1. The music press:
print and online
4 weeks prep time
Exam Thursday 6th June 2013
4 tasks in 1 hour 30min

2. The key concepts
• Language
• Institution
• Audience
• Representation

3. Language
• What do we mean by this?
• Genre & forms and conventions

4. genre
• Music genre gives a publication its
identity which can be easily recognised
by a fan.
• It impacts on all areas of:
• Design
• Content
• Mode of address
• Underlying ideology

5. Forms and conventions
• Layout, format, design and content of
both print and online publications
• How do web based publications relate to
print based?
• How are they alike and how are they
different?
• To what extent does the genre/target
audience impact on these
similarities/differences?

6. institutions
• Who owns the music press?
• The uk music press is made up of large
corporations, small independent groups
and even small groups of
people/individuals.
• How do these differ?
• What are their values and who writes
for them?

7. • Some of these institutions have a cross
media/multi platform presence.
• Does this make them more influential?

8. Finance of institutions
• What are the commercial pressures
faced by the music press?
• How is it funded and what sort of costs
do print and online magazines incur?
• What is the importance of the
advertising industry to the survival of
the music press?

9. audience
• Who reads the music press?
• Consider youth culture and fandom.
• Demographic/psychographic/values and
lifestyles groups.
• Profiles of mainstream and niche
audiences.
• Match them to contrasting publications.

10. Uses and gratification
• Why do audiences buy and read the
music press?
• What uses and gratifications do they
get from it?
• Many publications have declined, why is
this? Are they not meeting the
audiences needs?

11. Effect of the music press
• How influential is it?
• Can it make or break an artist/band?
• Find examples

12. representation
• Closely linked to genre as each genre is
associated with an appearance or look.
• A set of behaviours and a belief system
which is shared by its fan base.
• How is representation used in the
packaging and selling of music?
• Often a fan/audience is not just buying
the music, they are often subscribing to
a whole set of behaviours associated
with it.

13. • Both print and online music magazines
represent music gernes thorugh
bands/artist and the fans.
• Examine the attitudes of the music
press to bands/artistes.
• What language have they chosen to
describe them and their music?
• What pictures have they chosen to
portay their image?
• ?

14. • Are they revered or idolised?
• Or, is the magazine more critical and
take an objective stance towards the
music business

15. examples
• It is important that you have a range of
examples to explain your points.
• Think PEA
• Point
• Example
• Analyse
• We will go over egs in class, but you
MUST do your own research as well to
prove you are an independent learner.