Research: VIBE magazine contents page analysis

The contents pages from VIBE seem to differ greatly from the other two music magazines, which I have analysed. These contents pages that I have selected are very simplistic and each has a single image on it of a well-known artist. This image will influence the reader greatly because it’s a large image and the only one then people are going to be judging this edition on the artist and the photo of that artist because it is so dominating. For example if I picked up a magazine like VIBE, turned to the contents page and saw a picture of Tinie Tempah I would probably buy that magazine and read it, or at least take a further look at the contents page and flick throughout the magazine to see what it has to offer. However if that single contents page image was of Pavarotti then I would put that magazine down straight away and not bother looking at the rest because I would instantly assume that the rest of the magazine would be about him or people like him, who I’m not interested in. so it is very important that the contents page image or images are right because they need to be correct for the age group you are selling to, the genre of artist must be right for the consumer and the way the photo is taken, a suggestive photo with Byonce is more likely to sell if she’s in a  tight leotard than if she’s sat on her sofa in trackies and a hoodie, on the other hand you wouldn’t put a photo like that in ‘Good Housekeeping’ the photo has got to be right and appropriate for the audience you are trying to appeal to. All of these pages have the title ‘contents’ large at the top but the word has been split to make I more interesting, because its not just a simple boring ‘contents’ then this may stop the reader if they are just flicking through the magazine as it big, its bold and it is of an interesting and different shape. So the reader will stop, look at the word because its different and then they will hopefully end up looking at the rest of the contents page. The actual writing on the contents page differs on each of these examples although three of them have page numbers and a short title in bold with a slightly longer description in a smaller font beneath. This allows the reader to identify what looks to be an interesting article and then read a, little more in depth into it and go to the page. These pages also have a small caption on them somewhere usually naming the artist on the page, the photographer and sometimes the location. I like these contents pages however when I do mine I want to keep it simple like these but also include a little more content in it to show the reader that my magazine will be packed with stuff.