Front Cover Analysis : UK Rock & Roll

UK Rock & Roll : Front Cover Semiotic Analysis

This page is the front cover for UK Rock & Roll Issue 153 for January 2017. The CVI here is the large image in the centre that dominates the page. It features a woman singing into a microphone. The use of the microphone and her open mouth reinforce the genre, which is music. Below her is an ornately bordered white box that says "A case of the shakes" which is a play on words, as the band she is in is called "Rhythm Shakers".

The masthead is the title of the magazine, which in this case is "UK Rock & Roll". It is at the top centre of the page, which is the conventional place for mastheads to go on magazines, as this is where it was found on Louder Than War and MixMag. The font is serif and grand. "Rock" and "Roll" are in large black text, whereas the "UK" and "&" are in red. Therefore black and red are the two colours that UK Rock and Roll use in their colour palette, used to create and reinforce brand identity.

The background is a pattern of leaves, roses and crosses, in red, green and black colours on a cream canvas. This is an unusual and unconventional choice of background, as the cover of MixMag was a simple black solid colour background. This pattern is synonymous with the elderly, as it is quaint, which suggests it is aimed at older generations. However, these designs look like those that are used as tattoos, which then suggest it is aimed at the more younger-middle aged generation, that have tattoos. The background of tattoos relate to the tattoos on the woman in the centre's arm.

The banner and barcode are in the bottom right corner, which is its conventional place, as this is where they were placed on Louder Than War and also on MixMag.