Music Magazines Conventions

The image on a music magazine is either a singer or a band. Depending on the genre of the magazine depends on what singer or band they have on the front cover. You would not see some one like Brittney Spears on the front cover of a rock magazine like Kerrang. Some magazines like NME have new bands or singers on the cover to help them astablish themselves.


The title otherwise known as the masterhead is usually diplayed in in the top left corner of the magazine. This is because it can be seen clearly and because when we read we read left to right so it will be the first thing that the reader will see and therefore read. Each magzine has there own brand image this starts is clearly seen with the masterhead



Each music magazine has their own design for their name which makes the magazine instantly recognizable. The name is usually in bright colours to attract the audience and to draw theuir attention to the cover.


Every music magazine has a cover line on the front cover. This attracts the audience to the magazine and persuades them to buy the particular magazine. They have to be interesting and relevant to magazine as they have intise the reader to buy it. Cover lines are relevant to the magazines genre so that they are appropriate for the target audience. You would not see a pop star like Brittney Spears on the front cover of a heavy rock band like Kerrang

Each magazine also has a sell line which attracts the reader.The sell line relates to the genre and target audeince of a magazine by describing the magazine usually in a phrase contaning three words. An exmple of one is Kerrang's sell line which is 'Live, Life, Loud'. This describes what the magazine is about in as little as three words. Kerrang's sell line is correct for the genre it is aimed for as you would not listen to heavy metal music quietly, it is the type of music that needs to be listened to loudly, which the sell line indecates. Asell line shows the reader what the magazine is all about and therefore giving a chance to persuade the reader to buy their magazine.

The date and issue number are important part of a magazine. They can usually be found in two places; in the top left hand corner underneath the masthead and sell line or they can be found in the bottom right hand corner near the barcode. The date and issue number help the reader if they need to refer back to a past issue of the magazine, an exmaple of someone who may find this useful is a  magazine collector. the date can also help the reader so that they know what issue it is so that they dont buy it again. The date and issue number also help the publishers of the magazine. Some magazines are issued weelky or monthly.

 The price is another important part of a magazine. It can be found on the same two places as the date and issue number can. The price is one of the most obvious things on a magazine, to tell you the price of the magazine. The price also indecates the target audience. If a magazine is really expensive and a good quality the target audience of that magazine will be the higher end of the class scale such as C+,B or A. If however a magazine is cheap or evan free it will be aimed at the lower end of the class scale such as E,D or C.

Textual Analysis -->Music Magazine Front Cover

Mojo Magazine

Let MOJO take you to the heart and soul of music with unique depth, insight and passion


MOJO magazine is designed for those who truly love music, every month MOJO provides you with music’s greatest icons in exclusive encounters, while celebrating tomorrow’s stars today. A hand-compiled collector’s CD is free with every issue, while MOJO magazine’s definitive reviews section provides you with the ultimate buyer’s guide. (link from greatmagazines.co.uk)


It is difficult to specify who the target audience is for Mojo just by the cover. I would say just by looking at the image that Mojo in my opinion has a indie feel with Oasis as the main image and cover story. I would also say that Mojo is aimed at an older audience then NME for example. This comes across because it has stars such as Bob Dylan and Bono, which are a genertion of stars that would not star in NME as they are not the stars of today.


Oasis is the main cover image for this particular issue of Mojo. This image looks more calm and relaxing compared to the Kerrang magazine I analysed in a previous post. This is becuase the image is not as dark as the one from Kerrang, although the image has the colour black surrounding it forming a ring around the boys. In the photograph of Oasis three of the band members can be clearly distingutied between while the other two on the end can not be seen as clearly as they are slightly burrled suggeting that they are not the most important members of the band. They are all wearing dark coloured clothers which makes their bodies merge into the black ring surrounding them.

The word oasis means paradise and I think that Mojo knowing this have played with the idea of paradise using the boys as an image of glamour. The reasons why I think they have played with this idea is because in comparasion to the black ring surrounding them they are in a clearing which suggets that we the audience are looking through a tunnel or key hole and see the thing we desire the most. The reason why I think that is beacuse above the heading Oasis there is a sub heading saying "You've got the band you always wanted.'

Both the masthead and the heading have seirf font meaning that unlike Kerrang who has jagged edges, Mojo is not breaking the mould as it has striaght edges. Both fonts are as equally big with a slight alteration in font style making Mojo stand out more then Oasis. This is beacuse Mojo is a white font based text on a black background with each character a capital and a soft edge casting a shadow. On the other hand Oasis is times new roman and is a gold font based text on a black background meaning it does not stand out as much. While all the characters are all captial again , the O of Oasis is larger then the other characters this gives the impression that they are all in lower case.

Useful links I have found.

These are the links I found to help me with the research,planning and producing of my music magazine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zrsZN8YCRY --> Writing Tips : How to Make a Magazine Table of Contents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1VThwTPTnQ&feature=fvw --> Magazines in Photoshop


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MAPu_9oyLY --> How to make a magazine cover using photoshop cs3



http://www.allisonmedia.net/downloads/Year_12/Textual_Analysis.pdf --> breaks down textual analysis .


http://www.media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/gallery --> Audience theory (the theory of how audiences work)

 http://www.media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/gallery --> breaks down Mise-en-scene

Textual Analysis --> Music Magazine Front Cover

Kerrang magazine
"Live life loud"


Kerrang magazine is the world's biggest selling rock magazine and covers all forms of music with attitude from Slipknot to Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit to The offspring and everything in between. ( link from Great magazines.co.uk)

Kerrang is a heavy metal music magazine. The target audience of such magazine is 15 to 30 year olds. It would also appeal to Emos, Goths and heavy metal fans, as they would be able to find out about the latest music thats coming out from their favourate bands, another reason is that they get to find out about up coming concerts.


Avenged Sevenfold is represented as a heavy metal band. The are all dressed in black with sunglasses on making them look threatening as you can not see there eyes. Another way they look threatening is because three members a visibly holding objects which can be seen as weapons such as a sword, stick and chain. One band member is standing in front of the other members this suggest that he is more important and that he is the lead singer. The facial expressions of the band members are sharp and harsh. We cannot tell if some the band members are looking straight at the camera because three of them are wearing sunglasses. The two members that are not wearing sunglasses are seen squinting at the camera almost a threatening look.


As well as the main image there are two sub-images. These images do not look as dark as the main image. The first sub-image of 'funeral for a friend' has white background giving it a cleaner cut then the other sub-image and the main image.I think that the photograph of 'Panic at the disco' looks more casual then the pother two images because the band members are wearing what seems to be their own clothes , also the photo looks as if it was taken in the local pub.


The masthead follows the image of aggression as it looks like it has been slashed with a knife. This effect is done by putting white lines through each letter. Also the masthead is sans serif which is a connation as it breaks the mould. It breaks the mould because the majourity of magazines the font has sharp edges while Kerrange's font does not have as much of a defined line. The colour scheme of the magazine uses blacks,reds,yellows and whites, this also follows the theme of violence as red and black are associated with anger and destruction.

The ideology of this particular Kerrang magazine is violence. This idea comes across through the text,images and colours. The main image has the words “sex,drugs, violence” printed on top as well the words “the worlds most dangerous band”. These phrases associate well with the ideology primarily because they have  the words “violence” and “dangerous” in them. The main image looks violent because it is dark and the band members are wearing sunglasses, covering their eyes and therefore adding  to the fear factor. Another reason why the image looks violence is because some members of the band are holding weapons. These give an impressions of gangs fighting.

The magazines sologan is "live,life,loud" which is correct for the genre of the magazine. The sologan is perfect for the genre of heavy metal because heavy metal and rock music cannot be listened to quitely.

LIIAR

To help me design my magazine I will be using the key media concepts. These key concepts are:

Language
Language used in the media could be through the ways of: sound,lighting, images, text, costumes

Institution
The brand or company of a product for example channel 4, BBC and ITV.
With a music magazine the institution could be NME or Kerrang

Ideology
A dominant set of ideas presenting itself as common sense of truth. Power relations are reinforced through ideology.

Audience
Who the product is aimed at.

Representation
How the product is represented. Does it look cheap or expensive? Does it want people to inspire to like the cover image if a magazine such as vogue

Conventions of a magazine

Masthead:
The name of the magazine displayed in the typeface in which it is designed. This is the visual branding of the title and is usually done in a unique type face to be very recognizable.

Dateline:
Month and year of publication, often with the price. Note that a monthly magazine usually hits the news-stands the month before the cover date.

Main image:
When there is a single image on a magazine cover, it is used in a classic way. The face is big enough to make an impact on the news stand, the model making full eye-contact.

Cover lines:
Are usually distributed around the main image without detracting from it too much.

Main cover image: 
This is very large - taking up about a quarter of the cover area - and comes in three layers, each with a different colour.

Left third:
In western countries, the left third of the cover is vital for selling the issue in shops were the magazine is not shown full frontage. The title must be easily recognizable in the display of dozens of competitors. The start of the masthead is important here.

Barcode:
Standard barcode used by retailers.

Selling line:
Short, sharp description of the title's main marketing point ('The world's No 1 for young women') or perhaps setting out its editorial philosophy.

The Brief

Main task:

The front page,contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. all images and text used to be original produced by you minimum of four images.


Presentation of your work:
The presentation of the research planning and evaluation may take the form of any one or combination of two or more of the following:

• a presentation using slideshows software such as PowerPoint.
• a blog
• a podcast