MEDIA COURSEWORK
Darcie Missen
Alternative/ Rock
Summer Holidays Homework
PREPARATION FOR MEDIA A-LEVEL
the 1975's image
The 1975 create their desired 80s rock inspired image by combining their basic, grunge fashion sense with drums and electrical sounds with a range of casual dance moves. The lead vocalist of the bands, Matthew Healy, iconic long, messy hair plays an important roll in creating a chilled out vibe and promoting how they don’t take things seriously. Their dress sense, usually basic items like black ripped jeans, leather jackets and plain white t-shirts illustrates how the band are just like their viewers as they do not dress in expensive, elaborate clothes. This sense of carelessness is further displayed in their music videos, particularly in the ones of songs from their recent album such as ‘Love Me’, where the band members wear dramatic blue and red eye shadow and are surrounded by pink backgrounds and cardboard cutouts of other celebrities. The dance moves in this video, which include playing a pretend guitar and lots of head bobbing, assist each other to make the bands fun contagious to their fans as it creates a chilled out vibe. The 1975 reveal their down-to-Earth sense of humor in the music video to ’The Sound’ where they are locked in a glass cube with scientists observing them and taking notes, which insult the band. These flash on the screen and have been taken from real hate comments that they receive to display how instead of taking negativity seriously, they make a joke about it. This also makes the group seem approachable as doing this spreads an important life lesson to people. The 1975s non serious attitude reflects that they are normal relatable people and proves that they are not vain and don’t let fame infest their minds
The band reflect their passion for 80s rock music by imitating electrical guitar and keyboard sounds that were used in some rock music during the 80s. These high pitch and short, sharp durations of these sounds make the music sound lively and upbeat, however they mainly stick to the piano in their ballads to emphasize the solemn severity of them as each song has a different meaning of something personal to the band, making fans connect with and understand them. However, humor is still evident in their more serious songs, for example in ‘Change of Heart’ they include lyrics including ‘then you look a picture of your salad and put it on the internet’ which expresses to their fans their opinions on society and shows how they can relate to them. The melancholy of their ballads is also exaggerated as the notes have longer durations.
The 1975s image also relies on the use of vibrantly colored scenery of blocks of colours, normally pinks and blues and black, to create an atmosphere for each song.
Images from the ‘Love Me’ Vevo Music Video:
Images from ‘The Sound’ Vevo music video
The 1975s style
Music magazine cover annotations
Large headline in a red sans serif font. It has a dramatic contrast to the white background of the magazine cover making it bold and eye-catching.
The band is posing for the camera as they are standing in a specific order; Alex Turner is in the front centre to portray his significance as he is the main singer of Arctic Monkey's. The all have very vacant expressions and are staring straight past the camera, apart from Turner who is staring directly into it. We can also see that e has his arms behind his back and that his head is slightly titled back as his neck is very visible.
The band members are wearing dull colours like black and blue denim jackers. The lead vocalist, Alex Turner is also wearing a necklace. This use of costume creates a grunge themed mise en scene which reflects the bands alternative indie rock genre.
The cover lines are written in alternating red and white fonts. The first one is written in blocks, the second is in a serif font and the remaing ones are all in the same font. The different fonts and colours makes each cover line significant. The coverlines only contains information relating to the Arctic Monkey's, revealing how the magazine is purely about them.
The background of the magazine cover is white in order to keep the attention of the reader focused on the image and text on the cover. White is also bright and exposing which implies that the Arctic Monkey's are in the spotlight.
The Mast head is written very small at the top centre of the page in the same colour as the headline; it also has 'COLLECTORS SPECIAL EDITION' next to it in a thin black font.
The sub-heading of the magazine cover is in a similar sans serif font to the title but is not all in upper-case letters. It is written in yellow and implies that the band is becoming successful as 'From the rubble to the Ritz' is a play on words of the Arctic Monkeys song 'From the Ritz to the rubble', which suggests that they are up-grading as opposed to down-grading.
The cover line written underneath the sub-heading is in a white block, with a black sans serif font in capitals This also informs us that the Arctic Monkey's are really successful as '...SO FAR' hints that there is more to come from the band
The cover uses a simple colour scheme in order to avoid diverting readers attention away from the topic of the Arctic Monkey's
The 'Rolling Stone' masthead reflects how the magazine has been around for many years as it uses a serif font; which reflects tradition. It is in red with a thin white outline and black around the letters to create a 3D effect. It is also edited into the bakground of the covers image as one the the heads of the band members is covering part of the letters 'ng S'
The red banner above the headline says '20 YEARS ON' which suggests that the magazine will be discussing the impact that Nirvana have on the music industry and their fans 20 years after their break up.
'NIRVANA' is written in a serif font to further emphasise that they are in thr past. It is white with a grey outline so fits in with the photograph.
The cover line underneath the head line does not mention Nirvana, which implies that music has evolved a lot since they were around and that there is a lot of new music gossip to inform people about; as due to Nirvana not being together anymore, there is not going to be anything new to say about them.
There are names of other artists written across the top of the cover, they are underlined with a thin white line and separated with a red circle. This decreases the significance of Nirvana in the magazine as it mentions a lot of other singers who are still around today.
The photograph consumes the entire front cover. It features an image of the band which is evidently old as Kurt Cobain is dead. The photo has a black and white filter to reflect how it is from the past and has a high grain in order to create a vintage effect. The members of the band are all wearing what appears to be black leather jackets with t-shirts. Their hair is quite long and messy looking as some strands are hanging over their faces. They are all relatively expressionless and are lloking directly into the camera apart from the man at the back who is looking confused at something past the camera. This all creates a grunge effect typical of rock bands and so clearly demonstrates Nirvanas image.
The Cover lines on feature other well known singers. This will draw attention to the magazine as Amy Winehouse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West and Jay-Z are a diverse selection of popular artists, this also means that the audience of the magazine will increase as there will be something to appeal to both enders and a range of ages.
The cover lines are written in white so that they stand out from the background. The name of the artist is in capitals and the explanatory line is not to emphasise the singers. There is a red line with two thin grey lines above and under it that spearet the cover lines. There red contrasts to the background and helps emphasise te cover lines whilst following the colour scheme of the cover.
There is a barcode situated in the bottom left corner of the magazine cover
The magazine cover uses minimal colour as if features an ex-band so is in black and white to reflect how they are part of the music industry history, however red is used in order to draw attention to significant information.
The main headline of the magazine is separated into two blocks, 'MEET THE' is written in an orange sans serif in a black box and is in a much smaller font than 'BEATLES' which is in a very large red sans serif font with a white background. This is because the 'BEATLES' part of the headline is most significant as it reveals what the magazine is about.
The cover lines are all in coloured blocks down the left side of the magazine with alternating coloured fonts, which are all in capitals and a sans serif font.
All of the information contained on the front cover of the magazine features the Beatles.
There is no mast head on this magazine cover because it is a collectors special edition issue.
Credits are given to the Beatles and the writer.
The photograph is a coloured image of the Beatles who are arranged and posing for the camera as they are looking directly into it and some of them are slightly smiling. This helps to connect with readers as the direct eye-contact makes it more personal. The band are dressed formally as they are wearing shirts, ties and blazers, this presents them as being very well respected.
The photograph is quite old looking because of its colour and grain. This may suggest that this is an old image being used in a modern day magazine although we are not sure as there is no date visibel on the cover.
There is no text or cover lines over the photograph which gives readers a vey clear view of it. This also makes the shape of the image fit the block theme of the cover.
Comparison of magazine covers
It can be identified that each of the magazine front covers have the name of the magazine or band that they are promoting in the magazine, in a large red font which contrasts with the rest of the front cover in order to capture peoples attention. All of the magazine covers are also relevant to the content of it by displaying a large image of the bands in their backgrounds. The magazines about the Arctic Monkeys and Nirvana both have text overlaying the main image of the cover, as this draws attention to the topics within the magazine as well as the image itself; whereas the Beatles magazine has no text over it therefore the main focus is on the picture and attention is then diverted to the surrounding text in coloured blocks. Each of the photographs from the magazines’ has the majority, or all, of the band members looking into and posing for the camera in order to engage readers as it makes it feel more direct as the people on the front cover are looking at them. The magazines about the Arctic Monkeys and the Beatles have coloured photographs to resemble how the bands are modern and current (at the time the magazines were published), as coloured photographs were fairly new particularly when the Beatles first came about. Whereas the Rolling Stone magazine has a black and white photograph of Nirvana to present how they are in the past as black and white filters are commonly associated as being old fashioned or outdated. All of the magazine front covers use bold colours to highlight the most important information within the magazine and give teasers about it. Each block of colour on the Beatles magazine has an alternating font colour to another block, which, creates a bold, eye-catching effect and reveals clearly how there is a new piece of information in every section. As the Rolling Stone Nirvana magazine is black and white, small red blocks are used to underline the topics that are featured in the magazine,; this is successful as red is a significant contrast to black and white so attention will easily be drawn to red areas. The Arctic Monkeys magazine front cover uses a variety of font styles to interest readers as they help make the information appear visibly more exciting. This magazine is also made even bolder by the facts that the sub title is also in a large, yellow font, making it the second thing to capture the eye; it is also a pun, which increases a reader’s engagement. Overall, all of the magazines have many similarities, which emphasize particular features of the front cover, which is normally a mixture of varying font sizes, styles and colours.
Vacant
Moodboard:
