In this deconstruction I am going to analyse CLASSIC ROCK magazine which is about music from the rock genre. I will attempt to identify key codes + conventions in relation to the magazine layout and explain their purpose + how they communicate with the target audience.
I want to begin with saying that this magazine has a conventional grid. And it is conventional because it obeys the codes & conventions, for instance the text on the sides is not written straight – it is canted. That might suggest that this type of genre don’t like to obey all the rules. It also looks very neat what can also add a suggestion about the target audience – people of an older age who would like to see the magazine neat, definitely not like the pop magazine, for example where there is a text literally everywhere. Let’s get back to the target audience – it is of an older age definitely, about 22-30, mostly male, who are interested in this kind of genre, also interested in going to the gigs, rock festivals. they probably could use much technology & internet and therefore would probably buy a digital copy of the album. They would also probably watch TV and maybe to watch music channels but not very often.
Main image is located right in the middle – the guy is standing in the serious pose – arms are folded and his glance is looking “at us” very intimidating. Serious pose – is a typical for a rock music magazine. The colour scheme is mainly just black, white & beige to show a classic look of a person on the cover. There are probably two or three different fonts – they are all located differently, but they are easy to read, which only can prove the point that the older audience doesn’t like text to be in a «difficult» font. The text and images are aligned messy and unconventional so it can relate to rock. The most important thing on the cover is the main image and it is linked to the largest text on the page along with the masthead – MUSE, which draws attention first.
The male (part of the «Muse» band) represented as classy but rebel at the same time – we can see it by his clothes – the grey, leather, glossy jacket. Additionally, he has messy hair, what only adds up to a «rebelness».
The barcode is on the bottom right corner of the magazine so as the price, but the point is that we can barely see it – it is made, so our attention won’t first drop on the price of a magazine, so a person could first have a proper look at the magazine and then he will may have a wish to buy no matter the price. They are represented as rock stars, as they are, they have both got long hair and the man playing the guitar has his hair blowing up so that it looks lively. They are both wearing tatty cloths and look messy like rock stars are supposed to and they both look really into their music showing that they are passionate about ti and don’t mess about.
OSCAR 