Music Magazine Essay Writing

Music Magazine Essay Writing
The article I am going to write about is about a band called ‘Santogold’ from Koko, London. It was written on 3rd September 2008 by Rick Martin. It is taken from the 20th September issue of NME magazine. I will look at the way forms and conventions are put together with target audiences and representations to create an article that will stand out and appeal to the right audience in order to sell the magazine.
The editor of NME magazine is Connor McNicholas. NME magazine started as a very small and not widely known magazine and gradually became a national institution. Although recently it has started to sell in countries such as Russia and the U.S.A so therefore it could soon be considered as a global institution. NME does produce other media texts such as some television programmes, concerts/gigs etc. NME’s competitors are other popular music magazines such as Kerrang and Q.
The key target audience for NME is mostly teenagers and young adults. I don’t think it would appeal to younger children as the genre of the music is quite mature and also the style and language used in the magazine would not be appealing to young or elderly people. The article in particular that I have chosen would appeal to this target audience but perhaps the younger ones and people who prefer to read shorter articles as this one is only approximately 200 words long, split into 3 short paragraphs. The image that accompanies the article could also show why it would appeal to a younger audience as the band are dressed quite outrageously and uniquely.
This article is in the style of a featurette. Featurette articles are the most popular short articles in magazines today. It is a simple article and usually very short. They are humorous and contain oddity. Their main purpose is to entertain the audience. There are some signifiers in the image that accompanies the article. The brightly coloured clothing that makes them look so outrageous and unique makes you think of how their personalities would be - outrageous and loud to match their image. There is some form of anchorage in the article I have chosen. This is where the image that is with the text or sound is there to make the audience less open to their own different interpretations. The image that goes with this article is simple and does not show anything unusual or controversial so it reduces the amount of interpretations that could be read into it. I think that the image that goes with the article contains an archetype as the image of a singer is exaggerated and in some ways it suits our everyday assumptions of what singers and famous people are like.
The band ‘Santogold’ is being represented in the article and this is done by the detailed descriptions of their performance in the written text and the image of them that accompanies it. Their lifestyle, age and class is represented in the image particularly by the clothing and lifestyle or being famous and on stage. It puts across messages of the rich and famous lifestyle being glamorous whereas in some cases this could be misleading. The attitudes towards the band are positive although in the text they seem to be negative. For example, “her robotically drilled backing band only amplifies her flaws.” However, the image contradicts this as she appears to be giving a good performance and looks successful. Although, towards the end of the article the opinion of the writer becomes more positive.
Overall, the article is positive and exciting at face value although when you read the written text it is quite a negative report of the bands poor performance even though the article concludes in a positive way. The image that accompanies the article gives mixed signs as it demonstrates the stereotypical image of a band but it is actually contradicting the text. In this sense I think that the article is confusing and it should have an image that explains what the article is actually about. It should also reflect the representations that the text creates of ‘Santogold’.