Planning: Initial Ideas Mindmap

Research: Sub Genres In My Chosen Genre

    Here are some examples of the type of artists that could be featured in my magazine, I have chosen four different bands to present here, with a video, live performance and interview each. This is to demonstrate again how versatile my chosen genre of general rock music is, these bands all differ and contrast, as they are all from different sub genres in rock, but they also share common elements that I can portray in my text.

Paramore - Pop punk/Alternative Rock
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7J_IWUhls
Live Performance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xIELK1e-To
Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zpeyFhqySc

Biffy Clyro - Experimental Rock 
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfzwM4pdyxU
Live Performance- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2v4YsLpI8c
Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmJdfNXyl20

Bring Me The Horizon - Metalcore/Heavy Metal
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7cczTyQ4iY
Live Performance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L19_Cgj0co0
Interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6t2e-R326s

Enter Shikari - Electronicore/Alternative Metal
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSjaM9E2gr4
Live Performance -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOeXscFYF6U
Inteview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXwIADirFKY

HOW DO I GET THESE LINKS TO BE LINKS

   These examples all correspond despite their conflicts in genre and styles. There are similarities in the band's appearances, conventions such as ripped or skinny jeans are shown, dark coloured clothing, flannel and tee shirts. Common elements also include instruments used, most noticeably guitars but also pianos and keyboards in the examples that are slightly more experimental with their genre.

The styles of music played in these videos all differ extremely, with there being examples of ballads, dubstep and dance themes, and heavy metal screaming. However, all these bands are well known and are branded as being part of the rock genre.

More Examples of different sub genres of Rock:

Research: Rock Music and Violence

Along with the Brighton seaside riots, rock is generally widely associated with violent activities. The act that I have briefly mentioned before over the project 'Moshing' has lead to various injuries and fatalities over the years.

These are sections of text taken from the Wikipedia page  for 'moshing.' The term is directly associated with sub genres of rock music, illustrating how this type of violence is related to my chosen genre. The 'wall of death' that the text refers too is a very dangerous 'mosh move' where the crowd of an audience splits and literally run into each other.

From the same webpage, here are examples of injuries/deaths that have occurred due to participating in moshing.

Here are some examples of how the features in Rock magazines may have been chosen to communicate themes of violence/rebellion/destruction, as it is a common theme associated with the fans and artists in Rock.

 

Research: Representations Of My Chosen Genre

Research: Rock Origins

                  -Chosen Genre: Rock Music!-

    'Rock and Roll' originated in 1950's America, where rhythm and blues were popular in the music scene. Elvis Presley is a name that people recognize in relation to this era who created music in a new, original dynamic that appealed to young audiences whilst surprising elder ones.
    In 1962, The Beatles became popular in Britain who produced music that is now labelled as classic rock. They were extremely influential, and inspired bands such as The Rolling Stones. These two British bands both incorporated elements of the blues and rhythm era but with added electric reincarnations.

Rock's 'Golden Age'

In the 1960's it was more evident that this genre's verbal content reflected themes of rebellion, sex and social protest. Drug culture also became a big part of the evolving genre too, with 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' released by The Beatles in 1967. This song received masses of attention and controversy, with people arguing that the fantasy descriptive lyrics were a metaphor for being high on LSD, with further reinforcement on this point with the initials of 'Lucy' 'Sky' and 'Diamonds' spelling this type of substance. Despite denial from the band, the song was in fact banned in Britain by the BBC.

This period of time also saw the infamous feud arise between the British 'Mods and Rockers,' and the seaside riots in Brighton. To the left is a brief description of the two social groups, the incident demonstrates how music can influence and be incorperated into social culture and class systems. Source from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/18/newsid_2511000/2511245.stm

This event was dramatised in the 1979 film Quardophenia

Artists in this genre also became equally as known and memorable for their substance use and ambiguous sexual encounters than for their music. Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison were dead by 1970 due to drug related deaths.

Punk Rock Movement

  Punk rock was born in Britain in the 1970's, and stood up as protest for social and political ideologies. Punk reflected themes of anarchy, rebellion, and rejection of social standard. British bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash are associated with this era, and also became popular in America. Moving into the 1980's it had inspired other bands considerably and therefore changed music significantly, as political statements were encouraged to be core in writing music. This sub genre of rock also saw the influence and birth of punk/grunge band Nirvana. Bands in this era celebrated their lack of technical virtuosity, incorporating this into their style.
  This is why the punk rock era is also associated with the DIY movement, which encouraged experimentation with the genre of music. This meant that only mediocre ability was needed to play an instrument and contribute to the genre, and this was celebrated, creating a unique sound that communicated edge, distortion and originality.

This is a section of text from the source http://punkmusic.about.com/od/punk101/a/punkhistory2.htm

Other sources used for information:
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/rock-music.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_rock_and_roll

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music

Research: Further Magazine Annotation (Kerrang)

Contents
 
  This is a contents page from Kerrang! magazine. It maintains the theme of 'rock' music through it's graphology, presented as looking destroyed and distorted. It's colour scheme sticks to black, white and yellow and fonts are san serif font. There are multiple photos of band members and also performances. Page numbers are frequent on this page, and there is repeated symbols to signal cover lines that have featured on the front cover.

   Photographs are also featured from various sections of the magazine, and some examples of the double page spreads are shown, this then gives the page multiple visual pointers that contributes to the observers decisions on what to read first.

  Despite being sectioned according to their content, all the features listed are in alphabetical order. There is a consistency on how the news is presented on the page, conventionally under a heading such as 'News' 'Gigs' or 'Features', and then band names' are listed. Therefore the viewer can see that a band will be talked about, and roughly what the story will be about (what category it fits into) but not too much of the story, they will have to read further into this to find out. This is a classic convention of a contents page as information is left unknown, in order for the reader to want to find out more. Some cover lines are elaborated on however, such as "You Me At Six' Josh and Co celebrate their chart success!," but the band name is still in bold and information is still kept to a minimum. Furthermore, there is an exclamatory added to the tagged information, to make it seem exciting.

Double Page Spread

  This is a double page spread from the same magazine, it's colour scheme is again kept to about three colours including both white and black, and here added purple.  Again san serif font has been used. It includes photography of the band relevant to the article, specific to this example is just one band member, who is the front man. Conventionally, it is the person that performs vocals in a band (labelled as front man/woman) that gets featured in a story if the media text focuses around an individual in a band and not the whole group. This is because this is the member the audience will connect with most, as they produce the major sections to the music, and they also conventionally stand at the front of the stage during performances. I've noted that the photo is very large, and takes up a whole a4 page. This could be because the target audience of this media text may want to use this image as a poster, so this could be ripped out neatly.  
  This particular double page spread is an interview with the artist featured, the title is presented purely through a quotation of the interview, and then the stand first confirms that this is an interview, who it is with and what band the artist is from. The important sections of the stand first are also put in a different colour, to make them stand out. This technique means that the message is communicated quicker also as the important words in the paragraph are enforced. The interview starts with a drop letter and all the questions are shown with a different colour box shape behind them, to highlight them. This way the reader could pick and choose the order they read the content of the interview if they wished.

   This double page spread example has a slightly different colour scheme in relation to the other examples of kerrang I have examined, as the colour purple is used. Despite consistency in a magazine being a crucial element, this isn't a negative element to the feature as it gives the story exclusiveness and is refreshing for the observer to view.

    Here are some more examples from kerrang, three covers, three contents pages and three double page spreads. This to illustrate again how the double page spreads can consist of different colour schemes, and this can still be effective. The colour schemes shown here are purples again, but of different tones. I realised that a pinky purple tone is used in two of the three examples when a female model is featured, this may be to follow classic feminine stereotypes. This is something to keep in mind, if I used a female in my photography.

Research: Music Magazine Covers

Kerrang! 

Kerrang! is a rock/heavy metal music magazine that is released every fortnight. It appeals to it's target audience as the colour scheme and font carries conventions of rock music such as vandalism, chaos and rebellion. Also, the masthead 'Kerrang!' follows the magazine's theme as it is use of onomatopoeia and was created to remind you of the strum of an electric guitar. Further more, a rebellious action is shown in the placing of the main feature. The singer is placed in the middle but the rule of thirds is broken, and also his head covers the masthead. There is also rules on this cover that have bee followed though, such as the left third and multiple cover lines. I also chose a cover from kerrang with a femal artist because i'm thinking of using a female, she too is looking down the camera. 

Hammer

Hammer magazine, like Kerrang!, also dedicates itself to rock music, however it's genre is specified in the rock sub genre heavy metal. It's colour scheme is similar, bright and eye catching, and the masthead 'Hammer' is, like Kerrang!, use of phonology as the sound of a hammer reminds you of loud crashes. Which some may say rock music sounds like, and the word 'metal' holds connotations of sharpness. Furthermore there is also a singer, but he is centered in this magazine, covering some of the masthead.

NME
NME is a magazine that covers a less specific range of music, they cover rock, indie and popular music. On this cover, the rule of thirds is being broken. There is a left third, full of coverlines and a puff/plug. The colour scheme is brighter and a little lighter to the eye, it is also quite contrasting, perhaps conveying the fact that the magazine talks about multiple musical genres.