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?