Codes and Representation by Melissa Storey

I started researching about the indie music genre in magazines to perceive and identify many interesting similarities and conventions within each product. I looked at specifically three magazines, these were, Q, NME and Rolling Stone. By doing this I discovered an understanding of the codes and conventions within and their importance for this. Each music magazine I looked at had a similar target audience. This was targeted towards a male audience all between 16-25, with about a 75% ABC1 social grade. This can be identified by the interest covered on the front covers. For example a lot of festival coverage was talked about in NME and Q and inside they both cover British summer festivals. NME cover Leeds and Reading festival heavily and created a special edition issue to cover the festival. They have their own NME stage at Leeds and Reading. This creates a specific social group who would read this issue; people who went or who wanted to go. The images are all action shots of the festival and this creates something to talk about in social groups and friends who you went to the festival with. Common interests are sub-lined on the cover to interest the audience straight away this is a common convention on any music magazine. They use big bands names and tag lines. The Rolling Stone is a more mature magazine. This can be shown from the common interest of politics on the front cover, (American politician, Mitt Romney.) This is an unusual feature to include in a music magazine for teenagers; therefore it

will be aimed specifically for a small audience. Although connections can be made with all three products there are cultural differences because Q and NME are both produced and distributed in the UK and Rolling Stone is a USA produced magazine. You can see the common connections and conventions more between the British magazines than you can when you compare the two different cultures. Both countries have a huge music industry but each culture is different. The USA is very religious and does not tolerate obscene language or actions; there is no reference to sex, drugs or alcohol on the front covers of magazines. But in the UK inappropriate and humorous language can be printed, especially on music magazines it is common. For example on the March 2012 issue of Q, the front cover talks about Heroin, hookers and mental hair and uses words such as bastard and git. This show that music magazines in the UK are more laid back and they have a different humor to the USA humor. Yet the USA do know how to attract their target audience; males in their 20s, by making women sexualized on the front cover, as long as they dont use offensive words. But in magazines in the UK they do this the other way round. We leave indecent images for magazines such as Zoo and Nuts. But the use of improper words and jokes are used a lot in English magazine to bring humor into it and make it light hearted. Different cultures may make the magazine look the same with the layout and fonts but the context within can change depending where the product is distributed and whom it is distributed to.

While looking at the three magazines, I came across many common conventions such as the image quality, colours and the content. The colour used on these three issues is basically red and white. The red contrasts with the white and small parts of blue to make things stand out like names of popular bands and the name of the magazine. Red connotates with the danger within the indie and rock music genre therefore it is used a lot to represent the genre in print. The colours are not heavy as this is usually used in heavy metal music magazines but similar colours are used, minus the use of black because the genres are quite similar. Another thing similar on each magazine cover is the quality of the images. They are all high quality on the cover but inside they are usually images taken at gigs, therefore their low quality but it looks and feels like the audience has been involved in the actual audience at the gig. Taking the image on the front cover of NME it includes a good quality image of the Kings Of Leon in a long shot position. This is commonly used in NME, as well as other magazines. The way they are stood says a lot about their power in the industry. For example the camera is at a low angle to the band therefore they have more power because the audience has to look up to them. Also the use of guitars in photographs with males represents the phallic symbolism, which suggests the larger the guitar the more power you have and leads the imagination to a what else the guitar the represents and how they can be a sexualized object. This is how males can be sexualized in a subtle way. Inside the magazine similar interviews and articles are written

about, things like festivals, gigs, merchandise, new bands and albums are what the audience like to read about and will attract them to read the issue. People buy magazines for entertainment and to escape the real world, therefore when the Rolling Stone printed an issue in August 2013 just after the Boston Marathon bombings with a photograph of the bomber on the front cover many people had something to say about it. The members of the publics said things like it glamorizes terrorism and people who were hurt in the bombing should be covered more than the criminal. I do agree with the public, terrorist should not be published and placed on the cover of popular magazines. I understand news stories but people buy music magazine for entertainment, to escape from the real world. The editor of the Rolling Stone had this to say about the issue, The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens. Although the magazine thought it was important to examine the complex issues because the bomber was the same age as the target audience for this product it is still an uncomfortable topic to publish, especially front page on a magazine. The people who buy indie music magazines are represented and stereotyped in many ways. Positive representations may include the person to be adventurous and outgoing. When the negative suggest the audience to be wild, out of

control and interested in alcohol, smoking and drugs. The first words I saw on the NME product were knife fights! this could represent a violent and unpleasant genre instead of a play on a album name. The only issue that I looked at that doesnt mention festivals, gigs or violent on the front cover issue is the Rolling Stone, but they do include it inside. This is because of the culture it is usually published in the USA and they are largely religious therefore drugs, alcohol and violets is not tolerated. Although the name of the magazine was from the song Rollin Stone by Muddy Waters which was where the band The Rolling Stones got their name from which contrasts the whole representation of the USA because The Rolling Stones are a huge rock band around drugs and rebel. To conclude the genre of indie music magazines suggest a mix of good and bad representations. The more they include rock music I think the heavy the context becomes. But with the front covers and articles I choose to study it is shows a light-hearted, slightly humorous genre, interested and proud of their music. Music magazines can be defined from the crowd of other magazines as they have common conventions to each other such as the content, layout, colours and style that is what a specific small genre needs. Music magazines are usually placed in the eye view of the audience in shops so they can be easily seen, as there are not many popular ones out there in the UK. The small audience group who are represented as being different and unique and keen on their music influences are mostly influenced by the articles written in magazines like

NME Q and Rolling Stone. Each one of these magazines has their own unique way of attracting an audience but they will always follow the same conventions. -Melissa Storey