Compare the covers of two music magazines

In this essay I am going to compare two magazines; Total Guitar magazine and We Love Pop magazine. The magazines vary in the way they differ and the similarities they have.

 Total Guitar is a rock magazine that is aimed at teenagers onwards who are into rock music. The Total Guitar cover is quite ‘dark’ and looks more complicated showing and talking about lots of different articles, guitar tabs, interviews and reviews inside, whereas We Love Pop is aimed at young – teenage girls who are interested in Pop.  This cover is very bright and stands out boldly. Just by looking at it you can tell that the magazine is jam-packed with gossip, quotes and promotions.

On the cover of Total Guitar, the full shot picture of the cover star is over the top of the title of the magazine however a band name has been printed on top of him in a bright and bold colour of pink. This reflects that people will already know the title of the magazine as they buy it every month so they do not have to see the full title, this also links into the statistic which is printed on the magazine ‘Europe’s best-selling guitar magazine’ which proves that people do buy it monthly. Although on the cover of the We Love Pop magazine, Tulisa, the cover star of this week’s magazine is being slightly covered by the title of the magazine and other cover stories. However, the picture on the We Love Pop magazine, the cover star is printed much bigger and in brighter colour so we can see her more clearly and it doesn’t matter if she is being covered slightly.

From the cover of Total Guitar, I have learnt that although the cover is printed in quite dull colours, there are lots of presentational devices such as the cover stories, statistics and pictures which make it into a much more exciting magazine that easily entices you in to read it, also the magazine really links to its genre. From the cover of the We Love Pop magazine, I have learnt that bold and bright colours of the background and texts are really in your face but make you want to read it. The use of the different font sizes, colours and cases that they are in draw more attention as it looks like it is more packed with gossip which is more interesting.


These two magazines have made me think a lot about what I want to put in my own music magazine. I really like the Total Guitar magazine and has made me want to create my own rock magazine as I like rock music and rock bands. The We Love Pop magazine looks really full and busy on the front cover and filled with gossip about celebrities, this has made me realise that I don’t want my magazine to be totally compact with gossip but full with news about music and music bands. Looking at two completely different magazines has really helped me with my decision on what I want my magazine to be like and look like and has also helped me learn a lot about what devices to use and what ones make a magazine look good.

These are the two magazines that I have compared.