There are a wide variety of different music genres. Everybody has his or her own taste, and the music industry has something for everybody. A few of the genres that are most popular are: Indie, Rock, Hip-Hop and Dance.
Indie – Independent music is shortened and better known as indie music. ‘It is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing.’ In 1980 the first ever indie chart was made. However indie was never easily heard of or flourished well during the 1950’s and 1960’s, because the major record companies in the United Kingdom had so much power that this was not possible. A stereotype of an indie band is that they do not like to spend money on advertising and they sell their music through websites e.g. Myspace. Busking or street performances.
Razorlight
Razorlight are an extremely well known and famous band within the indie scene. They are known as an English-Swedish indie rock band and were formed in 2002. They are one of the indie bands that have made it in the charts with their single called “America” in 2006. It was their bands first number 1 single. The band consists of 4 members: the lead singer and rhythmic guitarist. Guitarist Bjorn Agren. Bass guitarist called Johnny Borrell. Finally David Kaplan who is the drummer. I have created another post with an embedded video of their single America.
I chose to annotate this magazine front cover because NME often advertise indie music so I chose this as my indie magazine example. It is clear that this magazine was published during the Christmas season and they have made sure that the graphics, text and picture all follow the seasonal theme. The colours they have used are often linked to Christmas e.g the red and green. The biggest word is from the main cover line and is 'Christmas' which adds to the seasonal theme. The masthead still looks like the company's logo which is also just adapted to the Christmas theme. Here is the original logo...
The masthead is also bold and clear and still stands out from the rest of the text on the magazine front cover. The main picture is of the arctic monkeys and they are included in the main coverline linking the two of the together. NME have used different shapes for their puffs/plugs, using shapes draws the eye of the reader in, inside the puffs/plugs is usually the most influential information that will make you want to buy the magazine again or even this issue itself. For example the top puff/plug they mention 'free giant tour pictures.' This magazine front cover also follows the left third rule with majority of the text being on this third. Here is the magazines website http://www.nme.com/ Rock
Rock music is very popular and became mainstream in the 1960's and is often known as 'rock and roll'. The typical instruments found in a rock band are obviously the vocals, guitar, bass and drummer and sometimes keyboards. There are a variety of sub terms under rock a few of them being punk-rock, hard rock, progressive rock and even metal. Elvis Presely and The Beatles made rock music very famous and became well known. The official charts have even made a separate charts list for rock music. Here is the link...
Avenged Sevenfold
Are an extremely well known band on the rock scene. They are an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California and formed in 1999. Recently one of their band members called 'The Rev' died from heart disease due to alchol and drugs. The rock style life is considered to be hard and tough and 'The Rev' certainly proved this as have many others from the rock scene. So far the band have released 5 studio albums, one live album/dvd/compliation and 15 singles. Their most recent album called Nightmare which was released in 2010 debuted on the top spot of the Billboard 200. I have embedded one of their videos called 'Nightmare.'
This is a Kerrang magazine which includes Avenged Sevenfold on the front cover. I have annotated the magazine using the correct media terms for the conventions of the magazine. Kerrang are such a big brand that not only do they have a magazine and a website they also have a radio station and music video channel. Kerrang is published by IPC Media Here is Kerrang's website http://www.kerrang.com/
The main coverline links to the main picture as the main coverline is talking about the band and the picture is of the band. The photographer has guided the band to make eye contact with the band which makes the reader and the magazine connect, this is used as a selling strategy. The have followed a colour scheme which uses only 3 main colours the text being mostly either yellow, white or red. The majority of the picture is black which makes the coloured text stand out on the front of it. The tagline also follows the colour scheme used, using the red font makes t stand out because in that section of the magazine there is no red text. The font is a sans serif font which makes it more modern.
However this magazine does not follow the generic magazine rules because the majority of the information/text is not on the left third of the page. Again like the previous magazine, NME, Kerrang also sell their magazine by advertising what you get for 'free' when really your paying for it as you are buying the magazine.
Kerrang is so well known because they tend to follow the same layout so people recognize this, as well as the type of genre they sell, this being rock. Here is the whole of Kerrang's name/logo...
Hip-Hop
Hip-hop has 4 main areas these being: Rapping,DJing/scratching, sampling and beat-boxing. Hip-Hop began in New York in the 1970's and became mainstream worldwide during the 2000's. Not only is Hip-Hop a music genre but it is also a culture, included in the culture is graffiti and break dancing. Rap artists are also considered as Hip-Hop and their songs are often written by themselves about personal experiences. A good example of this is a rapper called Eminem.
Eminem
Eminem, his real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III was borin in October 1972. He is obviously most famous for his rapping, He was labelled the best rapper alive by Vibe Magazine. As well as 79th on the VH1 100 greatest artists of all time. His third album The Eminem Show won a grammy award. To date Eminem has recieved 11 Grammy's. He then went on to open up his own record label called Shady Records which increased his popularity. He also starred in his own film in which he played the main role, it was called 8 Mile, the song Lose Yourself was played in it and the song became the longest running Hip Hop single. I have embedded the song Love the Way You Lie featuring Rihanna, from the album Recovery.
This magazine front cover is very simplistic and doesn't involve much being on the front cover. Personally I prefer these kind of magazine front covers because I think they look neat and tidy. There is one puff/plug which is selling what is in the magazine and links to the main picture, Eminem. The main coverline and only coverline also sells Eminem. Overall the only information on the front cover is what the main subject of the magazine is going to be about.
The masthead uses bright colours and the front cover only uses 3 main colours, these being red, white and black. The name of the magazine is XXL and the size of the font resembles the name as it is in large font.
Dance
Dance music is often upbeat and uses a rhythm and tempo that makes you want to dance. Dance music is often the only genre of music that is played in clubs. Dance music originated from folk dance music which accompanied the traditional dance, hence the name. Dance music has enlarged its sub-genres every 10 years, here is a copy of a time line.
1980s - new wave, synthpop, funk, house, acid house, techno, freestyle, electro, eurodisc
1990s - eurodance, euro house, progressive house, techno, trance, new jack swing, happy hardcore, UK garage
2000s - trance, electropop, snap music, crunk, dance punk, nu-disco, electro house, dubstep, electronica
2010's - electropop, electro hop, nu-disco, synthpop, trance, house, dance pop, new rave, electroclash, dubstep, breakbeat, hard style
Ministry of Sound is one of the biggest and well known company's that deal with dance music, not only having their own website but also their own record label, merchandise, TV channel and the original Ministry of Sound nightclub in London, and also one in Egypt.
Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris is well known in the dance genre with his second album Ready for the Weekend reaching number 1 in the charts on the 23rd of August. 2 singles from the album made it in the charts as well, these were: Ready for the Weekend and I'm Not Alone which reached number 1.A remix album titles L.E.D Festival was released in July 2010 as a free album in the dance music magazine Mix Mag. Here is the annotated magazine front cover of this issue...
Personally I prefer this style and layout of this magazine to the others, this is because it is modern due to the use of sans serif font and it also includes simplicity. Their masthead is on top of the picture unlike kerrang where the picture was on top of the masthead, I think that Mix Mag's idea is better. The magazine front cover follows the left third idea with the coverlines being on the correct side however the text is slanted which draws your eye into the main picture of Calvin Harris. Which links the picture and the main coverline together. There is a colour scheme for this front cover which is pink and black which fits with the month that the magazine was sold (July). This magazine included a free CD which is not on this front cover but it would be put in the bottom left hand corner to also follow the sales strategy of the left third. This magazine contains more of the conventions of a music magazine then any of the other music genres, and I have found this front cover more influential.
The first flat plan is for my front cover for my Student Magazine. I wanted to include a tag line to my magazine, because they are thought to be catchy and if people remember the tag line they will remember your magazine. Magazines use them as a way of being 'remembered' it is also a selling strategy. I will choose a tag line that fits with the theme of it being a Student Magazine and can be easily remembered. I also chose to include the college website so it was easily accessible for students. My main cover line will be the biggest and boldest font so that it catches peoples attention as will the puffs/plugs that I will also include, inside one of the shapes I will include that the magazine is free. My main photo will follow the rule of thirds and ensure that there is enough room to include my masthead and will be taken in portrait to suit the proportions of my magazine size as well as the photo being taken in medium close up. The majority of the coverlines and pull quotes (information) will be on the left third as this is a sales stragety, in the hope that it will attract peoples attention, because when magazines are put on shelves they are put so in a way that the left third is visable.
My second flat plan is for my contents page. I want my contents page to be very simple and clear so that the information will not become lost in all the text and pictures included. In the contents page I will put the page number with a short and relevant statment next to it. I will include the page numbers with the information which I believe is more likely to entice the reader to carry on looking at the magazine and read it. The font used will be clear and bold. Included in this flat plan is space for a few pictures this is so that the page is visually interesting for the reader. The photographs used will be taken around the college and of students so that the readers can relate to what is included in the magazine.
Here is some more planning for my Student Magazine it is a brainstorm of my initial ideas. These are the ideas that I came up with when we were told of the task, I will narrow them down to the ideas that I will use in my final Contents Page and Front Cover and these will be included in my proposal, which I shall also upload. I have included a variety of options for each aspect of my magazine.
