Analyse Genre in one of your Coursework Productions
“I will be analysing the front page, contents page and double page spread of my music magazine which formed part of my Foundation Portfolio in Media. In class, we studied genre and hybridisation in existing music magazines such as XXL, The Source, Kerrang!, Q, NME, Rock Sound and online magazines such as We Love Pop and Drowned in Sound. This enabled us to fully understand how genre can be applied to our own productions?.
- This essay from the start allows for the understanding of what many magazines like Kerrang! and NME have expanded into – genre hybridisation to ensure as wider target audience as possible. Does this link to your magazine? Is it a hybrid? Of what and where is the evidence in terms of genre conventions? Think about colour palette, typography but importantly bands and artists foregrounded on the front cover, in the contents page and on the double page spread.
- Link genre to audience – if hybridised, can you apply Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and difference or are you targeting a more niche demographic in terms of remaining faithful to genre conventions.
- What are the connotations of the title of your magazine and does this link to genre e.g. ‘Kerrang’ is supposed to represent the noise of a guitar strumming while ‘Hip Hop Connection’ is more implicit in its connections to genre. Link this with John Hartley who suggests that genre is interpreted culturally e.g. is the genre of your magazine global e.g. Rock or has it more British connotations e.g. Indie? Q is a generic title, as it the American magazine Rolling Stone but other titles may have distinctly different connotations.
- Remember to engage in content analysis to reveal genre conventions e.g. language code, mode of address, choice of artist/band, framing and type of shot, masthead, title, colour palette, cover lines and representations.
- Genre hybridisation (or not) could be a key focus using...
