Magazine Front Cover Research - Big Cheese.

I have decided to look at the front covers of Big Cheese in addition to my Kerrang! research to show my knowledge and understanding of other rock magazines.

Big Cheese is a hard rock magazine which focuses on rock/punk/metal. It is priced at £4.99 which is released once a month. It is aimed at teenagers aged 16+. They will most likely be the stereotypical teenagers who dress in dark outrageous clothing and spend money on attending numerous concerts and buying merchandise both at the gigs that are listed in the magazine and in shops or on-line at the selection of rock merchandise sites that are also featured in the magazine.

This is an example of a Big Cheese front cover. The masthead is partly black with a white outline and the rest is light blue with a white outline which makes it stand out from the black outline. It is partially covered by a medium shot of four males aged from 19 to 40 years of age. They are not stunningly attractive but they still get a lot of attention for their looks. This is a typical picture to be seen on the front cover of Big Cheese which is covered by a sub-title informing the reader on what this months issue includes. Under this they have listed the bands that will also feature on the left hand side above the barcode, leaving a lot of the picture showing. They have a banner at the top to tell the audience there is a free CD and giant posters that are included in the magazine which has an extra image at the top left to highlight the posters. The banner at the bottom includes extra information that the reader will find in the magazine. The colour scheme for this issue is pink, blue and yellow. They have also used black and white but these colours are reapplied in each front cover they create. The pink, blue and yellow however are used together to make the information stand out but these combinations change with each issue to compliment the image that has been selected to feature on the front.

This is another example of a Big Cheese front cover. The masthead colours has changed slightly, from light blue to white, to make it stand out against the light blue/grey background. This example uses the same medium shot image that partially covers the masthead. The sub-title that is laid over the top, central left, informs us that it is "Bring Me The Horizon", a band of males in their early 20's that are portrayed to be your average looking typical males that you would associate rock music with. The central guy who is the lead singer is outlined in flames which reinforces the sub-heading "Unleash Hell!". This catches the readers eye are draws them into the image which makes them want to read the article to find out about the band. Unlike the example above, this time Big Cheese has moved the list of additional bands to central left next to the sub-title. This has been done so they can include additional pictures at the bottom which appear to the audience that they have been cut out of the original image and all outlined in white so that they fit together. These images are above the bottom banner that is the same as the above example where it tells the reader what else to expect in the magazine. However the top banner on this example is not so clearly made out as it has no base colour so the text is laid out simple over the background. It still stands out enough though to be seen by the reader to tell them that there are posters included in this issue that are highlighted by the overlapping images in the top left corner.