Music Magazine Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products? I believe my magazine does challenge forms and conventions of real magazine

products because it includes many main codes and conventions of a music magazine. For example my main inspiration of the construction of my magazine was VIBE magazine, Drakes issue which focuses on a black and yellow theme. I incorporated this idea into mine by using a black background, but changed the texture to create a younger style. The house style that I used was blue, grey, white and black was based on an adidas jacket, I chose this because it seemed to fitted in with grime/urban style and culture. I also used a central image of the artists in my cover story. I also included other ideas from VIBE magazine such as the usher front cover which had a quote on the front, I thought it would be good to used this on the cover of my magazine because it would give the audience an insight of what’s to follow up in the interview of the magazine……..

I took the idea of a simple bold text and colour white to make the masthead stand out off the black background, but I changed the size and aptitude of the text to create a more young and urban/grime feel.

I also used a top strip to indicate to the audience what artist are going to feature in the magazine, the artist I used also made it clear the type of audience I am trying to attract.

The layout of VIBE magazine shows how they want to place the featured articles around the central image so it would still be the main focal point and feature of the magazine.

I incorporated the idea of using ‘HIP-HOP’s NEW RELIGION’ and change it to ‘GRIME’S NEWEST TALENT’ I changed it slightly to make it relevant to my magazine this is used to sort of entice the audience into finding out more about the artist or group, and how they have made a mark on the music industry.

I took aspects of other VIBE magazines like the Usher issue, I used the quote on the front of the magazine “THERE IS NO COMPETITON” and change it to make it, I decided to use the quote as it would give the audience an idea of what's in the main article.

I used a black background like VIBE magazine as it makes other house style colours and the central image stand out, but I changed the background by creating a sort of glitter effect which makes the background and links it to femininity.

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine FrontCover

Large, bold masthead which is clearly shown of the white colour font in contrast to the black background.

Left third, which is the first thing the buyer sees so I put the featured articles, the word NEW, the price and the magazine logo.

Central image, is the main focal point of the magazine, I used a large shot as it was a group shot, this also shows the outfits which makes it clear to the audience that its grime magazine.

Top strip which shows the types of artists which feature in the magazine, which show the type of genre and audience I am trying to appeal.

Featured articles, which show on the front cover of the magazine what main articles are in the magazine, this is used to entice the audience to buying the magazine if it features an artist or story they like.

I also used a puff which is a short phrase to hook the audience, I took a play on words from the title “STEP UP” and made it to “A step above the rest” this is short and catchy phrase.

I used a headline tag when using the word exclusive and new, this informs the audience that this magazine has something that no other magazine has.

Splash, which is the largest most vibrate piece of text on the front page which is related to the main cover story and central image.

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine ContentsPage

Features on the contents page shows new and exclusive articles which will feature in the magazine only the one time. Regulars on the

contents page which shows the articles which features on every issue and sometimes has follow ups of previous issues.

Main image, which usually a continuation of the front cover of the magazine, I took a image of one of the group and made it the main image.

The largest piece of text which make it clear to the audience that it is the contents page.I also used

numbers of the pages, because it allows the reader to find the page and article that they wanted quickly and easily.

Article titles, which shows what the articles are called

Small piece of text under the article titles which is a small description of what's in the article.

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine ContentsPage COMPARIONS

Although the titles of the articles may differ slightly, they still are set in two different sections.

The first feature article is of the main cover story which is most likely an excusive article.

The contents page title is a large font that stands out, also it the way that it is written is simple but effective.The large image of artist show that the main focus is on her.

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine Double Page Article INTERVIEW

I used a 11 size font, which is usually used in other magazine articles for the answers in the interview.

I used a larger, bold and colour font for the ‘FINAL THOUGHT’ or the writing that which concludes the interview and article and directed to the audience.

To separate the questions from the answers, I put the question In a bolder font, which made it darker and clearer for the reader to establish which is the question or answer. I also put a Q.(question) and A.(answers) at the beginning of the sentences or paragraphs,

I took separate images and placed them together to make a central image on the double page article, which is of the front cover group of artists.

I took a quote which stood out from article and I enlarged quotation mark and used it on the top of the magazine .

I used a large, bold piece of text as an intro of the magazine article which explains what ‘BEHIND THE MUSIC’ is.

The largest piece of text on the double page spread is article Title and also features the group name ‘IMPACT’ which is who the article is about.

The article is also in columns which is typical in magazine in

general.

Small font text in the article.

Articles are in columns, which makes it more structured and easily readable.

The artists name, this shows who and what the article is about.

Codes and Conventions of a Music Magazine Double Page Article COMPARISON

A large image of the artist on one side of the article.

A quote from the interview which has been enlarge as it something interesting and makes the reader want to know the story behind the quote.

How does your media product represent

particular social groups?

The music magazine that I created represents a particular social group that ranges between E,D, C1, C2 because most likely my audience would be on the either unskilled, under part time employment or receive benefits, so since my magazine is targeted to a youthful audience it is most likely that target audience would still be attending school as a student or further education. My magazine represents them because the music style that I focused on involves an urban style, and the artists that I used fashion and spoken languages would be similar because many young people look you to them and they aspire to achieve the same goal as them in life. The social groups are mainly aspirers or egoists that believe that some day that they will be make it in the music/grime industry.

What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why? The media institute that may produce my magazine would be something like Hearst

Corporations, because they a one of the largest diversified communications publishing magazines ranging from “The Oprah Magazine” and “Cosmopolitan” to ownership of cable network such as ESPN. By being apart of such a huge diverse company, it would also be beneficial them to become apart of the music industry and explore different types of, because their main publications seems to target a more mature person, and focuses on fashion and good health and body conscious mainly in women . Whereas the audience that my magazine is targeted to a younger urban/grime audience.

As you can see the magazines that are published by Hearst Corporations mostly features on the front cover a majority of women compared men, and the colours are bright and vibrate, this seems to attract a younger and youthful female audience. In comparison to the codes and conventions in my magazine where, it uses dark colours such as black and grey to attract a grime audience.

Who would be the audience for your media

product?

The audience that my music magazine would appeal to would be young urban/grime audience based in the UK so some parts of America, because there is a large following of this music genre within the young British community. My audience that would buy and benefit from my magazine would be young ambitious people that have a interest within the music industry, either performing on stage on behind the scenes of the recording process. I would associate my audience to be like this because the articles that feature in magazine are based on new, fresh talent for instance, on the front cover of my magazine I used a fictional band ‘IMPACT’ as an example of how they became successful. Also my magazine features ways to show case if you believe you have talent on ‘STAND OUT’, where you can perform your own lyrics. Plus, being passionate about this type of music and know how it can change people lives by being a positive influence on young people, I represented this in an article called ‘STEP UP IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD’.

How did you attract/address your

audience? I feel that my magazine attracted my target audience by using the codes and

conventions which are associated with the grime genre, for example one of my main colour house style was black, this colour is connected with the grime industry and represents dark colours. Other colours such as grey, blue and white were used as my house style, because it was my colours of my adidas jacket and tracksuits are associated with urban/grime.

I also addressed my audience by using a specific type of people with a certain style, which resemble other female grime artists. For example the clothing I used are associated with this genre, and I based the female group that I created ‘IMPACT’ around new female grime group ‘Ruff Diamondz’ I tried to do this by trying to create a similar style of clothing, looks, hair styles and the type of posing in photographs. I created my group around ‘Ruff Diamondz’ because I think that they are appealing to the audience and are influential because of their personal style and clothing choices which I thinks speaks to the young female grime followers and listeners.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product? (Digital camera, InDesign, Photoshop)

During this process of constructing a magazine I learned how to overcome difficulties while using Adobe Indesign and editing images on Photoshop. Although I had used Photoshop before on making my school magazine I found it more challenging second time around, this is because editing the photographs took longer as I had to focus on the quality and using other tools to make the photographs up to a higher standard.

When taking the photographs for my magazine I found how it was difficult to find a image which could work in my magazine, because I had to consider the lighting, shadows or the quality of the image, although some of these problems could be fixed using Photoshop.

Throughout making my magazine I learned many new skills on Photoshop, for example I learn how to adjust lighting, brightness and contrasts as well as variations, this allowed me to change or play with different options with colours of clothing or even eye colour. I also experimented with filtering which meant the effect of the picture changed I used this tool a lot during the making of the product.

Using InDesign was a first for me, but I learnt that constructing my magazine on this program was better as the quality of the images being imported from Photoshop works more effectively as the images are clearer. Also fonts on InDesign have more variety which allowed me to experiment with size, width, height and shape, I used this for magazine because I was able to change to create a masthead which linked with the name of my magazine.

I learnt that creating a magazine in a certain amount of time you have to known your basics using technology and focus on making your magazine similar to ones that are being sold, and that best suit your genre.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task that I had to do was to create a school magazine, the front cover and

contents page, when making the magazine the programs I used was Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, but it was different from making the music magazine because the photographs I’d taken needed more work to be closer to the standard of a mainstream magazine. I felt has if I’d learnt more about the programs when using it the second time as I had learn the basics the first time round, this allowed me to try out other tools which could make the magazine more realistic.

I learnt how school magazine doesn’t target a specific audience besides the students, staff and school executives, these types of audiences range from a widely, aged and gender. This show that the contents, photographs and articles in the magazine should appeal to everyone that has a link to this school. In comparison to the music magazine where the audience that the magazine is targeted for is a particular type for example, the magazine that I created is a grime genre, this would have a selected audience from ages to genders, also the content in my magazine is based around the grime culture, industry and the artists ,which unlike the school magazine wont appeal to everyone.

In addition there is a difference in the messages that are sent out from the magazine, such as in the school magazine there is no focus on personal image, style or icons and less work is put in to making the perfect person feature on the front cover. On the other hand the main focus on music magazine is to portray a person or music icon as someone who is to be aspired to be like, working on my music magazine and researching I learned the work that go through to keeping the image of a celebrity ‘perfect’. One of the things that I had to do which differed from the making of my school magazine was on Photoshop using the spot healing tool, which touches up any blemishes on the skin to make it seem to the audience the this artist has no imperfections, this shows the manipulation that the photograph editors go through in creating a new mage which is not necessarily true. However, this is necessary in the music industry to keep the artist with an image that portrays to the be flawless, this makes them an icon in the audiences eyes.

SCHOOL MAGAZINE VS MUSIC MAGAZINE