Analysis of Dance/Club Music Magazines

Rave and Mixmag are a good example of a music magazine representing the genre of dance and club music. Each week Rave publishes interviews with international, national and local artists, together with the most up-to-date information on live gigs, tours, dance events and music festivals.

Mixmag is the dance music market leader and has maintained its reputation as the most influential title in the dance sector. This is shown in the sub-masthead at the top of the cover, 'the world's biggest dance music and clubbing magazine'. It created the words "superclub" and "trip hop", released the first legal DJ mix tapes and CDs and is one of the most trusted voices in dance music.

The mastheads of each of the magazines are representative of the music genre, 'Rave' is a commonly used word used to describe a dance party indicating the clubbing scene. Above the mats head reads, 'where to party this new years eve' this backs up the content of the magazine. 'Mixmag' suggests the idea of mixing different music tracks of the dance/club/trance genre together by dj's played in clubs. The content displayed on each cover are representative of what might be expected by the 'rave' and 'clubbing' scenes, for example they both have an article about ecstasy. Also both advertise the best party places to be. Moreover both represent music artists who are popular in the genre of music.

The colour schemes are bright, bold, colourful and busy. For 'Rave' the masthead is bright blue and is the biggest and boldest piece of text on the cover. Also this colour is not used in any other text on the cover in order for it to draw attention to itself to recognise the magazine. Putting aside the masthead the textual colours consist of yellow/green, white and red which are very colours creating a very dramatic effect. The background looks similar to that of flock wallpaper design, this is very unusual of the 'normal' magazine cover background. All of these unconventional features of this magazine cover come together to re-enforce the music genre it is representing.

Mix mag follows the conventional textual colour scheme of keeping to three colours which are white, yellow and red. The yellow reflects sun as it is a warm colour and this is why Ibiza is written in yellow as it is a hot country. The colour red is a sign of danger or prohibited activities etc which reflects on the word 'sin' in the headline. Although this magazine displays some conventional features, the background looks as though it is lots of leaves, maybe palm tree leaves to support the idea of Ibiza, however looks as though it has been placed behind after the photo had been taken. By mixing conventional with unconventional features this represents the title 'Mixmag'. By illustrating the dot on the 'i' as a compact disk this reinforces that it is a music magazine.

Rave's main image focus is 'Fergie', she is a well known music artist, this guarantees that the majoity of readers will know and like her, immediately attracting the audience. The word 'Rave' is associated with wild and out of the ordinary parties. This is reflected in the main pictorial and accompanying headline. As it is very out of the ordinary for a famous music artist to appear out of a huge layered cake, however written across the bottom of the cake is, 'The Holiday Issue' this indicates that it is a special issue that will feature extra content that does not ordinarily appear, reflected by the image. Fergie is dressed in what appears to be a fancy blue swimsuit, the blue has been chosen so that a link can be made back to the blue masthead. Moreover the way she is posed with her body lent to a side and her hands in the air, with her fingers positioned in a particular way that suits the dance style you would be likely to see at a rave. The accompanying headline reads, 'The Duchess of Debauchery Fergie'. The word 'debauchery' translates as a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity, this is what can also be stereotypically described as the 'rave scene'. By saying that Fergie is the 'Duchess' of this it indicates she is regular goer of wild parties etc. This all comes together to emphasise the music sub-genre it is portraying.

The main headline in Mixmag reads 'sun! sex! sin! Ibiza The Real Story', this is reflected in the main photo. Firstly she is wearing a bathing suit, a necklace, a pair of earrings and has a pair of sunglasses, this relates to Ibiza which is a well recognised as the clubbing capital holiday resort. By adding the accessories this suggests she is going to party instead of just going on holiday to sunbathe. Everything she has on is white and yellow which makes a direct link to the heading as the text is the same colour. The woman's body language is very open as she is lent slightly back with her head tilted and is looking down at the reader as if she is almost inviting them to read Mixmag. Her bathing suit is very exposed and she is posed seductively indicating the 'sex' and 'sin' part. As the headline reads 'the real story' by placing the tip of the frame of her glasses in her mouth between her teeth suggests that she knows 'the real story' about Ibiza as if it was a secret and she can't tell. However by taking the glasses away from her eyes whilst still being on her face this creates the effect that she has revealed some of her identity to the audience. This reflects the idea that she is going to reveal 'the real story' about Ibiza to the reader in the magazine article.

On the whole, after analysing thoroughly all the features of each of the magazines above I have found that they all work together to create a magazine which represents the dance/clubbing music culture.