DJ Mag Front Cover Analysis: October Issue 2015

Front Cover:

The masthead of DJ only takes up the top left hand corner of the front cover. It is quite small in comparison to other magazine mastheads but the typography is clear and distinctive and the disc on the 'J' makes it unique. It is a bright red colour, which makes it eye-catching, and it fits well with the main colour scheme of black, red, white and yellow. Inside the 'D', 'DJ MAG' is written in a really bright yellow font. The lettering is outlined with a thick black line so that it is bold and stands out even more.

We can tell that DJ Mag’s demographic is the younger generation, between 15-25 years old, as the front cover includes new slang and the language isn't very intellectual which also tells us that the audience of DJ is more interested in partying or listening to music rather than their education; this theme runs throughout the magazine. However, the magazine costs £4.95 a month so the reader must be able to have a good income to be able to afford the magazine as it is at the higher end of the market.

The magazine includes a puff underneath the masthead, which is written really small and says “Living & breathing dance music!” This tells the reader the genre of and the attitude of the magazine. The puff creates an intense feel to the magazine as this tells us that the demographic of the magazine must enjoy dance music a lot and be extremely passionate about it if they are ‘living and breathing dance music’.

Similar to Mixmag, DJ Mag includes a feature article photograph that takes up the majority of the front cover. It is of a man who is holding his chin with his left hand and holding some grey fur that is laid over his right shoulder with his right hand. Both his arms are tattooed and he has chunky gold and black rings, necklaces and a gold bracelet suggesting that he is rich meaning that he must be pretty famous. He is also wearing a plain grey t-shirt to make the jewelry stand out more; he is also wearing a black fedora hat. He is looking intensely into the camera lens to make himself look important and almost threating although the angle of the camera is eye-level breaking the tension a little and making him look a little less threatening.

The front cover includes many plugs varying in sizes. The typography is in all capitals, once again, creating an intense feeling. The main plug, on the bottom left, is the only plug without a background however it still stands out as it is in a bold font and is written in white, which is easily readable on his grey t-shirt. All the other plugs are in a white font, again, but have a black box around them to make them more eye-catching as they are written in quite a small font.