Blog Checklist for your Music Magazine:
1. The Brief
2. Your Selected Music Genre
• What is the chosen music genre, which your magazine will focus upon?
• What are the key features of this genre?
To answer this you can look at images of artists featured in magazines/CD
covers/videos/websites etc.; images of any fans featured in magazines etc.;
and also other areas such as song lyrics.
• What magazines, currently in publication, cover this genre?
3. Select 3 music magazines ( at least one from your selected music genre). Analyse a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for each magazine using LIIAR. Upload scanned or photographed images of these magazines to your blog.
LIIAR
L – Media Language. How is the photograph composed? – describe the content of the shot and then discuss the associated connotations of the image.
Discuss the design of the magazine masthead – connotations of the font, position and colour.
List the other conventional elements used – tagline, cover lines, puffs, sell-lines and how they are placed within the design.
I - Institution – Use the Internet to research the publisher of the magazine. Quote your sources, don’t just copy. Are they a small independent or a large global company?
I – Ideology - What message / moral / values does the magazine convey about the music genre and target audience?
A – Audience – Who is the target audience? Publication media packs will give you this answer. Quote your sources, don’t just copy.
R – Representation -How is the featured artist / music genre to be represented by the magazine?
4. Identify your audience and what they like to see in your magazine.
Conduct an online poll on your Blog. This will be created in class.
5. Initial ideas and draft designs – these can be hand drawn and scanned in. Decide the name of your publication and the name of the featured artist and other content.
6. Photographic session – don’t just take one or two images. Really explore a range of angles and compositions. Post all your shots and comment on the quality of each image. Remember to really consider the selection of your model, their clothing and the location they are photographed.
7. Start to design your magazine front cover first. Use Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher as your main pieces of software. Take screenshots of the techniques and processes you use. Explore the use of different fonts and layouts.
8. Post your final front cover design.
9. REPEAT STAGES 5, 6, 7 for the contents page & double-page spread which need to be posted as drafts on your blog.
DEADLINE
17th December 4.00pm
• All the research and planning completed
• Front Cover Design – completed
• Contents Page and Double Page Spread – as drafts with all necessary photographs taken and article text complete.
Friday 26 November 2010
Music Magazine Media Pack Links
Music Magazine Media Pack Links NME Media Pack http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/hvcjivb3x8p8oqk9bw285ffu.pdf Uncut Media Pack http://www.ipcadvertising.com/resource/ie8ggqzju8kgqdditq67k9hj.pdf Mixmag Reader Profile http://www.mixmag.net/2008/01/29/reader-profile/ Q http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Q/ Mojo http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Mojo/ Kerrang http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/Brands/Kerrang/
Thursday 18 November 2010
Monday 15 November 2010
MUSIC MAGAZINES
Audience
1. Decline of mass market - why? Can music magazines survive? What is their biggest competition? Why?
2. Subcultures and niche markets (segmentation)
3. Empowerment of audience over producers and audience as producers (myspace, etc.)
4. Demographics and generational changes EMAP Audience Research kindly contributed by
5. Audience theory - uses and gratifications [click on this hyperlink to learn about this theory]
6. Archetypes and icons through different eras - magazines 'role' in their 'celebrity'
7. Impact of artists' lifestyles on audience e.g. glamorising drugs (Peter Doherty?)
Observations from AQA course on
The Music Press
History
1. Start at 1950’s
2. Include punk era of the 1970’s
3. Present day including web development
4. Don’t focus on facts, but generic developments, similarities and differences in content
5. Students could carry out a qualitative survey on audience likes, uses and gratifications
6. Focus on age, gender and ‘race’ to investigate consumption
'The Music Press – A Brief History' by Keith Langton
Melody Maker / New Musical Express – 1950s / 60s largely uncritical of musicians’ output – everything was always good! Content: mainly charts and singles, gig listings.
Changes in society in the 1960s with the arrival of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, drug culture of the 1960s – changed the nature of music and music writing.
Early 1970s – “Glam rock” – Sweet, Mud, T Rex and then “Prog. Rock” – David Bowie, ELP and Yes. Music papers still largely uncritical of groups until the Prog. Rock bands begin to spend too much money on staging, lighting and lasers, etc.
Mid 1970s – NME embraces punk – writers begin to move the paper away from simply music writing and start writing about “serious” issues such as politics, philosophy, etc. The “Music Press” becomes divided between Musicians’ papers such as Melody Maker (techniques, “proper music”) and Political papers such as NME (the meaning behind the bands and their songs).
Late 1970s - Early 1980s – readers are abandoning NME because it no longer writes about “normal” bands and is too obsessed with itself and its politics.
1978, Smash Hits launched to focus on “trivia” – favourite colours, food, pop-musicians’ lifestyles, etc. Aimed at a younger audience – polls, letters, surveys – keeps in touch with readership – what do they want? Lyrics, posters, free gifts on the covers...
Style in pop music becomes more important than content – make-up, clothes, the video, fashion and hair.
1980s and 1990s - New layout of magazines – “style” magazines such as The Face and Blitz – experimentation with typefaces, layout, graphic design – making the music press new and more exciting.
Video technology – every single comes with a video, sometimes more money spent on the video than the single. Launch of MTV the first TV market for music videos – a little known band could make lots of money and impact with a well made video.
Today – is there a limited “music press” because “everything is pop culture”? Daily newspapers feature pop stars and “celebrities” appear on daytime TV. People are famous for being famous. Everyone in a band or with some talent assumes that they have a right to be rich and famous.
Guardian Article on The Demise of Smash Hits Magazine / Click Here!
Is the promotion of music today driven more by the Industry or the Audience / Readership? – led by what the readers want or what the Industry needs to promote?
New technologies – print, DTP, video + MTV – how is music “consumed”? How do you listen to music? Buy music? Read about music?
Institution
1. Investigate ownership of magazines: EMAP and IPC Media dominate. What are the consequences?
2. Mainstream vs fanzine/blogs/online communities, etc. - benefits?
3. Editorial independence of mainstream? Advertise to ensure positive reviews/coverage? Content analysis as 'evidence'?
4. Horizontal integration e.g. Smash Hits radio, TV, website but no magazine anymore.
5. Explore narrative: contents of mags, the use of narrative on the front cover
6. Uses / reasoning?
7. Cross promotion e.g. festivals, awards ceremonies, sponsorship, etc.
8. Brand image
'Icons of The Early Music Press' by Keith Langton
The Bands and Musicians
Led Zeppelin – huge 1970s heavy rock band known for their excessive behaviour re. sex and drugs.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP) and Yes – two “prog-rock” bands from the 1970s who would spend huge sums of money on stage shows and touring, often ridiculous amounts of money on stupid things such as carpets to go under the drum kit or “rock operas” on ice – these bands are both made fun of in the film This is Spinal Tap.
Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music – experimental pop / rock band of the 1970s, very innovative until Ferry left to become a rich, pompous, middle of the road crooner and housewives’ favourite.
David Bowie – old rocker, again rather pompous and over the top – often “worshipped” by people in the music press as a genius. Some moments of brilliance in his long career are balanced by his more frequent bouts of stupidity. Bowie is, of course, famous for having one blue eye and one green eye as a result of being hit on the head as a child by his best mate at school.
Iggy Pop – old rocker who specialises in high energy punk. Usually considered to be a living miracle due to the amount of drugs that he has taken and is still alive.
Keith Richards – guitarist with the boring old has-beens The Rolling Stones. Has been on the music scene for over three hundred years and has taken more drugs and shagged more women in his life than any other man alive, even Iggy Pop. Richards, like Iggy, is regarded as a medical case study given that he should be long dead – one rumour is that he flies to Switzerland each year to “have all his blood changed”. He recently fell out of a tree whilst on holiday. Johnny Depp allegedly based the character of Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean on Richards.
The Sex Pistols – talentless punk band who became famous because of their outrageous behaviour to upset everyone and cover them in spit. Lead singer was called Johnny Rotten (now calls himself John Lydon). Debut album was called Never Mind the Bollocks, it’s the Sex Pistols which meant that it was banned in every major music store in the country. The ‘ Pistols’ debut single God Save the Queen should have made Number 1 in the singles charts, but was stopped by a conspiracy of record companies and record stores.
The Clash – slightly more talented punk band from West London who mixed politics with different styles of music such as rock and reggae. Refused to appear on Top of the Pops because it was “selling out” – didn’t worry too much about taking an enormous sum of money from Levi’s jeans when they wanted to use the single Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Billy Bragg – rather holier than thou Socialist / left-wing political singer / songwriter folkie. Led musical support for the Miners’ strike in the early 1980s and campaigned against vicious, right-wing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by leading an ultimately pointless musical political movement called Red Wedge which supported – Neil Kinnock – loser leader of the Labour Party in the 1980s.
Joy Division – humourless Manchester band whose main claims to fame are two superb (but depressing albums) and the fact that their lead singer killed himself. The rest of the band formed New Order after his death. Both bands took their names from World War II Nazi ideas.
Steve Morrissey – humourless Manchester singer / writer who formed the influential, but humourless and depressing band The Smiths – the humourless and depressing themes of their songs included vegetarianism (Meat is Murder) and failed relationships (Girlfriend in a Coma).
“Madchester” – dance bands from Manchester who wore stupid baggy clothing and took too many drugs, thus preventing them from actually achieving any long lasting fame – The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays.
T’Pau – pop / rock band of the late 1980s with limited talent, but an allegedly attractive female lead singer – they had a couple of hit singles before vanishing into obscurity. Moderately interesting fact - Named after Spock’s home planet on Star Trek!
The Journalists on the NME
Nick Kent / Charles Shaar Murray / Nick Logan / Danny Baker / Tony Parsons / Julie Burchill / Penny Smith (photographer) / Chrissie Hynde (went on to front the band The Pretenders)
Other Mentioned Music Magazines
Melody Maker (1926-2000) – boring, but worthy rock and pop music paper with small sections on Folk and Jazz in order to appeal to everybody (ultimately pleasing nobody!). Slow to catch on, so missed the boat on pretty much every new musical movement throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. Very anti-punk in the late 1970s, snootily arguing that the punks couldn’t play their instruments and thus missing the whole point!
Sounds (1970-1991) – upstart rock music paper which changed its style every year to try and appeal to everybody. Championed punk before NME and lead the field in finding new bands before getting fatally distracted by Heavy Metal in the mid-1980s and disappearing up its own bottom as it became the flag-ship of NWOBHM (The New Wave of British Heavy Metal) – reviewing talentless Northern British metal bands such Slayer and Witchfynde. Became somewhat politically dodgy for a period by its support of the Oi! bands of right-wing racist skinheads.
Rolling Stone (1967- Present) – American music paper / magazine which led the way in re-writing music reviewing. Started in “hippy era” San Francisco RS was the first paper to be openly critical of bands, singers and new albums – until then all new albums or singles were reviewed positively so that the writers / publishers didn’t upset the record companies. Began to mix politics and music with articles about musicians’ opinions and ideas on things other than music. Became rather bland and boring in the late 1970s, but continued to sell on the strength of its reputation. Still popular today – still bland and boring, but hey, it’s American, so it’s exciting in Lil’ Ol’ Britain, yeah?
Media Language
1. Identify conventions of The Music Press
2. Analyse front pages
3. Identify the value of genre
4. Explore narrative: contents of mags, the use of narrative on the front cover
5. Mode of address: how mags speak to their audience
6. Editorial vs advertising content - how easy is it to distinguish between the two?
Friday 12 November 2010
The Dance Music Press - Muzik
Reflecting the retrospective sensibility of contemporary dance music issues of Muzik typically mix new music with older stars.
KEY BRAND VALUES: CUTTING EDGE, INFORMED, FUTURE CONSCIOUS CLUB CULTURE.
OWNER: IPC 1995 TO 2003
MASTHEAD: MUZIK
PUFF: NONE
PRICE: £3.90
HOUSE STYLE: POP ART COLOURS – YELLOWS, PINKS AND ORANGE
ADVERTISING PORTFOLIO: DANCE 12” SINGLES, COMPILATIONS, CLUB NIGHTS, HARDWARE, CLOTHING
Muzik was a dance music magazine produced between 1995 and 2003. The magazine reflected the proliferation of dance music from the 1980s onwards. The magazine was less interested in musicians and songwriters and more focused on the role of the DJ and the producer.
Unlike more traditional titles the magazine celebrated the influence of hip hop and the proliferation of sample culture. As well as focusing on the music the magazine also placed records in the cultural context of the nightclub. Unlike competing titles in this sector Muzik was notable for the way in which it positioned new music in relation to its historical antecedents. Many issues emphasize the influence of reggae, punk, disco and hip hop on the evolution of contemporary dance music. Like many magazines since 2000 it could not compete with the Internet and competition from other titles like Jocky Slut and MixMag.
Pop Will Eat Itself: Analysing Muzik and DJ Culture
In an attempt to update the model of music magazine publishing provided by Shukar it is perhaps worthwhile to spend some time considering a new type of magazine that has come to take a big share of the market. In direct contrast to Q, dance-music magazines, aimed variously at club goers, bedroom DJs and anyone with an interest in contemporary pop music, have taken off as CDs have come to dominate the album market, but as sales of 12” singles have risen steadily. It is possible that the success of titles like D.J, Mixmag, Jockey Slut and Muzik are responsible for the death of titles like Vox, Melody Maker and Select. Fairly obviously their rise is inextricable from transformations in music technology in the 1980s and the proliferation of the remix culture.
What is fascinating, however, is the dexterity with which the magazines negotiate the cultural value of the music they write about. For example, in Muzik it is implicit that many of the records reviewed are not composed of originally recorded instrumentation, but rather assembled like a collage from a collection of samples. This is encoded in specialist vocabulary, which refers to ‘drum rolls’ and ‘filter disco loops’. It is also evident in the review of Aphex Twins recent compilation ‘26 Mixes For Cash’ that Muzik sets itself against the mainstream: ‘(D)espite his avowed disdain for the corporate pigs’, suggests Duncan Bell, ‘Aphex actually seems to save his best remix work for artists who don’t deserve it’.
However, there is no suggestion that the magazine is either sub-cultural or for minority listeners. For example, one lead article entitled ‘Hot in Herre’ focuses on the recent ‘cross-over’ success of hip-hop star Nelly, who along with Jay Z is no stranger to the pages of Smash Hits.
What is interesting about Muzik is that it explicitly mediates the same problem of transition from minority to majority listenership first identified by Reisman: ‘Saviour or sell out?’ Rap megastar Nelly shows us how to walk the hip hop-pop tightrope.
In his line of questioning Pete Cashmore does not locate himself either side of that divide, but rather toys with it so that the reader is ultimately unclear where he stands. For example, it is ambiguous when he asks the question ‘Are you mates with Justin (Timberlake – latest male pop sensation)’ whether the question is genuine or merely to draw attention to the rapper’s new lowbrow friends. Ultimately, however, this flippancy seems healthier than the levity of Q because it does not run counter to the wider narrative of the magazine.
Muzik magazine anticipated the way in which an awareness of pop history would shape people’s understanding of contemporary music in the digital age.
In spite of transformations in the technology of its production, contemporary dance music, it would seem, still operates within the same traditional notions of creativity and authorship Andrew Goodwin was talking about in the late 80s. For example, Muzik magazine celebrates DJs and artists whose work is composed mainly of samples in the same way Q or NME champions anyone who can play three chords on a guitar. However, what is truly remarkable compared to other music magazines is the explicitness with which it mediates the history of music.
Recent issues of Muzik magazine have shown a tendency for using the images of stars from the history of popular music as cover-shots for the magazine. The issue from February 2003, for example, was a ‘Three Cover Legends Special’ with identical versions of the magazine featuring period portraits of Madonna, Prince and Kraftwerk. Following on from this, March’s editions showed the faces of both Keith Flint from the 90s techno-pop act Prodigy and Adam Youch (MCA) from 80s white-boy rap ensemble Beastie Boys.
In both these editions of the magazine the articles accompanying the pictures were fairly standard archive reports dwelling upon the contemporary significance of the artists featured. At first glance April 2003s edition of Muzik looks like the third in a trilogy; the headline reads ‘Disco Punk Explosion’ and is accompanied by a single shot of a trashy blonde in layered punk attire. To anyone reasonably conversant with the history of popular music, it is fairly obvious that it is meant to be Blondie singer Deborah Harry.
Closer inspection, however, reveals that this is not Ms Harry: Muzik it would seem has been caught in a pastiche shock: what Jameson characterises as ‘a neutral parody of mimicry; the wearing of a linguistic mask; and speech in a dead language’.
Not only does this suggest the collapse of the relationship between the signifier and the signified but it renders impassive all claims to qualitative aesthetic judgement within. Of course, this is not the case: the cover of Muzik has ‘satiric impulses’, and ‘ulterior motives’.
This is encapsulated in the slogan ‘Dancefloor Anarchy Hits the UK’ However, it is a close thing, and only the physicality of the model performs the slippage between pop present and pop past. It is with relief then that on the opening page of the magazine a picture of the real Deborah Harry appears. It demonstrates that ‘alongside the abnormal tongue’ Muzik has ‘momentarily borrowed, some healthy linguistic normality still exists’. What this inaugurates, however, in the accompanying article is a sensibility in which the understanding of the aesthetic qualities of a new ‘disco punk explosion’ is contingent upon understanding its relationship with the history of the genre.
The relationship between pop past and pop present is mediated explicitly in Muzik in the use of a dual narrative. In ‘Disco Punk Explosion’ the main article is featured in white and catalogues the development of the movement in New York since the summer of 2000. Alongside this, however, runs a second piece entitled ‘The History of Disco Punk ‘79 to 03’ in which the legacy of the genre is considered. This is transforming because unlike other music magazines Muzik has found a way of presenting the clandestine relationship between pop past and pop present, without compromising the integrity of either.
For example, there is no claim that any of the artists featured are the ‘New Slits’ or the ‘New Material’. Instead, a number of artists are interviewed about what they are doing and the way in which this fits into the idea of a movement. There is a self-consciousness about the artificiality of the process that challenges received ideas about sub-cultural innocence. For example, when Ellie Erickson of Erase Errata is asked if she would describe what she does as punk-funk she replies: ‘No, never in a million years. We’ve started calling it dance damage’.
Most refreshing of all, however, is the accompanying discography of unlikely Disco Punk records. Not for Muzik has a glib compilation of usual suspects: The Clash and Blondie, Ian Dury and The Slits. ‘What the F**k Are You Doing Here’ is remarkable for its determination to habilitate outlaws like Cat Stevens and Simple Minds into the vanguard of pop:
(F)rom their Krautrock styled debut album ‘Reel To real Cocophony’ to the trans-Europe impressionism of ‘Empires and Dance’ the band fronted by Jim Kerr (one of Patsy Kensit’s production line of rock star husbands) brilliantly matched propulsive bass lines to arty abstract guitar and synth squiggles.
On the surface this is fantastic because it articulates the meaning of pop aesthetics in an ‘abstract verbal manner’ in a way that Paul Willis’ working class teenagers could still understand. ‘Synth squiggles’ one supposes are within the grasp of most. However, like all the magazines, there is a sense in which Muzik is foregrounding itself. That vocabulary is already within the grasp of those people who read it, in the same way that a ‘multiphonic scream up’ is probably just an every day occurrence in the ‘post Cagean’ life of the ‘tribalist jazzers’ who read Wire. The fragmentation of pop and pop history into niche marketing areas makes it very difficult to have a consensus about what an aesthetic theory of pop might be.
Discussion Points
What music from the past is still considered to be cutting edge or ground breaking?
What enables a band or artist to achieve classic status?
Why is the use of technology in pop music so controversial?
Can the DJ or Producer ever be considered as important as the musician and songwriter?
Who are the most influential figures in dance music today?
Bibilography
Riesman, D (1950). Listening to Popular Music in On the Record – Rock, Pop and the Written Word by S Frith and A Goodwin (1990). London: Routledge.
Q Magazine
The Adult Orientated Mainstream -
Paul McCartney was on the first issue of Q and came back to celebrate its 50th issue: he’s typical of the magazine’s emphasis on older ‘classic’ artists.
KEY BRAND VALUES: MAINSTREAM ADULT ORIENTATED ROCKOWNER: EMAP (1986 TO 2007) BAUER (2007 to present)
MASTHEAD: Q
PUFF: THE GUIDE TO MODERN MUSIC AND MORE / THE ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE
PRICE: £3.90
HOUSE STYLE: RED AND WHITE, BLACK TEXT, CANDID COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
ADVERTISING PORTFOLIO: ALBUM ARTISTS, HI-FI EQUIPMENT, PREMIUM BRAND ALCOHOLIC DRINKS, EXPENSIVE CARS.
Q was launched in 1986 by EMAP. Its founding editors were Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, both of whom had worked on Smash Hits.
In many ways it was an extension of this in that it was colourful and A4. However, it also drew upon the sophisticated journalism of an earlier era: old school NME journalists like Charles Shaar Murray also wrote for the magazine. This reflected the older demographic of readers, who were still music fans in their thirties and forties.
Initially its success was based upon the proliferation of the CD, which generated high levels of advertising revenue. However, the magazine fast became the biggest selling music title in the UK. Though in some respects the magazine pioneered men’s lifestyle journalism, the success of FHM and Loaded threatened the magazine in the mid-1990s (interestingly Dave Hepworth was editor of FHM!). Likewise the decline of album sales in the digital age and what has been described as the ‘death of the bankable cover star’ saw the magazine resorting to lists of 100 greatest singers/ guitarists/ songwriter, etc. for lead feature articles.
Analysing Pop History: Q Magazine and the Mature Mainstream
The notion that what can be identified academically as a sub-culture is not always definitive of opposition or resistance and has been remarked upon by a number of theorists including Gary Clarke and David Laing. Laing in particular has suggested that what Hebdige identified as subculture in punk was simply a discrete genre within mainstream rock. It is with caution then that we must approach the nominal mainstream of the music press occupied by Q Magazine.
Since its launch in 1986 the success of Q has snowballed: by 1990 it had a readership of 170,000 and today it is still the most widely read music magazine. Roy Shukar categorises the magazine as a ‘new tabloid’ and it is easy to see why. It occupies a middle ground for middle of the road, middle aged and generally middle class listeners. Like the Daily Mail, Britain’s most popular newspaper, Q is conservative with a small c. However, with that it encodes a range of cultural prejudices. As Shukar suggests, the success of the magazine is predicted on what is characterised as its objectivity: ‘its non-partisan approach and avoidance of vehemence’, ‘its non-confrontational style of interviewing, and an avoidance of the critic as star form of self-indulgence’.
As Q matured it became more orientated towards male consumers – influenced by lads mags like FHM and Loaded.
At first glance Q appears to adhere to many of the conventions of women’s magazines outlined by Janice Winship in Inside Women’s Magazines. It is slightly smaller than A4 in size and is produced on high quality glossy paper. It places music within the wider culture of pop, however, it explicitly emphasizes the consumer lifestyle of its audience.
This is linked to the origins of the magazine, which are inextricable from the birth of the CD in the 1980s and transformations in male consumption outlined by Frank Mort and Sean Nixon. This appropriation of the tools of female consumption is perhaps connotative of the insidious backlash against feminism in the 1980s outlined by Susan Faludi. However, what is spectacular about Q is that it fails to take account for its own location within a range of variables that determine its own ability to make proclamations of cultural nobility. In its objectivity, Q is blind to issues of race, gender and age and therefore cannot recognise when its own impartiality transgresses these boundaries. It has an ambivalence that neutralises its own performance
Issue 200 is typical of the blithe manner with which Q has come to comport itself. In celebration of this milestone the magazine arrived shrink wrapped in gold foil with the intention, one supposes, of enticing the reader with the thrill of unwrapping a virgin Q.
This outer-layer is adorned with what the reader will assumes is the somewhat prosaic cover within: a photo montage of the star interviews making up this month’s edition including David Bowie, Marilyn Manson and Moby. However, in this protective jacket the magazine also quite intentionally resembles a top shelf pornographic magazine. Once the reader has torn off the jacket, in whichever state of feverish excitement it has managed to illicit, it is apparent that the cover depicted on the foil wrapper is quite different from the one within, and quite purposely so.
The real cover of Issue 200 is grunge star Courtney Love; naked and inebriated with strategically placed feathers. Certainly one could argue that the images are distasteful. Love is well known for courting this kind of publicity. Moreover Q is somewhat gratuitous in its use of them. What is disturbing, however, is not the display of flesh or even that the candid shots look very amateur. Rather it is the entirely non-partisan way in which the accompanying article tells the story that shocks:
Courtney Love went mad in London before Christmas. During a bizarre photo shoot with Q on 23rd December she poured Champagne over her head, stripped naked and spent the early hours of Christmas Eve streaking around the upmarket Park Lane area… Tired and emotional, having learned of former movie co-star Joe Strummer’s death earlier that day Love paraded around the room in just a pair of knee-length socks.
There is a real tension between written and visual narratives. On the one hand, textually it is locating a framework in which the debauched antics of a lewd and mentally unstable middle aged woman are an entirely neutral activity. On the other hand, the visual account is very clearly exploring the ideas that these pictures might be pornographic. I am not going to be so pedantic as to suggest that Love is some sort of victim or that the piece denigrates women. Love is denigrating women and there is no value judgement made about whether porn is a good or bad thing. However, it raises certain questions about the implicit agendas that are encoded in such implicit objectivity.
Another area in which the magazine’s ambivalent stance betrays its own agenda is in the presentation of different generations of musician. Historically the magazine has always championed established artists with lengthy back catalogues. Indeed, the success of Q can largely be attributed to change ageing demography of pop consumers in the 1980s looking to buy classic albums on CD. Thus Q’s first issue featured Paul McCartney, with Mick Jagger following not long after. Q 200 is no exception featuring as it does lead interviews with Keith Richards, David Bowie and Steven Tyler alongside contemporary artists like Justin Timberlake, Christine Aquilera and Craig David.
In the horizontal bizarre that is contemporary popular there is nothing unusual about this. While pop sensations come and go, it is very difficult for newcomers to achieve the legendary status of artists whose recording careers have spanned four decades. However, where Q’s objectivism is disquieting is its refusal to perceive a value difference between Keith Richard and Justin Timberlake. Issue 200 of Q features a series of question and answer interviews in which all interviewees are subject to a tabloid style investigation.
At no point is any reference made to the generational difference between the respondents. Now of course the notion that in 2003 anyone might still want to know what Keith Richard’s bedroom looks like is perhaps a fitting tribute to his enduring appeal.
Likewise, nobody under the age of 40 is going to be impressed that Mr Timberlake’s idea of Heaven is a big long golf course. However, there is real tension between the historical narratives this ambivalence encodes. On the one hand, the juxtapostion of an old trooper like Steven Tyler and the fresh-faced Christina Aguilera confers upon the latter a particular potency: his continuing relevence is secure because his airbrushed visage is appearing just pages away from her nubile physique.
On the other hand, that Aguilera can be found sandwiched between two greats like Tyler and Bowie lends her a particular credibility. Obviously one could argue that by failing to balance the trilogy of Bowie, Richards and Tyler with a female figure like Stevie Nicks or Marianne Faithfull Q is betraying a very specific prejudice. However, the point I want to make is that by refusing to be partisan in the presentation of generational difference this encodes a far from neutral idea of history.
Q mixes older ‘classic’ artists with the biggest stars of the contemporary music scene. Arguable the magazine is sexist for the disproportionate number of older male stars it carries!
For Roy Shukar the construction of history is the one of the foremost functions of rock criticism. He suggests that rock critics are the gate-keepers in the definition of what Shukar characterises as the ‘the reference points, for the highs and lows in development of rock’. This is explicit in Q 200 in an article which celebrates the ‘200 Most Amazing Moments in Q’s Lifetime’. The piece introduces itself with the wry aside: ‘What a strange sixteen years it’s been’. There is no explanation of the rationale or logic behind the compilation of this list.
However, this makes the message all the more resounding. It is implicit that whatever Q has deemed to be the most amazing moments in its lifetime will undoubtedly be based on reasoned objectivity. This is underlined by the empirical certainty of the figure 200. Nor does this imply that greatness can be quantified but it confers an authority on Q to do so because, conveniently, it has produced the same number of issues in that time. The moments that are chosen, however, are not private moments - the birth of its own television channel, for example, or the disappearance of Vox, Q’s closest competitor - but a list of collective moments in popular culture over the last sixteen years. These range from when the character ‘Dirty Den Watts’ from BBC television’s soap opera Eastenders ‘served his missus Angie with divorce papers on Christmas Day 1986’ to George W Bush’s recent demands of Saddam Hussein: ‘You disarm, or we will disarm you’.
On the surface the equivalence Q perceives in the magnitude and significance of these moments is suggestive of much that is wrong in our media dominated world. However, in doing so the magazine is simply delineating the clear and unspoken parameters of non-partisan concern, which establishes a disarming rapport. If Q’s history is our history then so too might our history be Q’s. Not only does this give the moments book-ended by these events a mutual legitimacy but it also raises questions as to how neutral and objective that history is.
The presentation of history is perhaps central to the understanding of the conflicting aesthetics that are at play in the presentation of pop in contemporary music magazines. Respective notions of minority and majority listeners, sub cultural and mainstream groups do not seem to apply to the accounts of pop they offer.
The location of history it would seem is central to understanding the aesthetics that are at play in the dissemination of the music. Andrew Goodwin has argued that in spite of transformations in the technological production of pop it still operates within very traditional notions of creativity and authorship. Likewise it is possible to index the aesthetics at play in contemporary music to the location of history within the same binary of majority and mainstream listeners outlined by Reisman. This is inextricable from the idea that the pop scene is a complex world in which the attitudes and values constitute a symbolic system.
However, it is also a simple function of pop being a lot older than it used to be. Thus within the genre of teen pop typified by Smash Hits one could just as easily be a minority listener excited by Danni Minogues’ appropriation of syncopated Moroder rhythms as a majority listener interested in her hair-do. However, this would be dependent upon a very specific knowledge of pop history. Likewise, as yesterday’s pop stars grow old, majority listeners curious to find out about the extra-curricular activities of their mainstream heroes frequently invade the avant-garde. This too is a function of specific histories. Nominally sub-cultural genres, like metal and indie, represented here by Terrorizer and NME, have majority and minority listeners too; for whom access to highly specialist vocabularies are indexed to specific cultural histories.
Discussion Points
WHO IS THE BIGGEST BAND IN THE WORLD TODAY?
WHY DON’T SOME PEOPLE LIKE THE IDEA OF BEING MAINSTREAM?
IS THERE AN AGE AT WHICH ROCK STARS SHOULD QUIT?
DO PEOPLE’S TASTES CHANGE AS THEY GET OLDER?
Bibilography
Faludi, S (1992). Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women. London: Vintage.
Shuker, R (2001) Understanding Popular Music. London: Routledge.
Winship, Janice (1987) Inside Women’s Magazines. London: Pandora Press
Thursday 11 November 2010
Music magazine checklist
Checklist for your Music Magazine:
1. The Brief
2. LIIAR interpretation of the brief:
L - What does each of your products need to contain e.g. The front page will need to have a masthead etc (list the conventions that are relevant to each product). Which camera angles do you think would be most effective for each of the products? Any ideas of colour schemes that will help you to create a house-style?
I - Perhaps you could pretend that you are producing a magazine for an existing publisher, whose other publications have something in common with yours / are totally different to yours (gap in the market)
I - What message / moral / values do you intend your magazine to convey about your chosen music genre and your target audience?
A - Briefly outline the target audience (you can develop it later when you've made more decisions)
R - How do you intend your target audience / artists / music genre to be represented? i.e. positively / negatively / accurately / stereotypically / unconventionally? etc.
3. Identify and explain choice of music genre.
4. Market research into 3 existing magazines that work within the same music genre as yours (e.g. they are competition). Analyse all of the following for each magazine using LIIAR:- Front page- Contents pages- Double page features
5. Target audience (refine your ideas of target audience using demographics and psychographics - see powerpoint for help)
6. Price / how often published etc and why? (relate back to your refined target audience e.g. what can they afford? etc*
7. Initial ideas based on your market research (thought showers, hand drawn drafts etc - scan them in on the scanner in the edit suite).*
8. Digital mock ups using found images (can be done on Photoshop / Publisher - remember to save as .jpg files)*
9. Planning / development:- Take LOADS of images (remember, you have three products to produce and all of the images need to look like they belong together). Post all of them (or a selection of the best) to your blog and explain your choices.- Start mocking up ideas (can be done on Photoshop / Publisher - remember to save as .jpg files)*
10. DRAFTS!!! - Do absolutely loads of these in Photoshop. - Save your work as a jpg. every time you think that you are finished, get some feedback, post the feedback, then do ANOTHER draft!*REPEAT STAGES 7, 8, 9 & 10 for each of your products e.g. Front cover, contents page, double-page spread*
11. Write your article and post it.- Get it checked.- Get it checked again.- Repost it with mistakes corrected to show your dedication to perfection.
12. Final products posted.
13. Suggest how you would promote the launch of your magazine on the internet e.g. viral marketing campaigns. - Perhaps you could even mock up a homepage for your magazine's own website based on research into existing magazines and their websites.- Suggest how the relationship between the online and print version of your magazine would work e.g. what would be in the print version to make people BUY it rather than looking at it for free online? What are the benefits of engaging the audience via the website?
14. Audience feedback on your final products and ideas for your online version.
15. Respond to audience feedback in LIIAR evaluation of your own work.
16. Do ANOTHER draft of all three products for MAXIMUM geek-osity
:o)All by Christmas please ;-)
1. The Brief
2. LIIAR interpretation of the brief:
L - What does each of your products need to contain e.g. The front page will need to have a masthead etc (list the conventions that are relevant to each product). Which camera angles do you think would be most effective for each of the products? Any ideas of colour schemes that will help you to create a house-style?
I - Perhaps you could pretend that you are producing a magazine for an existing publisher, whose other publications have something in common with yours / are totally different to yours (gap in the market)
I - What message / moral / values do you intend your magazine to convey about your chosen music genre and your target audience?
A - Briefly outline the target audience (you can develop it later when you've made more decisions)
R - How do you intend your target audience / artists / music genre to be represented? i.e. positively / negatively / accurately / stereotypically / unconventionally? etc.
3. Identify and explain choice of music genre.
4. Market research into 3 existing magazines that work within the same music genre as yours (e.g. they are competition). Analyse all of the following for each magazine using LIIAR:- Front page- Contents pages- Double page features
5. Target audience (refine your ideas of target audience using demographics and psychographics - see powerpoint for help)
6. Price / how often published etc and why? (relate back to your refined target audience e.g. what can they afford? etc*
7. Initial ideas based on your market research (thought showers, hand drawn drafts etc - scan them in on the scanner in the edit suite).*
8. Digital mock ups using found images (can be done on Photoshop / Publisher - remember to save as .jpg files)*
9. Planning / development:- Take LOADS of images (remember, you have three products to produce and all of the images need to look like they belong together). Post all of them (or a selection of the best) to your blog and explain your choices.- Start mocking up ideas (can be done on Photoshop / Publisher - remember to save as .jpg files)*
10. DRAFTS!!! - Do absolutely loads of these in Photoshop. - Save your work as a jpg. every time you think that you are finished, get some feedback, post the feedback, then do ANOTHER draft!*REPEAT STAGES 7, 8, 9 & 10 for each of your products e.g. Front cover, contents page, double-page spread*
11. Write your article and post it.- Get it checked.- Get it checked again.- Repost it with mistakes corrected to show your dedication to perfection.
12. Final products posted.
13. Suggest how you would promote the launch of your magazine on the internet e.g. viral marketing campaigns. - Perhaps you could even mock up a homepage for your magazine's own website based on research into existing magazines and their websites.- Suggest how the relationship between the online and print version of your magazine would work e.g. what would be in the print version to make people BUY it rather than looking at it for free online? What are the benefits of engaging the audience via the website?
14. Audience feedback on your final products and ideas for your online version.
15. Respond to audience feedback in LIIAR evaluation of your own work.
16. Do ANOTHER draft of all three products for MAXIMUM geek-osity
:o)All by Christmas please ;-)
TERMINOLOGY
All of the following terminology is relevant to your music magazine work. Use it and get lots of glorious geek marks from the examiner!
Anchorage: a fixing device – the text directs the reader through the signifiers of the image towards a meaning chosen in advance by the producer of the text.
Banner headline: page wide headline.
Brand image: how an institution, a media product or even a person is promoted to create a particular perception or belief amongst the public
Byline: name of the writer.
Caption: headline under a photo.
Codes and conventions: A code is a network of signs, written, visual, artistic or behavioural, which signify meanings that are culturally accepted and shared. A convention is a conduct or practice or method that is commonly accepted and has a tradition. Media texts are constructed using a number of codes and conventions which have agreed meanings.
Connotation: meanings arrived at through the cultural experiences a reader brings to the text.
Deck: the number of lines in a headline.
Denotation: refers to the simplest and most obvious level of meaning of a sign – be it a word, image, object or sound.
Exclusive: a story published by only one newspaper, a scoop.
Headline: words in large type found at the top of the story summarising it, the head.
Ident: an identifying image or sound e.g. a brand logo.
Ideology: the opinions, beliefs and ways of thinking characteristic of a particular person, group, or nation.
Institutions: the organisations or companies that produce and / or distribute media.
Intertextuality: within a text, visual or audio references are made to other texts. It is expected that audiences will recognise such references
e.g. an article in a music magazine entitled 'Hey Jude' about the lead singer of a band who happens to be called Jude, could be said to be an intertextual reference to the Beatles song 'Hey Jude' - an appropriate reference for a music magazine to make.
Kicker: a piece of additional information printed as an accompaniment to a news headline. It is a subordinate clause and comes in present tense. The point size is usually smaller and is placed on top of the headline. When it is placed under the headline it is called a rider.
Layout: arrangement of content, pictures and words, on a print or webpage.
Lead: the first paragraph or two of a news story – sometimes in bold or a larger typeface.
Logo: the identifying design used by a brand to provide recognition.
Masthead: the top of the front page which gives the title and publication date of the newspaper printed in every issue.
Mediation: the process by which an institution or individual or a technology comes between events that happen in the world and the audience who receive the re-presentation.
Niche audiences: the separation of the media audience into segments, each of which have different tastes and concerns.
Puff: a promotion of a product or service.
Representation: media texts are artificial versions of reality, and thus provide certain 'versions' of "the truth" e.g. positive / negative / accurate / inaccurate / stereotypical / unconventional versions.
Socio-economic groups (SEG): AB = Professional, business and white collar; C1 = higher skilled manual; C2 = Lower skilled manual; DE = Semi and unskilled manual.
Stereotype: a standardised, usually oversimplified, mental picture or attitude towards a person or group, place or event.
Strapline: a short statement that sums up a story in a newspaper or magazine in a few words and may appear with the main headline for that story.
Synergy: the process through which is a series of media products derived from the same text is promoted in and through each other.
Target audience: the specific group of people towards whom a media text is directed.
Value Life Styles (VALS): a way of classifying audiences in terms of psychographics in which four main categories have been identified (and then sub-divided into nine lifestyles): 1. groups driven by needs – survivors and sustainers; 2. groups who are outer-directed – belongers, emulators, achievers; 3. groups who are inner-directed – I-am-me, experientals, societally conscious; 4. groups who are both outer and inner directed – integrated.
All of the following terminology is relevant to your music magazine work. Use it and get lots of glorious geek marks from the examiner!
Anchorage: a fixing device – the text directs the reader through the signifiers of the image towards a meaning chosen in advance by the producer of the text.
Banner headline: page wide headline.
Brand image: how an institution, a media product or even a person is promoted to create a particular perception or belief amongst the public
Byline: name of the writer.
Caption: headline under a photo.
Codes and conventions: A code is a network of signs, written, visual, artistic or behavioural, which signify meanings that are culturally accepted and shared. A convention is a conduct or practice or method that is commonly accepted and has a tradition. Media texts are constructed using a number of codes and conventions which have agreed meanings.
Connotation: meanings arrived at through the cultural experiences a reader brings to the text.
Deck: the number of lines in a headline.
Denotation: refers to the simplest and most obvious level of meaning of a sign – be it a word, image, object or sound.
Exclusive: a story published by only one newspaper, a scoop.
Headline: words in large type found at the top of the story summarising it, the head.
Ident: an identifying image or sound e.g. a brand logo.
Ideology: the opinions, beliefs and ways of thinking characteristic of a particular person, group, or nation.
Institutions: the organisations or companies that produce and / or distribute media.
Intertextuality: within a text, visual or audio references are made to other texts. It is expected that audiences will recognise such references
e.g. an article in a music magazine entitled 'Hey Jude' about the lead singer of a band who happens to be called Jude, could be said to be an intertextual reference to the Beatles song 'Hey Jude' - an appropriate reference for a music magazine to make.
Kicker: a piece of additional information printed as an accompaniment to a news headline. It is a subordinate clause and comes in present tense. The point size is usually smaller and is placed on top of the headline. When it is placed under the headline it is called a rider.
Layout: arrangement of content, pictures and words, on a print or webpage.
Lead: the first paragraph or two of a news story – sometimes in bold or a larger typeface.
Logo: the identifying design used by a brand to provide recognition.
Masthead: the top of the front page which gives the title and publication date of the newspaper printed in every issue.
Mediation: the process by which an institution or individual or a technology comes between events that happen in the world and the audience who receive the re-presentation.
Niche audiences: the separation of the media audience into segments, each of which have different tastes and concerns.
Puff: a promotion of a product or service.
Representation: media texts are artificial versions of reality, and thus provide certain 'versions' of "the truth" e.g. positive / negative / accurate / inaccurate / stereotypical / unconventional versions.
Socio-economic groups (SEG): AB = Professional, business and white collar; C1 = higher skilled manual; C2 = Lower skilled manual; DE = Semi and unskilled manual.
Stereotype: a standardised, usually oversimplified, mental picture or attitude towards a person or group, place or event.
Strapline: a short statement that sums up a story in a newspaper or magazine in a few words and may appear with the main headline for that story.
Synergy: the process through which is a series of media products derived from the same text is promoted in and through each other.
Target audience: the specific group of people towards whom a media text is directed.
Value Life Styles (VALS): a way of classifying audiences in terms of psychographics in which four main categories have been identified (and then sub-divided into nine lifestyles): 1. groups driven by needs – survivors and sustainers; 2. groups who are outer-directed – belongers, emulators, achievers; 3. groups who are inner-directed – I-am-me, experientals, societally conscious; 4. groups who are both outer and inner directed – integrated.
Wednesday 20 October 2010
AS MEDIA STUDIES 2010 blog links
C- BLOCK
abrar ahmed http://s0009973.blogspot.com/ d
stacey brocklebank http://s0011820.blogspot.com/ d
zak colby http://www.zacherycolby.blogspot.com/ d
michael - lee davies http://michael-leea2fm3.blogspot.com/
ellie davis http://s0012120.blogspot.com/ d
michael driver http://asmediapractices0012025.blogspot.com/ d
abi duffin http://abiduffin.blogspot.com/
kenny edson http://kennyedeson.blogspot.com/ d
alex foley http://s0012179.blogspot.com/
faran hodgins http://fazzahodge.blogspot.com/
jessica johnson http://jessicasasmediablog.blogspot.com/
becky keegan http://s0011265.blogspot.com/
lucy lowthorpe http://www.lucylowthorpe.blogspot.com/
michael lyth http://s0009404ml.blogspot.com/ left course
josephine paragreen http://s0012322.blogspot.com/ left college
adam parkinson http://s0008112.blogspot.com/
daniel saxby http://www.dsmediastudies.blogspot.com/
karim skalli http://www.s0011622.blogspot.com/
charlotte whiting http://charlottewhitingmedia.blogspot.com/ d
chloe wilkinson http://s0011939.blogspot.com/ d
F-BLOCK
emily bird http://emilybird94.blogspot.com/ d
ben blundell http://benblundell1992.blogspot.com/ d
evie clegg http://evangelineasmedia.blogspot.com/ d
emma fewster http://fewst.blogspot.com/ left course
aimee firth http://aimeefirth.blogspot.com/ d
geordan gaukroger http://geordangaukrogermedia.blogspot.com/ d
miki graham http://mg93asmedia.blogspot.com/ d
jenni hewitt http://jenniatwyke.blogspot.com/ d
jade horn http://jadehornasmedia.blogspot.com/ d
hollie jacobs http://holliejacobsasmedia.blogspot.com/ left course
becky longbottom http://beckylongbo.blogspot.com/ d
harley lough http://harleylough.blogspot.com/ d
lily marks http://lilymarksasmedia.blogspot.com/ d
emily mounsor http://emilymounsor.blogspot.com/ d
ellis robinson http://ellisrobinson.blogspot.com/ d
hannah scott-brown http://hannahscott-brown.blogspot.com/ d
grace shoebridge http://grace-as-media-foundation-portfolio.blogspot.com/ d
ashley willis http://ashleyoliverwillis.blogspot.com/ d
abrar ahmed http://s0009973.blogspot.com/ d
stacey brocklebank http://s0011820.blogspot.com/ d
zak colby http://www.zacherycolby.blogspot.com/ d
michael - lee davies http://michael-leea2fm3.blogspot.com/
ellie davis http://s0012120.blogspot.com/ d
michael driver http://asmediapractices0012025.blogspot.com/ d
abi duffin http://abiduffin.blogspot.com/
kenny edson http://kennyedeson.blogspot.com/ d
alex foley http://s0012179.blogspot.com/
faran hodgins http://fazzahodge.blogspot.com/
jessica johnson http://jessicasasmediablog.blogspot.com/
becky keegan http://s0011265.blogspot.com/
lucy lowthorpe http://www.lucylowthorpe.blogspot.com/
michael lyth http://s0009404ml.blogspot.com/ left course
josephine paragreen http://s0012322.blogspot.com/ left college
adam parkinson http://s0008112.blogspot.com/
daniel saxby http://www.dsmediastudies.blogspot.com/
karim skalli http://www.s0011622.blogspot.com/
charlotte whiting http://charlottewhitingmedia.blogspot.com/ d
chloe wilkinson http://s0011939.blogspot.com/ d
F-BLOCK
emily bird http://emilybird94.blogspot.com/ d
ben blundell http://benblundell1992.blogspot.com/ d
evie clegg http://evangelineasmedia.blogspot.com/ d
emma fewster http://fewst.blogspot.com/ left course
aimee firth http://aimeefirth.blogspot.com/ d
geordan gaukroger http://geordangaukrogermedia.blogspot.com/ d
miki graham http://mg93asmedia.blogspot.com/ d
jenni hewitt http://jenniatwyke.blogspot.com/ d
jade horn http://jadehornasmedia.blogspot.com/ d
hollie jacobs http://holliejacobsasmedia.blogspot.com/ left course
becky longbottom http://beckylongbo.blogspot.com/ d
harley lough http://harleylough.blogspot.com/ d
lily marks http://lilymarksasmedia.blogspot.com/ d
emily mounsor http://emilymounsor.blogspot.com/ d
ellis robinson http://ellisrobinson.blogspot.com/ d
hannah scott-brown http://hannahscott-brown.blogspot.com/ d
grace shoebridge http://grace-as-media-foundation-portfolio.blogspot.com/ d
ashley willis http://ashleyoliverwillis.blogspot.com/ d
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)