Textual analysis of 'Mixmag'

Mixmag is a British dance and club music magazine which was formed in 1982. It covers dance event and reviews music and night clubs. The new relaunched Mixmag is now aimed at the wider world of dance music, not just a specific type, and features other things such as a fashion section. It is published monthly and comes with a free mix cd with every issue. The cost of the magazine is £4.20, which i think is reasonable as cd's are worth a lot.

Front cover

The background of the magazine is a wood colour, which makes the main colour scheme of white and yellow stand out more. These colours signify that the magazine is vibrant and fun, as yellow is a bright and happy colour. The masthead uses a modern and stylish font and is positioned at the top of the page. Above this there's a strapline in a smaller white font which reads 'The world's biggest dance and clubbing magazine'. This is to make the magazine seem better than competing magazines and encourage readers to buy it usng words such as 'biggest'. In the left corner there's some text going across the first letter of the masthead. This is in black with a yellow font stating that there is a 'free' mix cd. This is at the top of the page as this is where readers look first.

To the right of the masthead there is a picture of someone clubbing. Although it's quite small, it stands out as it's the only other picture used on the magazine front cover. It's white and yellow block border also helps it stand out. The text box features the company 'Don't stay in' who work closely with the magazne to promote events and supply photo's. In this issue, a last minute NYE party guide is included, which will appeal to the target audience as it's a big night of the year to go out clubbing so people want idea.

David Guetta is on the front cover, this will attract readers because he is so well known in this genre of music. The photo uses a mid shot of Guetta, with him wearing a purple t shirt to contrast the yellow text on the page. His head is partially covering up part of the masthead so it seems like he is in the foreground. The text overlapping this picture says 'Guetta load of this!' This is a pun used to combine his name with a tag line for the picture. It saves them having to use more text to write his name and helps readers identify him. This is in small font, with the larger font used for the main headline '2009: f*** me, what a year!' It's all in capitals to make it stand out even more, and uses white and yellow. The font is bigger than the masthead and stands out with a black outline around the text so it is the main focus of the page. The censored language shows that it's not aimed at a young audience, and makes people want to find out more about the success of his year.

The cover lines are all located at the outside of the magazine so they don't cover up too much of the picture. They all use quite small fonts but some are bolder than others. Down the left of the page some of the contents are shown so readers have an idea of what to expect inside this issue, and can see from a glance without having to look inside. The colours alternate from yellow to white each line. Underneath this,. in line with the headline, there is a white text box which highlights the mix cd that is included in this issue, with the word 'free' in bold to attract attention. This is repeated incase readers didn't notice it at the top of the page, as it's a key selling point for the magazine. Some more of the contents are continued below this. Right at the bottom of the page the photographer is mentioned in a small font, also it states David Guetta's name.

On the right of the page there is a yellow text box in a circle shape which shows it's the end of year issue. The word 'special' will attract readers attention as it makes it seem exclusive and will give them the edge over other magazines. Underneath the masthead there is a slightly bigger font which says about the top DJ's and clubs which will be revealed. The word 'revealed' makes it seem exclusive to the magazine. There are also some more features at the bottom right of the page, which are again alternating between white and yellow.

Contents

The background of the contents page is black and doesn't consist of many pictures. The main picture is of somebody clubbing, and is an advertisement for a new years eve party which is meantioned on the front cover. The picture is a mid shot of a woman taken from an offset angle. She is wearing a black top and has red and, and the lighting is quite bright and red, so it stands out from the background of the rest of the page. The picture takes up just over half the page. The page number of this is indicated at the bottom left of the picture is large white writing, and there is a brief strapline stating that there are tickets to be won for an event similar to this.

The other picture is positioned to the right of this but is only about a quarter of the size. Is shows a mid shot of David Guetta posing, and the page number is again quite big. The features of the magazine are the stated below this picture. It uses a white font with the page numbers shown in yellow. The font is quite small which makes it not take up a very big proportion of the page, and not steal focus away from the picture. A few features mentioned on the front page are shown, with the title's in bold so readers can scan the page to find what they are looking for quickly.

There is a banner along the bottom of the page which gives information about the free cd included in the magazine. This is separated from the rest of the page by a white line. It shows a picture of the cd case and shows the tracklist, with the number in yellow, the name in bold white, and the artist in white. This colour scheme is continued from the front cover and works well with both background as people's attention will be attracted to bright colours, even if the font isn't that big.