Ray Gun Magazine

This magazine is a good example of one that challenges the conventions of music magazines and yet they are still as successful as ones that follow the main tropes.

Ray Gun was a rock and roll magazine in America. The  founder was very interested in making the magazine design that goes against the 'norm'. The designs on his magazine were considered chaotic, abstract but very distinctive and unique.

Ray Gun was not only noticeable for its cover, it also differed form other magazines due to its content, as it usually contained musical icons that were typically ahead of curve meaning they were on there covers before they became considerably well known and famous, such as Eminem, Bjork, Radiohead and Beck.

These aspects of the magazine shows that it did not follow the tropes of music magazines and he did not have a certain style, in structure or topic, because most of his issues were different. The font always changed, the masthead font and style differed from issue to issue, whereas in normal magazines the masthead is kept the same each time, magazines such as Q, Kerrang and Smash hits.

The images on the front are completely different to ones used normally, some were upside down, they were always very busy, with the masthead being in different places and writing across the image.

On one hand it is a good idea to go against all conventions of magazines, as i makes it stand out and seem unique which can encourage more people to buy it as it grabs the readers attention and they become intrigued. However it could affect sales as the overall look of the magazine does not look professional.

This magazine is no longer running, this could be because it was too different and people simply did not understand it, however it shows that a magazine can be different and successful, it does not always have to follow the conventions