Curtis Rutherford Media A Level Coursework: January 2014

Pricing and Page Number Research

I am now taking a brief look at the page numbers and prices of several popular rock music magazines that would be associated with a target audience similar to my own. This is to get a firm understanding of the price range that competitors use compared to the quantity of material they provide for their clients.

In Kerrang! magazine, there are around 63 pages in each issue. As the magazine comes out weekly, we can see that this is an acceptable number of pages for their audience and this is also reflected in the price of the magazine, which stands at £2.20 per issue or per week for subscriptions.
Q magazine on the other hand is a monthly magazine, which is why it costs £3.90, ranking in at a considerably higher price than Kerrang!. This can also be shown by the larger quantity of pages, of which Q has 166.
Similarly to Kerrang!, NME is a weekly magazine and only costs the consumer £2.20, however NME has a total of 70 pages. This means that NME offers more content to their clients for the same price as Kerrang! which shows the competitive market between these two magazines.

Magazine Front Cover Draft

Types of Shot Used

The type of shot used on the front cover and inside the magazine is key to the image that you wish to portray to your audience as different audiences will have separate reactions to certain shots and it is imperative to get this shot perfect for your target audience.

Profile Shot
The profile shot is usually a mid close up shot of one subject taken head on from the subject and at eye level. This is a common shot used for solo acts in magazines and presents the idea of them being independent with their music, which is seen as being an important aspect when contributing to an Indie magazine.

This cover of Q shows a profile shot of David Bowie.

Group Shot

The group shot is a picture of several subjects and is usually taken in the form of a medium close up shot in order to include all members of the band. It usually also shows the frontman of the band in front of the other members to create an impression of importance. This also draws in the audience as they are usually the well known member of the band that people can recognise.

Here is an example of a group shot of the Smiths

Low Angle

If the photographer wants to create a feeling of intimidation or power from the subject they will normally take a shot from a low angle as it creates the impression that the person is quite tall or big. This is commonly used in rock magazines for bands that create music that contains a lot of anger.

Indie Rock - List of Artists and Bands (Iconography)

Kasabian

The style that Kasabian choose to take varies a lot, but here we can see all members of the band wearing skinny jeans and boots. They are also all seen to be wearing an over coat of some form. i.e. blazer, jacket, leather jacket and an open front shirt.

Foo Fighters

This picture shows the Foo Fighters to be wearing fairly ordinary clothing, although it could be seen as being slightly dressy. Three of the band members are wearing shirts over their tops and one of the band members is wearing a bright red top. The colour range of the band ranges across a spectrum of dark colours.

Klaxons

This image of the Klaxons shows them wearing bright clothing. Once again, two members of the band are wearing some form of overcoat. A notable aspect of this picture is the hairstyle of the band's frontman, which is quite scruffy and out of place.

The Libertines

This picture of The Libertines shows two members of the band wearing coats of the Queen's guard as an ironic statement because they were known for being involved in minor misdemeanours, which also contrasts with the ripped jeans that one of them is wearing.

The Smiths

The clothing in this picture of The Smiths shows them wearing shirts and black jeans. Their style is much more formal than most Indie bands but their hairstyles remain similar to more modern examples.

Nirvana

The image shown puts the band members in three very different outfits, which contrasts widely with other Indie bands. Kurt Cobain on the far left is wearing a shirt over a top, with belted up jeans, whilst holding a glass of wine. The man in the middle wears a black top with white trousers/jeans and Dave Grohl on the right is wearing dungarees which are commonly associated with the deep south of America where as the other clothing is associated with the rest of North America.

Arctic Monkeys

The clothing worn by the Arctic Monkeys tends to be fairly up market clothing but it ranges in style. For example the lead singer wears a bright yellow jacket but the drummer wears a checked blue and white jacket. While the lead singer and drummer have similar styles of hair, the guitarist and bassist both have different hairstyles to this, one having long hair and the other having shorter hair.

Some other Indie Rock artists:-

Jake Bugg
R.E.M
Editors
Bloc Party
Primal Scream
The Stone Roses
Jet
The Black Keys
The Wombats
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Rolling Stones
The Killers
Kings of Leon
The Hives
The Strokes

Magazine Analysis 2

Curtis Rutherford Original Photos

Curtis Rutherford Original Photos

Here you can find my original photos that I took for my front cover, contents and double page spread.

Brief History of Indie Rock

Indie Rock started in the 1980's, formed around the pre existing genre known as college rock, which included pioneering bands like REM and The Smiths. As a new genre, Indie Rock inspired many new bands to be formed such as The La's and Pixies. Shortly after the arrival of Indie Rock, yet another genre came about that was derived from Indie Rock known as Indie Pop. Indie Pop was first seen in the UK and was the result of the popularity of bands such as Primal Scream and Orange Juice. New Order, a band created from the remaining members of Joy Division after the death of lead singer Ian Curtis took a different direction with Indie Pop, focusing on experimentation with Techno and House music. The other major movement in Indie Rock in the late 1980's was the nationwide Madchester scene lead by bands like The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses who mixed Acid House Dance music with Northern Soul and Funk. This means that within the first decade of its arrival, Indie Rock had already become one of the most diverse and wide ranged music genres known to the mainstream.

The 1990's also brought about major changes to the Indie Rock scene and this was the first time that alternative music made it clearly into the mainstream, with the introduction of Grunge. Lead by bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Hole and Soundgarden. The introduction of angry teenage vibes in Grunge allowed the bands to top the charts with several new releases and many of these bands are still popular among the indie scene today. In the UK, however this coincided with the arrival of Britpop bands such as Oasis and Blur, who abandoned the 80's Indie Pop which tended to focus on political ideals, usually in protest to the policies and views of Margaret Thatcher's government.

The 2000s saw the revival of stripped down Indie bands that played in a back-to-basics style which hit the mainstream faster than anybody could have expected. The movement was led by four main bands; The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes and The Vines. The commercial success of these bands inspired many more to take up Indie Rock in a second wave of new bands. From the US these included The Black Keys, Interpol, The Killers and Kings of Leon. The UK revealed bands such as The Libertines, The Fratellis, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs. The most prominent of British bands was Arctic Monkeys, who were the first band to owe their success to the use of internet social media. The first single they released was "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" with a music video that was one of the most basic, yet recognisable of the decade, as it was a clip taken from their first performance on Later... with Jools Holland.

The success of Indie Rock died down towards the end of the 2000s but many new bands and artists continue to have large amounts of success in the Indie Rock genre four years into the 2010s. This includes artists such as Jake Bugg, Two Door Cinema Club and Strypes.