Rolling Stone Magazine.

I'm still undecided on the genre of my exam and the direction that I'm planning to go in. However, I'm going to focus on 'Rolling Stone' magazine as my inspiration because I think that they cover quite a few genres of music, and even if they don't like the band/artist, they are still mention them and are critical of them. 

Current Issue.

This is the current issue of the magazine. It has three main colours (red, black and white) but also has a hint of yellow. I noticed that on most of the Rolling Stone magazine front covers, this the case. I think that for this particular issue, it adds a more of a 'rock' vibe to it, including the way Jimmy Page is posing for the camera.

The font does not exclude any gender, but because its quite 'crunchy,' it appeals to be targeting older males - or at least people of the era that remember him. The editors seem to stick to same font style, just changing the size of it depending on the article and its importance. 

I think the use of the black and white image is interesting - again it adds the rock vibe - breaking rules. However, the black and white also seems to show who this issue is trying to aim it at - the older demographic - it makes it seem more 'vintage' and worthy - something that people would want to keep because its just one of those covers that seem to hold sentimental value. 

However, Rolling Stone magazine does not only focus on music as it also centers around politics, celebrities on TV, movie and the general popular culture. And this is what I think makes it different and stand out from other music magazines.

Issue on Mitt.

Political Issue (Obama)

Here is the example of the issue where its main feature article focuses on politics.This issue was out in November 2012, a few days after it was announced that that he had won the American Presidential election.I researched into whether Rolling Stone had 'favoured' Obama's win beforehand, and turns out they did as in the issue of August 2012, they published a magazine and the main article was called "Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney..." so it probably was no surprise to readers when they found that Rolling Stone was doing an issue on Obama's win. It was clear that in the August issue who they are backing - and being one of the most influential magazines, in my opinion, they were able to steer which way their readers see things by making Romney seem bad and 'greedy.'

Again, Rolling Stone proves to not stick to a particular genre of music, but rather the music that they see as 'music' and worth the listen.

Here are two examples of very different artists which Rolling Stone centered these particular issues on - while Lana Del Rey is considered to be 'alternative,' P!nk is seen to be more pop rock. The cover with Lana seems simple and quite underrated; I think the use of the black and white image works better on this magazine than it did with the image of Jimmy Page. Also, the colours fit nicely together with it being the simple red, black and white - I think that the simplicity represents who she is as an artist - her music is simple and doesn't try too hard to get on the scene by going all pop. 

In comparison, to the P!nk cover, it still sticks to the 3 colour rule - it being black, white and red as the centre - however, there's also shades of grey and the yellow. I noticed that the rock magazines tend to 'disobey'  the colour rules and this ties in nicely with the genre. 

On the other hand, what I noticed with  Rolling Stone is that whenever there is a woman on the front cover, she is portrayed as more or less, a sex object - purely because of the position they are posing in, the clothing and how much they 'bare' to the camera. Below are examples of the few magazines where the photographers show that my statement is true. 

Rolling Stone & Representation of women.

All artists (and actress) are shown to be posing at the camera in a certain way, which of course is to attract the attention of the male readership. The editors obviously know that the female readers are more likely to pick up a magazine because they are a fan of that person, however, its harder to attract the males and therefore by making them pose and dress in a way that will attract that certain demographic, they are getting a wider readership and therefore more money. 

I personally do not want to represent women in this way because I think its nothing but a cheap trick to get readers to buy that magazine - surely if the content is good enough, you don't need to make women wear less clothing.