Magazines: MOJO Magazine Analysis

Analysing MOJO Magazine

Example Exam Question

Refer to Extract 1 in the Insert. Analyse the representation of musicians in Extract 1, which is from MOJO Magazine. (5 Marks)

Today's Tasks

TASK 1: Today we will be working on the Front Cover of the June issue of MOJO Magazine. Take out your copy.

In your exam you may be asked a similar question to the example exam question above.

As you know the audience of MOJO Magazine is middle-aged men (mean age 41) who take music seriously and enjoy the classic rock and pop legends from the past.

TASK 2: Print out the image and stick it into your book a new clean page. Then label all of the conventions on the front cover in detail (use your glossary).

E.g.: Banner > Gold > Suggests it is valuable and links with the idea that it contains the best music.

TASK 3: Read the example student response below and then write your own in your book to the same standard if possible (Grade 9) using your front cover instead.

The magazine extract uses a simple colour palette of monochrome colours plus font in a dark red and yellow. This use of colour connotes a serious tone to the magazine, and that the magazine deals with the serious business of real music. This is further supported through the decision by the editor to use a black and white photo of the artist Ray Davies on the front, his head blocking the title of the magazine which again suggests his importance to the world of music. The content of the associated coverline ‘Arise Ray Davies, Rock’s Dark Knight’ suggests that he is of a high status, almost godlike, and that he is revered by the magazine and its readers. The magazine has quite a masculine feel to it, partly through its use of colour as mentioned above. This masculine feel is further developed through the choice of artists and bands identified on the front cover, which include KLF, The Stray Cats, Thin Lizzy and Suggs. All of the artists or bands are male dominated, apart from Blondie. This could suggest that the world of rock is male dominated and enjoyed by male readers, which is further reinforced by the monochrome colour scheme and block capitals for all coverlines. This feeling of masculinity is further emphasised by the choice of language used in some of the coverlines. Phrases such as ‘living dangerously’, ‘torment’ ‘extinguish’ and ‘saving his soul’ all connote a sense of struggle or a battle to live shared by many of the artists covered in the magazine; use of words such as these are stereotypically male. Finally, the magazine MOJO is challenging the stereotype that music is dominated by younger artists as it is representing ‘authentic’ music as being the domain of the older, more established artist such as Neil Young, Ray Davies and Bill Evans.