serious colours not pink or yellow expected on kids magazines.

Design: The cover story is displayed clearly in the centre of the page as a large cover line. All text is in bold clear writing and in either the colour white or red, suggesting it is a serious and deep story, not using bright happy colours e.g. yellow. Important words also have serifs, especially the cover line of the main story to assure it is easy to read from a far which is important especially with such a well-known music star- Michael Jackson- for grabbing your attention to read it. All other text is also in a typeface which is clear and easy to read. The magazine layout also had a flush right with most stories displayed clearly on the right and uses the left of the magazine for random places for puffs ‘C.S.I ROCKS’

Image/ pose style make up: There is one main, iconic image for the background of Q. This is a typical element of Q as the image of well-known celebrities is eye catching. They use the image of Michael Jackson as he is an extremely famous celebrities and the publication of this Q issue was recent after his death, so people what to know what caused his overdose and know more about him and his life, so the image he has a serious expression on his face, almost a poker face to reflect he is giving nothing away and wears a ‘mask’ and glasses on appearing quite mysterious and hidden relating to their cover story ‘Michael Jackson unmasked’ implying he hid behind a mask and they are going to reveal his true life.

Housestyle: Q uses fairly

neutral colours black, greys

and whites this is to assure

the cover is easy clear and

easy to read but also keeping

a neutral, deep, serious

feeling relating to their main

story ‘Michael Jackson

unmasked’. They then use

the bold, bright colour red on

places they want to grab your

attention e.g. the logo, the

positive verb ‘plus’ intriguing

you to find out(plus what?).

How are words used? And what language they use to address the reader : They use buzz words such as ‘plus’ to make the audience believe they are getting something extra and implying this magazine has a lot of interesting information and stories to offer. At the very Top of the page it has a slogan ‘THE UK BIGGEST MUSIC MAGAZINE’ it is displayed at the top of the page in big bold white letters on a black background so it stands out and is easy to read from far away, so they used serifs on the letters. It is displayed at the top of the page so when stacked on a shelf in a shop people can still clearly see its UK’s biggest music magazine, making the audience think it must be a good magazine to be UKS biggest. The Logo or masthead of the magazine which is printed on every magazine is very eye catching. It is simple with just one large letter to assure it is memorable but on a bright, bold colour-red to make it stand out and placed clearly at the top of the page in the typical masthead position. Under the main title, in smaller writing it says ‘inside his mad, bad world’ not only does this use rhyme, making it more memorable and attractive to read but ‘bad’ refers to his hit song ‘bad’ relating constantly back to him and relating it for his fans.

Housestyle: The housestyle on Q contents page has kept the same colour scheme as the front cover to assure the contents page leads on nicely from the front cover. Making it appears more professional and so the colour scheme is recognisable. Contents still uses black, white, grey and splashed of red on important pieces e.g. titles, page number (so it is clear and easy to see) and the logo. Maintain a serious and mature impression and mood with these colours and amount of dark compared to lower amount of bright colour (red) making more serious connotation with these colours implying the story will be deep and meaningful, not using happy, happy colours e.g. yellow.

How are words used? And what language do they use to address the reader: one of the subheadings on the left hand side in the contents is ‘WOMEN IN MUSIC’ this instantly implies the magazine will contain stories of empowering women in music and most likely this issue will be written in a feminist view point. The image reflects these words as Adelle was one of the first women to be judged purely on her voice and break this stereotypical skinny female singer, becoming an inspiration for many women who want to be in the music industry.

Images/ pose/style/makeup: the contents page only contain two images, but this is very effective as the largest image is a very famous artist Adelle who majority of people who love music (their audience) would easily recognise due to her amazing voice and many awards she has won, intriguing them to read what they have wrote about this famous well known artist which the audience would most likely aspire to be. The pose Adele is pulling is more a serious pose but keeping eye contact with the audience drawing you into the picture and making it feel more personal but with a serious expression showing this is a serious, mature magazine aimed at an adult audience with serious stories.

Design: The layout of the contents page is that which is expected of a magazine contents page. They have used large images on the right hand side including a picture of the main story. The contents uses bold on important titles and red backgrounds on the subheading, this assures it is easy to find what you are looking for. They also use red for the page number this is to maintain a neat house style making it more attractive as an overall impression but also so the number sticks out and is clear and easy to read again so things are easy to find- which is the aim of a contents page.

Institution/distribution- Q is published by adult men this may be why the magazine is less ‘gossipy’ as gossip magazines are usually published by women as they are more interested by gossip. He has published other magazines or been an editor of ones such as NME so therefore specialises in music.

Overall impression, how effective is the contents page: overall the contents page is very effective. The whole purpose of a contents page is to assure what is in the magazine is easy to find as people rarely read a whole magazine so wish to skip to read to the relevant bits. It has a large clear, iconic picture of Adelle relating to their main story on her. It uses darker neutral colours to assure things are easy to read and clear to find. The contents also uses blasts of red to highlight headings, making what the audience is looking for even easier to find, whilst keeping in the colour scheme of the logo also displayed in the top left corner, giving it an overall professional. They keep more sophisticated colours because of their adult audience, where as a magazine aimed at children may use brighter colours like yellow or pink because younger audiences need to be drawn in by brighter colours whereas Q know by displaying a picture of Adelle their adult audience- interested in music- will recognise this image, therefore can rely on the image for the main part of the overall impression to draw in their audience.

Housestyle: The double page spread has maintained the same colour scheme of ‘red, black and white’. This gives a togetherness of the magazine, assuring the magazine flows nicely and looks professional. They also keep these colours as they are darker colours and therefore maintain a deep and serious mood as this is the impression the magazine wants to make as it represents best the stories published within it. The typeface and colours used are fairly simple and sophisticated so are more likely to appeal to Adele and the magazines older target audience

How are words used? And what language features?The large cover line ‘girl uninterrupted’ relates to the very famous film girl interrupted about a woman who had troubles and became a mess because of it. Therefore the ‘uninterrupted’ Adele implies she struggles on powerful through whatever is thrown at her. They use drop caps on the whole word girl as connotations with the word girl is a young female most likely innocent and then contrast this with capitals on ‘uninterrupted’ and contains serifs so is easy and clear to read as though she is a unstoppable and powerful woman

Institution/distribution- Q is published by adult men this may be why the magazine is less ‘gossipy’ as gossip magazines are usually published by women as they are more interested by gossip. He has published other magazines or been an editor of ones such as NME so therefore specialises in music.

Design: The double page spread contains a very typical layout by having one large image which takes up the majority of the space so they know who the article is about. The layout also uses large, bold writing over the double page spread ‘girl uninterrupted’ tells you what kind of story it is going to be- a powerful story about an icon like Adele, a powerful and inspiring woman-relating to the image of how she is looking down implying she is high up. The text is also in one column making it look professional, best suited for their adult audience rather than randomly placed about and looking disorganized.

Image/pose/style/makeup:The double page spread has one main image dominating the double page spread. This is a typical feature so you instantly know who the article is about. Having the image so large assures it is a main focus of the article, so you can focus on the expression she is pulling and body language without reading the article. In this image Adele has a serious expression and is holding a cigarette this with how her hair is done and in black and white appears a very 1920s pose e.g. Audrey Hepburn. This could relate back to the story about being empowering woman as 1920s was the time period where women aged 21 could finally vote and how Adele and how empowering she is. Also the way she is dressed and posed in black and white creates a formal old fashioned tone- reaching to the adult audience.

Overall impression: The double page spread has a strong overall impression. The magazine keeps a housestyle of the same colours throughout the whole magazine making Q recognisable. It has an informal balance as the image takes up the majority and the writing is one main column to the right, this makes the overall impression focus on the image which is an excellent way to instantly attract their target audience over 16 and for this story mainly girls, relating the whole story of her achievement and empowerment.