Music Magazine Evaluation

Media Studies Coursework Evaluation

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The brief for our media coursework was to produce the front cover, contents page and a double page spread for an up and coming music magazine. The magazine had to feature at least four original images provided by us. This was given after our preliminary task of creating a cover page for a college magazine. To begin the planning of the magazine, we had to understand the conventions of magazines, therefore we had to do an analysis of; three front covers, three contents pages and three double page spreads all taken from mainstream music magazines such as NME and Rolling Stones. This allowed us to look at the main features of music magazines and how the conventions fitted together. Using this we could decide on the conventions we could apply to our own magazines. The basic conventions that we could apply to our magazines were things such as; Mast heads (the name of the magazine), magazines logo (this is to signify what magazine the audience is reading), sell line (a headline which would grab the readers attention, therefore selling itself), A main image (the image would have to be eye catching, but also allow the representation of not only the artist but of the magazines presented to the audience), cover lines (topics within the magazine, which would interest the reader into buying the magazine) the more obvious conventions are things such as, date line and price of magazine. These are the main features of a music magazine, on the other hand there were other types of conventions we could use such as; screamers (theses are headlines in which they have emphasis on the topic there are advertising) and flashes (these are items of interest provided in small format within the magazine an example of this is a offer of free music presented in the format of a sticker in the corner of a magazine cover).

Once I had done my analysis of the magazine conventions I could then begin my research and planning of my own magazine. I first had to decide on the genre of music I wanted to base my magazine around, I began by looking at the mainstream music magazines and looking at their own genres on how they represent the ideology back to the audience, who would mainly student ideologies (life style, music type, fashion sense) I wanted my magazine to represent their music along side their lifestyle (Students). I mainly focused on NME, Rolling Stones and Q magazine. Whilst looking at the magazines they all seemed to had a common theme, this was they all seemed to focus on the most popular artists around such as; Lady Gaga to Kings of Leon, but didn’t really focus on a specific genre of music. Furthermore I wanted to focus on a specific genre of music for my magazine. This then led to the decision to look at the genre of music I enjoy. I decided to focus my magazine of Electro Pop music, whilst doing this I looked at the kind of artists that fall in to the genre of Electro Pop. Artist such as; Lady Gaga, Little Boots, and La Roux. One common occurrence the genre’s mainstream artists seemed to be female., I took this into account and decided that my main model for my magazine would be a female artist in a dominate stance representing how most of the artists of this genre are female, therefore giving the connotation of women owing the music scene. Once I knew the type of genre I would use for the magazine, I would then be able to research the target audience my magazine would be aimed. As the genre of music was quite modern and up to date, this meant I could rule out the types of audience based on age, such as the elderly and older range of adults. However this aided me as I was then able to focus on the younger audience, this brought me to the conclusion that my target audience of teenagers and young adults. On the other hand this brought problems with the pricing of my magazine, as the magazine was only focused/based on one specific genre, then it would only appeal to a small minority of the population. Furthermore this would mean that the price would have to be more then the average magazine. On the other hand this would mean that the audience my magazine is aimed at (mainly students of colleges/ universities) may not be able to afford the magazine. However this problem was resolved as I broadened the target audience to a bigger range such as students whom have just got their first jobs, whilst still keeping the audience of students still in education. I also looked at the type of merchandising the genre of music would be involved in this again would help to create an image of the audience type. I then had to look at who would distribute my product (institutions of magazines) I thought that because my magazine focuses on one specific type of music that the magazine would rely on the music to sell it.

To create my magazine, I used the ideas taken from my planning and research such as the role of women in the genre of Electro Pop, this then allowed my to base the magazine around this. My first thought was to look at the representation of the genre of Electro Pop, the type of music is mainly fast paced, loud and high pitched and also mainly dance. This then gave me the idea to use the representation on energy within the development of the product. I also wanted to use the idea of women being the main focus of Electro Pop. With these taken into a account I began to develop a magazine in which women are the main focus through dominance over the music scene , whilst at the same time giving the magazine the representation of energy and excitement. This then led me to create the name Pulse for my magazine, it was created with the use of electrical imagery (due to the genre of music) but also the medical use of the word pulse to create the image of fast paced energy created by the music. I began by taking my photos for the magazine, I initially had my models in a shared frame (such as, a band), However I then decided that my female model would be the dominant model in the photo , therefore I had her hold the power over the male model. This helped to create the representation of female domination for my main image. I then began taking the photos for my product, whilst doing this I decided that my model would wear, a black silk dress, giving the connotation of darkness and mystery within the artists persona. I used shots such as low angle shots to help create the connotation of dominance, however when taking the image of the artist on her own I made sure that she showed attitude within her character. Once all the pictures had been taken I then started to create the product, I did this on Photoshop, however when developing my double page spread I used Publisher. With using Photoshop for my preliminary task I learnt a few simple methods I could apply to this task, however as we had to create more and this task was a lot more serious, therefore I had to learn how to do much more on Photoshop, an example of this would be the use of placing items such as my lightning bolt onto the sections of the magazine, this then meant I had to use the Magic Wand tool to select and delete the items I didn’t need from the image. I also had to learn the technique of creating images in Fireworks, then importing then into my Photoshop documents, this again meant I had edit the white background the images came with using Magic Wand.

When creating the actual products using the conventions, I also had to apply the genre of music to the look of the magazine. Therefore when creating the color scheme for my magazine I decided on using contrasting colors, the main being black, I used the colors of green, red and blue to contrast with he black giving a effect of a black background with these glow in the dark in colors (much like a nightclub effect of darkness and vibrant colored lights), when I did my audience feed back I asked if the color scheme of worked well when representing not only the genre of music but also the type of coloring of a nightclub, which may be attractive to my audience, 75% of my sample agreed saying it worked well as it reminded them of neon colors in a dark room. The other 25% said that the colors could have been brighter (e.g. pastel), therefore giving the magazine a more electro look. When applying the conventions to my magazine, I wanted to make sure that they followed the theme I was creating fro my magazine, therefore I decided to use the concept of bright colors again. My mast head (Pulse) I used a spray paint effect on the text, therefore creating the concept of the ideology of my audience (young adults). I then made sure that the text on my mast head fitted with the concept of electro pop. I made the coloring bright vibrant colors; green, blue, red and yellow. This would also follow the theme of electro/energy. For the logo of my magazine I decided that the logo would be a lightning bolt therefore continuing the theme of electro pop as a metaphor for the reference to energy.. Again when asking my audience about the logo and the masthead 100% (a sample of 20 people who I showed my blog to) of my audience gave me positive feedback that the use of the coloring and style of the logo and masthead works affectively when its representing a electro magazine. The second type of convention I used was my main images within the magazine, I tried to create a sense of power with the female model. I also tried to change then font and color to match the genre of music and appeal to the audience again by using bright colors especially on my cover lines, this would draw the attention on the audience. I also did the same with my main cover line. 50% of my sample said this was effective however it would look better . I also used things like a flash on my double page spread to offer the reader to win a copy of the artist album, this stood out as it was in a bright green color. When asked about the effectiveness of the flash, the audience said that it worked well as it caught the readers attention, but all matched the text within the interview.

To conclude, looking at the feedback from the sample of the audience I asked, the magazine does represent the audience but it also represents the genre of electro pop. Looking at the positives and negatives of creating the product and carrying out the research for the magazine, then I would have to look at the way in which I carried out the research, and how I applied my findings to the magazine. On the other hand the way in which I applied the genre of Electro Pop with the use of color and text on the magazine , it seemed to work well according to the audience. Furthermore if I could do the magazine again, then I would have taken the pictures with different costumes and in different settings therefore there would be variation in the type of context the artist is represented to the audience. Also I would have changed the way in which I organized my research meaning I could then break down the way in which I constructed my magazine, based on the ideology of the audience. Another point to add was the change in skills from my preliminary task to my final product and the use of technological skills learnt. Firstly from the preliminary task I learnt how to correct my images using Photoshop, but also learnt how to take the images properly to allow better representation shown to the audience.