Research: Front Cover 3 (Billboard Kenny Chesney)

Although not a magazine which constantly features county stars Kenny Chesney models the cover of Billboard's June 2nd 2012 issue.

Masthead

The Billboard Masthead is an iconic part of its brand with its colourful, filled-in letters. In my opinion this isn't exactly the ideal font for a country music magazine (since it isn't), it reminds me of more of a modern surfer style cover, so it doesn't really create much synergy in terms of the country genre and music. Once again, this is a perfect example of layering with the masthead behind the singer. It works really well with Billboard since it is such a recognisable logo. It is written in sans serif and is located at the top of the cover to give off a modern look in order to appeal to younger audiences, as well as being easily recognisable on a magazine rack.


Image

As one of the most famous country music artists, Kenny Chesney is known for singing relaxed, tropical kind of songs and his facial expression gives off this kind of vibe by giving a slight smirk. Green's Female Gaze Theory does not apply here because as an artist Chesney is not sexualised in the media, like for example Kip Moore (shown to the right) with his tie undone appearing more seductive. Chesney's smirk could relate to the quote located above his left shoulder "I can take my index finger and make 60,000 move left or right" since he looks confident and comfortable wit himself. I like how the natural lighting of the sun in the background reflects off him in this medium-close up and creates a very natural, down to earth look which I think it represents him as an artist very well. Billboard does a great job of representing artist's images throughout their covers and articles which works well for both the star and Billboard as a company because by having a wide variety of artists Billboard expands their target audience as well as the artist getting more publicity. The cowboy hat is quite an obvious code in reference to the conventions of a Country Music magazine which would instantly be an indicator to whether or not someone would be interested in buying this magazine.


Fonts and Texts

Unlike the Classic Rock magazine featuring Dolly Parton, Billboard have used a few cover stories in order to inform their audience about what's inside. The boldest font on the page is used on the cover story which is titled "Stadium King". The leading on these words makes the magazine look modern and neatly presented which triggers audiences to be interested in it. The creators of this Billboard cover aligned the "I's" up which probably required stretching one of the words a bit in order for it to fit neatly. Instead of using a "lure word" to make the reader want to know what's inside, there is a "+" sign before the secondary lead "the 67 albums and tours that will bring the heat". This is further evidence that it could be addressed to a younger target audience since it looks a bit like text language. The quote next to Chesney is written in a serif font which looks a bit like Times New Roman. Although I usually think serif looks more dated, by having the quote written in a different style to the rest of it, it draws attention to itself. The red and black colours are usually used together as a convention of Rock music so it breaks the mainstream country feeling by doing this. I also think it's a clever idea that by covering the only blue letter used in the Billboard logo they created the colour scheme of red, black and yellow.

I like how above the masthead they put in a box-out recognising The Beach Boys and their 50th anniversary. The golden yellow works around the whole idea that this is a summer issue as well as using key words such as "sunshine, summer and heat".




Why this has influenced my ideas:

• I really like how the "I's" in stadium king are red and joined together.
• I love the quote and how it matches his facial expression.
• I like the rural background and how it is blurred.
• The lighting in this shot is very nice and doesn't look difficult to replicate.