Curtis Rutherford Media A Level Coursework

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.

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.

Double Page Spread First Draft

Double Page Spread Article

He's Robbing the Charts

So he's back with a brand new album and it's really shifting off the shelves, but how much does Jack Rob take inspiration from the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Stone Roses? We had an interview and took the opportunity to ask your questions for you, while we caught up.

Hey Jack, Recently you've taken a new, darker direction with your singles. What's caused this change of colour?

"Well, it's funny, really." He says to me. "We all at the same time came together and had a discussion, deciding how we'd go with the new album. I had recently gone through a break up, so I had a lot of rage within me. When I suggested a darker album, they jumped on board very quickly." Jack came to a conclusion further towards the end of the chat and told me "We all just felt it was time for a change."

And what a change it was. The change from light to darkness across the albums 'Park Joys' and 'Tunnel Vision'. Now Jack Rob calls to his audience with heavy baselines and plenty of kick drums, while he paints a picture of the dark side of East London with his enthralling lyrics. Our resident album reviewer, John Kennedy, granted the album a 9 out of 10 in this weeks ALBUM REVIEW (pg. 34)...

Since your comment describing Olly Murs as a 'bit of a tw*t' have you received any complaints from the public? Have your views changed?

Jack replied to this question with ease, he stated that his comment resulted in "around about 20 death threats being sent to me. I laughed so bloody much as each one came through, there was some pretty violent messages but it's not like they can hurt me." As far as his views on the matter he said, "Obviously, from this onslaught of abuse, I know that I'm in a lot of danger from some twelve year olds, so I'll have to retract my earlier statement."

You went on tour last year supporting Kings of Leon, what was that experience like?

"It was mental." He says, laughing. "Every night was like another party, packed with fan girls and booze." Jack continued to say it was "The best experience of my life, I'm not gonna forget it. It were brilliant." When I asked if he'd do it again he said "Not when I'm their age but while I'm still young, I'd accept at a moment's notice."

With the release of your new album TUNNEL VISION, can we expect tour dates to be announced soon?

Rob nodded at me, tell me "Yes, of course there will be tour dates. Right now we're just waiting for Iain, the bassist to be told the due date for his wife's pregnancy, so we know when to avoid having the tour." "As soon as everything is cleared up, I expect we'll do a full press release." So there you have it, any tour dates are sure to be scheduled just around the corner.

Magazine Analysis 1

NME Magazine

The Cover Page:
The title of the magazine is NME, this is an acronym for "New Music Express". This title gives the impression that the magazine contains up to date news about current music acts. It also suggests that the favoured music genre is "New Wave" or "Indie" music. The logo is 'NME' in big bold red letters, in a sans serif font. This is a simple design that catches the eye, as the colour red stands out on the page.

The image focuses on the three band members of 'The Wombats', with their frontman standing in the centre of the image with a serious facial expression. The other two band members have more playful facial expressions and are more energetic in the scene. Two of the people in the scene are gazing directly into the camera and the general feel of the body language is that it is quite playful. The three of them are wearing separate types of clothing, one wearing a top, one a hoodie and one wearing a checked shirt. This image shows the ideal of a ranged musical taste, which is the general expectation of the magazine's target audience.

Other images on the cover are of different bands that are undergoing changes.

This image is of Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur, who had just broken up.

This image is of The Cribs after they added Johnny Marr to their roster.

The cover lines mostly promote which bands are involved in the articles inside the magazine but also advertise the key topics of the main articles, the key cover lines being "The Wombats - Why Britain's gone silly for the lords of the indie dancefloor"

The colours on the front page are all very vibrant (red, yellow and blue) to assign importance to headlines and important articles. The article for Blur breaking up is "Blur RIP" which gives the reader an emotional response as they associate the band breaking up with a funeral, a sad occasion. The magazine looks similar to others in its layout as the logo is in the top left corner, with articles placed around the border of the main image. This creates a sense of familiarity for the reader so they are more inclined to pick it up.

The Inside

As we can see from the contents page, there is around 66 pages in this issue of the magazine. The colour scheme of the contents page is a lot more basic than the cover page, as it uses mainly black and white, except for in the photos and the advertisement for a subscription. This could be for two reasons, the first is that the NME is targeted at a wide range of music tastes, so they choose not to use colours to attract one target audience as it may drive others away, this instead allows for the content of the page to speak for itself. Also, the only other design colour on the page is the red in the advertisement, which could be to attract attention to the advertisement as it is more noticeable this way.

The advertisements in the magazine take up around 10 pages worth of space and are spread out across the magazine. They advertise Men's shaving equipment, deodorant, clothing shops, album releases and concerts/tours. The reason these are the things advertised is that they are all products that the target audience of the magazine will be looking for, so they are more likely to take an interest in the advertisements.

One of the adverts for an album release, which takes up an entire page to itself, to show its importance.

There are 6 double page spreads in the magazine and they all involve interviews with the subject of the article or at least one member of the band being analysed. The general colour scheme is once again ignored, as each band has its own individual target audience. The feel to the double page spread articles is that it's a somewhat intimate discussion with the artist and they tend to cover even quite dark areas of the artists' lives.

An example of a double page spread, which contains an article about Pete Doherty, the guitarist of The Libertines and lead singer of Babyshambles.