Understanding Genre in Music Magazines

Understanding Genre in Music Magazines

In music magazine colour, image, language and font are all affected massively by the genre of the magazine. There a different genres of music; Emo, Punk, Indie, Rock, Heavy Metal and Goth are the ones we will be discussing. These genres each have their own stereotype about their music and the artists that produce it. These stereotypes represent how people assume the fans and musicians of these genres act and look like.

Emo is the genre with the strongest opinion on stereotype. They are typically seen as wearing all black and dark colours, along with having abstract hair styles. The musicians and fans are considered to be depressed. The image to the left is what the public consider most Emos to dress and look like. As you can see they are all wearing black shirts and all have unique hairstyles. This image is of “medium level Emos” as some are wearing lighter colours as well. There is some controversy between the likeness and similarities between Emos and Goths, however each have their separate genres despite this. The general expectation of the music produced by this genre is that the music will be sad and depressing. Lots of Emo styled music magazines play on this stereotype and use darker colours in their magazine. They will also use deep and meaning full language and will try to stick away from cheesy puns and jokes. The images used will be related to the artist’s music, their past or simply an image them now. This styling of the musicians, fans and magazines are what give the public the Emo stereotype.

Indie is another genre of music that has its own stereotypes attached to it. For example the unusual mix of jeans, a shirt and blazer contrast as jeans are seen as casual wear and the other two are seen as smart attire. Indie music is sometimes considered to sound electronic however it can also be seen as sounding almost like the genre country. This is down to the wide range of instruments used throughout the genre. This together causes the stereotype around the genre Indie to be weak and broad as there are different types of Indie. This genre focuses greatly on the fashion associated with the music, so when you say Indie the first thing some people think of is the look. Magazines will use this idea of Indie fashion and the model on the front cover will be an Indie artist dressed in this style. The colours on the magazine will be of a wide variety however they will not be too bright. The modernised rustic look the stereotypical Indie models is fitting to their music as the music can be described as modern country as well as country electric depending on what part of the Indie spectrum you look at.  

Heavy Metal in some ways has many similarities in stereotypes to Emo and Rock; they all focus on black clothing and tend to have long or unusual hairstyles. The reason Heavy Metal has many links to Rock is because it is actually considered to have sprouted from Rock. The common perception of the public is that Heavy metal music and fans are angry and trying to spur a musical revolution. There has been many different influential Heavy Metal bands over time that have changed the way it is perceived each making the Heavy metal scene different. Heavy Metal magazines tend to have a wide target audience as Heavy Metal is a genre that is recognised by people of all ages as it is one of the older genres we have looked at. The mastheads will tend to be jagged and may even take on the shape of the name of the main band this issue is looking at.  Much like the Emo genre magazines Heavy metal magazines focus on colours like black, red and white.

There are many stereotypes in the music industry; this is because of the hundreds of different genres within the music industry. Each genre has its individual stereotype because of the way the artists and fans behave, as well as the type of music they create. An iconic figure with in a genre can set a trend in not only music but fashion. Fashion is one of the main features of stereotypes.