Magazine Cover Analysis

DJ Magazine is aimed more so at men, particularly those who are younger and are interested in the clubbing scene. These men are normally between the ages of 18 and 30 and are most likely going to be known psychographically as radicals, due to some of the language used such as "Mischief" and "Badd". The magazine itself has a 74% male readership who are most likely trying to be different from society or want to try and stand out. The magazine also contains hints of it being aimed at under-achievers too, as it talks about being mischievous. From this, we can gather that the readers of DJ Magazine will most likely amount to a C or below on the Jicnar Scale and we can see this quite effectively by looking at the main article on the cover which reads "Mid-Summer Mischief!"; most people who are A's or B's on the Jicnar Scale would be working over the summer. It also tells us that it isn't aimed at A's because they aren't very likely to be causing "mischief" over the summer.

On the front cover of the magazine, we immediately receive an image of two males who look as though they are trying to expel themselves from society, and are also posing for a photo, most likely taken in a set-up, studio-like area. This sign gives us connotations of them being different and trying to draw attention to themselves. This can sometimes be viewed as negative as the image they are portraying may not be suitable for everyone and some people may not approve of it. This, however, can help sell the magazine as it makes the reader feel as though they don't "fit in" which is what a large portion of people want in today's environment want. The image is also taken from a point below the two men so that they are looking down at the camera, making the reader think they are cool and perhaps important. The fact that this is teamed up with another image of a sticker that reads "Live the life! will suggest to the readers that by reading the magazine, they will be able to become as cool and important as the two men on the front. A very important feature that may seem very minor is a piece of text on the front of the magazine that simply reads "Plus" yet has quite a large impact on the reader. The word "Plus" not only tells us that there is yet more to come, but also makes us think that we are getting it as well as all the things that we have had so far; it makes out that we have had a lot already but are now getting even more. This is then anchored by a list of names of acts who are also associated with this type of music, such as Crazy P and Kenny Glasgow. The anchorage is cleverly finished off with the words "and more" as to say that despite how much they magazine is already giving and telling us, there is still even more that we will find out inside the magazine, thus encouraging us to buy it.

If we look again at the main image of DJ magazine, we see that the two men are dressed relatively informally, but being represented as not caring what people think about how they look. We can see this from the poses they are holding that express a sense of being quite egocentric. This then represents males who are a C on the Jicnar scale and below as possibly being indifferent about someone else's opinion on them and thus being seen as rebellious or "mischievous" if we quote the magazine. I think that this represents the people who listen to this genre of music as holding an emergent ideology as it is quite a modern idea to not care what people think about you or to try and exert yourself from the norm and was not done in older times. The majority of the front cover is also based on emergent ideology as it contains ideas of more common electronic music and also uses the oxymoron of being "bad" and how it is seen as a good thing. Some of the front cover could be seen as dominant as it is mostly about wanting to be different, but I personally thought it portrayed more of an emergent ideology.