- Analyse the media language of MOJO and the BBC magazine.
- Make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently to fit different kinds of music. (15)
Different types of music is used in both of the magazine covers which is portrayed in different ways. From looking at the Mojo magazine you can tell that the style of music will be something like rock from the way that a member of The Cure is being presented. As well as this, we can see that the BBC magazine will be based on more classical and orchestral music.
Firstly, media language is used in the Mojo magazine to fit the music style of rock by the use of lighting. Lighting is used here to make the band member of The Cure look very pale and ghost-like. This is by shining a bright white light into their face, creating shadows under the chin and around their face, making them look more threatening and projects their features. They also wear a heavy face of makeup with bright lipstick and dark eyeshadow to, again, make you feel intimidated by him and gives you an idea that his music will be like that too. Another way is by cluttering the cover. To elaborate, the Mojo cover is very busy and crowded with lots of titles and colours. This tells us that the kind of music will be messy and out of the ordinary. The colours used are also bright and contrasting from each other, such as how there is a mixture of red, white, blue, grey, orange and black. These colours show how the music The Cure plays will be detailed with a heavy amount of volume and instruments. Therefore, media language is used here to fit rock music by how they use extreme lighting and vibrant colours.
On the other hand, the media language in the BBC is more gentle and soft to fit the music its playing. For example, the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason is presented as being young, happy and successful. He is wearing a casual red t-shirt and the only light being used is natural looking and hardly noticeable. This contrasts to the Mojo magazine where they used extreme lighting to exaggerate the facial expressions and the man was dressed in white. Sheku Kanneh is smiling as well which makes it seem calm and relaxed. As well as this, the layout of the cover is very neat and tidy with colours like black and red to show how the music will be elegant and balanced. Therefore, Media language is used differently to fit classical music by using basic colours and layout and natural lighting.
In conclusion, the two types of music, rock and classical, can clearly be differentiated from each other by the way media language is used differently. Such as, having no added lighting in the classical magazine cover to show how the music will be more calm and natural to having so much lighting in the rock cover that you can barely make out the background or clothing. The layout in the rock cover is also a lot more cluttered than the classical one and you can tell that the music will be less organised, whereas in the classical magazine cover it all looks very smart and formal.
