Feature article

A contagious sense of relaxation clouds over the dressing room of Isam Bachiri as he sits comfortably on a sofa reading a newspaper! (Is this our Isam? Reading?) …..Hmm, he certainly looks like our Isam as he is dressed and ready to perform at this years UK AM Awards, taking place in Central London. Sunday evening: after a day of relaxing, sleeping and eating lots of sweets, he is now dressed in blue skinny’s, a white kaftan top exposing a part of our favourite part of his body and his tattoo, his black leather boots, and a necklace he vows he will never take off, with a cheeky smile he looks up at me and states “I am ready to go”.

Isam, how did your music career kick off?
Well music has always been a big part of my life. Since I was a teenager I was taking guitar lessons, listening to lots of music, writing my own songs and I loved to take part in music competitions. It was only when I was in University studying Law that I realised that, actually this is not me; I needed something more exciting. I then won a musical talent competition with a prize of meeting my favourite Arab singer; Ihab Tawfiq and my meeting with him gave me a lot of inspiration and courage to go into the music industry and he offered me work to help out on his new single named ‘Upside Down’ and I took up his offer.
If you had not chosen the path of music, eventually, where do you think you would be today?
I have no idea, but I know I would have dropped out of Law no matter what. I just came to discover it was not my field. Where I would have been after that, only God knows the answer to.
Isam, you come from a Muslim faith and many people who belong to this faith have negative views towards music, how do you deal with these views?
The issue of music is a very controversial one in the Islamic faith and there are a number of varying views in this section. My own beliefs for this issue are that as long as your music aims to give some light to people, help them and enlighten them in some way then your music qualifies as serving its purpose. Music shouldn’t just be to sound good to people it is an aid to people’s lives.
Are your parents supportive of your music? How did they react to you dropping out of Law?
My parents have always just wanted me to do something in life that I enjoy and will allow me to live. As I realised that music was what I really wanted and Law was not, they were happy to back my decision and support me fully. My happiness has been the most important factor to them and up until this point I am very thankful to them and hope they are proud of me.
Isam the rebellious or good boy teenager?
(Laughs) That’s for me to know and you to never find out (Winks).
Come on, spill.
Ok, ok this is especially for my fans. I was always part of the rebellious crowd, but as well as keeping cool I would always make sure I kept up to date with my studies. My parents did have a difficult time with me in terms of my behaviour, but that’s every teenager isn’t it? (Cheeky smile). There were times when me and my friends would turn the classroom clock forward whenever we had a supply teacher so we would be let out of class early. Worked every time. One thing my parents never had to worry about were my studies.
What is the story behind the necklace you vow to never take off?
Sorry that story is off limits.
Can you at least give us a hint?
It links me someone very special who was in my life once.
Was? So I am presuming you're single?
Single I am!
What features do you look for in a girl?
Smart, sense of humour, beautiful smile, a good person and an appreciation for life as well as music.
You have a limited number of tracks that are actually based on relationships, where do you get the inspiration for your other tracks from?
All my inspirations for my music come from my experiences in life and other paths of life my life has crossed. I have travelled a lot to countries such as morocco, India and even Africa and have come across a lot of poverty, but you realise that although these problems exist there is a strong sense of love and community that exists. This is an example of what my song ‘What Lies Underneath’ is about. My inspirations also come from my favourite artists such as Outlandish and Ihab Tawfiq.
Apart from Arab music, what other types of music do you listen to?
I enjoy listening to hip-hop, Rock and some types of R and B music. But we all know that Arab music rocks!
How did your music change from your first ever album ‘Too late’ in 2005 to your first ever worldwide famous album ‘The Only Truth’ in 2007?
When I first started off my music career, I never really had a lot of life experiences, I mean I had just come out of a few months of university and did not go through a lot of difficulties in my younger years and so never really had a basis for my music. However, in 2006 I went through many difficulties and issues with my family and learnt many new things and these experiences gave me my inspiration and basis for my 2007 album.
What was your favourite song in the 2007 album?
It would definitely be ‘Looking On’ because this song derived from a very close and personal experience of mine which really touched my life and affected me in such a way that is has made me the person I am today.
We know you work solo, but would you consider doing work with another artist?
I would definitely consider it… it depends.
What happened to you last year? What did you get up to?
After going through a difficult time of watching my mum go through cancer, I observed of how lucky we were to be living in this country with so many opportunities and support. After this I always wanted to go out and actually help communities and people in difficult situations who were less fortunate than me and that’s what I did last year. I travelled down to Honduras in South America and actually got involved in a community project of building schools. Altogether it was a very emotional yet satisfying experience.
Are you currently working on anything new this year?
There definitely is something new, which I cannot talk about at the moment; however you can keep up to date with it on my official website. (Smiles).
Oh quick last question before you go and rock that stage! Favourite word?
Patience

Front cover, contents page and feature article layout

Magazine Article Analysis

NME

My Chemical Romance is an American rock band that NME have decided to set their feature article on. This is a popular band and a good choice for NME to base their feature article on for many reasons. The first being that NME are based on a wide range of Rock artists and this group fall into that category and therefore attract regular readers of the NME magazine. The second being that NME is based on a male dominated audience that are not teenagers but a little bit more in the mature age and My Chemical Romance is a group which used to be seen as a sort of teenage music group, however it is now moving on to become a more mature audience group and therefore appeals to the NME audience. In addition it is promoting and introducing My Chemical Romance to the more mature audience of the NME magazine.

The type of language used in this magazine article starts off to be quite formal and of a certain level of academic language. For example; it uses words such as baroque and surreal. These types of words appeal to a more mature audience rather than a younger audience who may not have even reached that level of academic studies. However as you go on to read the full article the language is very different and can be described as informal. For example it uses words such as Ha! It also uses quite informal language such as it says in the article, “Fuck it, we’re gonna pretend.” There are inappropriate words in this sentence as well as words such as ‘gonna’. These words are not exactly standard English or the queen’s language and therefore represents teenagers and the middle class as these are the people who are speak this kind of language and therefore are the target audience. In addition this type of language is seen to represent a cool image and is associated with rebels therefore representing the band in this way could be a technique to attract ‘cool’ people to the magazine.

The style of the magazine article does match the front cover and theme of the magazine a bit but not really. The colours used on the front cover are very NME promoting based as in the theme and colours of the front cover are based more on the company and magazine of NME. Whereas the colours green, white and black are used in the magazine article on My Chemical Romance and represent the band rather than the magazine. The parts that are consistent from the magazine front cover are the use of bold fonts and the style of font which is used. This style allows the audience to get attracted and keep a level of consistency and recognition of the style of magazine as the reader does not like complete change of style.

The magazine article has a tone that sounds as if the person is a well informed fan who knows all the specifics on the band. The article is solely based on My Chemical Romance’ s music and the stages and feeling that they went through whilst making their new record and therefore give answers that are based entirely on their fans. The tone can be shown to be a well informed fan as the interviewer says “line in blustery opener ‘Save Yourself’: “This ain’t a room full of suicides”, which is a line from one of their songs. You can tell that the tone is not of a close friend sort of tone as if this was the case there would be evidence in the article of answers from the interview where the member of the band would give more personal answers alongside which is not in the article.

The article is written in column form with pictures to accompany it. The writing takes up around three quarters of the page with images taking up about a quarter of the page. However the article starts off with a sort of front cover with a large A4 sized image of who the article is based on with a couple of lines of text. In this case a picture of My Chemical Romance. The next page on the article then moves onto a paragraph of introducing the article with no images but simply text alone. This shows that the article is based on an audience that are more into reading about the band rather than looking at a lot of pictures of them. It seems as if the article is aimed at more of an intellectual audience as it is based on a very long piece of writing, however the type of informal language contradicts this.

The article although advertised as a My Chemical Romance based article is actually focused on one member of this band and as are the pictures that accompany the writing. There are three images of the focused member of the My Chemical Romance band. Out of the three images two are in colour and the third which is a strip is in black and white. The coloured images represent the band as being quite modern and support the bands movement of coming out of its teenage viewed era. The use of the black and white image represents leaving their teenage era behind and bringing their band into a more mature outlook. The large main image is of the focused member in a photo booth about to come out and the strip images are of different parts of this members face. These images seem to promote this members appearance to the audience. The last image is of the member performing live which seems to promote his musical talent to the audience.

I believe that knowledge is needed on at least the previous records My Chemical Romance has created other than this nothing more is needed to be known. This is because the article is based on promoting the bands new record and explaining the differences between their assumed to be failed records in the past and to fully understand the article and the differences stated between pervious records and the new ones an experience of the past records is needed. In addition the article also refers to a lot of different songs, e.g. ‘Bullet Proof Heart’, along with views on these particular songs and of the songs have not been heard by the audience before then it will be difficult for the reader to understand the view stated on that particular song.

Q

Cheryl Cole is a British pop singer that Q have decided to base their feature article on. This is a good choice for their magazine for many reasons. The first reason being that Cheryl Cole is a pop singer and therefore as this magazine is based on pop music as well as rock music she fits into the music genre of this magazine. Another reason is that the readers of the Q magazine are of a more mature audience and Cheryl Cole is a popular choice and well known to the British audience of all ages. Therefore attracting readers that are not only the regular readers of this magazine but also other age ranges as she is popular amongst the young and the old.
The language used throughout this article is very informal, simple and easy to read. For example; “How groovy,”. This type of language although informal are words that are best related to a mature audience and simple language that is used such as; “amid allegations.” This type of language appeals to a wide audience that are both educated and less educated people as it can be understood by nearly all age ranges. This attracts a very wide audience and expands the readership age for this magazine.
The style of the magazine article matches the house style and the theme of the magazine front cover. The colours used on the front cover are white, black and red which are also used in the feature article. The use of bold, italics and the font are consistent and carried through into the article which allows the magazine to stay consistent. It also is a method of promoting the Q magazine and allowing recognition of the game.
The tone of the magazine article sounds as if the person is a close friend of Cheryl Cole. The article story narrator who knows all aspects and angles and feelings of the people involved. For example; “Cheryl Cole is sick to death of looking at herself.” This seems as if the person knows Cheryl Cole really well to know exactly how she’s feeling.
The article is written in a typical column form and has pictures to accompany it. The article starts off with a whole page taken up of an image of Cheryl Cole and then moves into an introductory page which consist of a large image with little text introducing the main article. The next four pages are of the main body of the article accompanied with images which take up large sections of the pages that consist of the main article. This shows that the article is based on an audience that are again very simplistic and are not very much interested in reading a lot, but rather looking at pictures o f their favourite artists.
All images in this magazine article are of Cheryl Cole alone continuing her ‘bad girl’ image in the rain. These images support the article which based upon her saying she doesn’t know what she looks like anymore which refers to her feeling a bit lost. Cheryl Cole is not really seen as a bad girl and therefore the image refers to her feeling like she’s not herself anymore.
No background knowledge of Cheryl Cole or her music is needed when reading this article. This is because the article states all facts and information that the article is talking about. For example the article says; “Her debut single, Fight For This Love.” This shows that the article states all relevant information as it could have just said ‘her debut single’ and not stated the name of that single and simply expected the reader to know what it was. This shows that no relevant information or knowledge is needed to be known before reading this article on Cheryl Cole.