MUSIC VIDEOS: MUSIC LANGUAGE

 PREP Explain how music videos use media language to promote their artists. Refer to the pair of music videos you have studied from the list below in your answer.

Our music videos are Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag Avril Lavigne Sk8ter Boi

HOW TO ANSWER: Media language points to consider:

the prioritising of the star / the group; the privileging of the star / the groups in the frame

authenticating the star's performance / the band's performance to show their skills

the use of close ups; lip syncing to camera; eye contact with the audience

It indicates that the artist may relate with the theme of the music video themselves and may have had a crush on someone like Noel and loved iron maiden as well when they were younger. The video may be narratable. We see the high school world the teenage dirt bag is trying to fit in with. The middle class environment in which the music video is set where the boy is bullied for being odd and atypical shows how authentic this music video truly is.

Media language is used to promote the artists in these two music videos, this is demonstrated when Avril Levigne makes eye contact with the camera, and the audience, whilst lip-syncing to the song Sk8er Boi in the music video making it seem that she is actually singing. Avril Lavigne is also the main star in the central splash of the music video. This is because she is the only artist who sings the song 'skater boy'. She is privileged in the frame. Avril kind of lives with the story and enacts it.

 

MUSIC MAGAZINE: MEDIA LANGUAGE

 Look carefully at the front covers of MOJO and RNR magazines. 

QUESTION: How far do MOJO and RNR use different media language to create different connotations? (CONNOTATION meaning: an idea or quality that a word makes you think about in addition to its meaning.)

Answer on your blog. This is a high-value question and should take all lesson to answer. You can use the class blog search engine for more examples of how to analyse music magazines.

In your answer you should have 2 paragraphs:

• analyse the media language in MOJO and RNR magazine. 'Media language' includes the placement of the main image, the type of photography, lighting, colours, fonts, how busy or restrained the cover is, the layout (such as alignment to the margins), how serious or playful 
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently in both extracts to create different connotations. Are there similarities in both covers? What sorts of audiences are they targeting? You could think about MOJO's rock aesthetic of living loud and dangerously compared to RNR's folk, rock, blues vibe. 

In MOJO Dave Grohl is presented as aggressive. You can see this because he is shown to be leaning forward as if he is going to break through the page. His hands are coming out and its seen to be that he is holding the Foo Fighters title. The name Foo Fighters is portrayed as violent and aggressive. This is because the colours are red and white which implies violence. On the bottom left, the album cover is a skeleton playing the guitar implying that rock music is deathly and hard. MOJO mention the words "We've been to funerals,we've been to jail." This demonstrates that he has been through it all.

On the other hand, Christy Moore is seen as more relaxed and gentle. Additionally, Christy Moore isn't afraid of showing wrinkles and showing his age off. The album cover on the RnR magazine has a pun. The pun is that the zebra is all alone and out of a heard so the name is un-herd. Also, the 'un-herd' implies that nit many people are listening to his music and that he is unheard of. Contrastingly, the text on the side of RnR says "These days it's yoga,camomile tea and three our fathers." This contrasts MOJO as the MOJO magazine is presented as violent whereas he is more chilled and relaxed doing yoga.

In conclusion, MOJO targets mostly to male rock fans, whereas RnR targets to folk fans. Despite the fact that both music magazines have a large number of articles, RnR is more organised and controlled.

•