MUSIC MAGAZINES

 Look carefully at the front covers ofMOJO andRNRmagazines.    

QUESTION: How far doMOJOandRNRusedifferentmedia language to createdifferent connotations?        (CONNOTATION meaning: an idea or quality that a word makes you think about in addition to its meaning.)

Answer on your blog. This is a high-value question and should take all lesson to answer. You can use the class blog search engine for more examples of how to analyse music magazines.

In your answer you should have 2 paragraphs:

• analyse the media language in MOJO and RNR magazine. 'Media language' includes the placement of the main image, the type of photography, lighting, colours, fonts, how busy or restrained the cover is, the layout (such as alignment to the margins), how serious or playful 
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently in both extracts to create different connotations. Are there similarities in both covers? What sorts of audiences are they targeting? You could think aboutMOJO's rock aesthetic of living loud and dangerously compared toRNR's folk, rock, blues vibe.   
  
  

  
  

   The Mojo magazine is more full, with brighter colours. The bands name "Foo Fighters"  is in the middle of the page in big bold letters. This attracts the readers attention to the band, its also being held by Dave Grohl, looking like he's fighting it, and he looks like he's ready to fight. The cover mount is eye-catching with its bright green colour, and its different because its a skeleton, and would attract a reader, it also attracts people who like the rock genre. This magazine cover adds to mojos aesthetic of living loud, with the bright colours and David Grohl, who looks like he might be shouting.
• The RNP magazine cover is a lot more calm, there's less going on, and it has a more organized layout. The background colour is a warm brown, and Christy Moore who is in the centre of the page, is looking directly at the camera, inviting the reader in, and he's smiling, showing that this is a more calm, chilled magazine, the opposite of mojo's aesthetic 'living loud'. This is attracting an older audience, because on the cover its has a quote talking about how these days all he does is yoga and drink comomile tea. This fits in with RNPs folk aesthetic. this magazine uses warmer colours rather than Mojo who has bright puffs, whereas RNP has a warm brown throughout and the titles are all in white.

MUSIC POSTER

 

MOJO REPRESENTATION

 TASK:  Copy this MOJO 2019 cover into a new blog post entitled  MOJO: REPRESENTATION. Then write 4 points, one each about about the following.

How the producers have chosen to construct a version of reality that represents events, social groups and ideas to fit their purposes:

• MOJO wishes to attract a target audience that shares its reverence for ‘classic rock’ so constructs a version of reality that represents musicians as authentic heroes, striving for excellence

The messages and values conveyed and issues addressed:

• MOJO’s front cover associates musicians with quest, danger and struggle, celebrating the values associated with rock music of ‘living fast and dying young’
  

How and why (e.g. to enable quick interpretation) stereotypes have been used, including anti-stereotyping / counter-stereotyping:

• MOJO’s selection of a cover photograph of a white male may be to fit the stereotype of rock musicians – this will enable instant recognition by audiences
  

• MOJO’s anti-stereotypical positive representation of older people as popular musicians. This may reflect the anti-ageism of an older audience

Which social groups are under-represented or misrepresented:

• MOJO’s front cover represents predominantly white male musicians in photographs, under- representing female musicians and musicians of colour

Mojo portrays Rock music as dangerous, we can see this by Neil Youngs quote "all hells gonna break loose!", this suggests everything is going to chaos. This magazine has a dominating tone to it, as Neil Young is placed in the middle and is looking straight at the camera. in the bottom of the corner there is the word RIP in red, this adds to the phrase "live fast die young"

This magazine lacks representation of gender and different ethnic groups, because this magazine is based on a white male musician. there is a small picture of a woman in the top right corner, however she is only given a small picture, and not much attention.

POPCORN HOMEWORK

 What is a POV shot and what meaning could it create?

A POV shot is a point of view shot, and it shows the audience what the character is looking at, and what it looks like from their perspective. This amplifies the meaning of the scene, like in cuffs we have a POV shot of Jo, when she asks out the leader, and he says no, we get a POV shot of the picture of his family. This makes us focus on it.

CUFFS REPRESENTATION

LEGO MOVIE POSTER CAMPAIGN

 PREP You all have a handout with the individual character posters and the ensemble poster.

Analyse how gender has been represented in The Lego Movie poster campaign. Use the written handout to help you answer this exam question (10 marks). 

In the Lego movies ensemble poster, there are many more male characters than female characters, showing this movie will have a stereotypically higher valuation of masculinity over femininity. The movie genre is action which typically has a wider male audience, which is shown in the male dominant poster. Female characters such as Wild style can be seen running and looking brave and prepared in the poster. This is an anti-stereotypical depiction of women, because women aren't usually seen as the brave, strong character. this encourages more equal gender representations. The older character, Vitruvius, is presented as stereotypically male, shown in his long white beard, and long white hair, the stereotype of an old wise man is reflecting stereotypes of masculinity in in a wiser society. in many of Emmets posters, Emmet looks scared, and panicked, this shows his vulnerability despite his traditionally masculine builders outfit, which is anti-stereotypical, usually the hero is a strong, brave male.

LEGO REGULATION

 Task 3: Go to the BBFC site and research age ratings. Why was The Lego Movie (2014) given a U rating? You need to click on the Ratings info

  

Go to the PEGI site and research what age ratings are about. Why is The Lego Movie video game classification 7+?

The age ratings are U, PG, 12, 12A, 15 and 18. U is suitable for all ages, PG is suitable for all ages with parental guidance, 12 is suitable for ages 12 and above, 12A is suitable for ages 12 and above, but also for under 12s if they're with their parents, and if they think its suitable for their children. 15 is suitable for 15s and above, 18s are suitable for 18s and above.

The Lego movie was rated a U, meaning that its suitable for all ages. It is rated a U because they have very mild words, like darn, and are suitable to say in front of children. there is some fighting in the movie snc they punch and kick each other, and sometimes they're heads fall off, but since they are Lego and not real people it's still suitable and won't scare the children.