Feature Article Analysis...

I think there's a big difference between how a music magazine and a celebrity gossip magazine writes their feature articles, especially with the language. In order to get an insight and understand how it is done, I have chosen to read through 3 different magazine features (2 music, 1 gossip) and these are...

• Glamour (gossip/fashion)
• Billboard (mainstream music)
• Rolling Stone (various music)

Rolling Stone...

This article is focused on Whitney Houston and her 'come back.' Its formally written and compared to other music magazines which I have read, there is no swearing and it seems like a classy representation of Whitney and their magazine in general. 

The language that is used is simple but the way the editors phrase it, makes it seem elegant - though this could be due to the reputation of the magazine, it may also be mainly because of the person they are writing about. If that is the case, I think for my own magazine, it will be important for me to choose the right kind of language to address my chosen musician but at the same time, I will need to keep my target audience in my mind because its important that they understand what they're reading and there's not much point using big words because they wouldn't understand it and might feel as if they're being talked down upon and that the magazine is much better than them and that's not a positive message to send across.

On the right are a couple of parts I took out from the Whitney Houston article. If I was to see only these comments without knowing where they came from, I would know they come from a music magazine because of words such as "record," "hitmakers," "uptempo track," "grand ballads," and "sleek soul." From that alone, I would know that they are focusing on her music career rather than the gossip that surrounds her life. 

However, like most magazines, they have to mention something about her past - though this seems to be irrelevant for a music magazine, I think they do this because if someone has just come across this article and they might not know exactly who that person is (probably not the case with someone as big as Whitney), they then get to know a bit more about them. But of course, this isn't exactly a positive representation of her and I personally don't think it was necessary to mention drug abuse since the name of the article says "New CD" and as a reader, I would expect them to be talking about her music and not her personal life.

This is a Rolling Stone article on Justin Bieber - this again shows the diverse mix of music that the magazine gives; this way they have a wider readership because they're not limiting themselves to just one genre. Unlike the Whitney Houston article, this one is set out like an interview with questions. One of the questions is "You claim to have started playing drums at the age of two. Where and how?" - the use of the word 'claim' suggests an accusing tone, as if they can't exactly believe that he would be playing drums (whether that be of his age or because he's Justin Bieber). Another question is "You used to busk on the streets. What was your repertoire?" The language here in my opinion seems to be a bit fancy - as if they're expecting him and the reader to not understand what they're talking about. 

The questions on the right are clearly showing that its a music magazine because the questions don't involve talking about his personal life. The questions are simple, and there's nothing wrong with that, but as a reader, I get the impression that the person interviewing him is exactly happy to have gotten this job - he's asking the questions because he has to, not because he wants to. The responses that Justin replies with gives a sense that he's quite intimidated by Rolling Stone magazine and its as if he's being forced to come up with good music in order to get respect from them.

Billboard...

Its quite hard to read this issue of Billboard (and quite hard to find any articles posted since its an American based magazine) and therefore I'll be focusing more on the layout rather than language.

The picture here takes up most of the space and the red lipstick compliments the title; 'Red' is also the name of the album and so there's a clear theme here and the reader knows that the interview is most likely to be about her album. I personally don't like the fact that there's a white square used to actually write the article on to, it looks messy - it would've been better if the background of the photoshoot was white and then the article would tie in with the background. 

I also noticed that the three colours on top are representing the title of  the magazine (Billboard) and that also links to the title of the article - 'primary colours.'

Glamour...

I came across the latest issue of Glamour's feature article on Facebook, where Rita Ora herself posted it. It consisted of the front cover, contents and feature article (all starring herself). Since I have all 3 of what I will be creating myself, I've decided to analyse all of it, rather than just the feature article. The main thing I found out was that musicians are portrayed and asked different questions when it comes to gossip magazines - they focus on their personal life more rather than music.

Front Cover of 'Glamour' 

This is the front cover of this magazine is quite eye catching - mainly because of the pink (which links that it is after all a 'women's' magazine). I don't get the impression that it will be about music though - apart from the fact that they name drop Beyonce but even that is about 'advice' and her advice could've been about anything, not particularly about music. Also, the colours are a bit too summer-esque considering it is a winter issue - I need to think carefully about the colours I choose in order to fit the season (the same goes for the outfit choices). 

Contents of 'Glamour' 

This is the contents page of Glamour. They only used one picture and that is of Rita so its clear that it will be the feature article. Also, they wrote the number that the interview will be on next to the picture. The colours continue from the front cover and there's then a sense of consistency.

The feature article is an 8 page spread (including pictures). The is the first. There's one single picture on the right and then the details of what you can expect in the article which says "The tunes. The style. The lipstick. Rita's not just the biggest name of 2012 - she's the pop star we've been waiting for." - from this, I know that though they will talk about her music, it will also be based on her style ect.

 This where the actual article starts. What I find quite annoying is that they didn't use a capital 'T' - this makes seem that they are continuing the same sentence from the previous page, but of course they're not. The first paragraph talks about what she's doing at the moment of the interview, rather than what she has done before - there's no real introduction of who she is, if it was someone big such as Rihanna, then it would be understandable, but being a new pop star, surely they need to introduce her first. She says in this part of the interview "the main concern should be getting respect for your music," and I think that this should've been what got taken out of the interview and written in the pink rather than what's originally taken out because that's a bit too long. After this, they then go on talking about her relationships, which is typical of a magazine like Glamour. And then, they actually get into talking about her background (where she's from and when she was noticed by a music producer) - its a bit late for that, I think, even if the magazine does not centre around music. 

This is the next two page spread. This time, they used a capital letter for the T - if you're going to do it wrong at the start, they may as well continue doing it wrong throughout, they should at least have some consistency. During this section of the interview, it focuses on her music career.

The picture here is taken from the contents page and the article itself is more to do with relationships and her style until the end of the whole interview where she talks about her music one last time.

What have I learned?

This was a useful task that I carried out - I found out about both the language and layout of feature articles and that they are very different from music to gossip, which I wasn't surprised finding out. I think it will be necessary for my interview to centre around music but I don't want it to be boring and bland and therefore I need to think of some interesting questions which will make readers think 'Oh, that's an interesting question!' In regards to the photoshoot, it depends on the genre of the artist - if they're rock, I need to make sure that's expressed through clothes, if they're pop, again, I need to do the same. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.