Music Magazine

Kurt Sumner

IntroductionMy media product is a music magazine. I decided upon making my magazines genre Rock. During the process of making my magazine I tried to stick to traditional conventions of a rock magazine instead of challenging it.

Q.1 In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

The Barcode- All magazine require a barcode to be sold.Large Title- To help catch the readers eye and to also state the name of the magazine.Large Image- To help catch the readers eye (most large images are of featured bands within the magazine).Headings- To show what else is in the magazine.Smaller Images- To show what else is in the magazine and to keep interest.Advertisements- To advertise other things that are of interest to readers,Freebies- To encourage the readers to buy the magazine.

First we’ll look at a professional magazine cover and look at the traditional conventions it uses.

My magazine front cover compared to a professional magazine front cover. Notice very similar features, this is because I tried to conform to the traditional values of magazine because readers will notice the similarities and feel comfortable.

Q.1 In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

The Barcode,Large Images,Large Titles,Headings,Smaller Images,Freebies,Advertisements,

I also think I have challenged the traditional conventions within backgrounds, most music magazine backgrounds are one colour, whereas mine is on location.

Q.1 In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Now we’ll look at the traditional conventions of a professional contents page.

Bold header- Normally stating the name of the magazine or in this case the name of the page “Contents”.Listings of content- The show the reader what is in the magazine.Small images- Showing points of interest inside the magazine and the page number to find it.Advertisements- To advertise other things that are of interest to the readers.

Q.1 In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

My magazine contents page compared to a professional magazine contents page. Notice similar features.

Bold header,Listings of content,Small images,

I also decided to keep placing my magazine logo on all my pages, this is so that every page even if taken individually represent my magazine. I have also conformed to the mixture of location shots and studio shots taken on my contents page.

Q.1 In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media productsNow we’ll look at the traditional conventions of a professional contents page.

Title- To catch the readers attention while they a flicking through pages

Content- A large section of text about the artist/band in question.

Large Photo- To catch the readers attention and to show the reader who this page is focused on.

Background- A block colour behind all the information.

Q.1 In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

My magazine double feature spread compared to a professional magazine double feature spread. Notice similar features.

Large Photo Header Content

I have challenged the traditional conventions of a double feature spread by placing my magazine logo within the page,By using a location shot instead of a background and by highlighting points of interest within the article.

With my chosen genre of Rock, I obviously had to represent that in my images but I also had to choose a particular social group to focus on. I chose teenagers and aspirers.

Locations, actions and costumes within my band images and normal images have been used purposely to try and fit these social groups, I tried to pick specific people who fit the social groups I selected.

Harsh, vulgar hand gestures. This was done to fit the Rock scene.

Band t-shirts and dark clothing. The style of clothing a rock/metal band would wear would obviously have to be worn within my photos. If they didn’t wear the specific style of clothing then they would look the part.

Run down, messy background. This was chosen to fit the rugged, messy look Rock gives out.

Q.2 How does my media product represent particular social groups?

Q.2 How does my media product represent particular social groups?

Due to me also choosing teenagers to represent in my images I obviously had to used teenagers in my images. This is because if I used older people (O.A.P’s) or young children my magazine wouldn’t be taken seriously.

Notice all of them wearing clothes teenagers who fit the rock/metal genre would wear. e.g Skater trainers, band/skater/dark coloured t-shirts, dark coloured jeans.

They are wearing similar clothes to this famous metal teen band.

Q.2 How does my media product represent particular social groups?

Finally the last social group I chose to represent was aspirers. Most of the readers who choose to reader magazines similar to my own will play instruments or be in a band of their own, therefore they buy magazines with their favourite bands in so they can see what their life is like and dream of having a similar life to theirs. That is why a lot of instruments and musical equipment have been mentioned within my magazine, mainly in my contents page.

Reviews on musical equipment and tips to becoming a better instrument player. Aspirers will be interested in this due to them wanting to be as good as their favourite artists/bands.

Image showing the equipment within the magazine and the page number below. Aspirers again will be interested in this due to them being able to identify the equipment shown, and also be able to look at new equipment to make them sound better while playing.

IPC will be the institution that will produce my magazine due to its large selection of magazine interests. Looking through their website I noticed they produce magazines such as "NME" and "Uncut" which are both music magazines that will be quite similar to my own. Therefore there is room for my magazine within their bracket of interest due to them already having interest in similar magazines to my own and not having that many so there isn't much competition within their institution.

Q.3 What kind of media institution might distribute my media product and why?

Front covers of the magazines IPC have distributed compared to mine.

To show who my target audience is I shall use to term G.R.A.S.S. G-Gender. Both males and females fit into my target audience as you don’t have to be of a certain gender to enjoy the genre of music my magazine represents, but my magazine itself is quite masculine so it is slightly aim more towards males. R-Race. The ethnicity of my target audience also is not relevant, anyone from any race can enjoy my magazines music genre. A-Age. Age is a very important factor of my target audience, the age of my target audience is between 14 to 19 years old. This is because young children would not really understand my chosen genre of music and older people wont be appreciative of my chosen genre of music, with a few exception for some people. S.S-Social Economic Status. Social economic status is not important when deciding upon my target audience, whether the readers are upper, middle or lower class has no relevance.

Q.4 Who would be the audience for my media product?

With my chosen social groups of teenagers and aspirers and my chosen target audience of predominantly males aged 14-19 I had to try and address them in different way within my magazine.

Q.5 How did I attract/address my audience?

Within my Front Cover I tried to address my audience with different things, firstly with my title. M.R.R or Melody, Riff and Rhythm is very much to do with music, which is relevant to a music magazine. I also attempted to address my audience with the pose of my band, I made sure they all looked serious so my magazine would be taken seriously. Also all the characters in my band photo are all looking directly into the camera (except one) this also addresses the audience as it makes them feel that they are connected to the band. The use of rough, scruffy like text also gives an informal touch which is more addressing to teenagers than formal text.

All the content page’s page listing were all specifically picked to fit the general hobbies and interests of my target audience therefore attracting them into the magazine.

Again the broken, scruffy like style of tents gives an informal touch which is more attractive to teenagers.

All the people within the photographs are all looking directly towards the reader creating a connection between the reader and the photos.

The magazine logo in the corner of the page helps the readers recognize the magazine name easier and will help them recognize it in the future.

The fact that all the pages have been placed in to categories also attracts the audience due to it making the information easier to read.

Q.5 How did I attract/address my audience?

The layout of my text was taken into consideration when trying to address my audience, in teenage orientated magazines too much text is unappealing, with that in mind I tried to limit the amount of block text.

Obviously the Double Feature page must be very blocked due to the amount of information within it, but due to the layout and background it is much more attractive than simply text placed on the page.

Contents Double Feature

Q.5 How did I attract/address my audience?

Q.6 What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my product?

During the process of making my media product I have had to learn to use software I had never even heard of before and to top it all off I had to use a type of computer I’d never even considered using before. During my research and planning I visited websites such as Google and Kerrang to research and Blogger to store and record all my findings and work. While creating my media product I used quite a wide range of technology, I used a close friends Canon 7d camera with a Canon L series EF 24-105mm lens mounted on a tripod to take my photographs and stored them on a transportable memory unit. I used Photoshop and Indesign to edit my media product on a Apple Imac computer.

I had previous experience with Photoshop from my secondary school media lesson but I also had additional guidance from YouTube and teachers when I required it. I hadn’t used Indesign previously but with the practice sessions given to us I found it very easy to use therefore I did not require any additional help.

I also used excel to create pie charts to make my feedback easier to read.

Q.6 What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing my product?

Q.7 Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I am very glad I had better equipment while making my final product. It didn’t look professional at all. The image within it was badly cutout which wasn’t an issue with my final product as all my images where on location or in a studio, therefore there was no need to cut out any images. My preliminary task’s Front Cover was also placed on block colour, which in my opinion looked very unprofessional, that is why I feel my final products Front Cover looks professional due to the photos being on location.

I think the quality difference is purely due to the amount of planning time given, with the preliminary task was done in around 30-40 minutes, whereas my final product was planned and was worked on for weeks.

Preliminary Task Final Product

Conclusion

In conclusion I am very happy and proud of my final production, I feel it turned out better than I imagined it to be. Due to being behind most of the way through most of the research and planning stages I was quite worried about my final product being rushed and not to the standard I‘d imagined it being, but I managed to catch up just in time so that I didn’t have to rush to put the final pieces of my product together. Strong points about my media product are, due to me having some faint experience with Photoshop I feel I produced some professional looking band photographs, I also feel that my double feature pages look very professional and it is my favourite page out of the three. I do also know that my product has weaknesses, such as my contents page isn’t as professional looking as I would have liked, I believe that its due to the plain background and the scattered images.

Overall I am very happy with my product and with the feedback given in my questionnaire other people seem to feel its looks as professional as I do.