Research- Music Magazine Textual Analysis Rock Sound

Language- The masthead constitutes of an incentive and a USP (unique selling point), which not only encourages the consumer to buy the magazine but also illustrates that like the audience's psychographic, they too value being different, for they haven't followed the codes and conventions of music magazines.  

Furthermore, the cover line, "Rehab, Rebirth and Revolution, not only uses alliteration to engage the consumer, but simultaneously, uses a spiritual lexical field, suggesting that the band itself is very unworldly and admirable, and it is the latter that this magazine aims to do.  

The magazine uses personal engagement with the consumer to make them feel more integrated and accepted by that subculture.  

Audience- The typography used is very scrap book-like which creates a fun and personal theme, which suggests that the primary audience of this magazine are 15-24 year olds. This is aesthetically pleasing to the consumer as they are young students who prefer creativity and playfulness over sophistication and professionalism. Cover lines are also very big and artsy, typically representing the theme and brand identity of the corresponding band.  

The colour palette also looks like it is aimed at a female audience, which contradicts most music magazines, even of the same series, as the majority of pop rock/ rock punk's audience consists of white male students. And because music magazines are now a threatened business due to existence of the internet, it seems that using a more feminine colour palette instead of the stereotypical dark colours associated with this genre, the magazine is trying to appeal to a wider audience, not only of gender, but also of people who are not familiar with the subculture and the music.  

Representation- This cover's central image is of the artist, Green Day; one of the most popular bands of this pop/rock/punk genre. All of the members of the band are directly addressing the audience by the means of eye contact, which ensues an engagement with the consumer. This direct mode of address also follows the codes and conventions that are facilitated by acknowledged music magazines of all genres. Although these codes and conventions are loosely followed which is excepted by the audience as it matches with their ideologies.  

The artist's values are represented as very subversive, which is illustrated through their aesthetics being neither up to date with mainstream trends, or conforming to society's beauty standards. This correlates to the targeted demographics’ ideologies. These representations are then anchored by the typography and colour palette that is used throughout the whole of the front cover; for example, the pink, blue and greys oppose the usual dark colour palettes used by this particular genre of music, and acts as juxtaposition of the men's masculinity, challenging the stereotypical representations of gender in today's society. 

Their professionalism, which is nonetheless unique, is portrayed through the midshot and the masthead being situated behind the band, as it follows the codes and conventions used by recognized magazines. This also makes the magazine itself appear established, for by having the artists in front of the title, it insinuates that the magazine is well known enough for the title to be covered.  

The cover lines of this magazine aren’t situated on the left or right of the central image but are instead exist in the bottom third. Furthermore, the cover lines only mention the artists and don’t actually inform the reader of what they are going to include in the features; it’s almost as if the artists themselves are a big enough enticement to persuade the audience to buy their magazine. 

Images are all of white men; this represents the lack of diversity that the music genre has and that even though they claim to be ‘different’ and ‘challengers of society’, the audience and the artist are predominantly, the most privileged people in our society.  

 Colour palette:  black red and white colour scheme imitates tabloid, creating importance for the articles and an urgency for them to be read. The red and black also connotes danger making the articles seem edgy and exciting.  

Denotations: There are three pictures, each of different double page spreads found in the magazine, and these pictures take up half of the page of the contents. The menu is also spilt up into smaller sections by types of articles; 'News and regulars', 'exposure', 'features' and 'albums'. There are then twelve feature articles and then twelve other types of articles, excluding albums.  

Language: The language used is very relaxed and informal for it is to be entertaining for the younger demographic and an imitation of the way artists of this genre speak/act for example, "Ultimate badass". Furthermore, laced throughout the contents, are words such as, "hell", "fire" and "burn", (a lexical field of death so to speak), and these words are used rather easily when describing something, it reflects the themes that run very deeply in their music. This is then their house style of writing.  

There is also a large use of imperatives which not only engages the consumer, but also represents the aggressive nature of the music. This also applies to the common use of declaratives. 

Intertextuality is also used to create humor; for the phrase, "Take my money" titles the merchandise page, and originates from the popular animated series Futurama, which was then made into a 'meme' that went viral across the internet. This makes the magazine more 'current' with the youth culture and therefore more appealing by using a widespread but accepted joke. 

The first image shows a very well-known band that makes the magazine seem accomplished. It also appeals to the demographic as the band heavily uses the stereotypes of makeup, clothes and mannerisms that is shown by rock.  

In contrast to the excessive themes in the first image, the second image is much subtler, but still conforms to the codes and conventions of this genre. The variety appeals to a much wider audience. 

The third image of the double page spread shows similar colour themes to the cover, suggesting that that is the intended article for the new consumer, and tries to bring light onto the alternative types of rock.  

The double page spread sheet is predominantly made up of a picture of the band, that are nearly all addressing the reader through eye contact, and about a sixth of the page is dedicated to the article itself. The pastel and sweet like colour palette is used in the presentation of the double page spread, reflecting the style of the band, which is represented themselves through their hair styles and their clothes. 

The title not only acts as anchorage for this displayed theme, but also illustrates the band's underground views as the words 'sweetness and light' are almost polar opposites of the typical themes that is extremely common in the rock genre of music. 

Placed in front of the picture is a quote from the article, which uses the words, "freaking psychotic", terminology that is very familiar to their consumer.