Codes and Conventions of Indie Music Magazine Covers

Every genre of magazine has its own sets of codes and conventions which sets it aside from other genres. Similarly music magazines have their own codes and conventions but these start to differ and mutate a bit when the magazine explores a further sub-genre, in this case, Indie. 

To be able to design my own successful magazine cover of this genre, we must first understand these aforementioned codes and conventions.

Technical Codes

Camera Work

Indie music magazines conventionally employ medium close ups or full shots on their magazine covers.

However other shots especially the medium long shot are not rare.

     

As seen above, indie music magazines often use eye level angles and central positioning of the artists except NME which has its own set of conventions namely, having the subject angled and positioned a bit to the side.They continue this for every issue of theirs.

Lighting

These magazines use low key lighting, accentuating the features of these artists especially since the direction of the light hits the subject at an angle rather than front directly in front of them. Warm lights are almost always used as the passer by should be able to easily detect the identity of the artist especially since indie music is a niche rather than something which feeds the masses.

 Indie music magazines use little to no editing so they can fully display the uniqueness and style of each individual indie artist.

Symbolic Codes

The background of these magazines often pertain of a singular bold colour against which the artist stands out. These backgrounds, however, usually have more to do with the magazine's colour scheme than the musicians personal style. There are exceptions to this.

The dress codes for the artists posing for the cover are usually the sort of outfits they would wear while promoting their music. The dressing usually matches the genre of music they make. This is so the potential consumers can easily recognise them.

Here we see Melanie Martinez dressed softly in a little girl's clothes, complete with bows and frills to match the concept of her platinum album 'Cry Baby'. 

This also brings us to our next point, props. The bottle of milk acts as a prop also supporting the concept of her album. This, however, is unconventional. Usually music instruments are used as props for music magazines, indie included.

The make up of the subject is down as it usually would be, not making them look to different from how they usually do, hence making them recognisable.  Their facial expressions are conventionally serious and reflective of the concept of their latest album or the genre they usually dabble in. Their poses alike aid to the personality their fans magnate around.

Written Codes

Masthead

The mastheads of these magazines are often covered by the artist. Indie magazines are little in number and not very famous. This is why they choose to let the artist overlay the name since its more likely that a reader will pick it up due to their interest in the artist rather than on the basis of the magazine name.

The font utilised is usually sam serif as that makes it exude a modern air and matches the style of the genre. 

The masthead employs a singular bold and bright colour ( frequently black or white), occasionally with shadows to make the name stand out against the bold backgrounds especially since indie magazines are scarce.

Conventionally, the masthead is placed on the top of the magazine, stretched across the cover or on the upper left corner.

Cover Lines

Cover lines in indie music magazines are often minimal if any at all, most opting for just displaying the main cover line. This is done so the artist is distinguished and not hidden by a sea of text. 

On an average, however, an indie music magazine consists of 3-4 cover lines, including the main cover lines. These cover lines are often the name of various artists or movements the magazine is covering so fans of those musicians can easily pick  out their interests.

Descriptions are few in number if any as seen above. However, if there are description they are often brief and to the point. Briefness doesn't keep them from being snazzy, quotes are often used as descriptions.

The cover lines don't shy away from using numbers to make the on lookers feel that there is an abundance of content on the inside.

Buzz Words

These magazines use words like gig, plus and + signs to attract their audience and show that they have a lot of content.

    

Puff

There is a distinct lack of puffs on indie music magazines, as they want to not drag the attraction of the potential consumer from what is possibly their selling point, the artist on the cover. However is there are puffs, these are mild in shape and colour, standing out but demure at the same time.

Main Cover line/Selling Line

The main cover line is often the selling line and also related to the artist on the magazine cover. Often the main cover line is just the name of the artist with either a quote as a description or a small relevant body of text. The main cover line often matches the feel of the artist.

The main cover line like always continues being the largest text on the page after the masthead or even larger than that.

Now that we understand these basic codes and conventions we can start plotting ideas for our very own indie music magazine cover. To the drawing board!