AOB 3 (Music Press) Creating meaning

The new modern, NME magazine, differs completely to that of 50 or 60 years ago. It has completely changed, due to a number of factors. The modern NME magazine are aimed at a vast range of audience, certain artists are used to draw in a younger age group, however, there are still certain artists who feature in the magazines to draw in the older readers. The way we can tell what age range the magazine's are intended for are the vocabulary used and also the image(s) used, if the artist on the front is say 21 years old, then you know that the magazine is going to be intended for people around that age.  The mode of address of the magazine these days is intended for all sorts of readers, the NME magazine on 23rd april 2011, includes a contrast of manner, on the front it includes swearing, and much more sharp, and more informal wording. However, on the old NME magazine, which was on the June 16th 1965, its completely different, much more polite and this resembles how audiences have changed over the years. The NME magazine on 23rd april 2011, is very appealing to a wide range of audience, the front cover includes a large rather 'explicit' image of pop star Lady Gaga, this appeals to the younger audience, because it includes a large photo of her, and a very bold standout title of her name and 'Unzipped' underneath it. The magazine also draws in readers by the colour scheme which is used, the two colours contrast well together, and also reinforce the picture of Lady Gaga, which influences younger readers to buy the magazine. The use of the image of Lady Gaga will engage readers and they may look at her and aspire to be like her, which can increase sales of the magazine, but it all depends on the persons reputation. Also the large size font used for 'Lady Gaga' helps emphasize what the magazine is about and this therefore helps to sell the magazine.

The old NME magazine, is aimed at people from around the ages 20-50, the audience for the old NME magazine was much broader than the modern day NME magazine, which is mainly focused on people from late teens. Also the old NME magazine, doesn't have the magazine title abbreviated, it actually says New Musical Express whereas today, the magazine just says NME at the top of the page. A similarity of the two magazines it that they mainly want you to focus on the star artist on the front page,  the new NME magazine wanting you to focus on Lady Gaga and the old NME magazine wanting you too focus on the Beatles, who were a huge hit during those times. Also both magazines are similar in the way that they both include cover lines, and certain words to draw readers in and get people to purchase the magazine. However, with all the similarities between the two, come the differences, on the old NME magazine, there is a use of different pictures, so that meant they wanted to use a range of artists to draw different kinds of readers in, however on the modern day magazine, they just use and image of Lady Gaga, as they want you to solely concentrate on her. Also the old NME magazine only includes males, however a sign that times have changed is that the modern day NME magazine includes a women, quite explicit on the front.

AOB2 Music Video Analysis

AOB 2 (Music Press) Structure

AOB 2 Music Video Analysis 2

AOB 1 (Music Press) Changing genre, History

Magazines have become a major part of our lives for the last few hundred years, now you can pick up magazines which are about literally anything. The first ever magazine produced was the Gentlemen's Magazine, in 1731, however, it was nothing like the magazines of today. The Gentlemen's Magazine consisted of drawn images, no cameras were used, or anything like we have today, such as photoshop, etc. In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States, the magazine is mainly about fashion and lifestyle, and the magazine continues to be published now. A big change is mazagine's was Nova, a female magazine produced in 1965, the magazine reflected the change in female roles. Men's magazine's remain the same today, they have always had a specific topic, be it fishing, football, cars etc. Arena was a British monthly men's magazine, created in 1986, it always consisted of females on the front, which were never ugly, fat, had spots, etc, and also normaly all women were white. The magazine featured articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, toys, and books.

The NME magazine has been one of the most prolific magazines over the past 50 or so years. NME started as a sort of newspaper however, over the years it gradually turned into magazine during the 1980's. The NME journalists would mainly write about pop, and would be very friendly and positive towards the artists, Morris Kinn, the NME's first editor, created the first ever music singles chart, which featured in the magazine. During the 1960's the NME's sales rocketed, the company was on a real high, and NME had a great reputation with artists and bands, and a great relationship with them too, however, this completely changed during 1969, when the NME's audience had become self aware teenagers, the soft drugs of the early 60's had now become the hard drugs of the early 1970's, the peaceful love days of the 60's had completely changed into violence. The NME knew it would need to change the way they write about artists to ensure that they satisfied there customers, they began to write really harsh write ups about singers, and started to turn unpleasant. The NME went through a rough stage, so they made Alan Smith as an editor, this gave the company a 300,000 circulation by 1973. In 1976 the NME advertised for two new, young hip journalists, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons joined the NME and completely changed the direction and way the magazine was going, when they reviewed artists they were harsh, and at your throat. Punk wasn't really accepted by many people during the 1970's, you couldn't really find out lots about it, or see it on tv, however, the NME was the only real source which allowed people to find out about punk. Neil Spencer took over as an editor, he redesigned the NME, A lot of the current Journalists were cleared out, as new talent was needed to be brought in. After a certain amount of years the NME magazine became very political and intellectual, they started being very daring and wrote an article on youth suicide, it only appealed to a small audience, but that small audience were very impressed by it. After being there for seven years, Neil Spencer left his position. Morrisey was very popular with the NME's audience, so he appeared on the front cover of the magazine quite frequently, However, after a bad concert, the NME gave him bad publicity and he didn't feature on the magazine until 12 years later, when a new editor persuaded him to return. Overall, NME's survival and the fact it still sells today is all because it has changed over the years with the tastes of audiences.

AOB 1 History of the Music Video

Music videos have developed and become extremely different over the years, this is due to advances in modern day technology allowing them to change different aspects, and also YouTube has played a huge part in the music industry of late. 1923 was when music was first introduced onto the television scene , however, they were only really made when an artists were unable to do live performances. Strawberry fields by the beatles was the first real music video, it was not part of a film, like others, and was the average length of music videos, around 2-4 minutes of length. The differences of music video years back now completely differs to that of today, there is a huge change in performance and also the change of the amount of time and money spent into producing such high intense, jaw dropping music videos. Although music videos are hugely popular during modern day, years back there was a division in attitude towards music videos, people would criticize videos as they deemed that they overshadowed the music and that it took away the enjoyment of different songs. People thought music videos were a phase, and that eventually they would die down, however, little would they know how big the music video industry would become. Lot's of music videos aren't just random pointless videos to go with the song, they have many different relations and meanings, lot's of music videos are actually based on films, Robbie Williams song millennium, cast him as the famous James Bond. A big development of music videos and a turning point was the introduction of television program MTV. The first ever track that MTV aired was the song 'Video Killed the Radio Star'' which was very ironic as it was in relation to the tv show airing their first ever music video on television. The fact that MTV had been created was a opening chapter to many artists, it influenced many artists to produce music videos, as they saw it a great opportunity to gain new fans, and also make money. Duran Duran made their music videos before songs, to them it wasn't all about the music, and it was mainly about their image and appealing to a wide audience.

A well known star who was able to do this was Michael Jackson, as you will know, he was named the king of pop, and he used music videos to enable him to become the star that he was, one of his most famous music videos, 'Thriller' kick started the home video business, it was affordable and a massive hit during those times, the fact that it sold three times as many other pop songs during that time proved it was one of the best music videos to date. The thriller video used monsters throughout the video, this therefore gave other artists inspiration to include these into their own music videos, which then kick started the most bizarre and extreme music videos to occur. Another more recent star to become very popular due to her fantastic music videos, is madonna. Madonna realized that the quickest way of enabling that you had a good music career was to be successful via music video, not to tour around the world. Although MTV is still very popular today, MTV had to prove themselves, and prove that they would make money from the show, otherwise, it wouldn't have been allowed to continue.