AS MEDIA STUDIESCASE STUDY

ANALYSIS OF CONTENT & DESIGN OF A MUSIC MAGAZINE.

By Dina Hallak and David Miles.

Mojo Magazine: What its all about. Mojo Magazine is a classic-rock

magazine, published initially by ‘Emap’ but now presently published by ‘Bauer’

Mojo magazine supports the classic rock genre and has helped inspire now famous acts such as ‘Blender’ and ‘Uncut’, also includes a section within the magazine which critiques music and is a mixture of professional critics and readers opinions.

Being a simple well rounded magazine, cutting out all the flashy nonsense of a more modern day magazine, Mojo has maintained a large amount of appreciation and readership throughout the years for sticking to reporting to its classic rock genre .

Looking into a deeper analysis of the magazine focusing on its front cover and contents page in the next couple of slides, I will analyse and explain aspects of what makes Mojo a great selling magazine that it is today.

Special edition Launch issue November 93’

Analysis of the front cover The main indexical sign is Paul

McCartney. These signs will appeal to the identified audience because ‘Mojo’ is a magazine targeted to a wide range audience so when they see Bob Marley they know reggae is associated with this magazine. The colour of the masthead is white because the background is black, white stands out. The magazine cost £4.50 and we know this because its written on the barcode. The representational issues we can identify are that this magazine it targeting a wide range of audiences with the stereotypes of long hair and beard for the rock stars and the dreadlock for the reggae music, we automatically identify these's with the genres their in.

Paul McCartney with a slight grin is positive mediation showing how he is the soul surviving ‘talented’ member of the Beatles. The language of the magazine is targeting the audience by using simplistic vocabulary . Mojo magazine is published by Emap (BAUER). Institutional factors affect the look of the magazine because its set up by an organization that lack individualized attention meaning they would have the same stories or research in every magazine they own.

The front cover is a fully bleed medium straight shot image of a

young Paul McCartney , which is an all black background with his face

illuminated, in the previous band member he was in and the

background showing their less important to this specific article “how

I survived” his eyes are the main vocal point of the cover, we are drawn to his eyes and looking down we will notice the FREE CD straight away

and that would make the reader want to pick this magazine out of the rest

of the magazine.

We knows what's in the magazine because of the cover line, main cover line/eyebrow and supplement promo. The information is arranged in columns to the far left and far right of the cover. The information has

been arranged this way to attract different type of audiences and to allow ease of the indigestion of information. The colours that have been used are

Red, white, black, and grey. These colours have been used to allow a stronger focus. ‘The Beatles' and ‘Paul McCartney’ worded front are iconic signs

because as soon as we see ‘the beetles' we automatically recognize the legendry band. The

symbolic signs are the pictorial of the Beatles, bob Marley and Brian Wilson because they represent their

own genres.

Main cover picture has been edited to cover most of the mast head, signifying that regular buyers of “MOJO” know the conventions of the magazine, and instantly know what the main article is about.

Promotional CD “Let It Be Revisited”. And Bar-code containing price and information to aid stock control.

Analysis of Contents Page.Denotation of the contents page

shows its dominated by men, particularly of the rock’n’roll/indie

genre. In a connotative analysis this contents page shows how the

magazine is dominated by men, so it appeal to a widely male based

audience; Cleary these images have been borrowed form a photo library. Colours that mainly stand out on the page are: Red, Black these colours have been used to show the most important information to instantly digest as we skim over the page.

Fonts that have been used to also support the attention grabber are:

Bold, Regular and the biggest font is regular. Images have been used to

cause an impact on the reader, images such as Bob Marley (second seen

contents), Shit Browne (on the first seen contents) – these have been used

to show the audience what the are expecting to find in the magazine, and

to show what is to come in the forth coming articles. The representational issues in the image wee see are that the first side of the contents page are dominated by white males artist, its further showing its a rock’n’roll and

indie genre magazine; men in beards, long hair all dressed in urban outfits.

We only spot one image of a woman that shows that in this magazine or even in the music industry they are less significant . The language in this magazine particularly in the contents page displays a lot of free use of vocabulary e.g. a lot of swearing e.g. “shithead” the language is probably utilized by the audience it is aimed at...young university male white students. With the colour aspect...we see a bright array of coloured pictures, drawing the attention of the reader at first glance in a sense...filling the reader with subtle excitement of what is to come in the magazine articles about bands and their business. The second part to the contents shows Bob Marley in black and white, the use of these “classic colours” show his importance in music history as well as the coming article about him in the magazine to be read.

Contents pages using different representational colors, possible signifying their importance of one another.

Institutions and Audience: Reaching the public via means of internet.

Keeping with its classic rock aesthetic, Mojo presents itself as a well-presented classic Rock magazine which has a large readership and an online contributory readership also. As expressed by the image adjacent we see that Mojo has allowed access to online content of events and happenings surrounding the classic-rock genre world, Since the internet has been a very powerful source of information/readership and is quickly becoming a singular most powerful entity in terms of online readership and information distribution on a grand scale. As soon as you log onto the Mojo website, you’re either a regular member or a first time visitor. In the case of you being a first time visitor, the website has been laid out in such a way that you can easily navigate your way around, and if you are a regular member you can logon and access blog activities share your stories and similar interest's with others who are members and jus generally have a more in-depth involvement in the readership of the magazine.

Target audience is very clearly aimed at members of the slightly older generation, since being first published around 1993 and maintaining that sort of music genre rather than publishing mainstream music of all types. Bands such as “The Beatles” to singular acts such as “Bob Dylan” have been interviewed and allowed the whole of Mojo magazine to be based around musical acts of a similar genre.