Mia Steventon's Website
Research into existing music magazines
Textual Analysis
Denotation:
The main image is black and white where the featured band is staring directly at the camera. It is a group shot: two of the band members have medium long shots and the other has a medium close –up. The background is filled with amplifiers (used in concerts) and the setting up of staging. The photograph covers the whole magazine cover and the bard code is visible at the bottom left hand corner of the page. The band name is in bold white lettering in the lower left corner also and at the top of the page is the ‘Notion’ masthead also in bold writing.
Masthead:
‘Notion’s’ masthead id very distinctive: block capitals and bold white writing. The masthead is in Sans Serif and all capitals. The lettering doesn’t join together like the ‘Rolling Stones’ magazine does. The fact that the font is Sans Serif shows that ‘Notion’ is a modern magazine, embracing youth culture. Past mastheads of the same magazine (different issue) are all different, they have a different font, colour and lettering; this could represent the changing music industry and the modernisation of today. Most of the past issues of ‘Notion’ do not have capitalised mastheads, this could show that the issue specialising ‘5 Seconds of Summer’ is important and worth the read.
Composition:
All the members of the band are not smiling and they look somewhat closed off due to the black and white effect on the photo as well has two of the four having their arms crossed.
Costume:
The band is dressed in mostly black clothes and two out of four have leather jackets on. This could show that punk rock influences their style of clothing. One of the members (Calum Hood) has a skull sewn onto his jacket, this shows a sign of rebellion and again punk rock influences. The stripped shirt that Hood is also wearing presents a rock and roll essence; somewhat like Jailhouse Rock. The man at the front of the cover (Ashton) has his hair un-styled and slightly messy, but this fits in with the image presented of the band. The other members’ hair is somewhat styled but still messy at the same time.
NVC:
The drummer (Ashton Irwin) is at the front on the cover photo, this is a change to where he usually sits on stage (at the back) because he is the drummer. ‘Notion’ has purposely done this to show the drummer some attention because drummers are often infamous for being ignored in the band. The entire band isn’t smiling and all of them have their arms or hands crossed. This could show that they’re reserved or that this is a more serious interview, with a magazine, than they’ve done in a while.
Lighting:
The lighting is fairly bright, which contrasts very well with the dark background and clothes that ‘5 Seconds of Summer’ are wearing.
Cover lines:
There is no information about the band, other than their name, on the cover of that magazine. This intrigues the reader at the lack of information given about the interview. The name, ‘5 Seconds of Summer’ hasn’t been shortened to ‘5SOS’ like it usually is; furthermore showing that this interview is more mature. The only thing the magazine needed to include was their name and a photograph of the band to draw in readers, showing that ‘5 Seconds of Summer’ is a popular band.
Target Audience:
The target audience could be quite a young age bracket considering the bands reputation, however, the black and white cover shot and lack of information about that band shows that they are trying to attract and older, more mature audience. Although still relatively young/ teenage girls are the largest target audience that the magazine is aimed at. The fact that their band logo is not included and they aren’t smiling again proves at the mature audience they’re trying to attract.
Character:
The cover photo features a relatively new band ‘5 Seconds of Summer’, that have become very popular in the last two years. There are four males in the band: Calum Hood, Luke Hemmings, Ashton Irwin and Michael Clifford.
Having studied this front cover, I really like the use of the the black, grey and white colour scheme as it is simplistic but is very effective in catching audience attention. I'd like to base my magazine on these colours as i feel it also projects the character of the person I want to portray.
Research into music history
Incorporating the history of music that you’ve grown up with is increasingly difficult due to the fact that there are so many influences on the music you’re making yourself.
"We've got this sort of unspoken musical vocabulary you know, that we all really understand, so, it's quite easy now as it's the only thing we really know how to do.Success means being validated by people who care about our music." - Matt Healy of The 1975: 'I don’t have to grow up'