RNR MOJO COMPARRISON PREP

 

MUSIC MAGAZINES: MEDIA LANGUAGE

Look carefully at the front covers of MOJO and RNR magazines. 

QUESTION: How far do MOJO and RNR use different media language to create different connotations? (CONNOTATION meaning: an idea or quality that a word makes you think about in addition to its meaning.)

Answer on your blog. This is a high-value question and should take all lesson to answer. You can use the class blog search engine for more examples of how to analyse music magazines.

In your answer you should have 2 paragraphs:

• analyse the media language in MOJO and RNR magazine. 'Media language' includes the placement of the main image, the type of photography, lighting, colours, fonts, how busy or restrained the cover is, the layout (such as alignment to the margins), how serious or playful 
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently in both extracts to create different connotations. Are there similarities in both covers? What sorts of audiences are they targeting? You could think about MOJO's rock aesthetic of living loud and dangerously compared to RNR's folk, rock, blues vibe. 
  
  

  
  

The MOJO magazine has a large image situated in the centre of the page to show the main article. In this case the main splash is of Dave Grohl, the guitarist for Foo Fighters, who is depicted in a harsh lighting. This masks his face and maybe some of the wrinkles caused by age. He has taken a forward and open aggressive stance and is smearing. This shows the grit and aggression of rock music. We also see this reflected in the cover line “We’ve been to funerals, we’ve been to jail.” This creates an unsettling atmosphere as neither of these are nice places to be. In addition the background and cover mount are very harsh colours which helps the white and red writing to stand out.  On the other hand RnR depicts the old folk singer Christy Moore. He is lit in a warm lighting, showing the age in his face. He is also smiling and is set against a brown, beige background which helps give a calm atmosphere. This is mirrored in the cover line saying “These days it's yoga, camomile tea and three Our Fathers.” This reflects the calm, peaceful persona he gives off in his music. 

In conclusion, both have a similar layout with cover mounts, and other cover lines aligned to the right. They differ extremely as they show two different sides to music. Dave Grohl's shows a harsh environment whereas Christy Moore shows a more calm, collected side to music. In addition, they have two very different colour schemes. The MOJO magazine has lots of bright colours and stands out massively. On the contrary, RnR has a more calm approach with dull colours like brown, beige and grey. Despite this they have similarities like the white font and red hints.