Textual Analysis Front Cover 2, Artrocker

Textual Analysis 2 Front Cover

Artrocker, issue 114 published in October 2011, features the band 'Bombay Bicycle Club' on their front cover.  

Lead singer of the Bombay Bicycle Club, Jack Steadman, is being made the main focus on the cover. He has specifically been placed in the foreground in front of the other members and is more in focus than the other, blurry background members. By laying out the band members this way, shows who's the most and least important.

 However, something in which they all have in common is their drained skin colour, emotionless facial expression and plain casual wear. The clothing choice of the buttoned up shirt and jacket gives the impression to their viewers that they care more about their music than their image and styling. Their pale faces, blend into the background of the nude colour, washed out grey. As previously mentioned in my introduction and aims, the 'Alternative' music genre tends to use a lot of simple, nude colours with vibrant, eye catching colours over top. The drained backgrounds allow to make the other parts of the cover the main focus and to stand out e.g Jack Steadman and the text. This Artrocker issue, follows this trend by using the washed out grey background with the vibrant pink and yellow typography over top. The use of the colours pink, yellow and white for the text are bold, clashing colours which draw your eye to that exact part of the cover. The colour scheme of the drained, nude and then vibrant neon colours gives a modern style. 'Alternative' artists and music magazines often put a modern twist on vintage ideas and trends. 

The layout of this Artocker is unique to other music magazines. It shows a lot of space and its only cover lines are placed in a column style towards the right hand side. Traditionally, cover lines are placed on the left side of the cover so that when on a shop stand the cover lines can attract readers even though they are unable to see the entire cover. However, this issue chooses not to have article cover lines but, a list of featured artists instead. Throughout this front cover layout it proves to be an alternative music magazine. From the columned cover lines, to the quirky placement of the headline 'Bombay Bicycle Club'. Altogether, it presents an alternative style which fittingly represents its chosen artists.