MUSIC MAGAZINE EVALUATION

ByChristian Darby

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

My main image is the most dominant image on the magazine which is a key music code and convention. I did this to make the artist look more supreme and more powerful to the reader, this is something most bands and artists go for. You know immediately that the main headline in the magazine is featuring the person in the image.

Kickers are a very important aspect of a music magazine, it is one of the main codes and conventions. I have developed this convention over the course of the subject which helped me create a unique and interesting style for my front cover, which involved cover lines below each kicker.

Freebies/offers/vouchers are also important to the magazine. It draws the reader in to buy the magazine, almost like a bribe to buy it. The placement of the freebie advertisement can determine weather the audience would buy or leave the magazine on the shelf. My freebie advertisement is right next to the main headline, therefore the reader will see it.

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A mast head is a key convention to attract the audience into buying the magazine, this is the first thing they will see as magazines are usually on shelves behind other magazines which means they will only see the top of the page before picking it up. The font is much larger than the rest of the magazine making it eye catching. The masthead is more to the left of the page as it is scientifically proven that the reader looks at the top left of any page first and reads down in a ‘Z’ motion.

The top and bottom strips are really important for a magazine, they advertise various things to the audience such as a chance to win tickets or a popular storyline. The main purpose of this is to hook in the reader to buy the magazine. I developed this by using contrasting colours to the main theme of the page so it stood out more. Red colouring screams out ‘take notice’ to the reader as they usually associate red with ‘danger’ and ‘stop’. Due to the eye catching colour bars, I have more chance of selling my magazine and making a profit. Colour palettes and house styles are other main codes and conventions which I have used here. On my top strip I have added an image, this could be classed as a secondary lead.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

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bottom of the page were most headlines on music magazines are placed. The headline is in a bigger font than the other words around it, however not as big as the masthead.

I have an anchorage below my headline. My anchorage ties the picture and the headline together. The arrogance of the “Its time to rule the world” quote, connects well with the cool and arrogant attitude of the person in the image, he knows that he is good, and he is not afraid to show it in his expression.

My Secondary lead is to the right of the page, this is the 2nd main article which is smaller than the main headline but bigger than the others.

The cigarette and guitar neck of the image leads you in different directions around the page, the guitar head brings you down from the head of the artist to the graphic feature and the cigarette points you in the direction of the secondary lead article.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?C

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TSMy main image is the biggest thing on the page and it is right in the middle of the page showing the reader that that is the main story and article in the magazine. Below the image is a Kicker and a cover line along with a page number referring to which page to find this article on.

I have carried on the same theme and house style as my front cover. I have also kept the same fonts and the same colour scheme. The magazine logo is featured yet again in the contents page but not as big as on the front cover, I have seen this used in other magazines.

A teaser advertisement has been used in my contents, this is often a popular feature in contents pages I have seen before, it helps to tie in the reader and give the competition a go, I have also placed in a subscription advert which are always placed in music magazine contents pages, I have made this yellow which stands out from the rest of the colour scheme, making it more appealing to the human eye, which gives the magazine more chance of gaining subscribers. I also added a third advertisement which connected with the main story of ‘Chris’ album’.

The menu’s on the right hand side of the contents page are crucial, so crucial in fact that without them there would be no magazine. I came upon this in my research which told me that the audience should be able to choose what article to read. Each section is disconnected from the other sections, I like this idea that I had, I think it makes it more simple for the reader.

There is a Band Index section with page numbers referring were to find them in the magazine.

You can also see an article in the bottom right corner which was featured on my selling line on my front cover.

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EIN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE

FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Heading and introductory comments or quotes are used to draw in the reader. I developed this convention and this is my end result.

The quote at the bottom connects well with the arrogant facial expression and style in the main image.

Inset shots showing ‘Christian Darby’ in action, also to fill up dead space.

The main article is not only the most important thing on this page, it is the most important thing in the music magazine. It is the main commercial interest in the magazine. I made sure that the article fit into the genre I was focusing on which was ‘Indie-Rock’.

Pull quotes are used to show what the artist has said throughout the article, this quote is usually much bigger than the other text and fits in-between the columns, just as I have done here. This connects with the audience and splits up the text, people are proven to read more small sections of text than one large piece.

Page NumberSo the reader can find the article in the magazine after looking were to find it in the contents.

Website advert leading the reader towards the artists website were you can find all the latest going on’s and gig dates.

Title sowing which part of the magazine you are reading, which in this case is ‘New Music’

Use of Mise-en-scene with the clothing and the style. Union Jack background represents music in the ‘MOD’ and 60’s era which connects with the article. Style of the text with a sheet music style font fits with the house style.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

MY FRONT COVER AND A SIMILAR IMAGE IN MY STYLE

My magazine represents my target audience of teenagers and young adults by using the correct codes and conventions. My magazine is focused on ‘Rock n’ Roll’, this genre is associated with alcohol, cigarettes and ‘coolness’ as you can see by the image on the left. I used the same style in my main image for my front cover, using the same black and white theme and holding a cigarette so it fit into the ‘Rock n’ Roll’ genre just like the image on the left. I feel that the black and white colouring theme creates the sense of coolness, wealth and it creates a smart looking magazine. I also added parts of red into the colouring to make it more eye catching. Red is often associated with power which connects well with the arrogance of the facial expression of the person in my main image. The font is well put together and is very smart, this also gives the effect of coolness and wealth. The text and the black and white theme go well together creating a contempory and posh look.

Clothing is a big part of representing social groups, for my main image and for my images in my contents I used clothing that would fit into my ‘Rock n’ roll’ genre such as a smart black shirt for my main front cover image and a leather jacket for my contents and double page spread images. I also used a clothing accesorie which was sunglasses, many rockstars were sunglasses which boosts the level of style and arrogance within the artist, I used this in my photoshoot for my magazine.The facial expression/pose I have used within my images shows arrogance which rockstars are known to have. There is a few quotes within my magazine, take my anchorage for example on the front cover, Chris Darby talks about how it’s time to rule the world, this is an arrogant statement which connects well with the attitude of artists in this genre.

Hairstyle is also an important factor, long hair is an often occurance within the rockstar style, my hair was already long so I involved this within my images.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

I think Seymour Distribution would be the most likely to distribute my media product, because of which magazines they have distributed in the past. Seymour has distributed magazines such as ‘Kerrang’ which goes under the ‘Rock’ genre, my magazine is also under the rock genre so I think Seymour would be intrested. Seymour has also distributed the most famous of all magazines which is ‘VOGUE’. Vogue is a very stylish and contempory magazine which focuses on fashion, I said in my analysis that my magazine was also cool and contempory which Is the same as ‘VOGUE’ magazine. The font style on my text in my magazine is also in a similar font to ‘VOUGUE’. Seymour is 50% owned by the BBC, this would be a good starting point as adverts and music video’s could be made throughout this company. They are also connected to a company called Unity-Media.

‘KERRANG’, ‘VOUGUE’ AND MY MAGAZINE (XISCO).

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Firstly, I needed to know who would be interested in my magazine so I created a questionnaire, the purpose of this questionnaire was to find out what my target audience would be.

After my questionaiire I decided that my Audience would be mostly in the age range of 15-30, this is because the ‘Indie-Rock’ genre is more suited to this age range.

My music magazine is a one similar to NME and Q but with a different twist of film noir. My music magazine shows all the latest gossip in the music industry including new breakthrough acts which have just come onto the music scene, just like my main article on the double page spread talking about Christian Darby. I also think that males would prefer to read this magazine, the music style and genre is more indicated to the male reader, however girls who are into this type of music would also enjoy it.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

I used colours and Mise-en-scene on the front of my magazine to represent my music style/genre of a typical rockstar/artist. I did this to attract the ‘indie-rock’ audience to the magazine.

I used the same language and clothing that this genre is associated with which would connect well with my target audience.

The Masthead at the top of my magazine is the most boldest part on my magazine which is eye catching and luring to the reader. It takes up a lot of space at the top of the page.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

I learnt that any technologic breakthrough is important anywhere at anytime. Photoshop played a big part in helping me create my music magazine. I used a range of different effects on this software from cropping to feathering and from contrasting to saturating.

At first I had only basic knowledge about the features on Photoshop, as the course progressed I gained more experience and confidence within the software and I could create more detailed work.

I also do Photography in my college subjects so the photography part of the task wasn’t too hard for me, I used a (MCU) Mid Close Up shot for my front cover image as that is the usual image size for a magazine cover.

To the right you can see how I transformed an image to create something else on Photoshop.

I already new a bit about magazines and media before I chose the subject because I used to make them for fun when I was a kid, so my first task wasn’t too hard. I still learnt

an awful lot about placement, text and other conventions during the task which I took forward to my second task which was the music magazine, the music magazine was better than my college magazine in my opinion because I knew what to do to improve

from my first task. I feel that I have progressed well since the college magazine as I have more media knowledge now, than I did at the start of the subject.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK (THE COLLEGE MAGAZINE), WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO

FULL PRODUCT?

I learnt a lot more codes and conventions after I had made my first magazine, as you can see on my first

magazine front cover to the left I haven't used as many codes and conventions as I did in my music

magazine, for example I haven’t used any graphic features and I haven’t added a selling line/bar at the top. However, I still feel that this was a really good effort for my first task.