Research: Music Magazine Generic Conventions - Acoustic Rock (and lack of.)

In this blog post I will be mainly focussing on the music magazines that support and focus on artists who fit into the genre of acoustic rock, as well as those artists who are considered singer/song writers. I will be looking at the conventions of these acoustic rock artists on magazine front covers, contents pages and a double page spread. I will also be looking at whether any of these conventions are broken.

Front Cover: Artist featured - Ingrid Michaelson.


The image of the artist here is shot on location, this doesn't break the rules, however it is unusual and not as common. The fact that the artist is wearing colours similar to the location colours doesn't allow the artists to be as eye catching as other mainstream artists however, the use of a fluffy hat and an old fashioned camera, catch the audiences attention and draws them to the front cover. The mast head of the magazine is blocked by the image of the artist however the house style is present in both the mast head and the tag lines, the tag lines present have small headlines above them, indicating to the audience the importance of the acticle or feature. A bar code is present, following the conventions, and the strap line, at the top of the page, features a picture of the band concerned, thus breaking the rules.

My Interpretation: I like how the front image is a location shoot, although it is not obvious where abouts the artist is, possibly a woodland area, the image stands out. The artist herself is making direct address with the audience, keeping to the conventions despite the irregularity of the location shoot. I would like to use a location shot for my front cover, although it breaks convetions, it stands out.

Contents Page: Unable to find an acoustic rock artist - Featured artist: Muse.


The main image of the featured artist dominates the page, thus conforming to the stereotype however smalle images of other artists within the magazine also feature though are set in a small size. The mast head reappears at the top of the page along with the house style of the magazine, as expected, and the list of pages are set out in sections e.g. Interviews, Gig Guides, Album Reviews etc. No tag lines or strap lines are present however large pieces of text, displaying a page number, are played on the image of an artist.

My Interpretation: I like how there are different images of the artists in the magazine and the technique of the page numbers played over the images looks professional. I plan on using a similar layout to how my page numbers are listed and how there are corresponding images with page information.

I was unable to find any good quality images of an acoustic rock artist or a singer/song writer featured in a double page spread as it was difficult to find an acoustic rock artist or a singer/song writer featured in a contents page. This, through research and basic conclusion, has shown that very few acoustic rock artists or singer/song writers get featured in the big, well known magazines. This creates the perfect space for my own magazine and audience, as I previously stated in another post, I plan on creating a Q magazine for a younger audience, those aged from 13 to 20, which will heavily feature up coming artists that fit into the acoustic rock genre or the singer/song writer genre.