NME and Kerrang magazine are both established publications, with back catalogues spanning over several decades, NME was first released as a relaunch of Musical Express in the 1950s and covered many new genres and reached new audiences. (U. Lindberg, 2005, pg 82) Similarly, Kerrang first touched the shelves in the 1980s which a metal themed tinge spreading to cover the majority of consumer needs (P. Honeywill, D. Carpenter, 2003, pg 84)
One of the things that Kerrang are most reputable for is the almost niche attitude towards metal, especially and more so in its early days, “Kerrang, the preeminent heavy metal of the 1980s.” (D.Weinstein, 2000, pg 174) as a genre heavy metal was rife during the late 70s through to the 80s, with many subcultures arising from it such as glam metal, hair metal, thrash metal and many others. One subculture that appears to have taken Kerrang as something of a symbol or element of its identity is Goth “Kerrang magazine, read by Goths and those into metal and nu-metal music, it has recently become the most popular music periodical in the UK.” (T.Waddell, 2007, pg 37) The magazine also reflects this main subculture through its design, style and layout, “A teenaged Western metal fan’s reaction to the typeface, colours and layouts of Kerrang magazine are likely to be roughly the same as other members of that subcultural group.” (M.Barnard, 2005, pg25) Kerrang now has a reputation and background as the original ‘metal magazine’ and focuses on creating pieces for the cultures within this broad meta-genre.
There is also the idea that as more subcultures began to emerge, the writing style and type of writers began to change to fit with the new demands of the audience “With writers guidance new areas that would have stayed concealed started to emerge.” (N Macdonald, 2001, pg 53) niche magazines are also a large part of subcultures, with many focusing wholly on one type of music and reflecting the beliefs and attitudes surround the genre.
NME is a generally indie based publication with some deviation into Rap and Hip Hop but never far enough to outstretch its trendy, adolescent feel. The majority of the bands and artists with the publication are male lead, a lot of indie bands are four or five piece male groups, which are the main focus of NME “The readership of NME tends to be adolescents or young males in their twenties and thirties; the writers of the magazine, adopting the attitude of being ‘one of us’ tend to reflect this group.” (C.W. Jones, 2008, pg 122) therefore the gender reflected within the publication appears to lean towards a male dominated readership and so the content may be focused on this audience rather than a balanced female to male ratio.
A factor within music magazines such as NME and Mojo as well as many others is the lists and collections put together within issues such as ‘100 greatest rock songs’ or ‘ultimate rock list’ the phrases found within these lists and sometimes within other features is ‘Women in rock’ the phrase itself seems to purposefully set apart the genders and highlight the idea of women in music:
“The very phrase ‘Women in rock’, which features in a great number of articles focusing on female musicians, is in itself problematic. Rather than simply pointing out the activity of female musicians within a particular music genre, the phrase usually works to peculiarise the presences of female rock performers.” (M. Leonard, 2007, pg 32)
It appears to be a general theme within rock orientated magazines to publish a higher amount of content around males than females, perhaps simply because the amount of musicians within the genre is dominated heavily by males therefore giving publications little else to write about. Magazines such as Q identify with and communicate with fans of classic rock, which is a highly masculine genre, meaning the publication has little mention of female musicians, “Where magazines are concerned Bayton (1970) studied 1980s and 1990s publications for guitarists and found that women’s presence in such magazines was minimal.” (J. Shepherd, 2003, pg 233)
The reflection of subculture and gender within music publication therefore depends highly upon the magazine itself, the audience it is targeting and the needs and wants of the consumer.
Bibliography:
M.Barnard, Graphic design as communication, Routledge, 2005, pg 25
P. Honeywill, D. Carpenter, Digital magazine design with case studies, Intellect Books, 2003, pg 84
C.W. Jones, The rock cannon: canonical values in the reception of rock albums, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2008, pg 122
M. Leonard, Gender in the music industry: rock, discourse and girl power, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2007, pg 32
U. Lindberg, Rock criticism from the beginning: amusers, brusers and cool headed cruisers, Peter Lang, 2005, pg 82
N. Macdonald, The graffiti subculture: youth, masculinity and identity in London and new York, Palgrave Macmillan 2001, pg 53
J. Shepherd, Continuum encyclopaedia of popular music of the world, Continuum International Publishing group, 2003, pg 233
T. Waddell, Cultural expression of evil and wickedness: wrath, sex and crime, Radopi, 2007, pg37
D. Weinstein, Heavy metal: the music and its culture, Da Capo Press, 2000, pg 174
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