1. Rock
Genre

2. The Facts
• Development of the genre took place in the 1960s and originated in United Kingdom and United
States
• It developed from its roots in 1940s/50s ‘’rock and roll’’
• Influenced by rhythm and blues, folk music, electric blues and country music
• Typical instruments include (vocals), electric guitar, drums, keyboards, bass and also acoustic guitar
• There are tons of sub-genres within the Rock genre, for instance Heavy metal, Punk rock, Power
pop, Indie rock, Glam rock and so on
• Lyrics usually convey a stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are
social or political emphasis
• The conventions of a rock musician has been stereotyped as a white, male musician (since its origin)
• The worldwide popularity of rock music meant that it became a major influence on culture, fashion
and social attitudes. Different sub-genres of rock were adopted by, and became central to, the
identity of a large number of sub-cultures. Out of the punk scene, the Goth and Emo subcultures
grew, both of which presented distinctive visual styles.
• Rock has been credited with changing attitudes to race by opening up African-American culture to
white audiences; but at the same time, rock has been accused of appropriating and exploiting that
culture
• Since its early development rock music has been associated with rebellion against social and
political norms, most obviously in early rock and roll's rejection of an adult-dominated culture.

3. ‘’Rock music has also embodied and served as the vehicle for cultural and social
movements, leading to major sub-cultures including mods and rockers in the UK and the
"hippie" counterculture that spread out from San Francisco in the US in the 1960s.
Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures.
Inheriting the folk tradition of the protest song, rock music has been associated with political
activism as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex and drug use, and is often seen as
an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity.’’
The influence of rock music is far-reaching, and has had significant impact
worldwide on fashion, film and lifestyles. Its impact has been positive, with the
trend of many rock stars facilitating charity events such as Live Aid. There are
also spiritual aspects tied to rock music. Songwriters like Pete Townshend have
explored these in their work. But there has also been some negative influences
that has led many impressionable youngsters to alter their views on moral
values and other aspects in their lives.

4. Codes and Conventions of
Rock Magazine covers
• In most cases the Masthead is partially covered (and always
at the top). This connotes that many music magazines have
succeeded in being established to their target audience.
• Rock music magazines conventionally have a dark colour
scheme (mainly to attract the male audience and to relate it
to the genre more).
• The busyness of rock music front covers seem to be a
frequent pattern as they aim to cover all the negative space
around the main image with coverlines (of contrasting sizes
and colours) and small images.
• Also, Rock tends to be the only genre to edit the colour of
their main images into black and white.
• They always have eyebrows at the top.
• The main feature images are conventionally ‘un-glamorous’
(sometimes the artists pulling faces or in mid-action of doing
something e.g. singing.)
• Stereotypical Rock appearance is also a convention (e.g.
tattoos, messy hairstyle etc)
• Typically, the largest coverline is located in the middle; most
of the time covering the main image.
• The barcode and the price are always situated at the bottom
of the cover (whether on the right or left).

5. Codes and Conventions of
Rock Magazine Contents Page
• One main convention that music magazines follows
is the use of images on the contents page. There is
one main image, which would suggest that this is
the main article featured in the magazine and tends
to be the most appealing.
• There are smaller images (sometimes all images are
the same size), which give you more of an insight
into what else will be included in the magazine. The
images also have page numbers next to them, this is
so that they can include more on the contents, to
give you more of an idea of what will be inside the
magazine.
• The page numbers on this contents page follow the
generic conventions of a music magazine. This is
that not every page number has been printed, this
allows the reader to scan through and see what else
the magazine offers. The reason that magazines do
this is because a lot of articles take up a DPS so on
the contents page they don’t need to write both
page numbers and also none of the advertisements
need to be mentioned.
• The colour scheme/text on the contents page
follows the same style as on the front cover.
• Another convention of any type of magazine is that
in the top (or sometimes bottom) corner there is a
small, relatively informal section that the editor has
written.

6. Codes and Conventions of DPSs in music magazines don’t seem to have a single
particular layout that they all follow. As evidently shown in
Rock Magazine DPSs these pictures, the first DPS has a main centre dominant
picture (mainly on the right but bleeding its way to the left)
with the text around it and also little pictures occupying the
edges of the image. Whereas in the second DPS, one page
is fully dedicated to an image and the other is only for text.
The layout of the second DPS is more general as pictures
are usually placed on the left. This is to show the reader
what the article will be based around. This makes it more
crowded and therefore more exciting.
A convention of a DPS is a heading which is usually the largest text
on the page and its generally very bold so it would stand out. They
also have a unique font so it would catch the readers eyes
immediately.
Also, at the beginning of the article we see a standfirst which is a
significant convention of a music magazine as it gives readers an
insight on what the article consists of and captures the readers
attention; that’s why it needs to be interesting.
By-lines are usually placed underneath images to give credit to A drop cap is usually used at the beginning of the text as
either the photographer or the writer. you can see in the second DPS. Pull quotes are used in
An important convention of music magazines is the way the text is double page spreads to grip the reader to want to read
presented. The text is typically a small size (11/12) so that the article can the article, the drop quotes are usually gripping and
fit onto the page and the article is always in columns. consist of the most vital info from the text; in the second
Page number, and name of magazine are usually situated either at the DPS it is situated on the image.
bottom or at the top of the double page spread.