The document discusses the portrayal of women in underground music magazines, highlighting the sexualization often found in genres like house, garage, and dubstep, while emphasizing the author's intention to create a gender-neutral, sophisticated magazine. It outlines key magazine design elements such as cover layout, color coordination, and the significance of accompanying images and text to attract the target audience. The author defines their distinct approach to magazine conventions, particularly in the contents and double-page spread designs, aiming for a more independent style that appeals to a specific income demographic.

1. Charlie Whitmore

2.  Magazines that explore the genres of House,Garage and
Dubstep tend to sexualise women in the magazines as the
genres are dominated by a more male audience in the Cross
cultural Consumer characterization model of Young and
Rubicam the main characterizations of those that listen to the
genres is the explorer and the Reformer as they both value
there own opinion. Magazines such as mine would base
themselves largely around synergy marketing whereby they
would offer free albums with every magazine or sponsor
festivals or gigs. Digital online distribution is also a large
factor within the genres of the underground as the age group
that follow the genre are those that are characterised into the
group of millennial’s and born around the time of a large
upraise in digital content and web 2.0. Due to them being
born around this time they thrive on the prospect of free
content which is why synergy marketing, digital online
distribution and web 2.0 are a large part in the genres
marketing in and outside of the magazine.

3.  Due to the dominance of men within the
genre women are sexualised in
magazines and other medias that
represents the genre. This is highlighted in
the magazine “mixmag” as they show
women in a sexualised manor particularly
on their contents pages. My magazine
has gone against this sexualisation of
women as I wanted to produce a gender
neutral magazine to give it a more
sophisticated look on the underground

4.  The purpose of a front page of a magazine is to attract. The
magazine should entice your target audience and make them
want to buy the magazine. It should highlight the main
contents and other selling points of the magazine. In order to
give it a unique selling point.
 Throughout my research I have found that it is conventional to
have a main cover line and the front page image to relate to
each other. There is usually colour coordination throughout
different texts and images and a large amount of text around
the page promoting other aspects of the magazine.
 The main image should show a man or women who is well
known within the genre or popular with the target audience
and should relate to some sort of article or page in the
magazine.
 The barcode will usually be presented amongst the price of
the magazine and the issue number.
 Different magazines have different layouts and designs to
attract a certain audience. For an underground magazine that
means a lot of text around the image promoting the contents
and other information that is in the magazine.
 A prominent house style is established on the front cover and
usually kept throughout the magazine.
 Different aspects of the front cover such as the Masthead and
Cover lines are filled with bright colours to make sure that they
stand out on the cover and that the magazine stands out

5.  The underground front cover
 The masthead – I have tied to stick with a conventional underground
magazine masthead. It takes up little room on the page and I have
applied a bright colour to the masthead that also matches with parts
of the graffiti wall in the background of the main image. A colourful
masthead is conventional for an underground magazine as it
represents the partying nature that the music is heavily associated
with.
 I have stuck to the convention of placing it in the bottom 3rd and
having price and issue information such as issue number or the
month of the issue close to it.
 House style – The convention of a house style is to establish it on the
front cover. Whether this is through choice of font or shapes. For me I
have utilised my house style of the arrows by placing them under the
descriptions of one of my cover lines to make the cover lines more
readable. By doing this I have therefore established my house style
which I will then carry throughout the magazine.
 I have added a quote from the main double page spread next to Alex.
This is conventional as it makes the reader want to find out more and
gives a small insight into the main double page
 My main image was selected carefully, I used a Nottinham based
music partnership as my artists to feature within my magazine. I
chose Congi as they are something that the target audience would

6.  The Underground front cover
 The conventional place for your main cover line is to have
it in the bottom third of the magazine so it is below your
main image. I have gone against conventions by placing
my main cover line in the bottom half of the top section I
have done this as I wanted it to be central to the page
without disturbing the image and by placing it further up
the page I felt as though it would give the cover line the
same stance as the masthead making the selling point that
is the exclusive double page about Congi more noticeable.
 I decided from the beginning of my production that I
wanted to have a limited amount of writing on the page.
The convention for a magazine such as mine is to have a
lot of cover lines surrounding the main image and
promoting the contents of the magazine. I went against this
convention as I was aiming my magazine at the income
bracket of B-E and by giving my magazine a more
simplistic design it would appeal more to the income
bracket of B

7.  The conventions of a contents page is a simple
list of page numbers and next to that a
description of what is on the that page. Next to
the list is pictures that relate to some of the
pages. Above the title is the date of the issue
eg. January 2014Mixmag

8.  I have followed through with my house
style of arrows and established that my
house colour is a deep red. I have
chosen deep red as it is a rich colour
that promotes sophistication to once
again reach out to my audience within
the income bracket of B. By adding
images at the bottom of the page I have
still maintained the normal convention of
placing images on the contents page
and have managed to stick with the
trend of geometrical shapes I found
within magazines related to house,
garage and dubstep music by placing
images into triangular shapes.

9.  I have tried to edge away from the
Conventional style of the a
contents page to give my
magazine a more of an
independent style. I have done this
by making the numbers larger and
more grouped together. This goes
against the normal conventions of
a contents page but still gives the
information that is needed.
 I have placed the title contents at
the top of the page and below that

10.  The idea of a double page spread is to
give the reader information on the subject.
Double page spreads are normally in the
style of an interview, story or Q&A. These
will take up a good proportion of the page
and to accompany the writing will be a pull
out quote a picture or pictures that relate
to the double page.

11.  I have stayed with the convention of a pull
out quote within my double page to
promote the inside story of Congi. The
Pull out quote acts as an eye catcher as it
is one of the largest elements on the page
and the white writing stands out behind
the black background. I have once again
maintained the house style of the arrow
inmy title and page number but this time
placing part of the graffiti wall inside of the

12.  The only way I went against the normal
convention of a double page spread is
through the large image of Congi as I
once again placed the image into a
triangle to represent the on going beats of
the genre. This gave the page a personal
twist and fitted with the whole magazine
design.

13.  When planning my double page spread I wanted the
page to look professional. I wanted to focus more
about the story of Congi as I thought that it would be
more fitting as they where an upcoming artist in the
genre and people would be more interested about
there story. I wanted the page to highlight the imagery
of the genre. I did this by giving the page a black
background to connote the time of day that the music
is usually played eg. In clubs. I made sure that i used
an image of congi that promoted the run down street
scene that in often associated with underground
music. This is why i chose to photograph Congi next
to a graffiti wall as the imagery that is associated with
underground music is street scenes. I feel as though
this has worked well with the page and given made
the two more recognisable with the genre.