Rock Sound Magazine Analysis

Jordan Randall

The use of neon colours for the masthead and main cover line, instantly make this cover stand out against the other magazines on the shelf

The top strip boasts a “massive” Twenty One Pilots poster special. Many fans of the rock genre (which the magazine is aimed at) will also be Twenty One Pilots fans so this will interest them

5 Seconds of Summer are more popular in mainstream music and media than many of the other bands and artists featured so having them on the front cover will attract a new and larger audience to the magazine

Halsey has very recently released her debut album which catapulted her into the public eye and many people are talking about her. Having her on the cover will intrigue many potential readers

The contents page is broken down into ‘News & Regulars’, ‘Exposure’, ‘Features’, ‘Albums’ and ‘Lives’. However, it does not follow the conventions of magazines where each feature is scattered throughout the magazine. In this magazine all ‘Exposure’ articles are together, all ‘Albums’ are together etc.

Another feature unique to this magazine is the small previews of the articles and pages in this issue

“turns out being raised on Biggie and Nirvana creates superstars” is a reference to Halsey’s song New Americana, fans of Halsey will understand this intertextuality

The main article mentions how fans of other bands such as Twenty One Pilots, All Time Low and Pierce The Veil (bands readers are likely to be fans of/familiar with are also fans of Halsey despite her alternative sound. This is likely to interest readers who are unfamiliar with Halsey to listen to her music

In one of the reasons why they “ ” Halsey they ❤say that “she’s mates with your favourite bands” the use of the personal pronoun “your” speaks directly to the reader. It also references other bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Twenty One Pilots which the reader will be familiar with

All of the images shown show just Halsey on stage performing this links to what is highlighted in the article, the fact that she is “backed only by a drummer and a lone keyboardist”- she’s an “artist whose songs don’t even utilise a single guitar string”