Deconstruction Of A Double Page Spread

Jamie T is a 23 year old English singer/song writer from South London. This double page spread portrays the singer in a different light, revealing his most personal thoughts and memories about the build up towards his success in the music industry.

The article basically states; what you see is what you get. This 'Cheeky, gap-toothed' young man, who is constantly cursing, drinking and smoking like a chimney has a specific target audience of a adolescent generation, whom dislike authority and are seen as rebellious. Also fitting in with the house style of the magazine in order to introduce new or original Indie's into purchasing the article.

The opening paragraph introduces a young Jamie T - before the fame. As his lyrics are extremely controversial - with constant chanting of drug and alcohol use, the opening paragraph of this article sounds as though he is over dosing from drugs. 'Jamie T curls up on the street corner in the blue pulse of the ambulance lights, breathing uncontrollably, desperately trying to keep control of his bladder. His muscles spasm, the dizziness comes in waves.' As he is 'scruffy' in appearance it is no shock to the reader how this lead sounds - turns out that he suffers from severe anxiety attacks before he performs live. He uses the word 'geezer' a lot which implies he is a typical 'cockney', who is loud and cheeky. The mode of address and tone of this article is as though Jamie T is talking in continuous prose to the reader, making the text seem more personal and intriguing almost like a one-way conversation. 'Jamie T is a 21st century romantic poet' - this is a PUN, as early before this is printed he talks about 'puking' and drinking excessively, which contradicts the word 'romantic' or aims for a more contemporary romantic. 'Whetherspoons' is a British bar, this makes for an extremely specialised audience of people who only live in the UK. This makes Jamie seem almost realistic, usually with celebrities they come from this idealistic world in which nobody sees, this allows the audience to relate to the star.

The graphology of the text shows Jamie T as everyone knows him, the image of the washing line in the backdrop showing themed t-shirts and checkered Indie shirts which are very common with the youth today. His expression is effortless just like his music. His ripped jeans and discoloured trainers make him seem laid back in a contemporary sort of way, but his tartan jacket represents the London scene (Burberry) which symbolises his hidden wealth and success. The drop capitals of the text is in blue - as is his name and the word Britain, this is mainly what the article is about 'Broken Britain' as revealed on the front cover. The iconography of this image illustrates a wealthy talented young Cockney - who hides within his London culture. The colours red, white and blue shown on the main heading, are the colours used for the Union Jack - representing Britain, the layout itself has connotations of a British theme; the clothes, hair style and the attitude of the artist reveal very British. The layout of the article is taken over by the image itself, the banners stand out as the contrasting black on white is eye-catching yet simple, using a Sans Serif font to enable a traditional feel which takes the emphasis of the cursing.

I believe that in order to read and enjoy this article, it requires some official knowledge of the artist. It is extremely specific, talking about his opinions on the likes of 'Pete Doherty and Lily Allen' whom people need to have heard of in order to follow this text.

Deconstruction of Q Magazine

Q Magazine are famous for compiling lists. Here their double page spread is a tribute to the Beatles - '200 things you didn't know about the Beatles'. The choice of band featured in this double page spread targets an audience of older music lovers - mainly those who lived through the reign of the Beatles fame.

As Q Magazine devotes most of its space to interviews with stars - it must maintain professional throughout, with the use of high standard photography and prints. The lead paragraph is prominent as it is set on coordinating banners, in a bold serif font for the purpose of following the magazines house style and persisting its simplicity. The gutters and kerning of the text are all neatly aligned as to fit in with the iconography of Q magazine - due to the target audience being mainly older music lovers. The numbers are neatly kept in the same colour scheme, in a bold font to show the numeric order and allow coherency. Red, white and black are the colours of font used throughout this edition, this creates a systematic style and looks easy on the eyes. The double page spread is set out as a compiled list - numbered with the most interesting facts highlighted, many images are used also - but these are spread out around the text to create cohesion.

The text is no longer than 6 lines per number and is mainly factual with a hint of humour to hold the interest of the audience. 'One girl lunged at Starr, only to be rugby-tackled by Beatles PA'. The text is quite brief, determiners are missing. The tone used is mainly informative - also big uninformed fan.

The pictures are mainly black and white - suggesting an old well loved band, of who must have been extremely popular in order to be recognised in modern magazines. As this is a compiled list it requires no real knowledge of the band, it is informative and lightly humoured depending on the reader.