Textual analysis of the front cover of mixmag

The masthead is mixmag this tells us the magazines name it gives us some idea of the genre of the magazine and our attention is almost immediately drawn to the title of the magazine. There is a banner across the middle of the cover which says “2009: F*** ME, WHAT A YEAR!” and we have a clear picture of David Guetta behind, I think this is great for catching peoples attention because it’s all in capitals it’s bright white and a fluorescent yellow colour. The fact it has profanities in the main banner also draws your attention because you wouldn’t normally see that on a regular magazine cover.

The font used is rather curved and simple I think having a smoother font it helps almost represent the circular vinyl or CD’s. using a bright white and fluorescent yellow colour scheme with the font is good because drum and bass and dance is all associated with the so called “rave scene” so bright lights and neon colour on a front cover unless you’re into this specific genre of music you are more than likely never going to buy this magazine. I think they chose to take David Guetta’s picture against a basic wooden background to help give more contrast to the cover because he has a t-shirt on with purple neon colour and I think the idea is David Guetta himself is the colour in this photo just with his cool pose and look about him.

Mixmag is released monthly at the cost of £4.20 per issue sometimes they come with something free this issue comes with a free best of 09 mix CD mixed by “Diplo” this would definitely appeal to people who enjoy this genre of music. This issue is from January 2010 and it’s reviewing the year on the front we have a yellow star and in it says “special end of year issue!” so you know its going to be a good one. On the front cover it also has names of other featuring artists such as Chase and Status, Dizzee Rascal and La Roux.

I would class this magazine as niche because it’s published by Development Hell Ltd. This is a very underground publishing company and the whole magazine is specifically aimed towards people who enjoy the dance and drum and bass genre. I think the magazine is quite expensive because they don’t sell millions of copies like a magazine such as Q would but the people who enjoy this will buy it because its designed for them and often comes with something free like a CD etc.