1. Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
I believe that my magazine “Indie-vidual” is typical of the genre of music which it is based on.
My magazine is based on the music genre of Indie and Alternative Rock, a genre which covers many
different attitudes, styles and beliefs. The main reason for me believing that my magazine is typical
of the genre is the use of artists involved. You cannot have a magazine based on a genre if you don’t
have names which are famous for being part of that genre. Names such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers
and Two Door Cinema Club are famous throughout the genre of Indie and Alternative, with The Red
Hot Chili Peppers being a form of founding member for the genre. Without the big names from the
genre, a magazine based on it simply cannot work. The audiences would expect to see big names
such as RHCP – and that is exactly what I have given to them.
However, Indie/Alternative Rock is well known for producing up and coming bands on an almost
monthly basis – with the majority of them breaking through and into the mainstream world of
music. Bands such as The 1975, Don Broco and Stornoway are bands which have all come through
from being a small band to a phenomenon within the genre. Due to the genre’s nature of bringing
up new talent, I thought it was only fitting that I included bands that had come from the
breakthrough stage of their careers. In addition, I came up with three fictional bands who were new
on the scene of Indie/Alternative. RoodePelikaan (My feature band), Missing Cat and The Jacobeans
are all bands who have just broken through the depths of unrecognised music and finally burst onto
the scene. It is typical of the genre as already mentioned, which is why I used these fictional bands.
To add even more support to the nature of the genre, I included the page number for an up and
coming band section. This was not made for my actual magazine, but I felt that it was important that
the magazine had that added feature, because the audience would be interested in this sort of thing.
I will start by analysing my front cover and how it is typical of the genre. My front cover is actually
fairly simplistic at first glance, which may seem a little boring. There are no bright colours, no real
picture affects and no extravagant props. However, this actually relates to the Indie/Alternative
genre in a sense, because a lot of Indie and Alternative artists or bands do not use ANY voice effects
or a serious amount of props/machines. There is a certain attitude felt by Indie/Alternative fans like
myself, which is that music should be played how it was meant to. There is no real need for voice
effects, or jumpy, vibrant colours. Music should be simplistic and have meaning, which is the feeling
that I have given to my magazine.
My masthead and cover lines are both written in a fairly average, yet readable font. This adds an
even more simplistic feel to the magazine. However, whilst being simplistic, the font type
(Particularly on the masthead) is stylish. The text is not written fancily and is not overly bold. The
masthead looks neat, tidy and professional – adding a certain style and image to the magazine itself.
I have used to popular convention of “box outs”, which are used to make text stand out from the
background of the front cover, bring more attention to the text.

2. The picture I have used of the band consists of the 4 members standing closely as a group. They are
not holding any props and have no effects used on them. None of the band members are really
smiling either (Bar Zak who is sat on a stall due to height). This gives of an almost arrogant yet
professional look, which is something that Indie artists are well known for having. All of them are
dressed in smart casual clothes, which is stereotypical of most Indie artist. There are only a few Indie
artists that I can think of who dress entirely smart – such as “Hurts”.
My contents page is also typical of the genre of Indie/Alternative. It is important for a magazine to
have a small summary of what a cover line or contents page title includes. I have used this in order
to stick to the conventions of magazines, which is to provide information to the readers. These are
known as “Stand firsts” and are used to entice the reader into this particular article or section of the
magazine. Stand Firsts are also conventions of magazines.
My double page spread article is the next part of my magazine I shall be discussing. I feel that the
entire article is typical of the Indie/Alternative genre. First of all, the tone of the article is completely
informal, with some dry humour and sarcastic phrases. Phrases such as “It was the hardest thing I
ever had to do… and all I was doing was sitting on my arse moaning” give a real informal and dry feel
to the magazine and to the band. Dry humour is something that a lot of Indie artists are known for.
For example, the Indie band “Hurts” quoted:
“That’s the best thing about making music videos. You get to choose where in the world you want to
go… and how many women you want to be there”.
This humour is not quite arrogant, but is certainly typical of Indie artists.
My double page spread article used the conventions of Captions and by – lines. The captions are
used to describe what a certain picture shows or represents. The By – lines are used to give credit to
someone who is involved with the making of the article. In my case, I added a by – line which
informed the readers of who took to photographs.
My article is not only typical of the genre, but also magazines themselves. It includes more
conventions such as Pull quotes and straplines.
The pictures I have used in my main article always include a band member. In all but one of the
pictures, at least one of the band members is hard at work. In addition in all but one picture, the
band is always together doing some sort of activity. This relates to the hard work and determination
of Indie/Alternative bands – especially those who have just broken through into the world music.
I have made my magazine seem professional by putting pictures in that are actually related to the
article itself. Meaning that the readers can get an even better insight into the article and
information. It also means that I haven’t just thrown in random pictures without thinking about it.

3. Finally, I chose to create a free poster of the band for the readers to take out and enjoy. It is
stereotypical of magazines to offer free gifts to the readers so that they feel valued by the magazine
and feel like they are the most important people.