The Music Press
Exploring the Genre
British music magazines
British music websites
Genre
GENRE: a type or group of something.
In Media Studies, genre means texts (films,
magazines, websites etc) which can be grouped
together because they have a lot in common.
Typical genres include: horror films; celebrity
gossip magazines; cooking programmes. Can
you think of other genres?
The genre of the Music Press includes
magazines and websites which are completely or
mainly about music.
Use your knowledge. Which of these websites and magazines
fits into the genre of the Music Press? Can you explain why
some fit the genre and some don’t?
MAGAZINES
Mixmag
Metal Hammer
Radio Times
Cosmo Girl
Q
OK
Mojo
Top of the Pops
We Love Pop
Echoes
WEBSITES
Kerrang!
Smash Hits
Facebook
The Daily Mail:
entertainment section
The Wire
NME (New Musical
Express)
Spin.com
Drowned in Sound
Genres of Music
 As well as being a genre in itself, the Music
Press also covers different kinds of music.
 Each kind of music is also a genre.
 So the genre of ‘the Music Press’ covers
different genres of music such as ‘pop’ ‘hiphop’ ‘metal’ ‘classical’ and so on.
 Some magazines and websites only deal with
one genre of music, some cover all kinds of
music.
Match texts to the genre
Texts
Metal Hammer
Smash Hits
Mojo
Q
The Wire
Mixmag
Drowned in Sound
Echoes
Rago magazine
DJ mag
We Love Pop
Kerrang!
Genre
Hip-hop / rap
‘Alternative’
Dance music
Classic Pop / Rock
Metal
Pop
Genre trees
Music
Genre
Pop
Top of We Love
the Pops
Pop
Metal
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Can you extend or add to this with other genres of
music, or subgenres of music and find any magazines
or websites that go with them? Are there any genres
of music which DON’T have a magazine or website?
Watch…
 How the Music Press reflect the image of the
genre in Clip 3: Designing Page Layouts
(5.40 – 6.42)
Magazine front covers
 All music magazines look like magazines!
 They use the basic conventions (typical
things) of magazine design and layout, so
we all recognise that they are magazines.
 Look at these front covers. What do they all
have in common?
http://www.mixmag.net/media-kit/about/the-worldsbiggest-dance-music-and-clubbing-magazine
Watch…
 The Kerrang! Editor talking about the front
cover in Clip 1 Who Does What (5.30 – 6.09)
 Clip 2 The Front Cover (all, 0.00 - 6.15)
 Brand identity in Clip 10 The Word (3.15 –
4.18)
The Conventions
Focus on one front cover:
http://cover.mojo4music.com/Item.aspx?pageNo=1838&yea
r=2012
Find the
 Mast head (title graphic)
 Strap line (tells you about the magazine)
 Main image (usually a close up of a person / group)
 Secondary images (smaller images, around the edges)
 Cover lines (tell you what is in the magazine)
 Menu strip (list of extras, often along the bottom)
 Sweet spot (where the eye is drawn to first, generally
the left side, half-way down)
 Institutional information (price, issue number,
publisher, bar code etc)
Using codes to analyse front covers
Look again at the cover and think about:
Colour codes –what colours has the magazine cover used - mainly
pinks and pastels? Fresh greens and yellows, or mainly blacks and
reds? What do each of these colour groups suggest or connote? How
does this relate to the image of the magazine, to the image of the band
or musician, and to the image the audience has of itself?
Non-verbal codes – what are the typical facial expressions and
gestures of the people on the cover? Why? What do these expressions
and gestures symbolise? Are they warm, friendly, aggressive,
frightening? Again, how does this relate to the image of the magazine,
to the image of the band or musician, and to the image the audience
has of itself?
Technical codes – how are the images lit? Put together? Cropped?
Orientated? What kind of image do these codes create? How does this
relate to the image of the magazine, to the image of the band or
musician, and to the image the audience has of itself?
Sketch a plan of a front cover,
blocking in and labelling the key areas
Use these labels, use some
more than once. Add other
labels where you need
them. Add more areas to
your sketch plan if you need
them.
•Strap line
•Cover line
•Main image
•Secondary image
•Mast head
•Institutional information
•Sweet spot
1
2
4
3
5
6
7
8
Comparing genres: front covers
All magazine front covers use the basic conventions (typical things), but
each genre uses them in different ways.
 Look at these two covers:
http://www.kerrang.com/blog/newissue/
http://www.totpmag.com/
 Compare the:





Layout: is it busy, cluttered, clean empty classy? What is the effect
of this?
Design: the use of colour codes, the fonts, the images. What
impression does each one create? Aggressive? Dark? Friendly?
Content: how does the content differ to suit the genre? Choice of
bands / artists? The angle on the bands / artists? Other content?
Mode of address: how does each one ‘talk’ to the reader? Does is
see you as a friend?
Ideology: what sort of values and attitudes does the magazine
seem to promote? Is bad behaviour cool? Is being pretty
important?
Non-verbal codes: the gaze
Non-verbal codes include facial expressions, posture and gestures.
Non-verbal codes are particularly important to magazine front covers
because they usually have a person or group as the main image. The
person or people in the main image nearly always gaze at the reader.
This catches the reader’s eye, and is more likely to make them notice
the cover.
Compare the way the person or people gaze at you on the two different
front covers. Think about:
Do different kinds of performers use different kinds of gazes?
Who uses the provocative or sexual gaze?
Who uses the cheeky or mischievous gaze?
Who uses the challenging or aggressive gaze?
Who smiles?
Is the smile sexual or friendly, cheeky or self-confident?
Who doesn’t smile? What is the effect of this?
What do these expressions and gestures tell us about the performer?
How does this relate to the image of the magazine, to the image of
the band or musician, and to the image the audience has of itself?
The conventions of websites
 All music websites look like WEBSITES! They use the basic conventions
(typical things) of website design and layout, so we all recognise that they are
websites.
 Look at this home page: http://www.mixmag.net/
 Focus first on what is ‘above the fold’ – what you can see without scrolling
own.
 Identify the








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Grid (the layout of the frames - the frames are areas for specific content)
Banners (horizontal sections of the page, often across the top and bottom,
sometimes with adverts in)
Sidebars (vertical sections, usually at the side of the page, often containing
separate or additional content)
Links (to navigate between different pages of the website, and to link to
other sites)
Flash content (moving image content such as film footage and animations)
Interactive content (where the audience can interact and contribute)
Graphics (logos, design elements, images)
Main image, secondary images
Headings and sub-headings
Sketch a plan of a home page,
blocking in and labelling the key areas
Use these labels, use some
more than once. Add other
labels where you need them.









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Grid
Banners
Sidebars
Links
Flash content
Interactive content
Graphics
Main image, secondary
images
Headings and sub-headings
Widgets
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Comparing genres: home pages
 All website home pages use the basic conventions (typical things). But
each genre uses them in different ways.
 Look at these two home pages:
http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/
http://www.welovepopmag.co.uk/
 Compare the:





Layout: is it busy, cluttered, clean empty classy? What is the effect
of this?
Design: the use of colour codes, the fonts, the images. What
impression does each one create? Aggressive? Dark? Friendly?
Content: how does the content differ to suit the genre? Choice of
bands / artists? The angle on the bands / artists? Other content?
Mode of address: how does each one ‘talk’ to the reader? Does is
see you as a friend?
Ideology: what sort of values and attitudes does the magazine
seem to promote? Is bad behaviour cool? Is being pretty important?
Watch…
 Website design and image in: Clip 3:
Designing Page Layouts (3.31 – end)
Compare a front cover and a home page
for the same title.
Try: http://www.kerrang.com/
and
http://www.kerrang.com/blog/newissue/
Layout: how are they similar or different? How do they organise
the content for easy reading?
Design: do they both have the same house style / brand image?
Content: What content do they have in common? (Masthead?
Main image? Headings? Copy?) And what content is different? (a
web page can hold a lot more content than a front cover)
Mode of address: They both want you, the reader, to go further
into the website or magazine. How does each one encourage you
to read more?
Ideology: is this the same in the magazine and website? The
website might be less regulated than the magazine, so have less
controls over its content.
Page layout
 It is not just front covers and home pages that follow conventions.
Most magazines include a two-page spread for their main articles.
 Look at a two-page spread:
 http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=8&title=florence_rules_t_in_t
he_park_inside_this&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
 Which of these conventions are used?
 Primacy of image (the image, not the copy is the main thing on
the page)
 One, two or three column layout (keeps the copy organised and
easy to read)
 Multiple points of entry (lots of different places to start reading)
 Sidebars (vertical content to add extra info, break up the copy
(writing), another point of entry)
 Lots of headings and sub-headings (helps organise and break
up the copy, draws the reader in, provides more points of entry)
 Pull quotes (parts of the text taken out and used as headings)
 Copy bleeding into image (writing covers part of the main image)
Watch…
 The Kerrang! Team talking about feature and
news articles in Clip 1 Who Does What (6.10
– 14.17)
 Clip 3 Designing Page Layouts (0.00 – 3.30).
Comparing genres: page layouts
Compare two double-page spreads articles from different genres
of magazine.
 Layout : is it busy, cluttered, clean empty classy? What is the
effect of this? How are the conventions used?
 Design: the use of colour, the fonts, the images. What
impression does each one create? Aggressive? Dark?
Friendly?
 Content: how does the content differ to suit the genre? Choice
of bands / artists? The angle on the bands / artists? Other
content?
 Mode of address: how does each one ‘talk’ to the reader?
Does is see you as a friend? Is it amusing? Or mocking?
 Ideology: what sort of values and attitudes does the magazine
seem to promote? Is bad behaviour cool? Is being pretty
important?
Summary 1
 Explain the following terms:
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
Genre
The genre of the music press
Genres of music
Conventions
Design
Layout
Mode of address
Ideology
 Name 5 things you would typically find on a magazine front cover
 Name 5 things you would typically find on a website home page
 Name 5 things you would typically find in a feature article