Contents Pages Evaluaion

Within my format research, I researched and analysed three different music magazine contents pages and their norms and how they defied convention. From the preliminary task, I feel as though I have improved my skills when researching and evaluating different magazine which will help me when designing and creating my final product.

In my format research for three different music magazine contents pages I researched; Vibe music magazine, BBC Music magazine and NME music magazine. Each of the three contents pages were similar in one way or another, but as well as this, they did have their differences which set them apart from one another and defied convention by not sharing the common norms used in most contents pages. The Vibe and the NME contents pages both used one larger main image in an attempt to appeal to their target audience and catch the eyes of the reader's. On the other hand, the BBC Music magazine had a contents page filled mainly with text and lots of smaller images scattered around the pages. Both of these techniques work for each of the respective magazine as they all have different target audiences so will of course use different techniques to magazines of other genres.  The Vibe and NME magazines have used larger images as they would most likely have a younger audience probably in their teens going into early twenties, whereas BBC Music magazine would most likely have a much older audience who prefer classical music so more text would suit them. The music magazine that I will be creating will be a classical music magazine. Therefore, I will most likely follow in the footsteps of the BBC Music magazine and use more text and a variety of different images, although I may alter this and use one large image, but still with more text.

Both the Vibe and the NME music magazines had their logos and mast heads at the top of their contents pages whereas the BBC Music magazine did not. Despite creating a classical music magazine, I do not agree with the way the BBC Music magazine have not included their mast head etc so will use the same common norms as the other two contents pages that I researched. Having my mast head at the very top of the page will allow the reader to know straight away which magazine it is that they are reading and carries on shouting out to them from the front cover well into the inside pages to remind them what magazine it is. In my opinion, only one of the three music magazine contents pages that I researched made it clear what was on what page which was the NME magazine. The sole purpose of a contents page is to inform the reader what is in the music magazine and where to find them and I am sorry to say that in the Vibe and the BBC Music magazines it is not clear what is on what page, Within the music magazine that I create, I will make it very clear to the reader what is on what page by clearly stating next to the sub headings the page numbers where the stories etc will be.

Taking everything into account from my format research, I will use some of the common norms shared by the three contents pages that I researched, but as well s this, I will take into account the pages that defied convention and will consider using some of these features which may help develop my contents page into a successful one.