MUSIC MAGAZINES: MEDIA LANGUAGE- notes

 

MUSIC MAGAZINES: MEDIA LANGUAGE
Look carefully at the front covers of MOJO and RNR magazines. 
QUESTION: How far do MOJO and RNR use different media language to create different connotations? (CONNOTATION meaning: an idea or quality that a word makes you think about in addition to its meaning.)
Answer on your blog. This is a high-value question and should take all lesson to answer. You can use the class blog search engine for more examples of how to analyse music magazines.
In your answer you should have 2 paragraphs:

• analyse the media language in MOJO and RNR magazine. 'Media language' includes the placement of the main image, the type of photography, lighting, colours, fonts, how busy or restrained the cover is, the layout (such as alignment to the margins), how serious or playful 

• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently in both extracts to create different connotations. Are there similarities in both covers? What sorts of audiences are they targeting? You could think about MOJO's rock aesthetic of living loud and dangerously compared to RNR's folk, rock, blues vibe. 

mojo:  

'adventures': excitement, energy, fun, breaking out are supported by the article title

pull quote: quote from dave. Language suggests that they have struggled for their art, experienced

 drama and danger. This media language reflects a stereotypical Rockstar lifestyle. The dark, angry and party style. 

funerals: of friends- who died through excess living. 

font: big and bold, fun, exciting, loud, colourful, candy cane style, fun, bubbly, sans-serif= informal, rebellious- against the tradition, write their own rules. 

checked shirt, informal, big smile energy= welcoming, looks like he will go mad from adventure

RnR:  

comes across more calm, professional, meeting your eye confidently, warm colours

yoga: peace, tranquil, meditation, relaxation, inner-strength

camomile tea: relaxed, take before bed, warming, comforting

three Our Fathers: beginning of lords prayer- 

suggests his lifestyle is more retired, slow, quiet, meaningful, spiritual 

MOJO's cover is quite cluttered and busy because of its numerous cover lines, images and puffs as well as a very dynamic cover mount in neon colours with a vibrant cartoon image. 

RnR also has many coverlines but they are more minimalistic and justified to the RH margin. They are exclusively in white creating a calm, orderly, uncluttered organised quality. Equally the cover mount with its modest verbal play unheard is very plain and streamlines. 

Although both magazines feature a star as the centre of visual interest and both magazines celebrate that star, MOJO does so in a more dynamic, aggressive, confrontational way compared to RnR's gentle, low-key, folksy vibe. This is because MOJO targets a primarily rock audience while RnR is aimed at folk and blues audiences. 

Although both music magazines feature many articles which is typical of music magazines, RnR is more orderly and restrained. 

MOJO's choice of colours is vibrant, electric and dynamic. Particularly in the primary colours of the cover mount with its playful skeleton. By contrast, RnR uses soft, dull browns and only red as an accent colour.