The muisc genre of my magazine

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

How did you attract/ adress the audience for your music publication?

In constructing my magazine I had to aim to attract my target audicne, for my magazine to be successful, therefore, I did this  by the use of my masthead "nutorious" this gave a direct link into the famouse natorious big and would infer its a hiphop magazine. Secondly, the word nutorious is also infered to America and ganster life, which my magazine is based around. As well the large eye catching central  image also is a main aspect of my magazine that draws the reader in; for example, the props attract the audince by the use of guns and links with money and hiphop. The lures also work in the same way as the reader is interested in the celebs which attracts them to my magazine. Finally, the use of colours plays an important role in attracting an audicne for example pink steriptypically attracts girls; therefore, I used reds and grey which are complimenting colours and also represent indicate danger, blood, violence and anger whcih goes with the life style of my magzine, hiphop and American life.
On the other hand, I adressed my audience by including information they want like celebrities and how to gain muscle. I also adressed my audience through the use of colour, images and text. The use of colour adressed my audience as its colours there intom expect to see and are able to infer tha t colours like red show hiphop. Secondly, the image adresses the reader as the image is steriotypically hiphop, like 50 cent. The props used in the image adress the reader as it gives the reader what it wants to see and read about. Finally, the use of text adresses the reader as its simple text that has meaning about hiphop as its bold, strong and powerful.

http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/

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

My music magazine uses some forms and conventions, which are symbolic with many typical magazines. For example,  masthead, lures, tag line, cover line, date, issue bar code, large central image, props. This was because from my research my magazine had to have these conventions. I also used a traditional layout of a contents page with writing down the side. My magazine is hip-hop genre therefore have used vibe as an example because it is a mainstream hip-hop magazine.

Vibe uses bold capital letters, which is symbolic of the genre. The colors used are reds, grey and blacks. This is because they are popular contemporary colors. As well as using street iconography makes it market friendly  and connotes the target audience.

My masthead connotes the music genre as hip-hop uses street iconography and colloquial language. It's a large bold font which symbolizes this by using a hip-hop theme. My main image anchors the masthead. I used vibe as a template for ,y music magazine as it represented a close audience.



I developed the use of lures with muscle building, this is because it more about the target audience. I didn't challenge any codes or convantions as I based my magazine around what was in other magazines as they seemed to be doing well and so therefore didn't improve any conventions just related them to a more teenage audience,.

How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

In my main image a young male is portrayed in stereotypical hip-hop cloths and a hoodie this is the main protagonist.  The main image anchors this as the protaganist is standing in front a grey background. The protagonist is representing the social group associated with hip-hop because hip-hop is American and cool.

 The clothing is loud and intimidating which combines traditional youth culture and a more mature look. In comparison with vibe a real hip-hop music magazine my magazine uses the loud and stereotypical, American look used by their main protaganist.

This appeals to the target audience because it popularises youth culture which they can identify with. The main protaganist is of African British/American.


http://www.neweracap.com/Locator.aspx

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of construting this product?

  I found using pages challenging, useful and interesting because it was a software I have never used, plus it was useful as it created my contents page. Finally, it was interesting as you could put borders around images and free move aspects of my magazine.  one disadvantage was that it didn't have many tools like photoshop; however two advantages was that it was easy to use and made my magazine with a professional look.

Using photoshop was great because it allowed me to experience tools and effect that I didn't think possible;  for example, I used photoshop to create my front cover as it allowed me to change my image and position of text. I t also allowed me to color of my text. The layers were really good and useful as it allowed me to lap text and images. This was an easy to use as it was just drag and drop.

Looking back at your preliminary task, of designing the front page of a school magazine, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Form looking back at my preliminary task, of designing the front page of a school magazine, I feel I have  developed my ability in photoshop and pages; for example how to use an effect on an image and constructing the layout of my contence page and a double page spread.


I also have leanr skills for lifel such as that planing for a long period of time is better then an image in your mind as you are able to develop the ideas and conventions. In additon, I hhave learnt that everything that is put on a magazine is for a reseaon. Finally, I have learnt that its possible to produce a music magazine with a contence page and a double page spread.


I was more confident about the codes and conventions after completing my preliminary task because I got to learn what went on a magazine and what it represented. In my task I faced problems like the positioning of all the elements to make it look professional. If I was to redo my main task I think I would improve it, I first would plan more as planning is key for a good magazine. 


In the production process I faced a few problems such as positioning, I wanted my product to look professional and be able to challenge the magazine I was researching codes and conventions. I tried out various positons for my conventions, but after looking at the source's front page I fealt I had chose the right position for it. 

Who would be the audience of your magazine?

The similarities between the online and print base format (mixmag)

The similarities between  the online and print base magazine, is that the masthead is the same; a;so the pictures have the same effect of being holographic. However, the mian difference is that the online format offers pod cast and the advertismement. The colous are similare in greay and oranges.

However, the online format offeres a lot more color; like yellows, blues and oicks rather then black. In addition, the layout for the print base is very simple to where the online is always changing and informative.

http://www.mixmag.net/

Metal Hammer

On adverage 2 hours reading a week
83% by albums
86% use web for information
38% go and see live bands
17% play in a band
41% play a guitar

NME Research

In the last 12 months NME readers bought in adverage

45 CD singles- 135 each reader
39 CD albums- 430 for every reader
55% buy most of thier music for a major msuic cgain
46% specilist record shop
15 tracks download in last month
18 albums burned to computer

GIGS AND EVENTS
91% go to gigs
2 gigs per month
48% have been on an NME gig
Atleast 1 featival a month

semiotocs in the music cover

The main iconic feature on the magzine (kerrange) is the guitar, this is because it has phyiscal similarities to the object in which it implys a rock/ indy gener. In additon the props of drums also link the magazine to a rockish magazine. Furthermore, the tattoos show the rock theme through indexical, which is a direct connection to the genre. As well the black cloths show the rock and dark theme through both iconic and indexical features.

More importnat, the couple singing also enhances the msuic theme by the steriptipical iconic symbole. However, words like green are idexical. Finally, the word symbolic is used a little amount as the magaizne wants to inform not make the reader guess. An example, is Roy which is scrolled on the NME masthead like a signitire; consequently, it has no obvious connection.

Strapline

The main concept of a strapline was to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of my magazine, whereas, also fitting in with my masthead. Therefore, I caim up with examples like exclsuive interview witth drake. However I chose "How to get muscle fast" as it fitted into the likes and the hobbies of my target audince in that they care about the figure and are interested in going to the gym and wanting tips.

Therefore, I went for a constist colour of black with a the same font as most of the text, this was because it was equally important and looked the best. The position was down the left side with the lurs and the heading this was a tipcal music magazine conventio.

Who, What, Where, Why for my main image

My main image was of my largest friend as hes figure reprosented the target audience of 16-19. I also wanyed to  portray the image of hiphop and the street. Therefore, I used many props to show the corrolation between my image and a hiphip magazine: I used a gun, red bandanner, a hat, breifcase, glasses, large jacket and chains. These are all icons that I would expect a steriotypical hiphop artist to have from the reserch I had found. However, I personalised it by putting all the props into one image, this have it a dfferent take and looked effective in making my magazine look like a music magazine, which was the most impertnat thing I took in taking the picture.

As well my image was taken on a grey backdrop as I wanted all the attention to be on the actor and the props. Also in my research I found that they used a backdrop not a setting. For the lighjting I didnt realy use any because I wanted a dark theme and I had used light in other shots but it didnt look as good so I decided to use no obvious lighting.

Articles in my magazine

The artical that I wanted on my double page spreed was one that showed off and promoted my new artist, while also talking abou the mercury prize award. I compared my artist to the likes of Eminem as he is well nown in hiphop and well loved this would almost be a lure.

The

Mercury

Prize

 Debate

VIBE’S Michael Legs asks whether the prestigious award really goes to the ‘album of the year’

There couldn’t have been a more perfect beginning to the brand new artist of 2010: Mastiff a former street singer as taken the UK and hip-hop by storm, by his impressive new tracks that shot straight to number on in the UK charts obliterating everyone in its path and heralding a new era of music with its impresario spectacular style.    

After winning the award, with their original album ‘xxx’, which has taken hip-hop by storm!  The Eminem sound-alike puts a new futuristic twist on what was hip-hop; but has formed it into a widespread audience of street kids to office workers.

Since last year’s winner’s Debbelle won and failed to gain any success, the mercury judge’s methods of choosing a winner have evoked cynicism. However, this brand new band has evolved music and there was no mistake about the victor.

The history of the award itself dates back to 1992. It was set up to challenge the more commercially oriented BRIT awards. Its main aim is to promote the best of the best and by no means have they failed this year.

With their recent success they have booked gigs all across London in clubs, raves and underground. They have already been in talks with performing and creating music with the likes of N-dubz, professor green, and Mr Hudson. 2011 will be madness and a year that will change our lives.  With this said they are still without a full time label and have been in talks with some of the biggest names in music.

“The question is... Will they be the number one ‘album of the year” as the X-factor has widely attracted public with their large funds and TV channel. It’s time for the best to stand up and speak the musical truth.

The 22^nd century is likely to follow in the footsteps of Dizzee Rascal. As he too was a fellow award winner and has now become one of the most notorious faces in the business and even the world. However, many people have quoted that “They will be better than any band or person” to step up to the mike.

In an interview with online magazine, ‘vibe’, one of last year’s judges Mike Webber admitted that there were no fixed criteria for the album to be shortlisted.

               

Let’s hope that this year’s winners will prove that we still have something to be proud of in British music.

Advergae price of magazines aimed at a similare audience

VIBE 4.99
HIPHOP 3.99
SLAM 4.99
MEN'S HEALTH 4.99

From this we can see that hiphop magazines are more expensive then other genres like NME at 2.50. This mean that I would be able to price my magazine at the high end of the market between 4-5 pounds.

Coverline

I wanted to use a coverline as it would promote and make my magazine look good, sound good and also was a key concept in my research. I had ideas like "the worlds most sold hiphop magazine" and "the best hiphop magazine, ever". I went with the first  one because it was a fact and not an opinion showing its more reliable. I used the colour red as it stands out a key concept of my magazine. Whereas the font dtayed the same, but the size was decresed. The positioing at the top made it more noticable and used the troditonal conventions of music magazines.

Lures

My lures need o attract the reader into reading further into my magazine. Therefore, I wanted celebrities like 50 cent, Eminem, TI and other hip-hop artists as this was a key concept in my research into what people want. I agaain used the same font, colour to keep a consisatnce; however, i incereased the size of the text. This was because I wanted to lur the audince in for far away, plus it was another convention used in other magazines.

What I did in the first day of production

In my first lesson in designing and producing my music front cover. I first uploaded a picture in to photoshop. Then I used the effects to manipulate my image. I used a border effect where it darkened the edges of my picture to create focus on the image. This was successful as I draw attention to my image and added a more proffesional edge to my image. Next I typed up all my text including my masthead, lures, date and headlines. I first used all the same font but I changed the colour, the size and the font of some texts as some where nore importnat then others. I then possitioned the text to suit the image an dot look like a music magazine. 

Uses and gratifications

In learning about music press we also learnt uses and gratifications. It allows use to digest and understand a wide rabge of communication:  an audience for a magazine.  I watch deal or no deal, a program on channel 4, because its entertaining and always differnt. It also gives great conversations with my friends and is a diversion to school work.

There are 4 main reasons we consume media, the audience have a set of needs which the media meets in one form or another.

1. Diversion - A form of escape or release from every-day presures: music, film, T.V or video games.

2. Personal Companionship - Through identification with T.V characters and sociability through discussion about T.V with other people: deal or no deal gives me something to talk about with  my friends about what happened in the last game.
3. Personal Identity - The ability to compare ones life with the characters and situations portrayed and explore individual problems and perspective e.g comparing your own life with people less fortunate.


4. Surveillance - Information about what is going on in the world:  magazine showing the latest news and gossip across the world.

Headlines

I wanted the perfect headline for my magazine, as I wanted it to be cleaver, informative, appeal to my target audince and link ito my genre, artist and article . Therefore, I came up with many ideas of like shocked as Eminem says no more! However, I didn't use a celebrity as my magazine was promoting my artist therefore it was mastiff comes clear abouit success. This was good because it linked in with my article and the front cover image. It also was short and simple as in my research most magazine kept it short and direct and this is a personal thing I look for in a magazine.

research into stapline

'DEATH ROW: THE STRORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST FEARED LABEL' is this magazines strapline. The strapline gives additional information in the magazine and main article. This is a good one because it gives information in to the artcle inside.

masthead research

kerrang is a rock/heavy metal magazine. Therefoe, the target audience are people who have a keen interest in heavy rock metal music. The magazine reaches its target audience by giving news on events, bands and new releases.

kerrang uses demographics to lure gender, of which  60% are males and  40% are females which means the magazine needs to meet the demands of a very mixed gendered audience of boys and girls. kerrang uses sychographics to find people who aspire to be respected among other people and people who wish to have a high paid jobs. From studying and applying these 2 important conventions the publication successfully find its wanted target audience because its appeals to certain peoples lifestyles and there aspirations.

code and conventions

On an average of uncut reader:  £47 a  month on CD’s,  £21 on DVD’s, £23 on concerts/live events, £14 on cinema tickets and £8.50 on downloads.

'Uncut' is a magazine that focuses on exploring film and music in terms of convention by attracting middle aged male with a dominated audience of ‘96% male’ with an average age of 41. From the analysis I gained that the majority 82% were in full time enployment; this shows that there could be a increase in luxeruy items.  We receive information that 79% of readers say it is important to keep up to date with the latest music. Therfore, its a good idea to have a week by week magazine to keep in with the salesd and to promot that lastest news. Fianlly, form this magazin around 100% of readers are passionate about music in one way ofr another and that  almst 50% of readers go to the cinema at least once a month.

The font for my final production

I wanted to use a 'playbill' as my final font this was because it was big and bold, while also being west-on. It used many fonts like 'bleeding cowboy' and 'stencil' but playbill look the most professional and suited my image the best while also portraying the image of guns.

Research into the double page spreads

The double page spread has a 3 images to 4 paragraphs, so there is a good amount of images. The heading is large and in capitals. The 4 paragraphs are spaced apart and are also in red, this is because it blends of black and red is representational color to hip-hop. The lack of writing shows that the audience is not that keen into reading and would like the information to be simple and direct.

Research into in to contents pages

This is a contents page from Mojo. I used this type of magazine as I  wanted my magazine to look and have a similar effect. This was important to analyze a contents page because it gave me information about code and convention. Therefore, this contents page has its main masthead on the top, it is large shows a consistency between the front cover and the and contents page. Also like most contnce pages they uses images to show whats in the magaizne not just words. This is importnat as it breaks down the writting with a balance. What's more is that some words have used bold, this shows the more inportnat text. The text is simple ans clear, this gives a relxed easy to read feel. Finally this contnce page uses red and balcks to shows the bino effect and the corrilatiob between the magazine and 'Denis the Menice'. As a result, we know that the target audicne has some interaction with cartoons and there childish side.

Research into in to front covers

To create a magazine front cover I first had to look and research other front cover. Therefore, the masthead on this magazine has large and bold text to catch the eye of the reader. Also it uses the colour red connotes passion and male dominance.

The main image is of a famous riphop/r'n'b performer. This shows they type of genre of the magazine while also luring in readers with his large presnts of his face. The props that are used are galsses and a hat. More inportantly, the image is in balc and white, which draws notice to his white shirt. For this we could infer success and him being a white colour. Both the glasses and hat show hes smart and inteligant.
As well the magazine front cover has lures and a information like barcode,date and issue. This is importnat as information like the date and issue give the magazine its indpendance.  Also the consumer wants this, therefore it must be needed. What's more is that lurs are also inportant as it attract the reader to buy it and to read it. It also gives a little insite into the genere and whats to find in this type of magazine. For example, a lure talking about TI shows its hiphop/r'n'b, as a result, would not suit a perosn wanting information based on pop.

What functions does the music press have on the music industry

The music industry sells compositions, recordings and performances of music. As a result, the music press advertise and promots the performers and labels. Therefore, the music press plays a big part in the sales of aslbums and the money and fame of the music industy. This is because people look in to the music press tro find out about the music industy. More importnatly, the music industy fight for the better magazines that fit there intended audience; for example, pop and top of the pops.

Intorduction into the music press

The music press is a weekly by weekly or monthly by monthly magazine that shows off all types of music. These include magazine like NME, VIBE, TOP OF THE POPS and many more. Therefore, all the magazines on offer to the public through print based and online formats have different audience. For example, top of the pops has an audience of 10-15; whereas, nme has older audience of 17-22.

The music press also uses many types of media; for instance, advertising and journalist. Therefore, when creatimg my magazine I will have to learn these conventions and replicte them into my productiom.

Prelim task

Before I constructed my main music magazine, I had to create a preliminary magazine based upon my school as an arts collage. The reason for thye preliminary task was to trial test the production of a magazine. Therefore, I approched it in a way of a plan, this included me familiarising my self with photoshop, photography and designing.

MixMag official magazine

Vibe official magazine

ministry of sound official magazine

Introduction to me and my task

Hi,

My name is Page Cook and I am currently studying media at a-level. Therefore, I am creating a blogger to share and present my work. The main aim for my course work it to produce a magazine; it will consist of a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. To achieve the best mark I will show my research and planning in to my prelim task and the final production of my magazine. Finally, I will also evaluate my work and my thoughts throughout.

To guide me through and to help my progress I have page 6 in the music press portfolio. The portflolio consists of evrything to the prelim to my evalutaion. For instance, page 6 shows how to constuct my music magazine.

More importnatly, I have constructed some starting information that i want my magazine to focus on. For example, I want my target audince to be  16-19, majority male, and reginal. However, I wanted a secondary target audince of 20-25 and worldwide. Finally it would be issued weekly bases.

I hope you enjoy my work.
Thank you.