Double page Feature analysis

The double page spread consists of important news regarding My Chemical Romance as it attracts a wider audience to the magazine by writing about a well-known band like MCR. This double page spread tells the story of how the band MCR is changing their music style yet they are keeping to the same form after their top album, The Black Parade. MCR invited the magazine, Kerrang! to witness the band in their creative position.

The colour palette is monochromatic except for the addition of red. The black and white signifies vintage as it shows black and white still shots of the band doing various things. The red however fits in well with the theme as red can often be connoted as strength and determination which is exactly what the band’s new album is about so thus the colour red fits in with the theme of the article.

The layout of the page is simplistic which helps to emphasise the fact that the magazine is vintage like in that it is simple and unique. It does not follow conventional house style and this reflects the message that they are trying new styles. The first page has a mid-torso shot of the band’s main singer Gerard Way. The image is taken to show Gerard Way, in the middle of performing or rehearsing for the recording. The second page has the article about MCR’s change of style while attempting to keep to their game plan. The text is aligned from left to right as it allows the words to fit the banner to the left. A quote, from the article, is used for the headline to attract the reader’s attention. The pictures at the bottom are placed to almost circle round the text.

The typography of the article varies from the headline, tagline, article and captions. The typeface however is serif because of the straight sharp edges. The quote has a gritty effect to convey to the audience what kind of band MCR is. The headline is uppercase to emphasise the quote due to the exclamation mark at the end. The M in the beginning of the article is also capitalised as it helps the reader to find where to begin reading the article. This is conventional in most magazines because it allows an easy read for readers.

The demographic for this feature page are young adults, male and female from the ages of 13 – 23. I suggest this because the band is a rock band and it is stereotypically thought that boys will listen to rock music while girls listen to pop music. However my cultural capital explains that it is slowly becoming the norm, young adult females will listen to male rock/emo bands because of the social messages, bands relate to young girls growing up. The representation of the band is to suggest a new image for the band MCR, who were once known for the themes of death and war, bring about self-preservation and determination.

This double page feature expresses the way the American band, Fall Out Boy write the lyrics to their songs. This magazine page differs from the MCR page as it has more content but very view pictures. This differs massively from the typography to the colour palette. The tattoos present Pete Wentz as a rather threatening person as they contrast with his angry face and it also makes him seem like he is rebellious and aggressive.

The colour palette from this page uses the rule of three as the magazine uses the colours from the image of Pete Wentz. The background is a lighter shade of Wentz’s skin colour while the text uses black from Wentz’s clothes and the red is used from the colour from the part of the tattoo on Wentz’s arm. Black connotes to dark and danger, rock musicians are often known to wear black as a sign of rebellion. The red is used to attract danger as well as attracting attention which is exactly what the magazine article tries to do. A lighter shade of Wentz’s skin tone is used as it follows the rule of three as well as not trying to distract the reader too much from the text. There are lines drawn at the top of the double feature to add an artistic effect and to represent the theme of the feature which is writing lyrics to create an overall song

The layout of the page has been warped around the anchor to fit the content in. The image is to the left of the page and is resized to fit the whole page while the right page is filled with columns of texts and words regarding the theme of the article. The layout is similar to the MCR feature page because the image is to the left and the text is to the right. A quote is placed in the middle of the article to catch the reader off guard but to also give the reader a break from having to read a long article.

­­­­­­­­­­The typography of the words is mostly a san serif font because it shows creativity in writing which makes this article informal but more relative to the audience. It allows the audience to understand the text. The headline is capitalised to link to the face that Wentz makes and it summarises what the article is about. The shot used was a long shot and it allows Wentz whole body to be shown. He has an angry face with paper scrunched up in a fist and it relates to the headline that Fall Out Boy have problems with writing song lyrics. The headline is also a play of words because it is similarly written to the title of a Fall Out Boy song: ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race.’

The demographic for this feature are aspiring male or female musicians aged 16 – 25 as well as male and female fans of the band Fall Out Boy. I say aspiring musicians because it could be a common problem that musicians go through so if an aspiring musician read this article, it would give them motivation and understanding as to the pressures of song writing. I also said male and female fans aged 12 - 35 because males will listen to rock music to help present masculinity within their personality while females listen to Fall Out Boy because they are framed for the female gaze. Fall Out Boy are a commercial success and have more female fans than male fans because of the morality of the songs and the vocal intensity from the singer of the band, Patrick Stump.

This double page spread differs from the other two articles because this double page feature is a music album review: Vices & Virtues by American rock band, Panic! at the Disco. Once again the magazine double feature differs from the other magazine features because of the conventions: layout, font and colour.

This double feature magazine has a similar colour palette theme to the MCR because this double feature has a monochromatic colour with the addition of yellow. This magazine differs as it uses the yellow from the picture of albums, laid down the left of the magazine feature. This magazine cover uses black and white to outline a historical almost retro theme to the feature. Yellow is often connoted to be a happy colour that also shares brightness and for this cover it makes sense as it brings light to a dark cover suggesting something regarding the bands history. According to my cultural capital, the four member band became a two member band in 2009 so it was a difficult time for the remaining band members, [left-to-right], Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith. They both were able to come up with a successful album despite the departure of two of its members. The yellow is a suggestion of finding light at the end of a tunnel, i.e. happiness or success.

The layout of the page is aligned to be in columns reading from a left to right alignment. The text is warped around the anchor image of Urie and Smith in the middle of the page. The layout of the text is poorly done as it does not follow a clear fluid structure and it makes it confusing for the reader to follow on from the text. Not only that but the yellow colour does not blend well because the text is difficult to identify and read. The first column has a quote enlarged to highlight the key point of the article although the headline is: Vices & Virtues (name of the album).

The big picture in the middle is a low mid shot of Urie fixing Smith’s tie while both exchange somewhat surprising facial expressions. Both are dressed smartly to present a new trend and style to the music they create. Both of the males are wearing suits which is stereotypically considered to be smart, stern and disciplined whereas the image goes against the label of suits being associated to smartness. In this case the suits are seen to be an archetype because it presents the image that smartly dressed men aren’t necessarily strict and stern.

There are three types of fonts but they all have the same typography in the magazine feature because it uses a san serif. San serif has curved edges which make the text more attractive to the eye as well as using informal language to attract the audience readers. The title is stylised the same way the album is to show a sophisticated change in Panic! at the Disco’s music style.

The demographic for this feature are teenage girls from ages of 13 to 25 because the music Panic! at the Disco make, convey strong social messages for their target audience. Not only that but Panic! are considered to be emo, baroque rock music which is quite theatrical and it relates to the audience.