How have magazines changed and developed?

Media StudiesJames Gardner 12Y

Influential Magazines• NME• Smash Hits• Loaded• Sniffin’ Glue• Music videos/MTV

The development of NME• The NME has made many changes

since it was first released in 1952. You can immediately see that one of the major changes is the introduction of a far more colour orientated design making it more appealing to today’s audiences. You can also see that they have changed from their original broadsheet newspaper print to a more glossy up to date magazine look. The NME has always been a magazine that treats music like an art form but the changes that magazines like Smash Hits introduced forced them to slightly change this attitude and adopt a more colourful and irreverent style to fit in with the times.

These two magazines show just how much Change the magazine has undergone in around 60Years. You can see how they incorporate the maleGaze theory in the more recent issue in the way That Amy Winehouse is represented on the frontCover (direct address weak/vulnerable etc.) You can also see that the front page contains more buzz words and previews of what it contains as this is now the only way to captivate an audience.

The introduction of Smash HitsSmash Hits was a magazine that was aimed at a much younger audience than the NME as it was aimed at young girls who enjoyed music. It arrived in the 1980s and was around until 2006. Smash Hits brought a new image to music magazines as it created this colourful and childish take on a magazine and because it sold so well it became the normal way a magazine was made and this influenced most magazines even influential ones like the NME. It made looks become more important than content which was the opposite of most magazines of the time. It would give song lyrics for free in it’s issue and interview pop-stars with ridiculous questions. It created music ‘celebrities’. It was, at heart, a childish, colourful and irreverent magazine for children and in today’s music industry the younger generation control it due to them being at an age where illegal downloading is not yet known and buying CDs and lusting after boy bands gives the music industry it’s fuel to continue.

You can see from the magazines design immediately that it was designed for children as it uses a variety of bright colours, it centres attention on the boy band ‘celebrities’ and uses lots of buzz words and free incentives.

The introduction of LoadedLoaded first came about in 1994 and markets itself as the magazine “for men who should know better”. The construction of this magazine is strange in the way it tries to be a lifestyle magazine but at the same time it presents itself as a ‘lads mag’. It uses the objectification of women to gain sales and it fills a hole in the market as there is no lifestyle magazine for men as men seem to like single-topic magazines. The magazine also came out before the internet first became a big thing so this helped it to gain lots of sales due to it’s content and appeal as a ’lads mag’. Loaded is an influential text in the magazine industry because it managed to sell itself through the objectification of women et it still disguised itself as a lifestyle magazine for men. This reinforced the usage of the male gaze and the objectification of women in other published texts for example the NME cover from earlier and the examples shown.

You can immediately see from the front covers of these magazines that re massively complying with the male gaze theory due to the way they are portraying women on the front cover. They also use lots of buzz words to bring in an audience like naked, plus!, sex etc. They also try to remain having the look of a lifestyle magazine by putting lots of their articles and content on the cover to make the magazine seem crammed with content.

Sniffin’ Glue• Sniffin’ Glue was a fanzine that started in

1976. It followed the punk genre which was a genre that was not covered in the media due to it being something that society thought was corrupting the minds of teenagers. The fanzine has a very DIY look about it because it was glued together by one man and then photocopied many times to reach it’s audience. It was influential because it showed people that they could create a fanzine and make it successful without the help of a major publisher. It also was one of the first successful fanzines to be produced and it was revolutionary because it fought against society’s ideas about the Punk genre being corrupt by letting the fans of Punk get their fix of it.

Sniffin’ Glue immediately looks very DIY in the way everything has obviously been written by hand and just stuck together to make a magazine. However you can still see the codes and conventions of a regular magazine cover.

Music Videos and MTV• The introduction of MTV and music videos

brought about a huge change to the music industry because the artists were able to express themselves through a whole new means, through visuals. It came about in 1981 and it affected the magazine industry because it provided a new source to get the latest musical news and hits so obviously this would affect magazine sales greatly as people were less likely to buy them, instead they could get their news and listen to latest song through MTV. However music videos could provide the magazines with more content to discuss as sometimes the music videos present an important part of that song.