My music magazine evaluationBY FARZANA AHMED

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My music magazine uses a few codes and conventions of a real music magazine such as the clolour scheme. Before creating the real magazine on photoshop I had researched many R&B/hip hop magazines and from that I have gathered a typical pattern of colour schemes:                                                      

                                                                                       

In these particular R&B music magazines, there is a re-occuring colour theme of vibrant colours such as RED and ORANGE. These colours connotate with ideas like rebelling, danger and seems to evoke more with loud, out spoken people.  This  is a convention that I have more developed than used, however I used red more as it really does seem to be the main colour for R&B, like their trademark almost. It helps identify this genre of music on shelves on hundreds of other music magazines, these secondary colours really favour the magazines in helping them stand out from the rest. 

Q1. continued...Front cover

Here is my front cover and it's colour scheme: I have

 chosen a colour scheme of orange, red, and white,

 mainly, as I have some blue in it too. I have gathered

 these range of colours froma mixture of R&B magazines

 such as VIBE, XXL etc. These colours arevery popular

 in this particular genre of magazine. They stand out as 

opposed to dreary colours which would catch the eye of the 

demographic for this magazine. I think I followed the

convention whenit comes to colour schemes as I think

 this is a very important factorfor the audience when it comes

 to buying this magazine out of the rest

as it acts as a determining factor to what

 could be inside this magazine.

Q1. continued...

Another convention of a music magazine is a masthead. On most popular R&B magazines such as XXL, Billboard, Seventeen, all have very prominent mastheads that are big in font size yet part covered by the main centre image. From my research this is something I had considered in the making of magazine. I wanted, and did, emulate this particular code of a music magazine as I think this is highly important in distinguishing mine, and other, magazines from each other. The masthead is one of the first things a person should notice about the magazine, as well as the centre image. A lot of magazines, VIBE, overlap the main centre image onto the masthead, this gives it a cool and edgy look to the magazine and makes it seem very casual.

Also cover lines are must to make a music magazine look as authentic as possible, these are tiny snippets or quotes of what is inside the magazine which could be of interest to the buyer which they would then purchase to read. My cover lines are stories of which usually dominate the music industry media like what is popular in the charts now and new music artists/bands they may be interested in as they are of the mutual genre the buyer likes and what the magazine has to offer, this allows people that'll actually be interested in their music to discover them . However I did challenge this convention in a certain way as I didn't necessarily change it, but I used less of it. I only used two pull quotes on the front cover of my magazine as I didn't want to jam pack the front cover with tonnes of stories like girly gossip magazines do, I wanted mine to be cool yet classy.

Q1. Continued...

Here is the centre image overlapping the

 masthead as I had said in the previous slide. 

''VIBE'' magazine is arguably the biggest

 R&B magazine in America. The main

 image of Beyonce, her head overlapping

 the ''VIBE'' masthead is a very normal

 convention for this genre of magazine,

 in almost every single issue of  ''VIBE''

 they do this. It gives off a very edgy

 impression of the magazine, almost as

 if they don't follow the rules because it

 isn't 'normal' per se. Hoever I kept this

 very popular convetion as it looks good

 and also adds a sense of authentication to

my magazine

Q1. Continued...

The common convention of cover lines as I had mentioned, I have used here in my front cover as this is something all music magazines use. This attracts buyers to your magazine as it's something they read IN the shop which would eventually decide whether they would like to buy YOUR magazine. Therefore these cover lines need to be relevant to your genre and audience. My cover lines are of two different topics/articles that are in my magazine. As it's a R&B music magazine, my audience would want to be in the loop about the hottest hits out right now, also a chance to advertise a new band which enables readers to find new musical love in my magazine, making this magazine even more special to them as it may have birthed new idols.

Q1. continued... 

Here is the transition from my first what I thought was completed, to my actual final music magazine front cover. Here you can see I have taken out all the secondary images from the internet and I have taken my own using the green screen at my school to replace them with my own primary images. I have also made my ''GENESIS'' masthead much more dominant as I had seen 99% of music magazines do so. I also added in a pull quote at the top of the magazine as this adds more credibility to the magazine. I also put in a puff quote at the bottom of a competition and made other changes like font, colours etc to finally make an authentic looking music magazine.

Q1. ContinuedContents page My contents page follows codes and conventions of other music magazines

as tried to emulate a copy of a ''Kerrang'' Magazine issue I had seen, on the contents page, at the bottom, there is a letter from the editor. I did one too as I had seen quite a few magazines do this as part of my research. Especially those that issue their magazine only monthly. I feel as though this makes the magazine more personal to the reader, as well as adding my own picture to it. I had my picture taken with a green screen and had my brother send me a picture of his music mixing studio which has his music degrees hung up on the wall and then superimposed my image onto that background because it looks like a professional music magazine editor's office, to give the impression of reality, as much as I could. Also along the top of my contents page there is a series of names I had placed, one after another, as I had seen a copy of ''VIBE'' do this which briefly tells you what artists/bands will be in the magazine. Everything on my magazine, down to the content of the writing to the images are original which means I had to make up a lot of different names but I used my knowledge of this genre to my advantage and made them sound as realistic as possible.  For the ''G'' in the top left hand corner, I took inspiration from ''Q'' magazine as I thought it looks very sophisticated and could end up being a trademark in a way to gain more recognition. The main image of the female 'artist' on the right, I took with a green screen is an image that is very likely to be used as a contents page image as I see a lot of this sort in ''VIBE''.

Q1. Continued... As you can see, I have made a great amount

of changes to my contents page from the beginning of production. The boxes had

made it look extremely amateur hence why I have removed them and merged some. I also changed the formation of my page

numbers due to more research I had found magazines put the numbers in boxes and on the first line of the sentence, as opposed to the last, another convention I have followed.

I have also kept the colour scheme consistent with the front cover with

neutral/bright colours like orange, red etc. I also replaced the secondary image with a

primary one I had taken my self  as I hope it keeps it consistent with the front cover

images with the same kind of dress sense which would determine the type of audience

that would buy this magazine

Q1. Continued...Double page spread

My DPS colour scheme is of grey, reds, and white, this challenges and uses the convention of other music magazine colour schemes as a lot of R&B magazines use red more often than not as it seems to be 'their' colour as it connotates with danger and rebellion. However I have challenged this convention also as I used a lot of  different variations of grey and I haven't seen a lot of magazine also use this. I chose to do this because I feel it compliments the red writing very well and the clothes of  ''George B'' my centre image artist. It also fits in well with the 'album covers' along the side that I have also took myself and superimposed. I added my competition box in the bottom right hand corner in a blue colour as this is also another typical R&B colour, with a hint of red to add consistency. I also added a cover line down the bottom of the page which is an internet URL to ''George B's'' iTunes page which I had seen quite a few magazines do like ''Q'' and ''Seventeen''.

I put my article down one side and then the images of who I was writing about (George B) next to the article

as this is a convention I have seen in an issue of  ''NME'' magazine do so. I used this convention as I

feel it allows the magazine to look more professional and structured, given a few ammendments to my flat

plan for the DPS.I also did a album recommendations section on my

DPS as an issue of  ''Q''' did this on their DPS, I feel it adds a lot of authenticity to my magazine also the

reason it's there is people are always looking for new music, that they'll enjoy, to listen to. So adding the album art, name and a few words about the album would be enough to make them curious about the

artist/bands and hopefully open up new artists to the reader, which I feel is very helpful.

Q1. Continued...

After some feedback, I had decided to change my DPS quite a lot from my first one (in the middle of the production of it), firstly I had decided to remove all secondary images, so I

removed the picture of Trey and took my own primary images of ''George B'' using a green screen. Also initially anything I wrote about was about Trey, an already existing artist so I

made changes to make it all fictional like album names etc. Hence why I removed the ''Chapter V'' logo and replaced it

with ''Chapter 4'' which is George B's. My layout also changed drastically as I gave it a lot of thought and after research into more music magazines I realised I couldn't make the boxes look so... boxy. So I cropped around George B's body and

placed it in order to get a more realistic photo shoot effect as a lot of music magazines now do that, without a mis en scene, however I did add a mis en scene to the album covers on the side as after looking at many I felt it was necessary to keep the realism up . I kept the colours as I said I agree with the

colours I have chosen. 

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine genre is R&B. As I took most of my inspiration from ''VIBE'' magazine which is usually aimed at older teenagers, I tried to emulate this myself for my magazine. People of black ethnicity are more likely to pick up my magazine as it may appeal to them more as my magazine focuses a lot on rap artists. My social demographic of ethnic teenagers would be into what they wear a lot, and new fashion trends that their favourite artist is wearing. In regard to my research beforehand I found that my demographic are more females than males, however not that much more, more or less the same which would mean they're into the same kind of things in regard to their music tastes as rap is becoming more and more versatile and even a lot female rappers are uncovering more recently hence why my social demographic may get wider. Also when it comes to fashion, my social demographic of females would be more into their trainers, jackets and beanies. Since society is now changing a lot, so are music magazines, to fit in and get more people to buy their magazines. The dominant representation of my demographic is that they dress with gold chains, baggy jeans and a hoody. Always looking for trouble maybe, and all they know well is music. This may be true, or may not be true because what we DO know is that they can't live without their music! It's one of the biggest parts in their lives and can't go a single day without it, hence why music magazines are such a booming business. My media product represents my targeted social groups through the language, images and what it has to offer, why are teenager may buy it as opposed to a 28 year old from Windsor is all in the image. The familiar faces from their T.V programmes will gain interest, their music icons etc. This particular factor is extremely important as a lot of teenagers these days are aspiring music artists, more so now than ever as  you see so many successful people blowing up in the media, this magazine gives them hope as a lot of articles in these types of magazines are stories of how they achieved as they may as well of started off from reading the same magazine too.

Q2. continued...

Here are images of what my demographic may look like/similar to:

MALES:FEMALES:

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

For me to understand what type of distribution would be best for both me and my audience, I researched what ''VIBE'' did as it one of the most popular R&b magazines out at the moment with the most similar demographic to mine and also because I have used this magazine as an inspiration to me many times throughout the production of this music magazine. Therefore whatever institution distributes theirs, would be most likely to distribute mine. I would like my magazine to be available to purchase in stores as ''VIBE'' magazine sell their magazine in stores. This allows buyers to physically own the magazine and may feel more personal to them. Also as these types of magazines frequently advertise that there are glossy posters in their magazines which is an important factor in these magazines as the target audience are teenagers who lust over their favourite celebrities featured in the magazine. They also have a website in which can be accessed via iPod, iPhones, iPads, Mobile devices and the computer. This is something I would like my magazine to have as a method of distribution too as it touches a much wider market. Making it far more accessible to a generation where everyone uses these devices on a regular basis.

The current publisher for ''VIBE'' magazine is ''Acess Network'', they are especially associated with urban entertainment and media. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that it would be a disadvantage if I was to ask them to publish my magazine as they already publish so many that are so similar! My magazine is very much so similar to the style of Access Network, however they have already 25 websites associated which would make it that much more difficult to get mine to succeed. Although this is expected as I picked a very large part of the media, thought this doesn't degrade my magazine any less as I followed many conventions to achieve this look.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my R&B music magazine would be 16-19 year old teenage boys and girls. A mixture of cultures perhaps of black, white, Asian and biracial people. In regards to the class of people, I'd say middle class people who're studying in college/sixth form/university, as they'd most likely be students. They would listen to a range of artists from rap to soul singers and those two categories have recently combined to create one whole different genre that appeals to a more mass of people. The artists that would be in my magazine would highly appeal to the target audience because when you know a specific range of people like this one artist, it makes it easier to identify what other artist they like, either through collaborations and similarity of music. R&B music does tend to appeal more to teenagers which already this fact in itself attracts my target audience seeing as it is a R&B music magazine. The magazine also holds conventions in which are typical of what the audience would expect like posters, exclusive photoshoots etc. Also the fact that so many R&B magazines are such global hits, it shows this is exactly what they want, you must deliver this every issue. Also through customer feedback which is so easily accessed through the internet, you can alter what they like and what they don't like which gives you more of an idea of what my target audience wants. Teenagers who know their music, who want to know what are the biggest hits out at the moment, what new artists/bands that have formed, excited to enter competitions and simply who have a passion for R&B music

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract and address my audience, I had to find out what attracts them into buying a particular magazine off a shelf amongst hundreds of others. I did this by first looking online at magazines and my own magazines at what were re-occuring in magazine issues. In addition to this research, I did my own survey on www.surveymonkey.com and issued them through my social networking site (Facebook) and asked people to fill them out, I then gathered the responses and made different variations of charts and graphs on www.chartgo.com. I also interviewed the target audience to get first hand information (video is on my blog). Through all this research I had gathered I considered this all during the production of my music magazine.

Firstly it had come to my attention that the main and biggest image on the front cover is the most important. 18 out of 20 people who had done my questionnaire had said ''yes'' to buying a music magazine based purely who was on the front cover. This was enough evidence for me to enable me to focus on getting a perfect centre image. At first I had picked a secondary image of a global superstar, during my ammendments it had been recommended that I use primary images, therefore I took a picture of someone who looks like they could be one, by dressing him in suitable rap star attire and pose. The pose of George B is of him looking into a distance with arm behind him, by first glance of this image you can see a story being told, which is complimented by the pull quote going across his image, this enables the magazine to almost tell his story through the image on the front cover, thus readers feeling inclined to buy it to find out more.

Q5. Continued...

Another way I attracted my audience is through the art of name dropping. In my double page spread there is an article on star ''George B'', from my research I have found out that my demographic especially are hooked onto names they see in the magazine, any familiar names they see or have heard of is something that would make them buy the magazine, therefore in my DPS I added big time celebrities stating that George B has worked with them or will, this enables the audience to develop an interest in MY magazine. Now to address my audience I used the style of language that would relate to them, a style in which they would understand, this was an easy task for me to do seeing as I actually am my demographic of audience. I talked formally yet adding bits of slang/colloquialisms they would understand, this way the magazine stays sophisticated yet urban. Also on the contents page, along the top I put a banner of 'celebrity' names as ''VIBE'' does this pretty often, almost as a hook.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the process of constructing this product I feel as though I've learnt more about technology than I ever have. When I first started this course I only knew the absolute basics of Microsoft Office and I had absolutely no idea how to use Photoshop. Not only have I developed skills on Photoshop, but other software too like Fireworks, in Design etc. When I first opened up Photoshop, which is what I mainly used to construct my music magazine, I couldn't even open up a blank canvas, in my first lesson I was extremely nervous and thought I'd never get the hang of it. Eventually I did. After much practice and trial and error I can finally create and edit in Photoshop. Now I can help people! I had some difficulty in cropping images (around a body for example) and after looking on YouTube at tutorials and help from class mates, I eventually ended up cropping all my images by self in less than a couple of hours, after many attempts. On Photoshop I have learnt so many new things, a few of them are how to fade images, add different types of fonts of a website called ''DaFonts'' and also I learnt all about what ''Layer'' means and how helpful they can be when creating a complicated piece of work. I also learnt techniques in making things such as images look more professional with the help of the rubber/fade tool. I also used many other websites to help organise my blog and work. For example to help complete my evaluation I used ''Snaggy'' a website which allows you to copy and paste images to instantly crop and save and then insert, this was extremely helpful as it allowed me to instantly put in images of what I was talking about in my previous slides. Also organising my work with the help of Microsoft Word and the ability to email work has helped my construction of my product as it has made it really accessible anywhere. All this technology combined has enabled me to create great pieces of work, and along the way allowed me to gain such precious experience in technology that I may need in the future, experience that would put me ahead of others, thanks to this piece of work.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My preliminary task at the

beginning of the year. We were asked to make a

school magazine

cover using the

knowledge we have of editing and producing now and a camera.

My final front cover, contents

page and double page spread

Q7. Continued...

Looking back at my initial task, I have realised I've come a very long way. My preliminary task is the epitome of  basic. I used Microsoft Word as I has already said that I literally had zero knowledge in editing and creating using that sort of software like Photoshop and in design. There is no structure or actual thought put into it, as I didn't have the first clue about a magazine. It doesn't look at all like a magazine, all I did was  big writing and a primary image I took of students at my school. Because that was all I knew at the time really. However I have evidently learnt so many new things, the list doesn't stop. My progression is immense as my final products aren't perfect but they are hundred percent more authentic than my preliminary task, from the content to the structure. After much research I have learnt what music magazines must entail and my own ideas of what music magazines could include. I have realised images are one of the biggest factors music magazines producers must think about, if the image isn't right, the magazine isn't right. After many trials and tribulations with my transition from secondary images to primary images I can now understand why they are so important, the foundations of these magazines are the correct looking images, you can always tell when a image doesn't belong, and this is why I dressed my 'artists' in what they are wearing, for example the girl band all have different styles which enables them to have different types of personalities and characteristics that other females can relate to. I also had to think about my audience, attracting the audience, what my DPS would be about, all these details down to the page numbers. Before this I had no idea about how much thought and production and research goes into a music magazine as I learnt through making surveys and interviews. When creating my R&B music magazine, I had realised there is already so many different ones already, how could I challenge codes and conventions without altering it too much till it becomes not even part of a genre, initially I thought I could do this with ease, then eventually when it came down to it, it proved to be extremely 

Q7. Continued...

difficult. However I think I have done the best I could I have given my lack of knowledge to begin with, although I have most definitely learnt plenty on the way of construction. In Photoshop there are many tools which enable you to give off the impression you know what you're doing (even though I really did at one point), for example the blur tool which I used in some of my images (album covers) to give off a professional effect. 

Overall I am very satisfied with the production of my magazine, I think the organisation, research and construction of the magazine had paid off as I have learnt so much in the process, and the progression I made from the preliminary task is unimaginable. 

Farzana Ahmed