Women in Rock Magazines

Medium close-up on frontwoman gives her the emphasis. Medium long-shots for 'less important' band members.

Heavy make-up, very bright hair and lipstick. Eyes photoshopped to be brighter. This makes her stand out from the other members of the band. Hayley Williams has effectively become the image of Paramore, with her memorable hair and attitude. Her make-up has even dictated the house style here. There is an emphasis on beauty also, with a lot of make-up used to hide any blemish.

Facial expression is stony and serious, but not exaggerated or aggressive. Hair pinned back visibly, to show all of her face. She looks out at the reader to connote a personal connection between the reader and the artist/magazine. This implies the interviews inside will reveal personal and interesting details.

Clothing is dark, simple. The emphasis is on her distinctive hair and make-up. Dark clothing also anchors her to the rest of the band.

NME is not exclusively a rock magazine, so I will focus more on looking at Kerrang!.

Once again, her make-up is colourful and heavy, and once again her appearance has dictated the magazine's house style, through her make-up (Blue eyeliner) and hair (pink half).

There is a juxtaposition in her facial expression. She bares her teeth in typical rock psuedo-anger, but ultimately her facial expression seems geared more towards cute than meancing, given her wide eyes, raised eyebrow and slightly mis-aligned jaw. She almost seems to be asking 'am I doing this right?' This exaggerated confusion fits with typical stylised rock expressions. This confusion could also be related to the article, which talks of a 'new start' for the band. Once again she looks out at the reader, connoting a personal connection.

Again, her clothing is understated and casual, so as not to draw attention away from her striking hair and make-up.

Three band members framed in long shots. Williams still gets the emphasis through her striking hair and make-up.

Dark clothing and hair to reflect her more gothic persona. She is alone, possibly due to her lack of vibrant colours to emphasize her importance over the other members as the frontwoman of the band.

Slight, knowing smile. Less stylised and exaggerated than most rock magazine cover expressions. This relates to the story, which is about Amy Lee finding happiness, but also to the fact that beauty is more of a point of emphasis with female rock stars, as opposed to the anger of male ones.

Still heavy make-up, but understated lipstick, and slightly messy hair. Stylised make-up is not as prominent here, because the story she is promoting is more of a personal nature, as opposed to being focused on music or her musical persona. This is also why her clothing is more casual and less gothic than usual.

Despite this issue being older, it is useful to see how Amy Lee is presented when embracing her gothic persona. Blood-red lipstick, unkempt dark hair and gothic dark clothing, as well as black eyeliner and pale make-up help to give her a ghostly, scary feel.

Close-Up used to place emphasis on her pale, made-up, stylised face.

Medium Close-Up gives a sense of openness, and allows us to see her casual, article-related clothing as well as placing an emphasis on her face.

Overall, I can learn from these covers that the presentation of women on rock magazines is far more beauty and image orientated than agressive, unlike male rockers. When exaggerated facial expressions are used, they are more in favour of beauty than anger. It is this focus on image and a stylised persona that makes female rockers such succesful icons for their bands. However, it is also important to note that the more personal the article, the less persona-geared the images are. Naturalistic, personal articles demand more naturalistic images to match.

Upon deciding to use a female model for the front page of my magazine, and with the relative failure of my first photo shoot, I decided to examine how women are presented in rock magazines, so that I can make my photographs as authentic as possible.