Q. 5 (15 marks, 2 pages) comparing MOJO and another music magazine media language
Sample questions:
To be on the safe side, it seems that we must also be prepared to write about music magazine industry and audiences, so we must read the pdf pages 4, 5 and 6.
Then we practise new questions for q. 4 and q.5, which I have created for this revision sessions. There will probably be MOJO in q.4 but we don't know which edition. Look at page 8 of the guide with me.
Question 4 is about representation, that is:
- what version of reality is constructed on the cover (reverence for rock musicians as heroic, as striving for excellence? young women as focussed on social media, romance and appearance?)
- are stereotypes or counter-stereotypes used (young white males as rock stars? anti-stereotypical portrayal of older men as rock musicians? stereotypical female teens loving pink?)
- what social groups are not represented or under-represented (male/female; young/old bias)
- what messages and values are conveyed
- the social and cultural contexts, like celebrity culture, attitudes to gender, to sexuality
Let's practise q. 4 on representation using MOJO covers.
To analyse the 3 covers, use OCR's green guide on page 8. I have summarised it just above.
Below each is how MOJO writes about its cover stars:
Below each is how MOJO writes about its cover stars:
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| December 2018 (ignore the covermount CD) |
- FIFTY YEARS SINCE their inception, Led Zeppelin’s surviving members relive the highs and lows of reinventing rock. Their extraordinary imperial ’70s, the terrible loss of John Bonham, the O2 triumph and much more
- THE KINKS Step inside one of English pop’s great masterpieces
- Brian May on the controversial new Queen movie
- THE HOUSE OF LOVE They were ’80s indie’s great hopes, until the madness. But there was an upside: “Stadium success would have killed us all.”
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| October 2018 |
- PAUL McCARTNEY REVEALS the often-conflicted man behind the Fab Macca mask as his new album, Egypt Station, sees him re-scale the peak of his powers
- fantastic intimate photo portfolio of McCartney At Home by his daughter, Mary McCartney (you HAVE to see his wallpaper!
- 14 classics of Liverpudlian pop and rock
- celebrating The Band’s Music From Big Pink
- inside Marianne Faithfull’s extraordinary new album
- Primal Scream seek redemption in Memphis
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| September 2018 |
- TEN YEARS SINCE 22 Dreams opened a whole new sonic chapter, Paul Weller goes folk without losing a jot of attitude or attack. Revel in our in-depth exclusive
- The Revolution remember Prince, the boss from hell with God-given talent
- The War On Drugs scale the heights
- The Mahavishnu and Miles man John McLaughlin relives the Fusion Wars
Now let's practise q. 5 on media language using one MOJO cover to contrast with one other magazine, Q (December 2018).
Q which is has a circulation of 44,000+Below Q is OCR's comparison of MOJO and We Love Pop. Use the green sheet to help you compare the language of MOJO and Q:
Below Q is the publicity blurb about the December 2018 issue.
Don't:
- Write about the masthead being at the top of the page (and so on) as if the question were about ALL magazine conventions. Instead, write about MUSIC magazine conventions: the genre under discussion
- confuse serif and sans serif fonts
- be dogmatic about the connotations of a media language element (e.g. ‘black connotes evil’), ignoring its meaning within the particular media product
- confuse representation analysis with how a magazine addresses its audience.
Q analysis of media language
layout very orderly content with the cover lines mostly aligned, justified to right and to left; one central image; connotes seriousness, authenticitytypography exclusively one sans-serif typeface, creating a serene, streamlined look; no capitalisation used: connotes modernity
colour colour palette limited to mostly white font with red accents; central splash headline reduced opacity to reflect underwater translucence and mimic water, carrying out the underwater theme "in deep with" and "gets the bends"; connotes elegant visual pun
image main image uses dense, highly saturated colour photography, band deep underwater as if drowning on the seabed in a last embrace, arms closely interlinked and group united with eyes cast down or closed; connotes magical realism and powerful high drama of near-death experience
language language emphasises loss, difficulty and danger: '50 worst decisions', 'I miss..', 'In deep with', 'gets the bends', 'this is worse than the dentist'. Connotes serious lives looked at in a wry manner.
portraying reality the media language presents a world that celebrates serious artistic endeavour, a sense of the music world being precarious & dramatic, with loss and danger
generic conventions the front cover is dominated by an image of an important band 'the band of the decade'; the serious style reflects the values of fans of classic rock and pop; the magazine assumes and addresses the audience's fandom on the cover 'Gillespie quizzed by you'.
intertextuality reference to the Coldplay film
PREP Q. 2 worth 4 marks
Revise our 2 music videos by reading the summary below and watching the videos again.
Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag
