2. Before starting the construction of the media product, I did secondary research on other
existing magazines from different genres so I could have knowledge of music magazines
overall. I also analysed what made them successful and effective (using technical, written
and symbolic codes). By looking at different magazines, I found out the basic conventions
that magazines require.
After I did my research on existing magazines, I created a questionnaire to find out what
my target marget wanted to see. The results I gathered showed that most of them wanted
a music magazine based on the rock genre or anything similar (such as pop-punk and
alternative) so I did further research and analysed existing magazines from this genre such
as Kerrang!, Rocksound and Alternative Press (AP).
3. A convention that I used is how the models
are dressed up. Most rock magazines have
their models dressed up in casual, plain
clothes which I followed in my magazine
because it makes the band look more
approachable and friendly towards their
audience, compared to if the models were
dressed up in ‘glamorous’ clothes.
With the masthead, I thought it was best to
stick to convention. The convention is that
the brand name is music/instrument related.
I stuck to this convention because it is
appropriate and effective since it makes it
more catchy and meaningful to the reader.
I also stuck with some of the more
basic conventions such as the
barcode, issue number, date, and
price since they are necessary.
Another convention for front covers
is the way the smaller articles are
titled. Most magazines have long
headings or a quote taken from the
article. I chose to develop this
convention by simply thinking of
short, snappy sentences that create
mystery but still keep the reader
interested and make them want to
read more.
I also followed the convention for the
front cover headline. As you can see
from the table above, most headlines
are placed on the centre of the
page, which is where it should be
because if it was on the upper section of
the page, it would cover the models’
face, and if it was on the lower part of
the page, it wouldn’t be the first thing
that the reader picks up on.
Most music magazines, especially
rock ones include posters which I
stuck with because from my
questionnaire, one of the questions
was if they wanted posters included
and the majority of them said
yes, so sticking to this convention
will make my product sell more.
4. I stuck to the layout that most
magazines used for their own
contents page because it is the most
effective layout. The upper part is
dedicated to the two-page spread
because this is the article that this
particular issue is trying to sell so it
is placed where it will be the first
thing that readers will see.
For the contents
page, some of the
evident conventions are
the page numbers and
the categories. I followed
these conventions
because they make the
contents page more userfriendly, so
information/articles are
easier to find.
Similar to other contents
pages, I decided to put an
editor’s note section because it
creates a connection between
the reader and the editor, so it
doesn’t seem like the page is
just full of information.
I noticed is that the models used in the
magazines differ from genre to genre.
Most mainstream magazines (such as
rap) used black males, pop magazines
used white females, and, the majority of
rock and metal used white males. To
break this convention, I tried to mix
different races and genders throughout
the magazine. As you can see from the
contents page, the model for one of the
articles is a white female which we
rarely see in rock magazines. I also
challenged a convention by having an
African male in my two-page spread as
the featured band’s tour manager.
A convention I challenged on this
media piece is the amount of
text, pictures and the overall
aesthetics. As you can see on the
tables above, most contents pages
have bigger or more text and
pictures. I decided to keep my
contents page simpler and less
cluttered so it doesn’t look too
messy or overwhelming.
5. Not all articles have a
heading, subheading and strapline so I
decided to develop from this and add all
three in my two-page spread so that the
reader have brief insights into the article
without having to read all of the text.
For the two-page spread, one of the
common feature is the columns.
There isn’t a particular convention
on how many columns are used but
I decided to do four columns but
with different categories/sections so
that there isn’t too much too read so
the readers don’t get bored when
reading.
A convention I broke is the focus of
the article. As you can see from
above, most articles are focused on
the lead singer since they are
usually the ones who interact with
fans the most. I challenged this
convention because by now, most
fans would be tired of just reading
about the lead singer and not
knowing anything about the underappreciated band members.
A convention I stuck with is the
presence of a pull quote in the
article. I decided to use this
convention because it gives readers
a brief insight into the article if they
don’t want to read the strapline. I
also think that choosing an
interesting pull quote will get more
attention since people will want to
read more.
