The document discusses the development of a music magazine focused on indie music. It summarizes how the author drew inspiration from magazines like Kerrang and Q in their design choices, such as using contrasting colors on the cover and considering different photo shoots. While initially focused on rock music, the author shifted to an indie focus to make the magazine more unique. Elements from Billboard like the content page layout and inclusion of music charts were also incorporated. Feedback indicated the magazine positively represented various social groups through the Asian male model and focus on indie artists popular on YouTube.
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms & conventions of real media products
• When I first started to explore into how I wanted my music magazine to look like, I
looked into popular magazines like Kerrang and Q. Both magazines originated from
a completely different sides of music, allowing me to take different perspectives.
At first my chosen genre was rock, hence the reason why I chose to research
Kerrang, but later on I realised that I wanted to take a more unique approach and
try and merge rock with indie, with more of an emphasis on indie. Because of this
change I chose to see how much Kerrang differs from more mainstream magazines
like Billboard. Eventually I decided to take inspiration from both magazine rather
than committing myself to only one. Upon designing my front cover, (which was
completed first as I noticed the front pages of Kerrang usually set the magazines
colour scheme) I started to plot different sketches on how I would like my model to
pose, what type of person do I want as my model and how they would represent
my magazine. The more I thought about how I wanted my magazine to be
presented to my audience, I realised that although my magazine revolved around
the idea of a fusion between rock and indie, I felt that I wanted my magazine to be
more original than just another rock magazine, I wanted to explore the part of the
music magazine industry that isn't widely addressed. For this reason, I decided to
scrap the use on rock and focus on what makes Indie (independent musicians) so
popular and what it represents for people.
3. • Despite my change in direction, I still looked at the way Kerrang tended to have a
contrasting colour scheme making attractive and capturing people attention.
Because of this I decided to make my magazine (the alternative) similar in its
approach albeit without the amount of contents on the front cover, but by the large
size of the mast head towering over the page. As a result of the change in genre I
decided to look at Billboard magazines, particularly the content page as I felt it was
more conventional and organised than Q or Kerrang. Using this as inspiration I knew
that I wanted it to be more original and to keep in line with “The Alternatives”
theme. In order to do this I wanted to add more pictures on the contents page and
to include an editors note purely to enable a sense of professionalism. In addition i
was also inspired by the way Billboard included a section for the music charts., i also
included this in my magazine but i adapted it by creating an album/single art cover
for the NO.1 spot.
4. Through analysing Q magazine, I realised how
much the shot type can effect the whole magazine.
In realising the sheer importance of it I planned
different types of shots but eventually went with a
full body shot, using a guitar as a prop. Using a
prop was never originally planned beforehand, but
I decided that it was needed as I felt it symbolises
what Indie music originated. Furthermore whilst
analysing Q, I realised that models clothes or hair
colour, can also be used as a colour scheme,
because of this I paid extra attention to how the
models colour of their clothe fit with my magazines
colour scheme. I always intended to use a male
model, mainly because, looking at press kits I could
see that males were less likely to be totally
subjective to either sexes, but if I had a female
model to present this particular genre, it will most
likely appeal to more females than males.
Analysing Billboard magazine via the press kits, I
saw that Billboard had heavy usage of social media
sites, particularly with smart phones. Although I
couldn't exactly integrate the same thing by
creating an app, I decided to create a website for it,
furthermore similar to the format of billboard, I
decided that the best way to promote it was on the
bottom of both my DPS and contents page.
5. How does your media represent a particular
social groups
• Looking at the feedback I have received via my blog, it shows that my music magazine
has created a positive image regarding the particular social groups, gender and ethnicity.
• My music magazine does go against ethnic stereotypical views on what people think is,
as most people usually picture a scruffy Caucasian man. One of my goals in creating the
magazine was to break the presumed picture that people that people generally have of
this genre of music. As I wanted this magazine to primarily focus on indie artists that are
popular on the internet via sites like YouTube, because of this I wanted to have a model
of ethnicity as it would reflect a more realistic view. The usage of indie artists through
YouTube, has allowed me to gain a niche market and I wanted it to reflect that market in
the truest way possible, this was helped as I didn't have to try and please a mainstream
audience. This is shown specifically in the clothe worn by the model, which is more of a
casual attire, similar to how they would dress normally in their YouTube videos, rather
than having my model in a suit which wouldn't represent the social group at all. Looking
at my feedback i can see that the social group I have aimed at is shown in a positive way
due to the my model being Asian, therefore avoiding the trap of people thinking that
black model = black magazine and vice versa if I used a white model. Regarding the way
gender is represented in my magazine, it is shown to be positive through the feedback
received, although a majority of my magazine does feature more males than females.
Despite this, females are given an importance in a sense as a free poster of a female
musician is advertised. This particular aspect I think can be improved greatly. My
magazine is aimed at working class, which is represented well in the interview as the
responses for the interview were articulate enough but not overly complicated. This
emits a positive message for working class as it shows becoming successful is not
impossible regardless of your class.
