Liam Smith discusses components for a rock music magazine, including using low-key lighting and a dark color palette to make artists stand out. Fonts would be sharp to match the gritty style of rock music. Costumes and props would have dark, bleak colors to complement the backgrounds. Most rock magazines feature aggressive, intimidating male bands on the cover to reinforce the stereotype of rock music pushing boundaries.

1. Genres Research
By Liam Smith

2. Rock Music Magazine Components - Lighting
For my rock magazine I will use low-key
lighting to cast shadows depending on the
camera angle with a dark colour scheme,
to allow the artist(s) to stand out against
the background, whilst still holding a dark
colour palette. This is evident in modern
day rock magazines such as “Classic
Rock”, especially in their Rolling Stones
magazine, where the image is
monochrome and they use gold and red
writing to stand out from the otherwise
monochrome colour palette. The images
will be monochrome in colour to help
emphasize the difference in colour.

3. Rock Music Magazine Components - Fonts
I will use sharp fonts for addressing
different artists as rock music is dark and
gritty. Aside from rock logos other logos
used on the magazine will be plain and
basic in order to emphasize the contrast
between the rock and the standard. If
applicable, I will also use fonts to represent
the band’s logos or banners, as they use
these fonts to represent themselves. The
fonts will be white or black, to help stand
out against the background and to make
them the easiest to read for all readers.
This is evident on the “Kerrang!” magazine
as they use plain fonts for average text, and
use extravagant fonts for logos of bands and
headers.

4. Rock Music Magazine Components – Costume + Props
The costume and props that will be used
in my magazine will be complimentary
to the dark colour theme, such as a dark
red, yellow, green or blue to give the
images recognition against the dark
backgrounds. The artists would wear
dark and bleak clothing with either plain
backgrounds or images of scenery which
matches their attitudes, such as a
trashed hotel room, or a graffiti-filled
brick wall. This is evident on the ”Rock
Sound” Magazine, as the background is a
scratched banner.

5. Rock Music Magazine Components - Representation
Most rock magazines feature a male band
on the front cover. They usually have
aggressive expressions to help reinforce the
stereotype of rock music pushing limits to
the maximum. They have their hair styled
to look menacing and intimidating. They
also have a reoccurring theme to the band
which gives them further recognition, such
as wearing a specifically designed bandana
or colour scheme. In some cases, like
“Nirvana”, they wear clothes that you
wouldn’t traditionally tie to rock music,
such as in the “Rolling Stone” magazine
where one of the band members wears
overalls.