Evaluation

In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?



I have decided to make my magazine both challenges’ and uses conventions and features of existing magazines, I decided this because it will make my magazine unique in the way that it doesn’t completely follow the style and features of common music magazines. As you look in my front cover you can see that I have a big and bold title ‘stereo’ the colours make it stand out and the font style is very distinctive and whenever is seen it can be related to my magazine which therefore means that here I have decided to follow common magazine style by using titles of magazines which stand out to the readers. The name of the magazine is very unique and is very easy to remember, stereo is music related as music comes from stereos therefore making it suit the type of magazine. Some magazines use this however certain magazines have names which do not necessarily go with the type of magazine e.g. the magazine ‘ wallpaper’ which has nothing to do with wallpapers. Another feature included on my front page is one which is very common in magazines in general. They always use a central to image will attract the reader to purchase the magazine this is why I made sure that my image suits the style of the magazine as it has a young pretty girl at the front which suits the type of audience I was aiming for.



However I believe that the images used of professional music magazines are a lot better quality than mine, this is a disadvantage to my magazine as if I had a better camera I could achieve the quality of images used on every day magazines.
Other features which I definitely know music magazines use everyday from when I analysed them are: - The sell lines are very clear and represent what’s inside the magazine. While the anchorage text is very clear on what the main article will be about, the word exclusive is a buzz word and therefore grabs the reader’s attention to the magazine and makes them want to buy the magazine. My magazine also has a bar code which is used everyday on music magazines all over the world and a slogan ‘turn it up’ which goes with the magazines name of stereo, telling the reader to turn up their stereo to make loud music. Like most music magazines my magazine offers a freebie with it, the two free posters and the free concert tickets these makes the reader feel like the magazine is good value for money they are gaining other benefits. In some cases some people may buy the magazine just for their freebies therefore I have used the best freebies I can. The main colours on my magazine are very bright and make the magazine stand out from the rest and I tried to keep the colours used on the cover to a minimum of four colours so that the magazine has a house style. In my contents tried to keep a similar house style so that it goes well with the front cover. The contents page has a similar layout used by magazines which is having all the page numbers on the left side and then the content of them on the other. However some magazines do not use images on their contents. As I think the images make it more interesting and fun to look at I have included some. I have noticed that some magazines also use an editor’s note on their contents, therefore I thought it would also be good to have one, this promotes the magazine more as it includes words like magazine of the year ect. The content of my magazine could be a lot more representative to a wider range of genres, this would make it appeal to a wider range of audiences, Some magazines do this to maximise readers who purchase the magazine however most often stick to only a few amount of genres that’s why I made sure I used quiet a few which are fairly similar. In my article I have tried to keep it very similar to those seen in real music magazines as I had analysed lots of them therefore I got the idea and found it easier to just keep to their style, their style is very unique as they always make the article look like an exclusive and they always use quotes which look interesting and make the reader want to read it. As well as this they always use lots of interesting pictures. The audiences also seem to enjoy it as 100% thought the article was good when asked in the poll ‘did you enjoy my article?’


How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?



My magazine represents a modern urban youth culture which consists of a multicultural social group through the genre of music and the artists of these genres. This means that the artists represent the type of audience they appeal to. This is mainly black and other ethnic minorities like Latinos and Asians. The ethnic groups that the magazine attracts are due to the genres of music that my magazine includes. This includes hip hop and rnb which are both mainly black music as the artists are mainly black and the music is listened by most of the black society. This does not mean that only black people will buy my magazine as rnb and hip hop has become more mainstream throughout the years and now they can relate and appeal to most cultures. This means that these types of music are very popular and modern. In my article there is certain slang that is informal and used by teenagers of these social groups would probably understand like ‘wanna’ , ‘gonna’ these are slang or shortened words of other words which make the magazine more informal. In my magazine I tried to represent these social groups in a positive way, I used artist who don’t use violence and most of them promote work ethic for example in my article I decide to use a female artist who was very attractive but I contrasted her by making her very career orientated and smart. She also gives some advice to teenagers on how working hard can make their dreams come true.


Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

The target audience for this specific magazine that I am creating is young teenage girls this is because I am a teenage girl and therefore it will be easier for me to make it relate to the magazine as I will put things on the magazine that I know if I saw on a magazine I would want to buy it. The magazine should appeal to multicultural social groups but mainly ethnic minority groups as the genre of music I used is hip hop and rnb music, genres that have artists who come from an ethnic minority background. The age ranging between 15 and 18, I chose to do this particular group because I have come to the conclusion from my questionnaire that they are the type of people that regular buy magazines. The people who buy my magazine will be interested in music downloading, purchasing music and DVDs. They will enjoy going to concerts and to the cinema but most of all they will love celebrity gossip and reading magazines.



How did you attract/address your target audience?



I have decided to use things which most magazines use to attract readers, this are: - eye catching image, good title which is easy to remember and relates to the genre of the magazine, colours that stand out, buzz words and anchorage text. First of all as you can see the girl at the front is looking straight at the camera therefore making eye contact with the reader making them want to purchase the magazine. The direct mode of address used by the central image suggests that she wants a close and intimate relationship with the reader as she is posing in a seductive way. As this is meant to be ‘Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls’ she is very popular and she is considered a sex symbol therefore she is used to sell the magazine especially as she can relate to the genre and type of audience of the magazine. The central image of the girl can also be an inspiration for young girls who want to look like her and be like her. Either her fans that want to know more about her will buy it or people who find her interesting. The title of the magazine stands out and the colours are very bright. I used pink and yellow which are colours that contrast each other but are also colours which girls love and are therefore very girly colours. The anchorage text says ‘exclusive’ which make the reader think that inside there is some exclusive gossip on the artist. I also tried to attract the reader by using buzz words like ‘exclusive, revealed, win and free’ which made it more appealing to the reader. All the teenagers asked in the questionnaire said that they would like the contents page to have lots of images; therefore I used this in my magazine. On the front cover of MUSIC magazines, the majority of the people I asked said that the title and the centre image on the front cover interests them more and attracts them to purchase the magazine. The others had said that the price, text and the colours interests them more. Therefore we can conclude that the image is the most important aspect of music magazines that is why I spent so much time on it.



What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

If I had to choose a company to publish my magazine I would chose the company Bauer media because it’s the second biggest magazine publishers in the UK and they publish music magazines. They also publish heat which shares a proportion of the readership with my magazine.. The say they have audiences that are ‘music-lovers’, ‘women aged 16-35’ ‘music-lovers,’ ‘Music is an important passion’. My magazine can be sold anywhere from paper shops to such large corporations as HMV because it doesn’t contains any inappropriate language or imagery. Also it would be easy and wise to publicises my magazine via a website as it would increase interest and also publicises it on social networking sites as the majority of my target audience use this area so would increase profit and success.


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your music magazine?



Through the production of my magazine I have learnt a lot of new things, first of all I had never made a magazine and I wasn’t a very good photographer this meant I had to learn how to take images that can be used in professional magazines. In order to do this I enlisted the help of my teachers who taught me lighting techniques and angles to use when taking pictures. This helped me develop my photographic skills and I had to think about other factors like props, costumes ECT as I wanted my magazine to look very presentable and professional. Another technique I had to learn was how to manipulate images using Photoshop software packages; I learnt how to use the effects, the magic wand to make my look professional. Photo shopping was very difficult as the amount of things I could do on adobe photo shop was limited as I found the programme quite technical and therefore very hard to understand. After the photographic process, I needed to learn how to use adobe illustrator which I had never used before. It took me a while but I finally learnt how to make the text in the article go in to separate columns, I also had to learn how to make certain shapes to create a magazine similar to them at the shops, like how to make the stars, the rectangles ect. When creating my article I also learnt how to make the images transparent and make the article look professional. During the process of making the blog in which to publish my media work, I developed my blogging skills as that was my first ever blog. The website used (blogspot.com) was very confusing at first but as I got on with it I learnt how to change the colour and layout of the page, how to upload images, which at first was very hard. The polls also helped me to gain audience feedback and helped me improved my work as I found out what the audience liked and didn’t like on my magazine. For example when I uploaded my first draft of my article 50% of the people who took the poll didn’t like it therefore I made it better. Each time I tried to upload an image there was an error so I had to upload the images on another website and then just use that URL on my blog. Eventually I learnt that there was a problem between the computer I was using and the website so I just uploaded the images to my blog from another website. It was all worth it as 62 % of people who took my poll’ what do you think of my media portfolio?’ said they thought it was excellent


What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from creating the school magazine (preliminary task), to creating your music magazine?





There is a big difference between the making of the school magazine and the making of my music magazine. This is due to the different types of magazines they are, one is a college Magazine while the other is a music magazine which means the content is very different. The types of audience and the type of language used are both very different as well. I found the preliminary task a lot easier than making the music magazine as it didn’t involve as much work. This is because the music magazine was a more creative magazine; I had to experiment with colours, fonts, backgrounds and images. I also learnt a few things which helped me when I started my real magazine. First of all I didn’t know how to use the program adobe publisher so therefore I struggled to start my magazine of. Then I didn’t even know how to take pictures with the camera provided which meant I had to ask people for help. Then I had to learn how to upload the images and edit them on the computer. After finding this out, I then had to learn how to use adobe Photoshop which was very difficult and confusing. But I had o learn the hard way, it was a good experience which helped me to develop my skills and I’m glad I did it as 75% of people who took my poll ‘do you like my mag?’ said yes.