Research: Front Cover 1 (Q Magazine: Daft Punk)

Q Magazine: Daft Punk                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

This morning I spent some time analysing a variety of magazine covers and this one was my by far the most interesting. Q Magazine adheres to many of the conventions of a classic magazine cover with the trademark masthead and buzzwords. However what interested me was how they interpreted Daft Punks image through the cover story by writing in capitals "UNMASKED". This immediately interests the audience since Daft Punk's faces are constantly covered. By being so hidden it not only emits mystery but also makes their fans quite sceptical of what their true identity is. All of these indexical signs point towards the meaning of their image and style. Questions are consistently being asked. What do they really look like?  Why don't they want us to see their faces? Who are Daft Punk? Q cleverly announces that they have the backstory of what makes the group so special which makes the magazines sell. In relation to Dyers Theory "A star is a image not an real person that is constructed" it adheres to his quote since Daft punk would most likely not be walking around the streets with their families wearing a full body robot costume looking like they've just dropped out of a spaceship. This probably works in their favour as well since it keeps their personal life and their professional life separate.

Q Magazine is one of the most well known music magazines around and although not the best example they are able to partially cover their masthead without it being unrecognisable. Although this wont be ideal for my own magazine since it wont be internationally famous it is still a great way for Q to establish their superiority in the media industry.

Q continues to use their signature "blood red" colour scheme within their feature story titles and key words. This is continued on every page throughout the magazine in order to develop a theme and to easily direct readers to the pictures and stories they want to see.