Research: Kerrang magazine contents page analysis

These contents pages are from the music magazine Kerrang. This is  amore indie style of magazine and at a first glance 3 of the contents pages seem rather cluttered. The easiest one to read and simplest is the contents page featuring Billie Joe Armstrong. A simple contents page like this can mean that the reader will look at it, and because it is of simple layout and easy to read, will be bothered to read it, whereas if I looked at some of the other contents pages, because they are so messy and full of ‘stuff’, I would be less inclined to read them and find out what articles in the magazine I might find interesting. Therefore with a simple and structured layout, instead of haphazard, you can influence what the reader reads. The contents page is definitely important because after someone has seen the front cover in the shop then they will often pick it up and turn to the contents page to see A) what page he feature article is on, from the front cover, for a sneaky browse in the shop B)to see if there is anything else into the magazine which they may find interesting and therefore make it worthwhile buying the magazine. Two of the magazines I have looked at also feature a quote on the contents page. This is often a controversial quote so that the reader will look at it and wonder why the artist might have said that. Three o the contents pages also trait their main titles with a box of colour behind them, this helps the text to stand out and show that its more important and catches the readers eye. The size and placement of photos seems to differ, with one contents page only having one large photo and others having a few different photos. I personally think that a contents page that is simple, with only the one photo on is more effective and having lots of little or mediums sized photos can be distracting , however at the same time it allows people to recognize an artist from an image and they don’t have to read the name. It means a reader can quickly scan the page and tell what well known artists will be in the magazine.