Music Magazine Evaluation

Music

Magazine 

Evaluation

by Maha shafqat

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

My final media product basically uses forms and conventions of real media products,however I challenged the pictures and article by using a female artist instead of a male which most punk/rock magazines tend to use. 

The pre- production planning and the preliminary task helped me get a clear view on what I really wanted to achieve and create with my final product. Doing four textual analysis on a magazine which suited the genre I wanted to aim for the best which was punk/rock, targeting an audience of 13 to early twenties.

Thus i analysed 3 kerrang and 1 Teenvogue magazines thoroughly,i looked carefully at color schemes,layout style,image positioning,images,fonts and researched on why they chose such color schemes and layout styles etc to reach their target audience.

After the analysis i planned out which conventions would fit and suit the genre i really wanted to achieve.Thus,e.g i used different features,such as free music downloads,pin-up calenders,lyrics,top charts,interviews and photo's as i gave it the name of  "the photo issue",which would target my audience as images tend to sell magazines to the audience the most as i found out after my research and focus groups.I gave special attention at the color schemes which stood out and potrayed the punk/rock genre the best.So my final color scheme was black,white and purple which are bold colors which not only stand out but give this image of punkness and boldness.

 I named my masthead ‘ROCK WORLD’ and chose this specific name because this immediately represents a music based magazine to readers and represents the genre effectively.The masthead font I used also helped represent my genre.This was done  to clearly give off the Punk/Rock image and reflect on modern music based magazine styles.Thus my magazine would be more attractive for the audience of a punk/rock magazine as it would be obvious to them that my magazine represents the punk/rock genre.Also the font that i used gives a sense of glamour to the magazine.

My double page spread belongs to a strict colour scheme and I used the colours eenage rockstar's genre of music. So I kept my double page spread to the consistent ROCK WORLD colour scheme.  

Also the front/main cover is the page that the audience see first so I wanted to make sure that my magazine's front cover would attract and impress them.After alot of research and brainstorming about the images,as they are the main features that usually sell magazines i used images which had to portray a certain message and stand out to my target audience. I wanted to give my main image prominence and look bold, so I made sure that my image was very effective, I did this by choosing the shot that best fitted this musical genre and would target my audience.

So i used an image of a female as the main image on my front cover would help target the female target audience as most rock magazines tend to target more males than females. 

On my cover page and contents page my puff/boost’s are in black and purple. I chose to keep to this colour scheme for my advertising features to create a unique feature. This would help highlight the feature its advertising and I chose to advertise the 101 British hit albums.

Most of the magazines use just 2 or different types of fonts for the cover page but I challenged to conventions of a real magazine by using a variety of different fonts which gives the front page an attractive feature.Instead of using the names of original rockstars i developed new names as i wanted my magazine to be entirely original.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

After doing my textual analysis i came across the fact that all punk/rock music magazines follow similar stereotypes to represent punk/rock which is wearing dark colors,punk jewellery,gothic makeup,cropped jackets etc.My magazine ROCK WORLD's main audience is teenagers 13-19 year olds and die hard rock fans.

By using an artist wearing clothing to represent my genre i.e a cropped jacket,pleated mini skirt,black stockings,punk jewellery,gothic eye makeup,cropped glove will attract teenagers more specificaly wannabe punk and emo girls and boys,rockstar lovers,people that follow such fashion.

My magazine's main focus is on glamorous musicians and that's why the model on my magazine's cover page looks very glamourous and attractive,which will attract girls of every age as they would get an inspiration from her style and guys would be sexually attracted as she looks very hot and her legs stand out due to the stockings and pleated mini-skirt.

As my magazine is targeted at the younger generation I wanted to use a mix of colours which stood out and portrayed a specific meaning. Throughout All four pages of my magazine I used the colour scheme, black, white and purple because these colours immediately stand out and they portray a sense of  boldness which portray the genre of the magazine and also represents the target audience as most teenagers want to stand out from the crowds and be unique and "cool".

The fonts I used for the cover page of the magazine were different and catchy.The font used for the title of the magazine cover/masthead  was "hollywood' which gave a glamorous and vibrant feel to it because as I’m targeting a young audience I want them to be able to relate to the magazine,be attracted to it and want to buy it.It also looks very unique and ‘cool’ which would target the younger social groups who are into rock and punk music as the font portrays this specific genre.

After alot of research and hardwork i realised that the most important thing for a magazine are the images as they prove to be the USP or the unique selling point of a magazine for the majority of the people.i went through magazines such as Vogue,Cosmopolitan,Teen vogue,CosmoGirl,Vanity fair,XXL,hip hop weekly etc.I didnt wanted my photo's to be just unique but i wanted them to be attractive and glamorous.Thus i worked hard on the positioning,lighting,equipment,angles,props etc.My model gave a serious look as  punk rock music can be serious most of the times. Also most punk/rock magazines have male images on their front covers but I wanted it to be different and change this perspective that males are the best in this genre thus i used a female image, as rock music isn’t just for males, so this image would probably make the female section of my target audience want to buy it.

Newly turned teenagers 13+ are the main focus of my magazine as i made my model look like avril lavigne/miley cyrus and 13 year olds are die hard fans of such musicians.As my magazine's artist of the month Honey white is also a teen star most of the fans would belong to the younger age group,even 11,12 year old girls would also be attracted to my magazine.

Features on my contents page can show the social group that my magazine would appeal to. For example a feature of one of my pages is the ‘My tunes’ information. This would be more appealing to  readers who have a strong passion for music and they want their talent to be shared with the world.

Teenagers to young adults’ interests are represented in the way in which I used young artists, the colour scheme and font styles to represent the younger and modern audience.

My magazine ROCK WORLD is alot multi ethnic. I used a more diverse range of ethnicities to attract to modern audiences who are also more multi ethnic.By including articles on indian,african,chinese punk/rockstars and musicians.

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

The kind of institution that might distribute my media product would most probably be Bauer publishing company as it is one of the top seller of magazines in UK.Its a well established and popular company who publish magazines like Kerrang which is similar to my magazine.They have a strong audience which is similar to my target audience, thus this would be very beneficial to have the same distributor.
MY media product might be distributed in cafe's,teenage hangouts,record shops like HMV and HI-volts,Malls,airports and news agents.
Music shops are very appropriate for reaching the target audience because a variety of different musical genres are available in such stores, so there’s a high chance of my target audience going in and noticing and getting attracted by my magazine. News agents are also good for my magazine to be distributed to the audience as most people associate newsagents with magazines and they are located in most villages and towns so it’s easily accessible for my target audience to buy my mgazine.As my magazine's target audience includes people belonging to different countries and ethnicities stocking my magazine at the airport is a very good way to attract tourists,people from different countries.Cafe's and teenage hangouts are the places where most of the people in my target audience spend most of their time in thus it is the best place to gain attention of teenagers.

Who would be the audience for your media project?

The audience for my media project would be teenagers 13 to early twenties,mainly students as i wanted to create a media product that targeted my little sister and my age group.I wanted my magazine to atrract male n females equally so no male domination coukld take place thus i used a female model for the cover page.My audience would be into punk/rock music genre scene as this is the genre of my magazine and it is becoming as succesful as RnB and hip hop and alot of magazines are not available for this genre even though it has gained immense popularity worldwide.Particular social groups in my target audience would include people who dress to represt the punk,rock,emo culture which is bold,dark and "cool" e.g dark makeup,spiky studs,cropped leather jackets,etc.
My target audience also includes 11-12 year olds as my artist of the month is a teen star like miley cyrus,selena gomez thus girls from the age group of 11-15 are die hard fans of such musicians and collect magzines and posters of such msuicians religiously.


My magazine could also appeal to people globally as the artists that I featured are international stars and do not just appeal to a certain area.Therefore my audience would have a diverse range of ethnicities. So the typical audience for my magazine would be teenagers to young adults, mainly female and a wide range of ethnicities because of the diverse groups of people that punk/rock music has targeted.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I addressed and attracted my audience through the choice of layouts, colour schemes, cover lines, images and other important features such as Pin-up calenders and free music downloads and subscriptions.

I studied some magazines and took notice of the positioning and meanings of cover lines and images and followed them when I created my product. This might attract my target audience as it’s 'cool" and eye catching and as I found out from doing my research and focus groups, my target audience like magazines which stand out clearly and look effective. I used a dark and catchy colour scheme, black, purple and white as they are bold colours and clearly attract attention and they also portray a sense of glamour and punk style which represents my magazine therefore it would help address my audience. 

My media product immediately awares you that it is aiming at the younger generation.The cover lines are about young and new bands who also belong to this age group 13-18+. The photos also reach out to this specific audience as they portray that certain punk/rock look and style for example, the main images on the double page spread, includes Honey holding a piano  and her facial expression portrays a ‘reserved sexy’ look which will appeal to my target audience as she’s young and looks interesting which my target audience will be able to relate to.

I challenged the typical forms and conventions of a punk/rock music magazine, as they mainly have males dominating their fronts covers and articles. So I decided to challenge this convention and have a female dominating the page, this would help target the females of my target audience, as they will be able to relate to the images and article. 

I attracted my audience by the double page spread article aswell. I thought carefully about how to address my audience by my double spread page, I thought about the content and language of my article and thought about what would mainly attract my target audience so i decided to write an article in an interview form. I did this because most articles in Vogue,Kerrang magaine are in interview form and this institution is really successful and I wanted my magazine to achieve high success too.And interviews are more attractive and less boring if compared to regular articles.The language i used was very informal and uncomplicated which would appeal to my target audience as they would be able to relate as the artist is in the same age range as my target audience would probably be students.

I put the issue number as a high number, so it shows the audience that the magazine is successful and has a good circulation.  

I used features and interviews throughout my magazine to appeal to my target audience. For my main coverline I used a global teenage artist who is also a model and pianist besides being a punk/rock singer who tells my magazine about her life and dreams and used her exclusive latest pictures.I chose to create this story because by featuring a global teenage rockstar on the cover  would help to appeal to a wider range of people instead of using an up and coming artist which the punk/rock genre would not usually feature in a punk/rock magazine magazine.

The puff which I added to my cover quotes is "101 british hit albums". I chose to use this because it broadens the type of music which my magazine focuses on and so would help to attract a wider range of audience.

My double page spread article includes 2 photos of the artist I chose to interview.Which 

I also concentrated on trying to target a specific social economic group. The cover lines and features I used represent this social economic group as i focused of top charts and "Xpress yourself" which would feature our very own readers.These features would appeal to a more middle class group who have a strong interest in music

I made my model wear glamorous clothes which would attract both males and females as females would be inspired from her style and clothing whereas males would be sexually attracted due to the black stockings and pleated mini skirt.

The jewellery and makeup my model is wearing is the kind of jewellery and makeup punk artists and emo people wear thus teenagers who like dressing in such a way would be highly attracted to it.

I used names of artists from different countries e.g china,india,africa which would attract audiences from all over the world belonging to different ethnicities.

And as my artist is a teenage rockstar girls fromthe age of 10-15 would be highly attracted to buy the magazine as girls from this age group are die-hard fans of female teenage rock-stars.

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

I have learnt a great deal about Photo manipulation and editing softwares such as adobe photoshop and lightroom.During the construction of my music magazine I learnt how to use technologies to create features which would appeal to my audience. When editing my original images, I learnt that by editing the curves and using photo filters  I could create a more professional looking photo and create a style which would fit in with my genre magazine.I learnt how to change and edit background of my photo in order to make a perfect cover photo.

My masthead which reads ROCK WORLD was also edited by adding a drop shadow. This increased the effect that the masthead gave and gave it a 3D look which would stand out more to my audience.I used drop shadow and inner shadow to make all the text on my cover page standout.Some of my fonts such as my masthead were from dafonts.com. By choosing from a large selection of fonts I was able to find the font that I felt most represented my magazine.

I learnt how to blend in my masthead with my models head which gave a very proffesional look to my cover page.

On my double page spread on the first image,i gave the vignette look on the edges of the picture i used adobe lightroom to give this effect to my picture.

For the images used on my double page spread i did not do alot of editing as the pictures i shot were already perfect and i wanted to give an original look to the pictures.

I had used a reflector while shooting my model thus there was not alot of need to edit the brightness and contrast of the pictures.

For the cover image i had to edit the background and make it completely white so the text i would write on it would be clearly visible.For this i used adobe photoshop cs5 in which i used the quick selection tool to select the part of the image which was grey as only the wall was white but the floor was grey.Then i filled it in with the paint bucket tool.

I used adobe lightroom to give my model a soft look by increasing the picture's luminance.Also i used adobe photoshop in which i first made a duplicate layer as background copy after which i used the high pass filter and in the end i gave soft light to the image which made my cover photo look sharp and soft at the same time.

I learnt about Layers and masking and how to sharpen and soften photographs using photoshop and lightroom,also i learnt about downloading and installing new fonts and giving various effects to the font in order to potray the right image and importance of the font.I have also learnt after using photoshop about how to make my media product look realistic, by using guidelines and rulers to help me add my content clearly and neatly.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task i feel i have reached a whole new level of photo manipulation and magazine develompent as I have learnt a lot about creating a successful music magazine.I know how to actually reach my target audience,about the important aspects of creating a magazine,about its layout,fonts,and how important every little thing is like font size,text,positiong to attract the audience and potraying the right image of the genre.I have mastered adobe photoshop,lightroom and indesign in these 6 months.Now when i look back at my preliminary task i feel that i have progressed greatly.I have also learnt how to make my product look really realistic and not tacky at all.My preliminary task helped me understand how to create a magazine using softwares such as photoshop and indesign and understand the importance of structure to a magazine as I did use a similar structure in my final magazine. 

When comparing to my preliminary task I realised that I did not use as many sufficient technologies to create a unique look as I did in my final media product. I learnt the importance of image styles and shots and mise en scene to represent my genre effectively. I have learnt how to edit styles to fit a music magazine genre as my preliminary task was representing a college magazine,thus I developed elements used in that magazine to fit into my music magazine.

After doing different photoshoots for the preliminary task,main task i have learnt about different camera shots and angles,about different camera settings and my knowledge about DSLR's and its techicalities has rose higly.For my final shoot i used a canon 60D,canon 50mm 1.8,canon 18-55,canon 23-105,canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L mm lens and a golden and silver reflector due to which i got amazing results.I used natural lighting as i did the photoshoot on the roof of my house thus only natural sunlight was used and no flash or external lighting was used.So know i am aware of all the important aspects of shooting with a professional DSLR.

Overall I feel I have learnt a lot in the progress from my preliminary task to my final music magazine.I have broadened my Photo editing skills and the skills in representing specific audiences or genres.