Focus Groups

For this task I asked 3 people from my own teenage age group their opinions on 3 different music magazine covers in order to see how different people respond to different genres and styles.

First up was 'Kerrang!' I asked my friend Grant questions such as 'does the cover appeal to you?', 'Is it effective and if so why is it effective?' and 'what aspects stand out for you personally?' 

These are his answers: 'I love Kerrang! Well, his face stands out and so does the cover as a whole. The band's name is clearly visible and well placed. I also guess the rest of the text is pretty well placed since it's mostly the same font and stays away from blocking the view of the main feature.'

 Next, I asked my friend Yasmin the same questions but referring to a totally different genre of music magazine. 

Here are her answers: 'Evidently all of the standard techniques used by successful magazines are present in this example but by having the main cover star shown as a tall contrast against the cityscape and buildings show her rise to success as a powerful female artist!'

Lastly, I asked my friend Izzy the same questions yet again but on the topic of yet another different style of music magazine.

Here are her answers: 'I like the cover as the big image of the artists face engages with the reader by letting them know straight away the main focus of the magazine issue. The cover is effective as the image of the artist stands out which grabs the audiences attention, and the text also stands out with the use of bold colours such as blue and pink. I think that the magazine cover works as a whole as it is informative, and also very eye catching!'

I learnt how it's not just all of the features that are important (such as the title) but it's also about how they work together and if they compliment each other because if they didn't, the mise-en-scene would not work as a whole and would cause the cover to not be very successful.