Masthead: This issue, once again, doesn’t have their own name “Rolling Stone” as the masthead. Instead, they have “Contents” as their masthead and “Rolling Stone” with the issue date written small as a subheading. The name Rolling Stone is hardly noticeable, which shows how confident they are to know people will buy their issue without emphasizing the issue number or name. It could also mean that they don’t have any competitors who exceed them. This will also make the buyers confident that the magazine is the best, and help them buy it without any hesitation. The masthead of Rolling Stone on the frontpage is usually with red letters with a white outline and black shadow. On the contents page, the letters “Contents” are in white letters, a black shadow, and a red background. It is as if the front page has flipped over. And the word flip over can have meanings of being astounded and to react strongly to something. This could mean that they changed the colour combinations to attract more people, for them to feel something strong from the masthead. The colour red connotes danger, power and strength, so again it is stressing it’s confidence against other magazines. It also is a bright colour, so it’ll attract more people. 
Images: The image on the top is a man, possibly a rockstar, who is shaking his head with a microphone in his hand. The colour of his hair and the colour reflected on his arm is red, relating to the house style of the magazine which emphasizes the masthead. The red hair with the yellow light background look as if it were fire, and looks like his hair is on fire. This shows how passionate he is singing because a person on fire could mean his energy is very hot. This makes the audience feel the passion as well, making them want to know more about the picture. But considering him being passionate, his facial expression doesn’t look as passionate as the rest of his body. His face is looking towards his side, trying to avoid contact with the audience. His eyes are closed, and he has a straight face on him. This shows that he is pretending to be confident on the outside to impress his fans, but he has a darker background. This shows depression and darkness, opposing to the rest of himself being red and wild. His hair being dyed to red, and that it is very messy, and by the look of his clothing, it looks like he is a punk singer, and punk often relates to being aggressive and rebellious. This will attract more teenagers because teenagers tend to be rebellious. He’s wearing leather clothes and boots, which makes him look like a tough guy, and powerful, which will attract older men as well, because they will also want to feel powerful and cool as him.
The second image is a black and white photo of a man wearing a hat and sunglasses playing the piano. Firstly, the colour connotes sadness and depression. His sunglasses and hat show that he is trying to hide something behind his eyes from everybody, possibly something dark. He may be trying to hide tears in his eyes by wearing the sunglasses. The light is coming from behind him, and it looks like a dark room, so the only reason he is wearing the sunglasses is that he is hiding something. It is up to the audience to find out what he is hiding, which attracts them more, because they’ll be more interested. Songs played on a piano can often sound quiet and sad, so again it shows all the depression in the photo. The room he’s in is empty, so it shows his isolation, and how he’s alone now. This may be because he lost someone, and he’s staring at the person he has lost. The light is shining from behind which shows he had a light background or past, but in front of him is dark, so there is only a dark future left for him.
One of the other secondary image, is of president Barack Obama with a mode of address, facing down. He has a dark expression on his face, like the other two images. His eyes are closed, and is a close-up shot, which emphasizes how stressed and tired he is. It looks like he is in a deep thought, because of all the difficult problems he is having with politics. In the background is blue half of the American flag. The red half of the flag has been cut off because red connotes power and brightness. It is as if it had been cut off on purpose, to show how Obama looks weak and lost all his brightness. It is blurred, as if Obama doesn’t know what is important to him anymore. As if his country has left him, and is only his past. Like the other two photos, he is facing the left of the page and also looking down. The light - America - is only in the background and only darkness is facing his future.
All three images relate because they all connote depression and isolation, and their mode of address is towards the left of the page, towards nothing. Which again connotes emptiness and sadness. In every picture, light is only their past, and only darkness is facing them, and all of their eyes are either shut, or covered, which shows how they are avoiding contact, giving a melancholy feel.
Subtitle: Every subtitle has a depressing or dark language in it, such as “hell”, “last”, “darkness”, “invasion”, “dark” etc. This relates to the three images which all give a gloomy feel to the magazine. This could be to attract more people in a way, because people have a dark side to them, that gives them happiness from people’s grief. By looking at the dark words, it could be a way to release their own darkness, and stress. This will help increase the number of audience. The fonts are all in Times New Roman font, which gives a simplicity to the magazine, and helps people focus more on the images and dark words. The more simple it is, it feels colder and sadder. There aren’t any colours except the house style of the magazine, red white and black, which again gives the simplicity and boring feel to it, emphasizing the sadness. The simplicity gives an elegant feel as well, to the magazine. This will attract more adult people and a higher class person. A small percentage of A from the demographic model could buy this magazine, going down to C1.
Website Details and Competitions: The website URL and the name of the magazine are underneath the magazines on the left hand side, which will make the audience automatically see it after looking at all the images, and will be easily remembered. The date of issue is again written on the right hand side of the magazine underneath all the content page numbers. They are trying to emphasize the date, so people will know how knew the magazine, and to help them know that they are catching up with the latest news.
Layout: It is made in two columns, with a slightly bigger one on the right. There are three pictures which grabs people’s attention because sets of three’s are easily identifiable. The website is right underneath the images, so people can look at it immediately. The contents are also divided into three, which again, catches people’s eyes because it is a set of three. The information of the cover is also right at the bottom of the page right underneath the contents, so it doesn’t stand out much, but people will still notice. The images are all on the left, and people usually look at the left side of the page on a magazine first, so the images draw more attention.
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