Ideology in Music Magazines and the Male Gaze

The ideology of most magazines is through 'a mans gaze'. The theorist Laura Mulvey argued that most media reflect the male gaze. The camera acts as a 'male' eye woman are looked at, and men are the 'lookess'. Women are often objectified.

Every musical genre has accompanying ideology. Often, genres divide along binary oppositions or a dichotomy.  A binary opposition or a dichotomy is something, such as the genre of music, is split into two e.g. girl/boy, good/bad.

The ideology of this magazine is suited for men through a mens gaze. The rollingstone magazine is a rock magazine and the ideology of this genre is dirty, aggressive, sexual and scruffy. This type of music is usually listened more to by men so they have created the front cover with Miley Cyrus ideal for a 'mans gaze'.

This ideology for this Pop magazine is still in a mens gaze with a woman on the front cover and still has the ideas that go with this genre are happy, clean and calmer. This is shown by the light colours of pink and the use of flowers. Pop is usually listened to by the youth of society, hence why a high charting pop artist is on the front cover. Also, they have chosen a person who would make a good role model, unlike Miley Cyrus.

My opinion on the male gaze in music ideology is that magazines shouldn't rely on this technique for sales. Although it can help with the ideology of the type of genre of music they are selling it doesn't always make a good front cover of a magazine. The front cover of a music magazine should get across the genre of the music but also allow the reader to identify exactly who is featured in the magazine.


Effects and Theories

Uses and Gratification Theory can be seen in cases such as personal music selection. We select music not only to fit a particular mood but also in attempts to show empowerment or other socially conscience motives. It is suggested that the uses and gratifications theory has to fulfil one of the following when we choose a form of media:

• Identify - being able to recognise the product in front of you
• Educate - being able to acquire information, knowledge and understanding
• Entertain - what are you consuming should give you enjoyment and also some form of 'escapism' enabling us to forget our worried temporarily.
• Social Interaction - the ability for media products to produce a topic of conversation between other people. The magic bullet perspective, also called the hypodermic needle model, is a model for communications. 

The Magic Bullet Theory has been around since the 1920s to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media reports. The central idea of the Magic Bullet Theory is that individuals cannot escape or resist media messages. It holds that people remain passive and accept, rather than investigate information presented by the media.