Music Magazines Presentation Task –

KERRANG! & Top Of The Pops

Scott Goodwin

Analysing Mise-en-scene & Style of Language used

The background is just a simple plain white/pale grey backdrop, which means there are no distractions from the subjects in the central image.

As for the AC/DC members’ clothing, only a few things are typical of the rock genre, such as the ripped-arms on the black vest, and the black colours in their clothing. Other than that though; suits and flat caps are not typical of the rock genre, as a suit and tie connotes sophisticated music, while flat caps suggest country music, and create the stereotypical image of a farmer. However the misuse of the suit and tie could suggest a rebellious element to the band, which of course is a typical convention of the rock genre. The body language and facial expressions however do suggest a presence of the rock genre, as the almost angry-looking face of Angus Young (left) connotes the whole idea of being ‘extreme’ which is usually associated with rock. Even the laid-back facial expressions and folded arms of Brian Johnson, on the right, have a connotation of rock, as these suggest rock ideas of being ‘cool’ and a bit careless and reckless

The style of language is quite simple and there isn’t a whole lot of it; not making the cover too complicated. This magazine is aimed mainly at a male audience, so this is appropriate, as men stereotypically like things to be laid out plain and simple. The text itself mainly consists of band names and buzz words like ‘exclusive!’ and ‘Free Posters!’ and also uses a superlative- ‘The world’s greatest rock & roll band’

Who do you think the core target audience is for Kerrang! ? Give examples to support your ideas.

Kerrang! seems to be trying to appeal to younger audiences as well as older audiences. For example, having AC/DC as the central (cover) image suggests an audience of an older generation of approximately 30-50 years old or maybe even above. However, featuring a younger band such as ‘You me at six’ widens Kerrang!’s audience, and lowers the age range to late teens (about 16/18) all the way up to 50 years old.

The colour scheme suggests a male audience, as red, black and white are colours which are usually stereotypically associated with males.

What information can you learn about the lifestyle profile/interests of the core target audience from the front cover? Give examples to support your ideas.

From the cover, it is suggested that the core target audience enjoys going to tours and seeing their favourite rock bands play; for example- “Metallica UK Tour Exclusive!”. There are also other mentions here and there about tours and the variations in rock bands and performers suggests the core target audience like a wide range of bands and individuals of the rock genre

What music magazine genre codes & conventions can you identify?

There are plenty of rock conventions present on this magazine cover, one being the colour scheme used; red, white and black are all colours which are usually associated with the rock genre. The clothing in all of the photos appears to be black too, and there are lots of dark colours used throughout the photos

In a few of the photos, typical rock genre clothes are worn, such as a black ripped-arm vest, and leather jackets.

In several of the photos, the band members or individual performers have long, messy hair which is typical of the rock genre

The strange masks in the photo of Slipknot look menacing and rebellious which are connotations which are usually associated with the rock genre

The Masthead looks cracked and damaged which is another aspect of the rock genre; being reckless and sometimes destructive. Also, the ‘cracked’ masthead emphasises the idea that the word ‘Kerrang’ is onomatopoeia for the crashing sound of a drum cymbal; the drums being a popular instrument for the rock genre.

The layout isn’t very organised, and some text is on a slant which supports the idea of being messy and a bit careless; another connotation of the rock genre.

What elements of the house style can you identify?

When looking at other issues of Kerrang!, an aspect of the house style which is consistent throughout each issue are the colours black and white; the masthead is always black and white (although the background and text of the masthead often alternate between black and white) and other features on the cover such as puffs and buzz words are often black or white coloured font. Other than black and white, the house style often consists of a third and sometimes a fourth colour, but these alternate every article and although red is used quite frequently; it isn’t used on every article, as the third and fourth colour can vary between golds, yellows, blues and many other colours.

The layout often has two or three smaller photos across the bottom, with anchorage text just below them, and although the photos and text are often in boxes, they are usually arranged quite messily and give the ‘careless’ appearance which the rock genre often connotes.

The anchorage text for the main (central) image is usually the largest font size (other than the Masthead) and is often tilted slightly to create that, almost disorganised look, often associated with rock.

Similarities and differences between Kerrang!’s and Top Of The Pop’s mise-en-scene

Like in Kerrang!, the central image for Top Of The Pops (TOTP) has a plain white/pale grey backdrop, which means nothing is distracting the reader from the subject in the central image, or from the puffs and articles laid out on the cover

The clothing in the central image is brightly coloured, and consists of colours stereotypically associated with the female gender, which is very different to Kerrang!’s central image which consists of very dark colours, and mainly black; which stereotypically, is associated with males. Bright colours are also very typical of the pop genre, while dark colours are generally colours associated with rock.

Britney’s appearance in TOTP looks very clean-cut and styled in a specific way which is often how pop stars are portrayed in the pop genre, while AC/DC look slightly rugged with their long hair, and Brian Johnson’s ripped-arm black vest, and this is a look which is a consistent convention of rock which many rock stars use.

Britney’s body language and facial expression is slightly seductive; and despite pop stars being typically sensible and supposedly role models for children, this seductive pose is something which female pop stars in the pop genre seem to do quite frequently. Her gentle-looking facial expressions and small smile connote innocence which is juxtaposed when looking at the facial expressions of the AC/DC members; menacing, laid-back but quite tough looking.

Layout, style of language & mode of address

The layout for TOTP is much more organised than Kerrang! and this supports the typical conventions of the pop genre; as pop is usually neat and styled. The articles listed on the left hand side are in a column layout, and fall in quite an organised-looking way below the masthead. Although the anchorage text for the central image is slightly slanted which is quite similar to Kerrang! as the rock genre is typically a bit rough and careless, it slots quite neatly in the centre; again supporting the typical conventions of the pop genre.

There is a lot more content on the cover of TOTP, as TOTP’s core target audience are girls aged about 8-14; and children prefer to see lots of interesting things rather than a scarce amount of articles on the cover; as children buy a magazine based on appearance much more than teenagers and adults do. (Teenagers and adults usually buy a magazine based on the articles themselves and who they involve. Children do too, but appearance plays a much bigger part on a children’s magazine). Kerrang!’s cover consists of not as much content as TOTP, but still a fair amount, just less writing about the article content and mainly only the mentioning of band names. This works well for Kerrang!’s core target audience, as males stereotypically like things to be laid out plain and simple and to the point; they don’t need sneak peeks of what the article is about on the cover to make them buy the magazine; they just need to know which band is being interviewed. Kerrang!’s layout is much less organised than TOTP’s, and is quite ‘messy’ which is a convention typical to the rock genre; often careless, quite disorganised and sometimes a bit rough.

TOTP gives you much more information on the cover about articles inside than Kerrang! does and this is appropriate for TOTP’s core target audience, as the readers would be intrigued by these ‘sneak peaks’ and ‘teasers’ and this would be a large selling point to the magazine. While Kerrang! only mentions band names and who’s interviewed inside along with mentions of tours and ‘Free Posters!’.

TOTP uses alliteration in the anchorage text for the central image ‘Oh Behave, Britney!’ and uses a few buzz words, like mentioning several ‘free!’ things which come with the magazine, as well as a slang word which could be considered a buzz word – ‘It’s a whopper!’

The mode of address used in TOTP isn’t very clear from the style of writing, as little of the anchorage text or other pieces of text used on the cover seem to address the reader (eg- ‘you could win…’ etc). There are however, rhetorical questions asked on the cover, for example, “Which pop star was a school misfit?” and this creates a direct mode of address, as the magazine appears to be personally asking the reader a question. Another point which supports this is Britney is giving a direct gaze on the central image, which suggests the mode of address is direct to the reader. Kerrang! is very similar in that sense, as the text itself does not seem to address the reader at all; as most of the text is just band names. The images on the cover such as the central image of AC/DC and the image below of ‘You Me At Six’ however all have direct gazes; which connotes a direct mode of the address once again to the reader.

Music Genre Conventions

TOTP complies to many of the typical pop music genre conventions, one of which being the colour scheme used. The colour scheme consists of very bright colours; which is a convention commonly used by the pop genre. Specifically, the colours used are white, variations of pink, purple, and yellow. Although these are all colours stereotypically associated with the female gender; pop is mainly aimed at a female audience, and TOTP’s core target audience appears to be mainly young females (aged 10-15 years old) so these colours are very appropriate for the magazine and its core target audience.

The central image of Britney also fits many of the conventions of pop, as pop stars typically are very stylised to make them look a particular way, they also are very neat-looking and clean cut to create the look of ‘perfection’ and innocence. Both of these conventions agree to Britney’s central image in TOTP, as her clothing has been styled to look bright, bubbly and also connote confidence, whilst Britney herself has been made to look innocent and very clean-cut.

Oddly; Britney’s facial expressions and body language suggest an almost seductive nature about them; which is surprising for a young girls’ magazine- as the BBC is meant to be trusted to send out a good message, and give children appropriate role models. Although you’d think that this doesn’t fit conventions of the pop genre, it is quite common for female pop stars to be shown in this way; therefore this magazine cover fits another pop genre convention.

The masthead for TOTP is very rounded, and quite clear and bold; and this could be suggested to comply to a pop genre convention; as the very rounded font could suggest the idea again of ‘perfection’, whilst the neat boxed-layout of the masthead could fit the pop convention of being very stylised.

Music artists featured and the audience they appeal to

In TOTP, the artists featured are Britney Spears, Eminem, and S-Club. Britney Spears (at the time this magazine was released) was very popular with many young girls (pre-teens to teenagers) which makes Britney a perfect artist to use for the central image; as the core target audience of TOTP is young girls aged 10–15, meaning in theory; they would be the right age group and gender to be big fans of Britney. Eminem is a bit of an oddball for TOTP’s core target audience; as you wouldn’t expect to see him on the magazine – he isn’t exactly the best role model for the children reading the magazine, especially as he is known to swear in most/all of his songs, which is even suggested by the anchorage text below the image, “Another [BLEEP]-ing Eminem interview”. The audience Eminem appeals to doesn’t exactly mirror the audience which TOTP appeals to; as you would expect Eminem’s audience to consist of mainly males ages 15-25; which certainly isn’t the target audience for TOTP magazine. S-Club suits the target audience for TOTP well, as they both have a similar audience they appeal to. S-Club’s target audience consisted of children both female and males of about 7-13 (Maybe even a bit above) and despite S-Club having a slightly lower age range and a mixed gender of audience, S-Club are still appropriate for TOTP, as they are a pop band, but are also good role models for the children readers (as opposed to Eminem).

As Kerrang! has a very different core target audience to TOTP; their range of artists featured are almost the opposite of the artists featured in TOTP. The artists featured consist of AC/DC, You Me At Six, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. AC/DC have a very wide age range in their target audience, as they were very popular in the past, but they have also made a comeback recently; making them more popular with younger audiences. AC/DC appeals to an audience of mainly males aged 30-50, but also many fans aged 16-25 which widens their target audience from ages 16-50; this fits Kerrang!’s target audience well, as there is such a wide range of fans of AC/DC. You Me at Six appeal to quite a young audience, and the target audience’s ages certainly don’t go as high as 50 years old. This tells me that Kerrang! is trying to appeal to all ages; featuring both older bands and younger bands. Red Hot Chili Peppers, like AC/DC, also have a wide age range for their target audience; as they were formed 29/30 years ago. The audience Red Hot Chili Peppers appeal to are mainly males aged 15-45; which fits the wide age range that Kerrang! already has.

Special features & articles & Overall techniques used to make you read the complete magazine

Both TOTP and Kerrang! come with ‘free’ items. TOTP came with ‘Free pop badges’, whilst Kerrang came with ‘Free posters’. These could be considered special features to the magazines, as well as selling techniques to make you buy and read the whole magazine just for the free badges or posters. TOTP’s articles on the cover give hints to what the articles inside are about; and tempt the reader into reading the complete magazine, whilst Kerrang! only mentions band names on the cover, and who they’ve interviewed. Although Kerrang! doesn’t use the same techniques to make you read the whole magazine as TOTP, only mentioning band names rather than story hints appeals to males more (Kerrang! being a mainly male audience of readers) as males stereotypically like things plain and simple, and the little information and detail on the cover appeals to the male eye more than cheesy story sneak peeks, and lots of information about ‘what’s inside?’

Many of TOTP’s articles on the cover give little sneak peeks into the stories inside without giving too much away. This really tempts TOTP’s target audience and makes them desperately want to find out more about the articles. Often, the article stories on the cover aren’t always the same as the stories inside; as they’ve been cleverly worded to intrigue you, when in fact; there really was no interesting story at all, or the story turned out to be some misunderstanding. The rhetorical questions on the cover, “Which pop star was a school misfit?” and “What’s given Jon S-Club the hump?” create a direct mode of address to the reader, making them feel more involved with the magazine, and again; making them want to read on.

As for Kerrang!’s techniques used to make you read the whole magazine; they are very different from TOTP. There aren’t any real sneak-peeks on the cover to tempt you to read the whole article, only the mention of band names (who they interviewed). The mention of band names is certainly a selling point for Kerrang!, as the bands are quite popular; especially with Kerrang!’s target audience, therefore the reader would be eager to find out what one of their favourite bands said, in the interview. The puffs and smaller images on the cover and the use of popular band names are Kerrang!’s main techniques used to make you read the whole magazine. There are other techniques, such as the mention of free posters; but also the mention of tours – as readers would be eager to find out the dates for the tours; as most of the readers would be eager followers of the bands in the magazine; so seeing them on tour would be ideal for them.