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Evaluation of Music Magazine cover, contents and Double page spread.

Shelby Hincal – AS MEDIA STUDIES

I believe that my media product, which in this case is a music magazine develops the codes and conventions of real media products of the same category rather than challenge these. I have demonstrated the use of knowledge by using the codes and conventions used in real music magazines. Altering the magazine so it fits within the same category whilst creating my own take on the indie genre. I chose the name “INDiEPENDENT” as I believe it resembles the genre well, based on the history of independent industry. Indie rock comes from the word "independent” hence the name INDiEPENDENT toys with the original word and the audience can begin to develop an understanding of where the term indie actually derives from. Another reason I used “INDiEPENDENT “as the name for my music magazine was, that Is represents the typical 16-24 year old age group are usually very independent as they are beginning to find themselves and take their own paths from teenagers to young adults. I believe I have developed the “typical” photography used in music magazine, which is generally either in full or just black and white. I have developed this by creating black and white images with colour preserved in areas of the photo. I did this by adding colour filters, changing to black and white and preserving colour in one area of the photo. I did this as it adds a twist on the traditional colour photo for a front cover as you rarely see this style used. I think the style works well as it expresses individuality, a feature I have seen expressed in the indie genre and the music industry frequently. Many social groups are represented by my media product. The age range is the “typical” 16-24 year old”, as I believe my product is right for a college or university student, as these tend to be the generation who turn to music as methods of escape or to unwind from the stresses of study and exams. From research I have found that there is a gap in the market for this type of product. I believe that my media product is suitable to both female and male readers but may have a higher rate of female readers due to the appeal of the female model. To ensure I had a mix of gender readers I ensured that the cover was appealing to both female readers may relate to the model in an aspiring manner where male readers might find the model visually appealing in order that they might purchase the magazine. The 16-24 year old category are usually people with a greater disposable income. I am confident that they would want to buy this on a monthly basis. The product would also relate to the users of social media networks. This again relates to the target age range. The product offers web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Twitter options for readers. In this way the audience can keep up to date and will gain assurance that the quality of the product is reliable and worthwhile as they would dedicate their time to reading it. As the magazine is aimed at young adults, I wanted to portray my target audience in a way that breaks the prevalent media stereotype , without associating 16-24 year old with drugs, violence and crime because not all young people should be characterised this way. I believe that my magazine helps to aspire young artists to follow their dreams and helps others to get motivated by reading other young artist’s success stories. I wanted to show this throughout my magazine so I researched PJ Harvey, an English musician, who projects an unorthodox view of feminity which is more androgynous. She does not wear a lot of make-up which makes more realistic. This is what I wanted to achieve in my front cover. I did this by portraying a young artist on my front cover who has written on her stomach giving her a rebellious image. The word written is “indie”. This way the magazine establishes its main messages clearly as the magazine is focused on message: independent music.

One media institution that might distribute my media product could be Bauer Media: This is because it reaches over 19 million people across the UK using multiple media and formats adding a music magazine title to its collection purely based on indie will increase the amount of consumers reading Bauer’s media products. In addition, Bauer media does not have a magazine fully dedicated to indie in their market, but instead have magazines such as SmashHits, Kerrang and Q, which have a broad range of music it covers. So adding a different type of music genre will increase interest in the genre. Bauer Media also has Bauer Radio, which consists of Heat Radio, Q Radio, Smash Hits! Radio and The Hits Radio which are available on DAB and Free view. Having an Indie music magazine may encourage the audience to start a radio station, which broadcast Indie music in order for Bauer to increase the number of people viewing their media via magazine and radio so increasing their sales overall. My magazine is targeted at a less stereotypical image of youth, and represents those who are interested in the more independent side of music and culture. This is represented through the magazine with the use of repeated colours such as red, white and a bright blue. Instead of using primary, younger colours such as pinks and yellows, the magazine is automatically represented to an older more sophisticated audience, but also not to a mainstream music audience which the magazine is targeted at and created for. I believe that my music magazine, “INDiEPENDENT” portrays a niche market of indie and would be successfully aimed at the social group or class of 16 – 24 year olds, these are the older teenagers who are turning into young mature adults who are trying to build their confidence and become independent individuals. I believe I have attracted my audience through manipulation of technology. I did this in Photoshop and changed the images to black and white as I thought this worked well and added a eccentric touch to the independent music genre. On the cover photo I added a slight red filter and preserved the colour of the models earrings. I also did this with the feature photo on the double page spread by preserving the colour of the guitar to make the focus of music still evident in the magazine. It attracts the audiences by reflecting the codes and conventions of the genre of independent music, through the emotions the central images demonstrates. For example the facial expressions are very soft creating a wistful content atmosphere for the entire magazine. My aim in terms of images used was to develop and construct an emotion which mirrors the happier and carefree side of being a young mature adult. I did this in order for the genre to become more recognisable and attractive to its audience. The use of colour and font used four main colours: red, white, and black with a subtle hint of blue as I found that the blue could be too overpowering. In terms of addressing the audience, I think these colours worked successfully as I think they are colours to be used when relating them to the Indie genre. In order to attract my target demographic, I included features such as freebies by including a free poster as a strap line for the cover of my product. This way the audience feel obliged to buy the magazine just to get the award of the freebie, attracting them to the magazine even more as they might purchase it again the month after. The social group of 16-24 year olds may be still living with their parents, in full time education or have a part time job so money is restricted. Therefore, I ensured that my product would be a monthly not weekly magazine encouraging them to buy, as it will only be published twelve times a year, compared to fifty – two times a year if it was a weekly magazine.I felt that the design is the one of the most important part in attracting the audience.

I decided to go with a simplistic layout for the front cover but used the photo as the focus. The masthead slightly overlapped the models head but did not take away from the image, and I used a simple yet modern and bold font as i think it works best with the edited image. I used white and red as they both worked against the main image and do not blend in or take away the overall balancing the cover successfully. I included two cover lines on either side to balance the cover out and the main cover line across the model. This way the whole cover balanced itself out and worked together making it visually appealing to the audience. The contents page was successful as it was a simplistic layout but it worked due to the choice of font a colour. For the double page spread I used a title, which looked a bit like an old cinema sign as it looked visually appealing and made you wonder what the artist was like and what their story was. The article was placed in columns as I thought they worked well with the image and layout of the page , especially with the enlarged quote on the left with the images this tied the double page together in terms of composition. Throughout the process of making my music magazine I have learnt many new skills. Doing this task helped me expand my knowledge, get a general grasp on how to use new programmes for example Indesign, which I have only had little experience of using it but after this task I am confident in using the programme. Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I that I have learnt many new skills and developed my current knowledge about the production of music magazines. For example, what social groups certain magazines appeal to and why, how to attract a specific audience, it was the depth of research and planning I had to do, in order to make my music magazine successful. Taking on board the feedback, which I got after making my school magazine, and giving out questionnaires for my research on music magazines, I believe Ihave progressed a long way, in the completion of my finished media product. I now have a stronger knowledge and understanding of programmes such as Adobe Photoshop Cs3 and Adobe Indesign. I have gained further advanced knowledge of how to how to alter, filter and edit images in Photoshop and save them in the correct format, which allows one to take across to Adobe Indesign and then build the magazine upon. All in all a successful music magazine was made from interpreting research into an appropriate product for the genre of music and its audience.