The Wire

The Wire is a British avant-garde music magazine published in London, which has been issued monthly in print since 1982.The magazine has been independently owned since 2001. Originally, The Wire covered the British jazz scene with an emphasis on avant-garde and free jazz. It was marketed as a more adventurous alternative to its conservative competitor Jazz Journal, and targeted younger readers. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the magazine expanded its scope until it included a broad range of musical genres under the umbrella of non-mainstream or experimental music. Since then, The Wire has covered experimental rock, electronica, alternative hip hop, modern classical, free improvisation, nu jazz, traditional music and more.
The main image takes up about half of the cover which suggests the importance of the person being represented in the magazine.The text is around the main image making it more centralised. The background of the image is also blurred out which lays more emphasis on the character. The Wire magazines always use less recognised personalities in order to familiarise them with the audience. As it is an independent magazine, they can represent any personality figure because it targets a niche audience.The use of the mid close up shot could connote that the producer wants the audience to be able to relate to him on the same level as them as he looks directly into the camera.
 Black is the dominant colour in the image. This might have been the choice of the text creator as the person being represented plays the saxophone which is an elegant instrument, and the colour black connotes class. He also wears a turtleneck and a kangol hat which was very conventional of musicians of the jazz genre in historical times.
The masthead is written in bold in the calibri font style. It is in a dull blue colour, as the text creator might want the audience to pay particular attention to the person being represented. The person on the cover of the magazine is Joe McPhee is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee is most notable for his free jazz work done from the late 1960s to the present day.
The caption on the reads “The survival of Joe McPhee from black power to deep listening”. Joe McPhee's 1971 album was released at the height of the black-power movement in the US,and continues to influence today's young musicians and fans. Although Joe McPhee is not as well-known as other players in the free jazz scene, the 60s and early 70s saw work of consistent brilliance. Nation Time was his second release and captured an exact moment when black artists were politically charged with the need for change. Later, in the 1980s, McPhee met Pauline Oliveros, and worked with her Deep Listening Band. The text on the bottom left displays names of other lesser known musicians who also made an impact on the music industry in their time.
      
On this double spread, the article is presented on both sides. The image is centralised in the frame. On the left hand side of this double spread, there is the text “in search of galleries, collectors and representation”. This could attract more audiences and it is appealing to the general public. It is also written in bold large text to draw attention to it.
The main image is two partially smoked cigarettes whose ashes have been joined together. The image resembles a catapult. Catapults are weapons that don’t cause a lot of damage at once, but are eventually very harmful. This could connote the idea of the text creator as smoking gradually kills people, even though it might not be immediate. The use of a lot of ashes for only these two cigarettes could also connote the danger smokers are putting the world into, as only these two cigarettes could produce all these ashes, which contributes to global warming.The double spread has a larger text to image ratio which could also connote the importance of the issue.
The purpose of this text is to attract and inform the audience. There is the use of an informal address as it says “in search of galleries, collectors and representation”. This does not particularly communicate directly to the audience, however, it draws their attention to see what the article is about. It also informs the audience as it’s about dangers of smoking in relation to general health and global warming.
It has a social context to it as it's about current issues and wellbeing. The image links to the article as they’re both about the hazards of smoking. At the time this text was created, the audience would have different opinions on the issue. The prefered reading would be that; we're putting the world in jeopardy, and therefore we should adhere to this advice and stop smoking, however, the oppositional reading would be; why should people stop smoking since it doesn’t ‘largely’ affect the ozone layer, and also, smoking was regarded as cool at the time. The majority of the contemporary audience would see the views of this article as very conventional as people are now trying to live healthy and better in order to save the next couple of generations.
The layout of the page is very organised as the main image and text are clearly distinct from each other. This allows the audience to understand the setout and read the article with clarity. The text is on the surrounding parts of the page making the main image centralised. This helps alert the audience to the page, and gradually makes them read the article, as some people are only interested in looking at pictures and the main stories in magazines. The lexis used in the article is informal and easily understandable.
This text contains an art and tobacco depictions genre. It therefore attracts an older, mature and open minded audience.