4. Target Audience
Who would be the target audience for your
magazine?
My music magazine was targeted at young
teenagers going to young adults from the ages of
13-21 who come from the lower class as well as
middle class areas of London. I intended to
target my audience to people who listen or like
the genre of ‘Hip Hop and Rap music’ and for
those who update themselves on latest rap
battles or new upcoming artists by viewing them
on sites like YouTube.
For my front cover I positioned the twins as one
being the superior artist and the other as being the
emperor artist. This shows status and power as they
are from different areas of London. Also in my front
cover I tried to make the artists look like they were
from a lower class and middle class by the clothes
they wear. I chose to go for one of the twins to
wear a navy blue polo and the other to wear a black
bar bar jacket to show that they are from a
lower/middle class background.
5. Addressing The Audience
How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract and address my audience I used different
features and techniques as well as getting feedback from
my music questionnaire. I used images, sell lines, teasers,
different colors and the type of language (colloquial
language). I decided to use colloquial language because it
would make the reader more comfortable and confident
when reading the sell lines and the featured article. Some
of the language used in my featured article were mostly
slang and a bit of standard English.
I addressed my audience mainly to males instead of females
because I was not sure if females would be into the genre
of ‘hip hop & rap’ because of the lyrics used. However if it
was in America then it would be considered into addressing
it to females as well as males.
I tried to associate mise-en-scene with my music magazine
by making the two artists wear clothes that ‘hip hop & rap’
artists would wear or for lower and middle class people
would wear referring that the two artists came from the
streets of London.
6. Construction
What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing your
magazine?
As I was making and creating my music magazine I used
different designing and editing technology to produce my
front cover, contents page and double page spread.
During the making of my product I created a questionnaire
to get audience feedback on what to consider for my front
cover, contents page and double page spread. I used
questions like position of the image, position of sell lines,
whether the masthead should be in front or behind the main
image etc. This questionnaire helped me to brainstorm and
think of ideas on how my music magazine would be
constructed as and how to.
I decided to use ‘Photoshop CS4’ instead of ‘Microsoft
Publisher’. I thought that using Photoshop would be the best
way to create and make my front cover, contents page and
double page spread because it has a big variety of editing
and designing tools that would be suitable for creating my
music magazine. Instead of using publisher which has less
tools to edit and design a magazine. I chose to use
Photoshop because I was familiar with the different tools
The most important part needed for my front cover,
such as: wand tool, brush tool etc. I used the different
contents page and double page spread was the images. I
editing tools to create my background for my front cover,
decided to use a canon slr to take my pictures which gave
different font styles and colours for all my text and the
me a high definition image.
position of the images.
7. Presentational Issues
How does your magazine represent
particular social groups?
My music magazine represents the social group of ‘young teenagers to young adults’ as them being
convicted with miss-uses of drugs, sex, alcohol and mostly violence that occur in the UK alone. This is
thought to be true because they are more reckless and violent towards the community as well as the
government.
Although my music magazine reflects good to the young teenagers, young adults because of the clothing I
used (polo and bar bar jacket) which shows them as being mature and dressing smart and presentable.
Also in my double page spread my article tells about how twins grew up in a low poor estate living with
there mum and splitting up where they live in opposite areas of London. However as they grew up in
these conditions they became stronger not physically but mentally through the lyrics they speak becoming
known UK hip hop rap artists in London. So my article represents that most teenagers grow up in poor
areas and try to achieve the best they can using what they got and what they have and making the best.
So my magazine portrays that young teenagers to young adults try to achieve the best they can.
However in other countries like America ‘hip hop’ rap is kind of similar to UK ‘hip hop’ rap because of what
the purpose is behind the lyrics they think of and speak as they walk to the mic. But my music magazine
only portrays UK alone rather than other poor areas in the world, aiming at the London streets.
8. Institutions
What kind of institution might distribute
your magazine and why?
For my music magazine I would consider distributing it to certain
institutions to gain revenue and such. My music magazine targets mainly
males however could appeal to women who would enjoy reading my
magazine, so I would distribute it to big institutions like ‘WHS smith’ as
this institution is well-known for mainly books, newspapers, general
accessories for school etc especially magazines ranging from kids to adult
magazines. This could give me an advantage to target different ages as
there are different kinds of magazines that held and sold there. Solely I
would consider in distributing my music magazine in that store to gain
revenue and to advertise my magazine to a range of ages.
Another institution which I would consider would be a food supermarket
like ‘Asda’ which sells a lot off food & groceries as well as books and
magazines, again ranging from kids to adults. This would be a great
advantage because a lot of customers attend the shop everyday to shop
which could advertise to them. So if I was to distribute my music magazine
their then customers who purchase my magazine would go there every
week to get the next issue which would benefit me and the company
Asda.
9. Forms & Conventions
In what ways does your magazine use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real music magazines?
Front Cover
I think that my final music magazine develops and challenges
forms of conventions of real music magazines through different
aesthetical features. As you can see my final music magazine has
the needed components for a magazines such as: masthead, main
image, sell lines, teasers, barcode, issue number and date and
feature article. However to most magazines they are laid out the For most magazines they have a colour trend which is
same but I positioned them in a unique way developing a new consistent throughout the whole of the magazine
look/layout of magazines. which I considered using as it was good and efficient
way of being unique because of the colour scheme
One of the main conventional forms is the ‘main image’ which I chosen to use and when and where to use it. As you
have for my front cover, instead of having 2 people next to each can see on my front cover I considered using 3 main
other in a picture for a front cover I subverted the image into colours which are grey, black and white which are very
putting one behind the other to show that one superior and one is simple colours that contrast well with each other.
emperor to show status. This positioning reflects the clash battle
between the two brothers. Another conventional form is the Last of all what magazines need are ‘sell lines’ to help
‘masthead’ which I have here in bold and black to stand out from advertise and interest the consumer which I have
the other conventional forms on the front cover. I decided to put here and one of them say ‘Michael Cole vs. Shaun
the masthead in front of the main image because my music Cole’ advertising a battle between two artists. This
magazine is not that known yet and it would confuse the challenges conventional forms as mine is simple and
consumer who was too see it and think what magazine is that. So straight forward with out to much detail. That sell
by following other magazine forms I put the masthead in front of line is in relation to my image of the twins battling
the image to stand out and look bold so consumers can see it. against each other.
10. Contents Page
As you can see my contents page includes many conventional
forms such as: title, content list, article images, pop-ups,
subscribes and issue number and date.
My pop-ups challenges a conventional form as the shape
used is different to other magazines and the way and where
it is positioned, which I positioned it as being 45 degrees
rotated to the left making it look slanted. Also for my title for
the contents page I made the text white and the background
shape around it black to make the text itself stand out as well
as to show its the contents page. These 2 colours (black &
white) contrasted well to make the title for my contents page
stand out from the other text below therefore being the
dominant text there. Rather than having different images on
the contents page I used one main image which looked quite
dominant as the person in the image is looking at the camera
giving the feel that the person in the image is looking straight
at you. This would help to attract customers to read the
contents page.
Furthermore for my content list is very similar to the content list in a ‘kerrang’
magazine because of the colour indicator which highlights the important ones. As you
can see my contents page has black boxes on each number as well as the features
title to make them stand out from the rest of the text and to help the reader on what
number the topic is about. Last of all I added in a black berry pin barcode which
allows blackberry users to scan the code and automatically get information on the
issue magazine and the magazine. In addition I used different font size and colours
for my contents page to separate them and to make it easier to read.
11. Double Page Spread
For my double page spread added in many
conventional form such as: title, article content, page
number, quote and main image.
As you can see my double spread follows one of the
conventional forms which is the title ‘ Battle Of The
Cole Brothers’ which is usually in the middle of the
DPS in big and bold. Although some other magazines
have other text around it which are called ‘sell lines’
to help advertise the article. I laid out my title over
the both 2 pages so that it would be easier for the
reader to read and it would look professional as in
filling up empty spaces like most magazines that try
to cover up the empty space by either enlarging text
or adding more.
Furthermore I added a caption below the title of the DPS Last of all for my DPS my article is laid out
saying “I don’t rap for the money or fame, I rap for the in 4 paragraphs starting with a big, bold
respect” using colloquial language to help the reader capital letter for each paragraph to help
interact and read the article well as it is aimed at young the reader to know where to start from.
teenagers to young adults. The quote from one of Cole This is a conventional form as most
twins tells something about them that they rap for magazines have this for their main article
respect rather than money and fame. This helps the using a big capital letter to start a
reader to think about the quote and to get them thinking paragraph and a small letter to finish it.
about the quote.
13. Front Cover
As you can see my school magazine looks similar to my music magazine considering the layout.
Firstly for my school magazine I used 2 main colours (red & purple) which were 2 very simple
colours that contrast. Although for my music magazine I used 3 main colours (grey,white,black)
which contrasted well together to give it nice professional look. Also the way I positioned my sell
lines like in my school magazine you can see they rotated a bit to a certain degree and my music
magazine the sell lines are rotated a tiny bit to make it look different to other magazines. In
addition my music magazine as extra aesthetical features to it like the pop-up, barcode and site
names e.g. TWITTER.COM/BASS.
However my music magazine doesn't have that much sell lines on the front cover itself but the
school magazine does because I didn't think that much on sell lines to add to the music
magazine. Furthermore for my school magazine I used the image for the whole front cover
whereas for my music magazine i edited the front cover and added in a light grey background
using the software ‘Photoshop cs4’.
Last of all for my music magazine I added a more variety of font styles to use and editing tools to
change them and make them look better. But for my school magazine i was limited to amount of
font styles and colours. Being able to use a variety of font styles allows me to decide and choose
on what font to use and would it be suitable for the purpose.
