LIIAR: Liam Gallagher Q Magazine Double Page Spread

Language:  In relation to the cover article each interview has a small masthead in the skyline which states “Music That Changed My Life” then a larger title for the piece, which in this case is the band ELBOW. It splits the interview up into columns in order to keep it from becoming too all ensuing and takes up the entire page with just words, which makes it more difficult and too big to read; this makes it feel more colloquial and like a brief chat. When a member of a band talks it is written in red and scripted in order to make it easier to imagine the whole conversation as you read about it. The band names in the interview have been highlighted to emphasize the importance of music in the magazine but also to make sure that the original subject of the interview is (music that changed my life) down the centre of the first page there are a few album covers, these are here because when you first look at the interview these draw your eye after the masthead and picture and make the interview feel more interactive and somewhat more referential because these are more ‘absolute’ facts. The main image shows the whole band in a very relaxed situation rather than if they were posing for an album interview where they may be more serious. This image though, by being very casual makes the interview wholly informal which helps because influences is something that we are all interested in from a band we like which helps if they seem to be talking to us.

Institution: this represents Bauer media well because it has kept in form with the rest of the magazine and is a band that are targeted at a certain type of audience, because younger people may find them ‘boring’.

Ideology:  The ethos of Q magazine is continued on these pages, this is shown because of how the magazine highlights all of the mentions of other bands, showing that they are interested in the music still and not just trying to get another interview with the band. The interviews graphics also have to be kept formal, as they have been, in order to keep with the convention of Q’s style and appearance.

Audience: The piece is aimed at men aged 20 – 30+ but because the music of Elbow does not straight away appeal to ‘lad’ lads the interview has to show a different side to elbow, a more chatty and ordinary side than they would have already seen. We can see it is aimed at readers interested in music because it has highlighted the key influences of the band, showing more than just another phatic interview.

Representation:  Elbow are a very mature band so therefore the piece has to represent this, it does this by a greyscale picture which gives them a look of more age/experience and helps to make them look more respected and refined. This in turn represents the magazine well because they look relaxed and yet smart, like the magazine tries to pass itself off as.