Name Ideas for my Rock Music Magazine

Seonaid Mackenzie Task 5

Potential Mastheads

Masthead

Explanation

Thrash: ‘Thrash’ is a harsh verb that is meant to emulate the violent

sounds of an electric guitar, it goes along with the tough style of the genre and would fit in with the imagery associated with rock as the word carries connotations of power and chaos . The word ‘Thrash’ is also well known amongst the Rock genre, particularly amongst Heavy metal as their is a sub genre known as ‘Thrash Metal’, however I wish to focus on Alternative Rock, therefore this name may appeal to that specific niche market instead of my desired genre- this could cause confusion amgost Rock fans.

RIFT: A ‘Riff’ is a brief, recognizable section of a song that's usually

repeated on guitar, this is common in numerous rock songs and is often associated with rock imagery such as the electric guitar some people also call it a ‘Rift’. The word Rift also carries connotations of broken ideas and dystopian ruin, a theme which is occasionally played upon in some examples of rock music. For a Masthead the title is short allowing the letters’ sizes to be wide and bold, making it memorable to a target audience, with aggressive ‘r’ sounds that give off a rough rock appeal.

Explanation Pt 2

Segue: A ‘Segue’ is when there is an uninterrupted transition from

one piece of music another. This vocabulary would further reinforce the musical themes of the music magazine. On the other hand the definition of the word implies that there will be two different types of music coming together, my music magazine will focus on the alternative rock genre- this masthead may be more suited to magazines such as Billboard, which covers different varieties of music genres.

Pick!: The idea of this name comes from the object a ‘guitar pick’, it

also allows a play on word for slogans such as ‘Pick! Me!’. This masthead however would appear quite vague and may not be particularly attractive to my target audience, that and a guitar pick can also be associated with an acoustic guitar, which doesn’t carry as heavy rock connotations as an eclectic guitar.

Mosh!: Comes from the phrase ‘Mosh pit’, an activity which occurs

often at rock music concerts. However this activity usually occurs at heavy metal concerts and therefore may not be associated with alternative rock.

Mastheads in Rock Magazines

Mastheads of Rock Magazines that feature alternative rock are often big in size and have a broad type face made up of sans-serif font. The colour of the masthead is conventionally a bright colour- a vibrant red or white- to often contrast the dark back ground, however this convention can be broken occasionally. The Letters are often block like to take up a significant amount of space- for big impact. Occasionally their will be a distorted broken style to the text, such as pieces of letters breaking of or appearing faded- this coincides with the distorted broken imagery common of the time old rock genre.