Language and the alternative genre

Emily Kennedy

Imperatives such as “Get a Life”

forcefully persuade the audience to

read these articles in order to find out

how to “get a life” or “get funky” etc. Also informal language.

Rhetorical question intrigues reader to

read about to read into the articles about the bands’ whereabouts

(rhetorical as they are still in the music

industry)

Exclamations used for emphasis, making the audience excited at the prospect of even more bands that they may be interested in

reading about

Hyperbolic language is used: “The people vs Courtney” as it’s not literally everyone vs Courtney Love.

However, this hyperbolic statement

creates intrigue as the audience want to find out what she’s done to deserve

mass dislike.

Quotes from the featured article interest the reader

as they summarise important/ most

entertaining points of the article. This would make the readers want to read

further.

Hyperbolic words such as “special” grab the readers

attention

Mode of address: direct address as the audience is being told to “get a life” and rhetorical questions are

also asked.

Informal tone: expletive

language and humour.

Rhetorical questions. Typical of the alternative/

grunge genre.

Mode of address: direct

as questions are asked, creating

a sense of conversation between the

addressor and addressee

Questions interest the reader as they’d want to know

whether they’re answered in the article.

Jargon is used as the audience would be those who are interested in music and

understand technical language associated with music. This would intrigue them as the

writing is of intelligent quality and as a result not patronising.

Direct address with “live your dream” persuades the audience to check out Spin’s

website.

Declarative sentences convey a lot of

information to the reader about the production of the magazine. This is

useful for the reader to discover other work

about the staff as well as if thy aspire to work

in a creative area (especially magazine

design etc)

Hyperbolic language piques the audiences interest as they wonder about what predicament Courtney Love has

got herself in this time.

Complex sentences illustrate that the article is intellectual as well as entertaining. This would appeal to an older target audience who are

interested in music.

Informal chatty tone

demonstrated by the use of the brackets “(of course)” when talking

about the controversial new song.

A reference integrated into the

introduction wouldn't be missed by Hole fans. Taken from the song “Doll Parts”, this again

adds to the intellectual level of

the article as well as giving something

Hole fans can smile about.

Chatty informal tone, the writer uses in the intro to entice the audience into reading further.

Starting with a question persuades the audience to read on to have the question

answered.

A reference/ simile that those who enjoyed the

grunge era would more likely

understand (watching Brat

pack films when they were younger). Therefore

addressing the target audience.

Slang such as “meds” suggests to the audience the tone of the article is informal

and chatty. It may also suggest that the genre of music is also of the alternative

genre. (which is is as it’s grunge/riot grrrl)

Many uses of complex sentences demonstrates that this article is

advanced and therefore is apt for a target audience of young adults.