*Surface details: Taylor Swift is the main idea on the cover of the monthly issue of Rolling Stone
magazine. She is placed in the center of the page with the words off to the side.
The placement of her head even covers up the title. Her name is bigger than the
other words on the page and it is close to the center by her face. She is positioned
with a guitar, with her hand on the guitar to portray her playing, even though she
is not playing at that moment. She is not really smiling, and her hair is flowing all
over the place. The lighting enhances her face and makes it seems like it is the most
important thing on the page.
*Explanation: The point of putting Taylor Swift front and center, and making her the biggest thing
on the front cover of a magazine is basically to recognize her importance in music
and to emphasize how awesome she really is.
*Question: Why is she not smiling?
*Answer: Maybe she isn't smiling because she wants to seem fierce. Underneath her name, it says
"secrets of a good girl." Maybe she wants to seem a little bit mysterious and tries to be
mysterious since the article is about her being a good girl, but also having secrets.
*Question: Why is she holding a guitar in the picture?
*Answer: Taylor Swift is positioned with a guitar in the picture to remind people that she does not
only sing, but also plays the guitar as well. The way her hands are on the guitar and how
she looks in the picture is obvious that she isn't actually playing, but hey, they decided to
pretend like she was actually playing it anyways.
*Question: Why is her face covering up most of the title of the magazine?
*Answer: I am not really sure why her face is covering up most of the title of the magazine. To me,
the title of a magazine is important, because I want to know what I am reading. If I like it,
I will look for the same magazine title again for the next month's issue, but if I do not like
it, I will try to stay away from magazines with the same title. If I did not know the
magazine was entitled Rolling Stone, I would not know, because her face is in the way. I
guess they just assumed that everyone knows the title, so they might as well make the main
character of the magazine the majority of the cover page.
I have to say that I am not a fan of this magazine cover. Although I do like Taylor Swift, the placement of everything feels awkward. Since she is such a big celebrity, it makes sense that Rolling Stone would try to cover up as much of the page with her face as they can. I think they did a good job in portraying her importance of music by clearly staging the guitar right in the center of the magazine. If someone were to not know who she was, they could automatically assume that she has a musical background. That could also attract more readers, if they happen to be curious about new artists to listen to. I think the whole "secrets of a good girl" was done nicely as well. Her face really seems to be hiding something from the camera, which was important for the catchline of her profile in the magazine. Another thing I am not a fan of on this cover was the fact that "Rolling Stone" was almost covered up completely. There may be some avid Rolling Stone readers that look over this magazine because there is taylor swift on the front, when really, there are other stories and articles to read about that they might be interested in. In general, I think this cover could have been improved in many ways, but then again, I am no magazine expert. Maybe this cover sold thousands more than previous ones have.
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