Analysing Magazine Cover- Rolling Stone

Content code

Recent photo of the band connotes that they are fresh and still out there producing music. The surprised look on Anthony’s face shows that he doesn’t take anything too seriously, however Flea, the notoriously clownish bassist is doing a handstand and being held up by the other member of the band, which connotes that he enjoys life to the full and looks to mess around and have fun all the time. The less ‘sensible members of the band are shirtless, showing off their crazy tattoos, which shows possible past stories of their lives together. Chad, the drummer is holding Flea’s leg up to show he is used to Flea’s behaviour now after being in the band for so long. However, the newest member of the band, Josh is more tucked away in the corner, which could show he is less confident than the others as he may not be used to ‘crazy’ photo-shoots.

Technical Code

Shot Distance- Mid-long shot which gets the entire band in the shot, other than the bottom of Chad’s feet.

Camera Angle- Straight on, which shows no inferiority or superiority?

Focal Depth-As it is a portrait of the band, whole image is in focus.

Film Stock- Quite grainy which could show that they are not normal or ‘smooth’ people, they stand out and want to be noticed?

Typography- The masthead of the magazine, ‘Rolling Stone’ is in the same font, colour and roughly the same size as usual. This creates a home style which will attract the audience, as they will associate the magazine to the masthead every time they see it. The Strap line across the top is the same font as the left-justified cover lines, which again creates a house style, and makes the magazine look less tacky as they have only used 4 fonts on the whole page. The left-justified cover lines give an insight of what the viewer will expect to read within the magazine. They also use a rhetorical question; ‘Is the S.E.C covering up wall street crimes?’. This makes the reader inquisitive and wanting to read on, which may persuade them further to buy the magazine. The main cover line is in a different font, a stranger font which could connote the strangeness of the band? The magazine gives the audience an insight to the type of band that ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers’ are by describing them as an ‘unstoppable groove’. There are 4 font colours, mainly red, black and grey, with ‘Matt Taibbi’ in yellow to stand out from the rest of the words. The date and price of the magazine are in a smaller font in the top right corner, so the audience know which edition and how much it is, but it is taking all of their attention away from the main image.