Magazine Institutions

In this post I will explore the magazine institutions for the music magazine: Kerrang! I will research where the magazine is distributed; how it is accessed; various media platforms and the publishing houses. An institution is a business company that publishes the magazine on various media platforms.

Kerrang!'s magazine distributor is Bauer Media Group. This is a well established European company that deals with 600 magazines, 400 digital products plus 50 TV and radio stations worldwide. Kerrang!! is one of the magazine's that the Bauer company manages. Kerrang! have a published magazine; radio station with 920,000 listeners; TV Channel that attracts 12,000 viewers and a vast social media platform with over a million followers. These are the cross media platforms that Kerrang! use to distribute their magazine cover.

The audience typically consists of 15-34 year old males and they gain the information via website, TV, Radio, paperback/hardback copy and social media. The Kerrang! homepage offers latest news in rock music as well as including exclusive recent/popular articles of various magazines. The website has a page that shows screenshots of the contents inside the magazine. It advertises an online app for mobile devices like smartphone and tablet and this app costs £22.50 to get all content within Kerrang!

Kerrang! is also popular through social media. Kerrang! has an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter account that also conveys small summaries and teasers as to the content within the magazine. Kerrang! App can be accessed on an iOS and android system and users can buy the app from the Google Play Store or the Apple Store.

Bauer company are also known for publishing Q magazine along with Heat Music Magazine, Empire Film Magazine, KISS Music Magazine and Magic Music Magazine. As well as this they also manage 4Music, Closer and Grazia.

Double page Feature analysis

The double page spread consists of important news regarding My Chemical Romance as it attracts a wider audience to the magazine by writing about a well-known band like MCR. This double page spread tells the story of how the band MCR is changing their music style yet they are keeping to the same form after their top album, The Black Parade. MCR invited the magazine, Kerrang! to witness the band in their creative position.

The colour palette is monochromatic except for the addition of red. The black and white signifies vintage as it shows black and white still shots of the band doing various things. The red however fits in well with the theme as red can often be connoted as strength and determination which is exactly what the band’s new album is about so thus the colour red fits in with the theme of the article.

The layout of the page is simplistic which helps to emphasise the fact that the magazine is vintage like in that it is simple and unique. It does not follow conventional house style and this reflects the message that they are trying new styles. The first page has a mid-torso shot of the band’s main singer Gerard Way. The image is taken to show Gerard Way, in the middle of performing or rehearsing for the recording. The second page has the article about MCR’s change of style while attempting to keep to their game plan. The text is aligned from left to right as it allows the words to fit the banner to the left. A quote, from the article, is used for the headline to attract the reader’s attention. The pictures at the bottom are placed to almost circle round the text.

The typography of the article varies from the headline, tagline, article and captions. The typeface however is serif because of the straight sharp edges. The quote has a gritty effect to convey to the audience what kind of band MCR is. The headline is uppercase to emphasise the quote due to the exclamation mark at the end. The M in the beginning of the article is also capitalised as it helps the reader to find where to begin reading the article. This is conventional in most magazines because it allows an easy read for readers.

The demographic for this feature page are young adults, male and female from the ages of 13 – 23. I suggest this because the band is a rock band and it is stereotypically thought that boys will listen to rock music while girls listen to pop music. However my cultural capital explains that it is slowly becoming the norm, young adult females will listen to male rock/emo bands because of the social messages, bands relate to young girls growing up. The representation of the band is to suggest a new image for the band MCR, who were once known for the themes of death and war, bring about self-preservation and determination.

This double page feature expresses the way the American band, Fall Out Boy write the lyrics to their songs. This magazine page differs from the MCR page as it has more content but very view pictures. This differs massively from the typography to the colour palette. The tattoos present Pete Wentz as a rather threatening person as they contrast with his angry face and it also makes him seem like he is rebellious and aggressive.

The colour palette from this page uses the rule of three as the magazine uses the colours from the image of Pete Wentz. The background is a lighter shade of Wentz’s skin colour while the text uses black from Wentz’s clothes and the red is used from the colour from the part of the tattoo on Wentz’s arm. Black connotes to dark and danger, rock musicians are often known to wear black as a sign of rebellion. The red is used to attract danger as well as attracting attention which is exactly what the magazine article tries to do. A lighter shade of Wentz’s skin tone is used as it follows the rule of three as well as not trying to distract the reader too much from the text. There are lines drawn at the top of the double feature to add an artistic effect and to represent the theme of the feature which is writing lyrics to create an overall song

The layout of the page has been warped around the anchor to fit the content in. The image is to the left of the page and is resized to fit the whole page while the right page is filled with columns of texts and words regarding the theme of the article. The layout is similar to the MCR feature page because the image is to the left and the text is to the right. A quote is placed in the middle of the article to catch the reader off guard but to also give the reader a break from having to read a long article.

­­­­­­­­­­The typography of the words is mostly a san serif font because it shows creativity in writing which makes this article informal but more relative to the audience. It allows the audience to understand the text. The headline is capitalised to link to the face that Wentz makes and it summarises what the article is about. The shot used was a long shot and it allows Wentz whole body to be shown. He has an angry face with paper scrunched up in a fist and it relates to the headline that Fall Out Boy have problems with writing song lyrics. The headline is also a play of words because it is similarly written to the title of a Fall Out Boy song: ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race.’

The demographic for this feature are aspiring male or female musicians aged 16 – 25 as well as male and female fans of the band Fall Out Boy. I say aspiring musicians because it could be a common problem that musicians go through so if an aspiring musician read this article, it would give them motivation and understanding as to the pressures of song writing. I also said male and female fans aged 12 - 35 because males will listen to rock music to help present masculinity within their personality while females listen to Fall Out Boy because they are framed for the female gaze. Fall Out Boy are a commercial success and have more female fans than male fans because of the morality of the songs and the vocal intensity from the singer of the band, Patrick Stump.

This double page spread differs from the other two articles because this double page feature is a music album review: Vices & Virtues by American rock band, Panic! at the Disco. Once again the magazine double feature differs from the other magazine features because of the conventions: layout, font and colour.

This double feature magazine has a similar colour palette theme to the MCR because this double feature has a monochromatic colour with the addition of yellow. This magazine differs as it uses the yellow from the picture of albums, laid down the left of the magazine feature. This magazine cover uses black and white to outline a historical almost retro theme to the feature. Yellow is often connoted to be a happy colour that also shares brightness and for this cover it makes sense as it brings light to a dark cover suggesting something regarding the bands history. According to my cultural capital, the four member band became a two member band in 2009 so it was a difficult time for the remaining band members, [left-to-right], Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith. They both were able to come up with a successful album despite the departure of two of its members. The yellow is a suggestion of finding light at the end of a tunnel, i.e. happiness or success.

The layout of the page is aligned to be in columns reading from a left to right alignment. The text is warped around the anchor image of Urie and Smith in the middle of the page. The layout of the text is poorly done as it does not follow a clear fluid structure and it makes it confusing for the reader to follow on from the text. Not only that but the yellow colour does not blend well because the text is difficult to identify and read. The first column has a quote enlarged to highlight the key point of the article although the headline is: Vices & Virtues (name of the album).

The big picture in the middle is a low mid shot of Urie fixing Smith’s tie while both exchange somewhat surprising facial expressions. Both are dressed smartly to present a new trend and style to the music they create. Both of the males are wearing suits which is stereotypically considered to be smart, stern and disciplined whereas the image goes against the label of suits being associated to smartness. In this case the suits are seen to be an archetype because it presents the image that smartly dressed men aren’t necessarily strict and stern.

There are three types of fonts but they all have the same typography in the magazine feature because it uses a san serif. San serif has curved edges which make the text more attractive to the eye as well as using informal language to attract the audience readers. The title is stylised the same way the album is to show a sophisticated change in Panic! at the Disco’s music style.

The demographic for this feature are teenage girls from ages of 13 to 25 because the music Panic! at the Disco make, convey strong social messages for their target audience. Not only that but Panic! are considered to be emo, baroque rock music which is quite theatrical and it relates to the audience.

Magazine Contents Page Analysis

In this post I will be analysing three magazine content pages to further develop my understanding on the layout of contents pages in various magazines. I will analyse Kerrang!, Rock Sound and Classic Rock magazine contents pages to help me understand how rock magazines present content pages. In addition it will help me to understand what to do when making my own music magazine. The conventions of a rock magazine contents page are that it must include a list of pages, an anchor image to a specific page.

Rock Sound contents page

The contents page shows a split of content as the left side of the page has a list of 'main features' and the right side of the page features an image which becomes an anchor linked to the plug feature in the bottom right hand corner. The page follows the rule of three for colour as the colour palette it uses three colours from the main image: The light blue shade is from the blue of the man's shirt; the white shade from the man's skin and the black shade from the man’s jacket. The colours help to form the theme of the page. The man follows the stereotypical connotations of rock stars because he has tattoos around his neck and an ear piercing in his ear although he looks hipster-like due to the glasses and facial expression. This relates to rock which is always known for being ostentatious and rebelling against label and thus the grunge look of rock stars is mythical. The typography of content page is the same and it is san serif font. The text suggests fun and playfulness. This makes the suggestion that the demographic is teenagers and young adult for the anchor is young looking along with the fun playful font. The representation of the magazine contents page is to show a quirky image of rock image and this presents rock as being rebellious because they do not follow stereotypes of society. The cover has the issue number, date and masthead because it reminds the reader the magazine they are reading as well as advertising. The magazine does follow the conventions of a magazine because it involves an anchor image and a list of pages for the reader to select and browse.

Kerrang! contents page

Kerrang!'s contents page follows a similar layout to Rock Sound as it shows a split of content. The contents features are on the right of the page while the image is on the left of the contents. Kerrang! however breaks many conventions of a magazine as it does not follow the rule of three. The colour palette is varied and none of it relates to the image, in addition the image does not anchor to a feature plug but rather a page number in a button. The typography of the contents page is a serif font as it does not have straight sharp edges however this font style suggests order and masculinity due to the straightness of the letters. This suggests that the demographic for the magazine is older males from 20-40 year olds. This is because some of the plugs include iconic bands like Green Day, Linkin Park and Blink-182. The main image does not represent the genre of rock but once again it does represent rebellious side of rock in that they do not follow stereotypical connotations to rock music. The images have a number next to them and this is to add more context to the page titles on the right hand side of the page. At the bottom left hand corner, is a small article from the editor of the magazine, James McMahon. The extract is there to advertise the content in the magazine as well as tease features for the next magazine. This does follow the conventions because it has a list of pages for readers to go to. In addition it has multiple anchor images.

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

 

This is my analysis of magazine covers in the rock genre. I have chosen one rock magazine, to help understand certain aspects of a magazine cover. I will be looking at the target audience; colour; typeface/font; representation; and layout of a magazine. The magazine cover I have chosen is: Rocksound’s My Chemical Romance (MCR) and Kerrang!’s Paramore.

The target audience for the Rocksound seems to be suited for the fans of the band, which consists of females from the age of twelve to thirty. I say this because of the positioning of the band members. The band member in the middle (Gerard Way) is leaning forward on the front, making him the key focus of the magazine. Gerard Way is shown to be mysterious which draws the girl in. The camera shot is a low angle shot as it appears to make the band members bigger. The band members look down in a stern/serious expression which expresses the fact that the band has more power, importance and rebelliousness.

Girls are drawn to these attributes of the band because of the black leather style clothes and the stern facial expressions. Black is connoted to death and darkness which adds on to the bands rebelling nature, in the fact that they are dark in behaviour. The colour also relates to the text of the teaser underneath the band name: ‘Songs for the death!’ This further emphasises the point of the reason why black is used in the cover.

In addition, Girls would go for the magazine because the band is known for the composure of songs and music. According to the Uses and Gratification Theory, girls will go for the My Chemical Romance Rocksound magazine because my cultural capital allows me to know that MCR deals with various social topics in their songs, like acceptance in society and surviving an illness like cancer, which helps girls to develop their personality/opinions as well as being a tool of enjoyment and leisure. The magazine cover is informal in their message and thus this makes it easier for the female demographic to relate to the magazine cover.

The whole magazine gives off an unruly vibe as it almost follows the rule of three for the colour palette varies. The image of the magazine has a sepia undertone because it fits in with the theme of death i.e. the lack of colour. The colour green offsets the magazine because the text was meant to be a shade of colour relating to the image yet it chose a bright green and white to get the text to stand out. Green is often connoted to life and sometimes sickness so thus it does relate to the theme of death. The cover does follow the rule of three to an extent.

The font style of the magazine is sans serif because the text is informal-like. The font does not have a pointed edge to the letters and this helps to make the text clear as well as attractive and relatable. The fonts are quite masculine because of the straight shape along with the rough edges. The masthead: ‘ROCKSOUND’ suggests an immature young relatable theme because of the small cracks in the letter. The magazine has a range of typography as it has two type fonts: one for the MCR name and the other for the plugs. This proves the fact that rock magazines do not follow typical magazine conventions.

Although the magazine cover does follow a backward ‘Z’ layout as it helps to ease the readers view in following a systematic order. The representation of MCR in this cover is to show a new sub-genre of rock because of the rebellious and young look.

Kerrang! is similar to Rocksound because the front cover have similar poses for the Kerrang! has the main singer of the band, Hayley Williams in the middle of the cover. She gains more attention than the other four members of the band because she is a singer but also because she is framed for the male gaze. Williams does not show skin and is not sexualised however she is dressed in a sophisticated manner which makes her more appealing and it goes against the label of women being sexualised. She therefore becomes a post-feminist icon.

Williams wears a leopard print blue dress with pink lapels. She has bright fiery red-orange hair and vibrant red-pink lipstick. Williams wearing blue and pink shows a contrast of stereotypes as blue is often given the stereotypical connotations that blue is a boys’ colour and pink is a girls’ colour. Both blue and pink contrast well and they make Williams stand out more prominently then the other members. The other band members are wearing dark colours and this often connotes to dark and emo. The men contrast Williams as she is bright and full of colour while the men are dark and dull. The colour palette is large as it uses red from William’s lips and yellow from a lighter shade of Williams’s hair. Black is used from the men and white is used from the background.

The layout of this Magazine cover is a ‘C’ layout which allows for the image to become the primary focus and to emphasise the point that this is a special issue which will focus solely on the band, Paramore. The facial expressions on their faces are almost focused and stern which links to the MCR cover in that they are serious people who make music to pass a moral to their audience.

The magazine cover appeals to the demographic of boys and girls from the ages of 12 to 20 as the band members are young, stylish and modern. The camera shot however is a mid-shot because it shows a level of equality between the band members. Although like the MCR cover, Williams leans forward and stares directly at the camera to catch the reader’s attention and to address the reader alone.

The typography of the magazine is bold and capitalised which once again leads to the idea that the magazine is a special edition. The font is a serif type because of the bold sharp edges which once again pose significance and urgency to the reader in that they should read the magazine. There are cracks in the masthead and the word ‘Kerrang!’ has an onomatopoeic undertone because it sounds like a note from a guitar.

Representation of Gender in Rock Magazines

In the post, I am going to be looking at the way genders are presented in music especially the rock genre. I will do this by analysing rock magazine front covers to talk about how different genders are presented on magazine front covers. The reason I am doing this is to understand the way gender is presented in other magazines, this will then give me an understanding on how to portray my anchor model in my own magazine.

Issue May 2014, ROCKNOW cover, Taylor Momsen

I have used the example of Rocknow Magazine. It sexualizes Taylor Momsen as it reveals the outline of her breasts from underneath the open black lace sheer shirt she wears. The chest is painted with a black cross, with an arrow pointing down the bikini line which is revealed by the open jean zipper. The colour ‘black’ connotes with darkness, rebellion and death. The cross signifies Christianity and the arrow pointing down suggests that Taylor Momsen is provocative and this becomes the key focus of the magazine cover. This further follows Goffman's Theory as the magazine shows Taylor Momsen's chest to sell the debut of her music. Momsen's face is partly covered and her head is reclined back with an almost vacant, bored look on her face. The mid shot allows consumers to focus on the top half of the anchor and it relates to the title: 'THE PRETTY RECKLESS HELL GIRL' this follows the stereotype that women will use their sexuality in a sycophant manner.

Issue September 2016, ROCKSOUND cover, Against The Current, left-to-right (Will Feri, Chrissy Costanza, Dan Gow)

I used an example of Rocksound to compare the difference in female representation. In the Rocksound magazine, I used Against The Current's singer Chrissy Costanza to compare her to Taylor Momsen. Chrissy Costanza is not sexualized in this magazine cover. This shows the rebellious side of Rock music and that they never follow traditional magazine conventions. Costanza stands tall and proud wearing a crop black top, a black skirt and black army boots. Black once again symbolises darkness and death but in this case, the black makes her pale skin stand out. She does show a bit of skin to grab the consumer's attention. However the way she stands, expresses power and higher status. She is bigger than her fellow band mates meaning she has more importance. The long shot shows Costanza fully and she helps to bring the consumers focus to the magazine. Her face is shown clearly and this adds on to the point that she has more power.

Issue October 2013, KERRANG cover, Panic! at the Disco, Brendon Urie

The Kerrang magazine does not sexualize Brendon Urie. This shot makes him more powerful because it is a long shot of Urie. He represents a new age of masculinity for he is dressed smartly in a peach suit. This differs from other rock magazines because typical rock magazines have tattooed, aggressive looking men with guitars and ripped dark clothes. He has two rather aggressive looking dogs next to him and this connotes to masculinity as dogs are said to be a man's best friend. Brendon Urie has the dogs on a leash meaning that he has the power and control. In addition Urie covers half the magazine article and it shows he is the more dominant gender in this magazine cover.

Issue February 2007, Rolling Stones, Panic! at the Disco, left-to-right (Jon Walker, Brendon Urie, Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith)

Panic! at the Disco are known to be quite varied in their genre of music. They first started off being emo/baroque music which is emotional/periodic music. Now Panic! follow a sub genre of rock known as pop rock. The music is popular as well as having guitars and drums. The Rolling Stones cover shows a change in style as the band, in 2007, were more emo as well as being young and rebellious. They seem to be wearing eyeliner and are dressed in dark colours like black and grey. This shows a change of masculinity and maturity as the Kerrang magazine shows an older, smarter looking Brendon Urie while the Rolling Stones cover shows a young rebellious Urie.

Representation in Rock Magazines

Issue May 2013, Fall Out Boy members, [left-to-right] (Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley, Pete Wentz and Joe Trohman)

On the magazine Rock Sound cover for Fall Out Boy I see four members of the band looking directly at the camera. Patrick Stump is closer and bigger than the other three members of the band because Patrick Stump is the main singer of the band as well as the founder. Pete Wentz is holding on the collar of his shirt and is slightly bigger than the other two members of the band because he plays the bass guitar and has a big fan base. They all have stern facial expressions and are all wearing black. The masthead of the magazine is coloured red and it overlaps the heads of the band members. The left side of the magazine is filled with plugs. The main colours are blue, yellow, black, red and white. The background is plain with a light shade of blue. The skyline of the magazine talks about the freebies to receive in the cover edition. The magazine has a grunge effect to it. Black connotes to dark and death while red connotes to danger and blood. The band almost conform to the stereotype regarding rock bands in that: Rock music generally consist of groups of people forming bands; they wear black and have tattoos. Although what is different about the magazine is that it uses bright colours to contrast the band's dark colours. The magazine goes with most of the conventions of a magazine. They all have been represented a serious band because of the facial expressions on their face.

Issue June 2016, Panic! at the Disco member, Brendon Urie

On the magazine Rock Sound cover for Panic! at the Disco I see the main member of the band, Brendon Urie pointing to the camera and staring straight ahead. The mid shot of Brendon Urie shows him wearing a navy blazer with silk-like smooth lapels. Urie is also wearing a ring on his finger  The masthead of the magazine is blue embossed and partially covered by Brendon Urie's hair. The left side of the magazine is filled with plugs. The main colours are blue, yellow, black, red and white. The magazine consists colours of purple, pink, blue, yellow and white. The plugs are placed in a banner on the bottom of the magazine. The magazine has a summer theme as the magazine uses bright happy colours to replicate a seaside feel to the magazine. Blue connotes to the ocean and serenity while the pink is a vivid colour and it connotes to love. The magazine cover contains many countertypes like the fact that Brendon Urie is dressed smartly where as rock musicians are often known to wear ripped dark leather clothes. The other countertype is that the magazine has the sole member of the band Brendon Urie whereas Rock music generally consists of bands. Also the colours contrast to the theme of rock and once again shows how rock magazines go against the conventions of a magazine. The magazine presents Urie as a smart playful person because of the way he is pointing to the camera as well as having an eyebrow raised.

Introduction to Main Task

Preliminary Task Magazine Evaluation