Mojo Magazine Front Cover analysis

Essay on Mojo Magazine Cover

There are several items of interest to study when looking at this cover, and when looking at them I feel it’s important to compare it to Mojo’s usual cover layouts as well as the layouts of its contemporary magazine covers. I chose this cover because of its focus subject, Radiohead, who are easily the most innovative bands of the past decade or so. I plan to use the image of the band and the cover as influence when creating my music magazine cover.

The first and most obvious point to make is that the lighting has been done in such a way, quite deliberately, to completely cast a shadow over the Radiohead front man Thom Yorke's face.I feel that this has been done for two reasons. The first is to simply highlight the quote and main article of the issue (which has been done in white to create a strong contrast not only with the shadow over Yorke, but also to contrast with the maroon background).

The second is for effect. The darkness over Yorke's face, and what it suggests, is in keeping with Yorke's image as an artist and the image that Radiohead (the band of focus) project and uphold. Darkness carries with it connotations of misery, menace and melancholy. It also references the idea of "the dark horse", meaning the mysterious, edgy outsider; Radiohead have always been the edgy outsiders of the mainstream music scene. Their music has always been filled with melancholy and misery (an image that they pander to frequently), and their songs, particularly in their later works, have often been mysterious, menacing soundscapes as opposed to songs. This aspect of mis-en-scene alone then, carries with it a barrage of references to Radiohead's identity.

The final point to make on this I feel is the reference to Laurie Anderson's surrealist video for her 1981 hit O Superman. Yorke and the photographer have actually worked together to replicate an exact shot of Anderson from the video, right down to the finest detail in terms of framing and lighting. This obscure reference once again highlights the obscurity of the band, but is also a hint at their influences; O Superman was one of the first completely synth and effect driven songs to make it into the Top 3 on the UK singles chart; as Radiohead have gone on it could be said that their music has all but done away with guitars and rockier sounds, and that the band have embraced synths and electronica in their place.

Looking at the masthead, we see that the use of black is an extension of the lighting of the picture, done quite simply to carry on a colour scheme that supports the bands identity in the same vein that the lighting does. The fact that the colour black, and all of its connotations that I mentioned earlier, has been applied to the name of the magazine, by extension, suggest that Mojo as a magazine are the dark horses of the industry, or they have the potential to be the dark horses anyway.

The masthead has been place slightly in front of the image, something rarely done on music magazine covers, partly to illustrate that despite the subject, the name of the magazine and so by extension the magazine, is still the most important component. It is not overshadowing the artist, it is almost on a level, slightly above, so even though the suggestion is there, the magazine is in no way belittling the importance of the band and article of focus. I feel the real reason though, is Mojo’s way of saying that it is different from other magazines in the industry, that it will not be a magazine that will take a back seat to the artist, that it has its own identity that will not be overshadowed by the band of focus.

Turning to general layout, we can see that this magazine cover is sparse to say the least. The only other cover line is a relatively small banner at the bottom promoting a feature on Bob Dylan's birthday which is notable because of the stature of Dylan as an arist. This is done to give the impression that Mojo and Radiohead are of prime importance and are about simplicity, the stripped back, by extension, the pure. This is relevant given the subject matter of the issue: Radiohead are an underground band, the topics in this issue deal with the underground predominantly. The underground scene usually focuses on its purity, so the sparse layout makes the audience associate Mojo and Radiohead with this concept, and that they are both genuine proponents of the underground.

In terms of costume we can see that Thom Yorke is wearing a ratty seemingly no brand jumper, giving the impression that he has not abandoned the grunge roots from which Radiohead first emerged on the indie scene. The contrast between his costume compared to, for example, that of an artist on the cover of a hip-hop magazine who would usually be covered in ‘bling’ and designer goods, adds to the idea that Radiohead are different, real, pure, and alternative in their tastes, shying away from the mainstream approach to music.

The last thing to comment on is colour scheme. I touched on this briefly before in reference to "the dark horse" motif present in the masthead and the image of Yorke, but the red background combined with the red of the front man's lips also have significance. The colour red, on top of complimenting the black very well if we were studying this cover from an ascetics point of view, brings with it connotations of danger, of aggression, of rebellion and anarchy. Radiohead, in their own unique way, exhibit all of these aspects; they have always been a band for the frustrated teenager, and their music undoubtedly brings with it an element of protest in its unwillingness to bend to mainstream fashion. The danger element comes in when looking at their complete and very vocal rejection of anything they denounce as wrong, aspects of modern day living such as consumerism and global warming are frequently attacked by the band both in and out of their music.

All these elements combine to paint a picture of the band as dark horses of the music industry, not afraid to speak out against what is wrong, not bending to the conventions that popular culture focuses on most, and most importantly a band that is still every bit as pure as it was when they were unknowns. Even more interesting though, is the fact that by Mojo representing the band in this way, they are not only condoning this image, they are to an extent lumping themselves in with Radiohead in terms of their beliefs, creating an image of the magazine similar to that of the band.