Competitor Analysis - Classic Rock Front Cover

​The main theme for this magazine’s front cover focuses on rock music. The theme fits in well with the style of Classic ROCK magazine which is based on rock music. The magazine portrays rebellious and chaotic connotations through the use of colour, design and layout which meet the target audience’s specification. The target audience for this magazine would middle aged rock lovers or fans of Aerosmith. This issue of classic rock uses the colours, brown, black, white and green. These earthy colours evoke the idea that the magazine is down to earth and natural, which is what this issue is based on. The earthy colours also show how raw they have tried to make this issue which reintroduces the magazines rock style. The feature article photo is of the rock band, Aerosmith, positioned mostly in the centre of the front cover. The low angled shot and two shot connotes that the band members are important and popular in the music industry. They are both looking directly at the camera this could show dominance, however, the man in the foreground’s facial expression is playful and calm, this connotes that the two men do not take most things seriously and they are “fun” and “rebellious” guys. This is also shown by their body language as the front man has his tongue poking out and his hand over his eye. The men’s clothes are not the usual outfits you would expect to see in an everyday situation. For example, the man in the foreground is wearing patterned clothing with a feathery top and a metal eye piece. It shows that the men take something simple and natural and change it into something rocky and rebellious. The masthead is all in capitals which connotes rock and loud music. The stars that are before and after the word “CLASSIC” connote that this magazine is important and better than other magazines and it attracts the reader because it is different than any other magazine. The masthead is positioned behind the feature article photo which draws the reader’s attention to the photo. The magazine also uses denotations which helps emphasis the cover’s focus on rock music, an example being that the cover lines that overlaps the feature article photo, it clearly tells us what the main theme is for this magazine; “AREOSMITH”. This cover line informs the audience that the magazine’s main focus in this issue will be the rock band ‘AREOSMITH’. The puff in the top left corner of the front cover indicates that there is a “FREE 15 TRACK CD”, this draws in the audience as the CD might be of their favourite bands. The overall layout of this cover consists of plugs in flush left and flush right that give an example as to what other articles there are inside classic rock magazine. The text appears to overlap some of the feature article photo and around the sides of the magazine so that the audience will be able to see most of the feature article photo, there is also no negative on the magazine cover, its layout is well organised and spaced out, sticking to the basic layout of any magazine and it connotes that although the magazine is raw and rebellious, it follows the rules.​