AS Media Studies: Music Magazine

Name: Rosie StockingSchool: Harris City Academy Crystal Palace

Centre No.: 14390Candidate No.: 7161

Rock/Alternative

Indie

Swing

Pop

Metal

Jazz

Hip Hop

Classical

From the spider diagram of popular genres that I have brainstormed, I have chosen to create a music magazine under the genre of Rave/Disco.

I have chosen this genre because there are not many well-known Rave/Disco magazines available, so there is a gap in the market.

Also – from a personal point of view – I have always been interested in Rave music, but other musical genres were always a priority. By designing a Rave magazine, I hope to gain a better understanding of the genre and hopefully learn about some new bands too. Emo/Punk

Rave/Disco

Genre

Death Metal

Ska

Blues/SoulBallad

Pop-Punk

Britpop

Folk

J-Rock

Genres

Country

DJ Magazine

• Editor: Lesley Wright• First Issue: 1991• Distribution: Monthly• Total Circulation: 32,250 copies (5,000 copies

per aunnum given away for free)• Country of Origin: UK• Translated into: Portuguese, Polish, Ukrainian,

Lithuanian, Chinese, Bulgarian and Italian. • Awards: IDMA Best Music Publication 2003-

2008

List of other bands featured – gives a quick view as to what else is inside to entice readers. If a reader's favourite band is listed, they feel more inclined to buy it.

The two stars are shot at a low angle, and are wearing summery clothes and sunglasses to reflect on the 'Mid-Summer Mischief' title of the article.

The logo of the magazine is quite simple and uses red because red is a bright colour, which reflects the genre of music. Also, red is a unisex colour, which shows that this magazine is not specifically for one gender.

The font is quite clean and simple, and is mainly black or white. However, the colourful element comes the background of the text box, which makes the front cover seem bright and inviting, but it is still easy to read the writing.

DJ Magazine use a wide variety of articles, ranging from 'In The Studio With...' to 'Questions & Answers'. They promote these articles on their front cover on both the left and the right to create a sense of balance to show the wide variety of articles they have featuring many different artists.

The fact that this article is in a yellow sticker and not in the list below it signifies that this is a bigger artist, is separate so the audience can see it clearly and will want to buy the magazine if they are a fan of the artist.

MixMag

• Editor: Nick DeCosemo• First Issue: 1982/1983• Distribution: Monthly• Circulation: 30,159 copies• Country of Origin: UK• Brief History: First issue printed Feb. 1st 1983 -

16-page black and white print – featured Shalamar (American ’80s disco group).

• Sold to EMAP Ltd. in mid-1990s - bought by Development Hell in 2005.

• MixMag revamped in 2006 - aimed of appealing to a wider and older readership through new design and better production.

The subtitle of the main feature uses youthful slang to engage a younger audience.

Like the articles, the other artists featured in the magazine are in a list, so it is easier to see when the magazine is stacked on a shelf.

A free CD is advertised to appeal to a younger audience so they don't have to buy the CD or download the tracks, all they have to do is buy the magazine. Also, a relatively well-known event is used to entice people who attended The Warehouse Project or fans of artists who played.

The logo for MixMag is simple and youthful, and a bright colour is used to make it stand out against the white background.

Instead of having just one artist on the front cover, a lot of artists are used to relate to the main feature. Also, they are all wearing bright, fashionable clothes which helps them relate to a trendy, fashion-aware audience and relates to the fact that in recent years, there has been a fashion piece in the magazine. Although quite a boring long shot, a wide variety of heights and poses are used to create a more interesting image.

Unlike DJ Mag, the other articles in the magazine are in a list, rather than on both the left and right. This makes it easier to see the articles and artists when the magazine is stacked on a shelf.

There is a distinct colour scheme on this example of MixMag; only blue, white and a little black is used. However, I think this is because MixMag has a different colour scheme for every issue so it is easier to differentiate between the issues. The colours are quite unisex, which suggests that is not designed for one specific gender.

Similarities

• Both magazines use bright colours that appeal to both males and females.

• The costumes of the artists in the main images are wearing bright, fashionable clothes.

• They both only have one image.• The fonts used are simple and youthful, and the colour of

the fonts are usually white or black to offset the bright image.

• Both magazines have eye-catching, youthful logos.• They both use a title for the main feature and a tagline

underneath it to explain more.• They both use props (MixMag uses a disco ball and DJ

Magazine uses sunglasses).• They both have predominantly male artists featured.

Differences

• MixMag features a free CD, whereas DJ Magazine doesn't.

• MixMag lists all the other articles in the magazine on the right, whereas DJ Magazine lists them on both sides.

• DJ Magazine uses a low angle shot to make the magazine look more creative and artistic, whereas MixMag has used a simple long-shot.

• MixMag uses 3 specific colours as its colour scheme, whereas DJ Magazine uses a wider variety of colours, ranging from red to yellow to pink.

• MixMag has a more youthful looking logo than DJ Magazine, which makes MixMag look more youthful and fresh as a whole.

What have I Learnt?By analysing these two magazines and by comparing and contrasting them, I have learnt that with my magazine, I need to go for a look which is quite youthful and fresh, as my target audience will be 18-25 year olds. However, I personally get the impression that these magazine appeal more to males than females, so I think that I need to make my main feature artist a female so that it is a little different.Also, I need to think about the layout extremely carefully. I think the idea of putting other articles in a list on one side of the page is good idea; that means that when the magazine is stacked on a shelf, the list will be seen. I don’t like the way DJ Magazine has put them around the page; although it looks youthful, it looks a bit haphazard to me.The costume that I will get my models to wear is equally important. I need to make sure that the clothes there are wearing reflects what is fashionable but still conforms to the genre of Rave.I will ensure that I find some suitable props to use in my images too, and make sure that I use a wide variety to shots to make it look professional.

Audience ResearchI designed a questionnaire and gave it to 20 subjects of my target audience, and from the results, I have calculated the following statistics:- 70% of the people I asked would like to see a female artist on the front cover.- 100% said that a bright colour scheme should be used, and 80% said I should use a limited amount of colours like MixMag.- 60% agreed that I should carry my colour scheme on throughout the magazine i.e. use the same colours and fonts for the contents and for the main feature.- Only 15% said that I should use more than one image on my front cover.- 85% said that they would like to see a free CD being given away.

Audience ProfileMeet Tom. He's 19 - nearly 20 - years old, and he's studying Information Technology at the University of Reading. He lives and breathes for the disco life. He’s been to Reading twice now, and both times, he subconsciously went to the disco tent. (but he really wants to go to Warehouse Project in Manchester... Bad Lieutenant and Krysko are playing!)When he's not playing pool at the bar with his geeky friends or sitting through a lecture, you'll find him at a rave or club (usually with a drink in his hand). He's always on his computer doing some lengthy programming, or his turntable set he got for Christmas, making a new song he thought of when he couldn't sleep at night. He loves gaming too, and he can't wait to get DJ Hero; all his friends know that he'll be the legend of accommodation block J. His favourite band is Muse, especially the more disco songs, and he loves to listen to them on his iPod on his way to the supermarket on the University campus.

Preliminary TaskMy preliminary task was to design a magazine for the school. I don't think that it was very good, but others said that it was quite good. I used Corel Paint Shop Pro X to make it, which is a very basic program, which meant that the level of presentation wasn't that good.I think that I stuck to my theme - which was for people who remember when Harris CACP used to be Harris CTC – by using an appropriate title, tagline and font, but I think that the front cover is far too empty and the banner across the middle is badly made.

However, I think my contents page is far better. I like the theme I went for, which was a notice board with various things pinned on it. I also like the pictures I used, which I took on my last day of Year 11, so it has a sense of 'Class of 2009' to it. However, there are some elements that I think I could have made better. The list oF contents, for example, is not very well made, and it hard to see the numbers that are in yellow.

By using a more professional program, my music magazine will hopefully be of a better quality than the school magazine.

Proposed LayoutBefore I actually start to make my magazine, I thought it would be a good idea to make a flat plan on Microsoft Publisher so that I have some of my ideas down so I don’t forget them.

I think that this proposed cover is good. I like the circle advertising the free CD and the list of other articles featured in the magazine. It is hard to determined, however, what it will really look like at this stage, but hopefully I will be able to stick to the format I have made.

I am not so sure about this contents page. I am worried that it will look too empty because I will run out of things to include on it. However, I will make sure to research into contents pages of already existing magazine like NME (NME is good because it has a high budget, so the production is excellent), DJ Magazine and MixMag so I can get some good ideas for my own contents page.

I like the proposed layout for my feature pages. I think that I have included everything that needs to be there, but I am having a hard time imagining what it will look like, but it will hopefully look a lot more interesting and more like a magazine when I have completed it. I plan to stick as closely as I can to these proposed layouts, but there may be some changes because I may find that some of my ideas are not feasible.

Bibliography

• Audience Profile image: Facebook• Magazine Profile information:

-www.mixmag.net-www.djmag.com

• Magazine front cover examples:- DJ Magazine:

http://bellelugosi.wordpress.com/page/2/- MixMag:

http://www.cmsounds.com/newsind.cfm?id=208