Research into a Genre Artist
History of the Arctic Monkeys

Their story began  when rehearsing at Yellow Arch Studios in Neepsend, they played their first ever gig on 13 June 2003 at The Grapes in Sheffield city-centre. After a few performances in 2003 the band began to record demos at 2fly studios in Sheffield. 17 songs were demoed in all and the collection, now known as 'Under the Boardwalk'.

Today the Arctic Monkey's are known worldwide...
Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band.  Currently the bands members include Alex Turner (lead vocals, Lead/rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (rhythm/lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Helders (drums, percussion, backing vocals).

The band have released four studio albums: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009) and Suck It and See (2011), as well as one live album At the Apollo (2008).

Arctic Monkeys are known for being one of the first acts to become  known to the public through the Internet, 'with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed'.

Below are some songs and examples of the band:

 All Time Low

 Being one of my favourite ever bands, I wanted to look at 'All Time Low' in some detail. I love their uncomplicated style, the personality that comes across in their performances, but most of all I love their sound. Their music is definitely classed as alternative rock as the below clip will show you...

In this analysis I focused less on the actual

music and history of the band and more on 

the style they put alongside their music. I looked

more at the album covers and pictures of them.

Here the band are presented as one item and are unified. The black backdrop presents this idea of drama, but also makes the piece look more elegant and together. The band members style is similar and the picture is a low angle shot creating a sense of dominence.

 The font/title graphics in this picture

Magazine Analysis

Kerrang! is a UK based magazine published by Bauer Media Group. It was named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the noise made when smashing an electric guitar, Kerrang! was initially devoted to the new wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of hard rock acts such as AC/DC who appeared on Kerrang!’s first cover.' 

The target audience seem to have been found to be 'male biased' and aimed at 15-35 year olds, passionate and dedicated to rock music that revoluntionises the world. 
It was first published June 6th 1981 as a one off inside 'the Sounds' newspaper.

The cost of Kerrang is £2.20 and it is launched as a weekly magazine.

Editor	James McMahon
Frequency	Weekly
Circulation	43,033
Publisher	Bauer Media Group
Founder	Geoff Barton
First issue	June 6, 1981 (1981-06-06)
Country	United Kingdom
Based in	London
Langua	nglish

What is the monthly revenue?

The monthly revenue of the magazine from advertising alone is £472,637

The cover 

Why is it called that?

Kerrang! derived from the onomatopoeic word that is made from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar, Kerrang! was initially devoted to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of hard rock acts.

The title connotes a rock/heavy rock atmosphere/ contribution to music. The word 'Kerrang!' is both the title logo and masthead of the magazine, it is a bold and powerful word that strikes us hard and makes us distinguish this magazine from others. The colours used for the masthead are always bold, with attributes the genre, which is usually loud and dramatic. 

       The strapline is the main feature/double page spread feature of the magazine, the text is very different to the masthead, the text has a ragged type effect. This heavily relates to the type of music played. Slipknot's music is both loud and generally somewhat aggressive, in an attempt to make a difference or point.  

•    What is the main image? Analyse the facial expression, direction of gaze,
body language, clothing etc. How does this reach out towards the idealreader identified above? 

The clown type figure is one of the band members dressed in an outfit sometimes worn at shows to create a somewhat intense and creepy atmosphere. He is looking down which makes his eyes look dark and empty, tied in with the creepy smile makes an eerie impression. The body language seems tense as his arms are folded across his stomach, in a somewhat innocent pose. Perhaps creating a false facade of peace, making us await action.

A few other pictures are featured on the cover advertising free posters, a world exclusive! and 10 years of IOWA.


 What content is promoted by the cover lines?
The coverline is a continuation of the main feature and a representation of what will constitute the double page spread. 'The album that changed everything- By Clown'



Explaining  the connotations of typefaces (fonts), graphics, colours etc. 

•    What sort of language/language features/language devices can you identify?

Many of the fonts are bold and simple, leading us to the conclusion that the magazine is straight to the point and is attempting to speak a loud message. It is trying to advertise the music in its most simplistic form. The music speaks for itself. The entire front cover is a good representation of the impression the music gives itself. It connotates madness to a degree, its loud, undefined and different.  The cover is individualistic, it's unique in its layout and format. The colours are simplistic. Usually we see a very defined and obvious cover, whereas here we seem to see organised chaos. It speaks to us, as the music is loud and the cover itself seems to be shouting at us. The punctuation also says this to us.

Inside

There are in total 63 pages in the magazine and 20 of them are of adverts, adverts featured in the magazine are; albums, Kerrang advertisements, festivals, video games, DVD's, tour dates, drinks and a few other obscure adverts.         

The house style is unified throughout through the fonts, language and bright bold colours. The whole magazine is a vibrant and loud as if trying to convey a message. The language is colloquial telling us that is reaches out to a wide variety of people, rather then focusing on any specific areas of class. Results have found that the magazine is male biased, meaning it appeals more to the male gender and typically it appeals most to the younger generation around 15-35 year olds. It has some rather bold statements and content that some may find offensive and words inappropriate for younger readers. 

Research into my chosen genre 
'Indie/pop rock'


When researched I found the wikipedia definition of the indie genre:
'Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.'
This is a general overview of the 'Indie' or 'Pop rock' genre, or the definition anyway. The way I interpret music may be different to the way that others interpret the noise they here. Personally I think that music is a big part of everyday life and that in some way it influences everyone. In the same way that we here music differently the artists that create this music see it differently...


The History of Indie 
(extract taken from wikipedia)



In the mid-1980s, the term "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the college rock that dominated college radio playlists which included key bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK. These bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s and helped inspire guitar-based jangle pop; Other important bands in the genre included the dB's and Let's Active from the US and The Housemartins and The La's from the UK. In the United States, the term was particularly associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies and The Replacements. The most abrasive and discordant outgrowth of punk was noise rock, which emphasised loud distorted electric guitars bands and powerful drums and was pioneered by bands including Sonic Youth, Swans, Big Black and Butthole Surfers. A number of prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s. These include Washington, DC's Dischord Records in 1980, Seattle's Sub Pop Records in 1986 and New York City's Matador Records and Durham, North Carolina's Merge Records in 1989. Chicago's Touch and Go Records was founded as a fanzine in 1979 and began to release records during the 1980s.

 Indie pop

In the United Kingdom the C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring such bands as The Wedding Present, Primal Scream, The Pastels, and the Soup Dragons, was a document of the UK indie scene at the start of 1986, and gave its name to the indie pop scene that followed, which was a major influence on the development of the British indie scene as a whole. Major precursors of indie pop included Aztec Camera, Josef K and Orange Juice and major labels included Sarah, Bus Stop and Summershine. The Jesus and Mary Chain's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with techno and house music. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr, indie pop and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins, were the formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, acts like My Bloody Valentine, and later Slowdive, Ride, and Lush created a loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. The other major movement at the end of the 1980s was the drug-fuelled Madchester scene. Based around The Haçienda, a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records, Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms, Northern soul and funk with melodic guitar pop.

Initial Magazine Title Ideas

To begin my own magazine research I started thinking of possible titles. I searched through magazines, websites and even CD and music charts to try and find titles that related to my chosen genre being 'Indie/Indie rock'. Below are some of these ideas:

• Focus
• 

  On Repeat       
• Intermix
• Undesigned  
• Individualist
• Liberation 
• Retro
• Pulse
• Features
• Review
• Radar
• Spectral
• Spirit 
• Infiniti 

Those highlighted and enlarged are the ones I decided to be my initial favorites (before I gave a questionnaire to my peers)  as they best related and sounded short and memorable. 'Focus' I needed no inspiration for, I thought it up as it was quick and snappy. Although it doesn't relate to my genre as much as I would like. 'On Repeat' was my personal favourite as it was both genre and music related, it sounds to me attractive and modern. 'Icona Pop' is a name I found within the pages of NME, it sounded relatable and different so therefore memorable. 'Spectrals' is most probably my second favourite, it makes me think of a group of individuals different and more focused on then the rest, which is what a lot of Indie music and culture is about- standing out.

Questionnaire ---------> Poll      


At first I planned to conduct a questionnaire, but then I found the idea of an online poll to collect my answers.
I also added a new name to the mix, though I decided it perhaps lacked relevance. But I messed around with some designs and fonts anyway.

My initial ideas began to change slightly as I researched more and began to find more names that related to my genre and built up the constitutions of my idea. I decided to put an online poll on my blogger to see what my peers thought of my name choices.

As we can see from my poll we found that 'Pulse' was the most popular,  with 3 votes,followed by 'On Repeat' with 2 votes. 'Spectrals' was the only title to get no votes at all, leading me to the obvious conclusion that it was not very popular, so I instantly took it off the list.

The poll got more votes but despite this the results did not change, 'Pulse' still being the favourite, 'On Repeat' just behind. Ten people had now voted. 

I continued to play around with different fonts on 'da font'. Despite 'Pulse being the most popular title I still preferred my Outkast edit of a title shown below:

Magazine Analysis

Cover annotation 

The annotation outlines the main focuses and aspects of the cover of the magazine. It describes all the terms such as what the masthead represents, the advertising, the main image etc.









General
Which company produces the magazine?

Who is the main editor of the magazine?

Editor: Krissi Murison

What is the circulation and price of the magazine?
NME is published weekly and costs £2.40 per issue, the magazine has gradually increased in price since its first ever issue. The first ever issue was on the 7th March 1952,below are copies of some of the older covers of NME.

Currently the total circulation for NME magazine is 29,020, this is due to its growing popularity and relevence to its target audience which is approximately aged at between around 16-25 years old. We can see this from the use of semi formal language, provacative pictures and the fashion worn by the models, and those featured throughout the magazine. The clothing and facial features of the focus of the particular magazine I am analysing is above, in the cover annotation.


What is the monthly revenue for the magazine?

Revenue streams refer specifically to the indivdual methods by which money comes into the company. The monthly revenue for the magazine is £495,299.20, the revenue for advertisement alone £67,071. Altogether £562,370.20.
IPC Media's New Musical Express notched up an increase of 9.7% year on year. Publishing director Eric Fuller said, as well as interest in rock music, live events and award-winning editor has helped boost sales.   "When live music thrives, NME thrives as well."

Inside
How many adverts does the magazine contain?
 

Altogether there are 66 pages, with 17 advertisment pages.

There are various types of advertisement: 

2 phone 

2 fashion- both JD:


 

 One called 'My Suede', gives the idea of being indivdualistic- which would be a good link to one of my title ideas 'Individualist'. The outlining links well with the house style of the entire magazine. The clothes he's wearing is reflected within the style of those featured within the whole magazine. 

                                                  7 band pages

                                        One of the band advertisements featured is Noah and The Whale. This one particularly grabbed my attention as being relevant as although the magazine offers a variety of genres it mainly focuses on this 'Indie', individualistic style. Making it stand out from other magazines. The bands music tends to be upbeat and targeting issues brought up in everyday life, for example the song 'L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N' or 'life goes on' is widely popular as it shows a way of coping with issues that threaten to bring people down.

3 NME

NME also advertises its own range of oppurtunities, for example its own tunes and clubs, as shown by the surrounding adverts. The club advert seems to break the usual housestyle of the magazine, giving it a more retro and coloured aspect to NME.

 There was also 1 utility, 1 fragrance and 2 food and drink adverts, of the drink one was alcoholic, there for providing us with the knowledge that there is also a somewhat older target audience aimed at as well as older teens.




How does this influence our view of the target audience? 
 

From this we can see that the magazine is a mass market product/has a mass market audience. It's a product aged at a large range of the population, encouraging a variety, from teens to young adults, both genders and without class boundaires. 

The editing, font, language and house style?

We can see from all of the pages that the magazine keeps a consistent house style. Though some of the fonts for the article titles are manipulated in appearance to emphasise the point of the magazine, therefore engaging the reader.

The colloqueal language is also continued throughout making the magazine appeal to a variety of audiences. The typeface or font, is consistent throughout and this consistency is what forms the basis of a house style.
From the font, house style, colloqueal langauage and overall design, we know that NME is appealing to a wide audience. We can definitely tell from the language,music, fashion and products advertised that it is aimed at the younger audience. It is non biased or offensive to either gender and all classes as the language is easy to read and appealing. Also the magazine isn't overpriced.



Focusing on Double Page Spreads

(PICTURE AND ANNOTATION OF FLORENCE SPREAD FROM MAGAZINE)





Another Double Page Spread that interests me is:

I chose this double page spread to really analyse in detail as it is the sort of style within which I want to focus. You can tell from her clothing, her position and even the expression on her face that she acts and is unique.

You can see from this that her music is also most probably very different. I love the fonts used and the layout of this piece. To analyse it properly I've broken it down into the areas in which I've chosen to specify.

Breaking it down...

The title works really well to create an impression of Nicki Minaj. The two contrasting fonts really reflect her personality.

The fonts work well in portraying the house style of the double page spread. The colours all seem to be taken as variations of the background colour or taken from the font. 








                                   


The story and straplines/coverlines running throughout are really effective, they've played on the whole 'gospel' idea, and turned it into a sort of Bible. They have subtley used religious connotations and given them a different spin for example 'thou shall not get caught'. Something like that would never be put in a real Bible.






     The framing, angle and general compostion of the picture really works well to give her an awkward look perhaps portraying her difference and individuality. This links in also with her style and clothing. There is a continous house style throughout. The colours all tie together to create unity for the piece. It works well with the rest of the magazine, yet is still different and maintains its individuality.