Masthead and Fonts
Classic Rock made a Country feature magazine and included its logo in the top left hand corner. To identify the genre they made the masthead cover 1/4 of the page at the very top. Sans serif is used since it is a convention of Country music and makes it stand out on the page. The black colour also contributes to making it stand out with the thin grey text in the middle of the black one. This could either be two separate fonts layered on top of each other or just a single font, however if they're different, the thinner grey text that sits in the middle of the bold black text would've had to have a wider kerning than the black in order for it to fit. Also if you had a quick flip through the magazine you could tell that the house style is very apparent. Despite the convention of the black and white block text running throughout the contents and pages of the magazine (matching with the masthead) this doesn't match the font of Dolly Parton's name, challenging he synergy of the magazine. Dolly Parton has her own classic style that is recognisable worldwide. She is a bubbly woman with a fun personality (despite the stereotypes of an older woman, challenging Perkin's theory "stereotypes are not simple") which helps her connect with younger generations as well as an audience of her own age. This shines through in the curly serif font used to illustrate her name. The text is in white and contains many curls because it seems that Classic Rock really wanted Dolly Parton to be the primary focus of the magazine.Image
Dolly is quite obviously the centre on attention in this studio shot thus adhering to her image. Dyer's theory suggests that "A star is an image not a real person" but in this case I strongly disagree. Her own personal image is the image that sells since the audience like it so much. It would be unnecessary for her to morph herself into a star since how she is already what people like seeing. This is shown in her cover photo whilst she is wearing a rhinestoned covered blouse. In pictures that paparazzi take of her she always looks very glamourous and well groomed. Any colour that she wore was bound to stand out since the studio background is a pastel grey colour. The many jewels on her outfit are very eye catching are help draw the audience in. In my opinion Dolly's face is heavily made up and airbrushed in order to make her appear younger and more attractive to the audience. If you look at her hand it is a different colour and is a lot more aged compared to her face and neck. As well as this she is standing in a position which exentuates her figure and enhanced breasts. This comply's to Mulvey's male gaze theory by making her look more appealing to the male audience. Another conventional code which is used for widely renowned magazines is covering the masthead with the main image this further highlights the importance of Dolly Parton in this issue. It would probably be a really good idea to have my model wear some type of bright or sparkly clothing in order for them to stand out like Dolly Parton did. It would make a huge statement for the star as well as the getting a lot of attention for the magazine.Cover Stories
Unusually there is only one cover story which leaves a lot to the imagination when it comes to the contents of this magazine. Breaking conventions like this really highlights how famous Dolly Parton is and how she can sell a magazine by standing alone with a single quote at the top of the page "I love Country Music, I like to think that I've contributed a lot to it". There isn't even a title when it comes to the feature since Dolly Parton is basically the face of classic country music herself.Pugs and Puffs
This small pug at the bottom left of the page contains a conventional barcode and a logo of a company called "Team Rock". By doing some research I found out that it specifically publishes rock and metal magazines which is highly unconventional for such a dedicated country singer like Dolly Parton to be associated with. However, since it is a special, they still produced the magazine and is therefore still on the cover. Classic Rock releases an abundance of special features in order to keep their audiences fresh and to make their name well knows between genres. There are also no puffs or advertisements.Why this has influences my ideas:
- I love the font used for Dolly Parton's name.
- I really like how the photo is covering the masthead.
- I also like the extravagance of her outfit.
An excellent analysis, Indya. Good links to theory. To improve further you could include Barthes and develop how this cover has influenced your research and planning. For example: could you use a similar font in your magazine and why? Could you have your star in an extravagant costume? Why?
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