AOB3 - Music Press (Creating Meaning)

AOB3 – Creating meaning

The late 1950’s brought us music magazines as we know them today. Those of the 50’s and 60’s are different in all aspects as a result of the new classification of adolescent youths as teenagers. In this task I will analyse the change in conventions between modern and dated music magazines, including how they communicate with the audience through language, pictures, layout and colour scheme.

The unusual use of the pink typeface in the masthead and cover lines on this special edition of NME magazine suggest that it has been used to try and attract a new audience, possibly female, as well as keeping current readers interested and intrigued. The change of colour conveys a message that this issue of NME is different and more female dominant, and since Rihanna is a worldwide star, her fans could be found buying this issue of the magazine, rather than general NME fans and readers. The cover is minimalistic, with Rihanna standing confidently and set back from a plain background with a quote underneath which portrays her to be a strong, independent woman, which female fans may aspire to.  The cover may seem minimalistic, with little text and information, but when ‘The State of Music Today’ list is read in the bottom left corner, the audience are promised content on 10 different artists.

The quote from Rihanna underneath her name on the front cover is direct and assertive, which allows the audience to believe that is what they will get if they read the article inside. The use of bad language (although censored) on the front of such a well-known and major publication shocks the audience and encourages them to think that inside is a stripped down real life interview with Rihanna. For this issue of the magazine in particular, the reader profile seems to be a female heavy audience, of mid to late teens. This is apparent by the choice of language, pink writing and celebrity on the cover, although Rihanna also attracts a wide male audience, scoring 3^rd place in FHM’s 100 sexiest women. NME’s regular reader profile is a predominantly male audience, of an average age of 24 who are interested in all genres of music, as displayed by the variation in the artists listed in the bottom left corner of the cover.

The differences are instantly apparent between the new issue, and this old issue of NME. A sign of the technology available at the time of print (roughly 1970, the year of Paul McCartney’s first solo release as referenced by the cover lines) this cover shows no colour. To correspond with the times, rather than relying on the colour of the typeface and clothing worn by the cover models or celebrities, bold lettering and clear, un-cluttered images were used to create a similar effect. It was actually common at the time, for magazine covers to just show an image of the artists’ head, which was a way of getting them to stand out whilst getting around the printing limitations. Bold lettering has been used on this cover to attract the audience’s attention, such as the words ‘untamed’ and ‘unleashed’. This sort of practice is still common now, however not as much so as when colour printing was not available. This difference can be seen across the two covers, as the newest has very few differences in typeface in comparison to the older one, due to colour being used to put emphasis on different words instead.

References to the artists Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and the band the Untamed suggest that the audience was predominantly people in their mid to late teens, as rock and roll had exploded onto the scene at this time, as the first music genre directed at young people. The cover is dominated by male artists, however there is no indication that this issue of NME is targeting at certain gender, unlike the more current issue featuring Rihanna. The mode of address is completely different on this issue compared to that of the cover of the newer issue. The audience is addressed much more directly on the newest issue, whereas on the older issue of NME, cover lines such as ‘Paul goes solo’ and ‘the real Mick Jagger’ are without direct quotes. The new cover gives the audience a direct quote from Rihanna, as if she is addressing the audience directly, and the use of bad language is not featured on the old cover which is as expected for the era and social conventions at the time.

Content between the two magazines is relatively similar, as they both feature what artists are currently doing, including interviews which are flaunted as being a real look into the artists’ lives. The older issue takes a more promotional approach towards the artists in comparison to the newer issue which presents itself as being more open, honest and scandalous, however they are identical in their aims, which are to promote the artists, so it could be argued that there are very few differences between the two.