Tasks 6 Summary of Research into Music Magazines

Conventions of form

The masthead is at the top of the magazine in the primary optical area.

The name of the artist/band is in the bottom, often in the terminal zone.

The cover lines are at the side of the cover, well out of the way on the main image where the main focus is.

The band/artist look towards the camera, so it appeals to the audience as they make eye contact.

Girls conventionally touch an erogenous zone, which shows they look glamourous and try to appeal to a male audience.

The way an artist looks at the camera and how they pose relates to the genre they are represented in.

Its conventional for the contents page to be split into sections or thirds. (see arrows)

The actual contents is in the far left side column.

Conventionally in two of the magazines there is a image of an artist appearing in the middle section.

In the far right hand corner there is often other information or pictures of other articles which are included in the magazine.

There is a white background in all three of the contents pages which means that it brings out the other colours of the house style and also the image of the artists and the colour of the font.

Its also conventional to have two different coloured fonts when writing in the contents.

There are images relating to other cover stories so that they can be easily noticed, and people can quickly see of important stories in the magazine

The artist or band almost dominate one whole page out of the two, to show the importance of the artist.

There is always a pull quote or a phrase that describes the artist and what is appearing in the interview

Its conventional for the background colour to be neutral or to be a contrasting colour so the text and images stand out.

The band and artist again always look at the camera as they see it as an address to the audience.

Its also conventional in two of the double page spreads for there to be a drop capital to pull attention in to the main feature.

Conventions of Genre

The women is this genre are seen to be windswept and are showing sex appeal towards their audience, whilst the male is shown to be masculine and powerful, matching his genre of music.

Both Rolling Stone and Dave Grohls edition of Q, having grabbing words at the end of the top line view.

The artists name is always on the bottom after they have already made eye contact with the artist.

The main artists image on the cover is the main subject of that issue.

The artists eye colour matches the colour scheme of their clothing, or hair or other features of the artist. For example, Katy Perry’s eyes match her hair; Adele’s eyes are blue and her top almost matches; and Grohl’s eyes seem black in the picture so match the artists hair.

The imagery of Dave Grohl in the centre of the Q magazine shows the angry masculine music in which Grohl is part of, he is shown carrying a guitar over his shoulder, this pose often shows the muscular movement of a male. The red top and black trousers represent the colours of rock and devilish hell like scheme.

The use of the columns and the use of thirds are conventional in mainstream magazines.

The colour schemes are not specific and include many different colours to match the mainstream magazines which include a mix of genre music.

The conventional products which bring out the genre is these magazines start with the colour schemes: Beyonce has a pink/purple double page spread which is developed due to the pop scene in which she sings for. Florence includes reds and whites for her English/British pop/soul genre which she also is associated with. Finally the colour scheme for Linkin Park is quite neutral and plain, but the tone is slightly darkened as it shows a slightly dark side of life with the music.

The fonts are developed to bring out further genre forms. Like the elegant sans serif font used in Welshes magazine. This makes her look like an elegant lady which makes her appeal to a more upper class, sophisticated audience.

In the layout, the arist/band always dominates one whole side, while the other side in dominated by the feature. There is almost always a kicker, and a stand first.

Mode of Address

The artitsts are all looking down the camera so are addressing you, by giving eye contact.

The females are touching their lips which are erogenous as it appeals to men, as they are trying to appeal to both genders.

A pop artist like Katy Perry wears bright coloured clothes to show the gaudy, bright loud style of music which she sings for.

Emotional soul music, like Adele, show off the volume of their hair and the pastel coloured tops which they wear, showing the more sophisticated style of music.

The rock style genre which includes the cover featuring Dave Grohl. He is producing demonic features like fire and wears red to symbolise the danger and blood, often symbolising the rock genre.

By splitting the page into sections the magazine is easier to read for their target audiences.

The larger pictures featuring cover lines are also because the page is more important and would appear more popular, so the audience haven’t got to read through all the contents to find a story of interest.

Conventionally the contents are split into sections, under different subjects making it easier to read and find. Those subjects often include: News, interviews, new music etc. You can see this is A and B

A B C

The backgrounds are white for this genre of magazine so the focus is on the text and imagery, and dosent avert focus from them due to a bright background

The main feature artist who most often appears on the front cover, also appears as the main image in the contents.

The artists still look at the camera through out the magazine so they are still addressing ‘you’.

The Beyonce spread shows the fierce attributes of her. With a purple background and a layout of how she wants. This shows the audience reading it, that she is powerful and is queen likes, matching with her royal collar.

The Florence Welsh spread, addresses her audience through her colour scheme showing the British pop which she is seen in.

The Linking park spread makes them look relaxed instead of posed, so the interview can be seen as also relaxed and a more intimate interview, also wearing their everyday clothes.

Use of Technical Elements

Technical elements used:- The mast head is used at the top of the page well

out of the way of the rest of the cover.- The artists used colours which should match their

genre of music.- They all follow the route of the eye, placing the

name of the artist in the bottom right hand corner in the terminal zone.

- They all include cover lines of what is featured in the magazine.

- Some also include pull quotes to make the magazine appealing towards the audience as they see what the interview or feature could include.

- The artists use similar mise-en-scene which match the genre, e.g. the fire being produced from Grohls mouth and the colour red his wearing.

Technical elements used:- There use sections to help split up the

magazine, making it more readable and giving it a more ordered layout, for a more professional look.

- There are cover lines with images so the stories can be easily found, read and understood.

- The use of thirds is also used. This is due to setting a limit of 3 makes it easier to focus and prioritize on important items making them sometimes memorable.

- In the contents the artists don’t look towards the camera as it shows them as them selves and is more stylised.

- The mast head is placed at the top of the page in the primary optical zone as its what you should see first.

- The house style is similar throughout the magazine for all three of these pages.

Technical elements used:- The sans serif font in the magazines

make a less sophisticated more ‘hip’, ‘creative’ way of writing, showing the artist by their genre. For example Florence uses a serif font as she is more rich and upper-class, known of her British wealth, Florence doesn't wear inappropriate clothes, and is more sophisticated looking like a more powerful woman with a niche audience.

- The text is split into columns so is easier to visualise and read, and is very conventional.

- Its conventional for their to be a very large pull quote some where on the double page spread, to pull people in.

- Conventionally a drop letter is used in the spreads to attract people to read it, similar to the pullquote.

Representation

Katy Perry is seen to be very loud and pop like. The green hair is quite bright and matches her eye colour. She is made to look very beautiful in bright colourful clothing. The swirly bright top connotes the madness of her singing and genre. The green also represents envy, the envy of other women, as, Perry aspires to be the best, and is often considered a modern day pop princess

Adele is represented as sophisticated but also a very beautiful woman, trying to show off her looks. She is trying to look like that to show the success behind her. She also appeals to a niche audience, and shows that a woman of a larger size who does not fit in to the pop singing looks. The way in which she is touching her lips (an erogenous zone) she is trying to be attractive and appeal to the male audience as well.

Dave Grohl is made to look scary as he is screaming, whilst spitting fire. The fire is made to resemble hell and devilish music. The red jumper connotes also rage and fire. Grohls long hair and stubble like beard fits into the representation of a rock singer.

The image of the girl in the top corner of the billboard magazine is a black woman, appealing to other minorities. She is wearing a suit going against her genre of music to appear sophisticated and posh towards her audience and go against feminism to show that the minority of women can also achieve business.The woman in the centre of the billboard magazine is in tight black clothing to make her look more attractive, with the black clothing as an item to make her look mysterious.

The image of Dave Grohl carrying a guitar portrays anger and makes him look like he is going to break it. The man is looking past the camera to show mystery and style. He is portrayed across the whole centre third as he is the main piece of scenery and would like to be noticed.

In Rolling Stone magazine has a image of Hayley Williams performing. Her blue hair makes her look different and not fit into the typical representation of a female of her age, due her wanting to look, hip and indie. She is also wearing little, but not sexual clothes as they still look sensible. She is perfroming her music and she is smiling so shows the type of woman which she is.

Beyonce in the image is portrayed as a futuristic queen. She is sometimes considered the queen of pop. So is wearing a metal royal collar. This symbolises her as rich and powerful. The head shot also makes you focus your eyes on the artist as she is seen to be making eye contact.

Florence is sitting on a red and white sheet. The image is a wide shot so includes a whole image of her is black plain clothes which cover up her whole body to the top of her legs. This shows sophistication but also class, as her body is covered so It defines her from other popular artists of her time, but also keeps her in the era by showing off some skin. The red of her matches the red on the sheet so keeps with the house style. But the black contrasts with the

The Linkin Park pages want to be seen as relaxed and normal. They want to interview to seem comfortable so more people would read it. This makes it more intimate. The clothes and poses are normal and aren't over the top, so would seem quite normal and are just like how the audience are.