Emotive and Colloquial Language in Magazines

The article which I am going to analyse is titled "the best albums of 2016" and on the Time Out London magazine website, it is a mixture of reviews of different pop albums. Link: [x]

This critic explains that band, Radiohead, have not released an album in "yonks". Yonks (meaning 'in a long time') is colloquial language with the origin of Britain. Although it's not know in which region of Britain the word was first born, it is known to be from the 1960s and it is theorised to brew from the saying "in donkey years". James Manning continues to explain that the album was "inspired by the end of Thom Yorke's 23-year relationship". This is emotive pathos as the concept of ending a relationship which has lasted as long as 23 years easily makes the audience upset, as we can reminisce relationships we have had with friends, family, and partners, ending. When I read "heartbreaking", I thought of loads of situations where someone is quite obviously heart-broken, like someone crying or having a panic attack or someone just being completely emotionally numb, and for me thinking of all these things that are connotated with the word made me sad.

This critic, Kate Lloyd continuously used emotive language through her column where she describes the "manic" album, 'My Women' by Angel Olsen. She describes the record as one "to be miserable to". This is emotive language because the audience can identify with the notion of feeling down and listening to down music and doing nothing else. And because the audience can assimilate with this, it's quite sad to read because it reminds us of when we have been sad. The words 'sulky' and 'angsty' are also emotive words because unlike other emotions like sad and angry, these words are very specific and like the previous sentence they remind us of when we felt these ways. Lloyd says that the album illustrates "a troubling picture of love". Because love is practically always shed in a positive light,  I think this statement catches the audience off guard and reminds the vulnerable members about the damage that love can make.

James Manning, who I analysed earlier, again used colloquial language when describing Iggy Pop's album 'Post Pop Depression'. Manning exclaimed "who'd have though Iggy would outlive his old mucker Dave". Here he is addressing Iggy Pop's good and passed away companion, David Bowie. 'Mucker' is a word used in middle England and it is slang for friend.

Q. Why do magazines use colloquial language?

Magazines which are more article based than pictorial like the Guardian use colloquial language because this informality makes it seem like the journalist is writing to their friend, the magazine's occupier. Taking the article on the right as an example, "Why the Internet Loves Cats - Not Dogs", the writer Jack Shepherd tells us that he embraces "feline overlords". This informality is funny and sarcastic, and it seems like common banter between two pals which attracts the audience. Another example is when he tells us that "the cat propaganda machine is ruthlessly effective". Obviously Shepherd is not being literal however it does engage the audience by proposing that cats have a publicity machine. Another useful aspect towards colloquial language is that it sets the mood for the piece. Going back to this extract, Shepherd tells us that "media is almost completely under the sway of the powerful cat lobby". The subtle informality and humour sets an upbeat and cheery tempo, which is a positive thing to read thus attracting more customers.

A feature which is really popular in modern day is multi-modal language (e.g "nvm" - nevermind, "lol" - laugh out loud) and puncuation (emoticons like :) and (≧∇≦)/, and symbols like #, @, etc). These serve a similar purpose to colloquial language in that they make the text seem more personal and informal. This journalist uses multi-modal punctuation as he hashtags, "#AskAlan". This hashtag is effective as it seems modern and contemporary and a hashtag is an ordinary concept within youth culture, which is effective as it corresponds with the target audience of young adults. The journalist continues to say "I like his all-around game and his swagger". Swagger is colliqual language as it's a friendly and slang adjective meaning 'fashionable' or 'trendy', originating for Britain. By mentioning a word which the reader would probably use, the text seems more familiar and personal.
In conclusion, colliqual language is appreciated in magazines because it spews a sense of familiarality and friendship between the writer and the reader. It does this because ordinary people use these words in everyday speech and therefore we, the audience, recognise this dialect as how we would speak to our friends.

Task: Create coverlines for a target audience using emotive and colliqual language.

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