Analysis of Smash Hits

Analysis of Smash Hits 'Smash Hits' sells itself as a 'popular music magazine’; it fits well

into this self-proclaimed genre and creates its image through the

codes, conventions, and generic signifiers of that genre. For example,

bright, bold lettering-the red and white titles, almost like a stamp.

Generic signifiers and genre in general are vital to both the magazine

and its audience, the audience use genre as a means of segmenting and

recognition in the crowded magazine market. Genres, signifiers, codes

and conventions are all used to make a product recognisable to its

audience and as a guide to a magazine's style and content.

The institution of magazines use genre as a basis for creating a

magazine's formula, taking genres that in the past have proved

successful and adapting this formula to suit the needs of the

magazine, a variation of the established theme. This way, the magazine

is pleased, (a successful formula usually makes a popular magazine),

and the audience is pleased as their consumer 'needs' will be met if

they buy into a genre they know they have previously enjoyed.

The front cover of a magazine is its primary signifier and main

advertisement and therefore that single page has to be representative

of the magazine as a whole. All of the 'Smash Hits' covers feature a

pop band or star as their main image. The females (or more precisely,

girls) tend to be blonde and giggling. Whereas the boys either smile

cheekily or adop...

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...assive 'feminine' behaviour, a world constructed by male

patriarchy. If 'Smash Hits' represented black people the way it

represents teenage girls it would surely be banned. However, I'm not

calling for censorship, but for a breakthrough and definite change in

this dated formula that seems to pre-date any sort of equal rights

movement.

Finally 'Smash Hits' presents a very two-dimensional view of the

world, offering no new, exiting or challenging ideas to a young,

fresh, and keen audience. Nothing is questioned or debated, instead

the utmost is done to maintain a 'socially acceptable' equilibrium, it

fully participates in helping to construct an illusion of a perfect,

organised, mono-cultural world, and seems to have no moral or ethical

problem in doing so.

With this in mind, one has to question the magazine s worth.