This document summarizes how the media product of a music magazine uses and develops conventions of real music magazines. It discusses examining existing magazines of different genres to understand conventions like mastheads, front cover images, and contents pages. The document then outlines several specific conventions used in the media product, such as a large masthead, mid-shot artist image, listing related artists, and color scheme fitting the genre. It also notes one way the product challenges conventions by using text styled to look like the artist wrote on the magazine.

1. Q1: In what ways does your
media product use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products? (i.e. of music
magazines)

2. To begin researching music magazine
conventions I first looked at a variety of
existing magazines of different genres.
For example, in my research I looked at
football magazine ‘Four Four Two’ and
lads magazine ‘FHM’. I also looked at
work from students from past years.
Knowing that we would be producing
our own music magazine I began to
focus on the aspects of magazines such
as Front covers, Contents Pages and
Double Page Spread Articles. One key
aspect of a magazine is the ‘Rule of 3’;
the colours used in this are highly
dependent on what genre the
magazine is based on. Although it is not
a very established brand, I took a lot of
inspiration from RWD magazine purely
because the sorts of artists featured
are similar to what I wanted mine to
be.

3. • The first use of a convention in my magazine is
the use of a large mast head. On my magazine I
have used the convention in how it is the
largest text on my page and is centred at the
top which allows it to stand out. However, on
the cover I have analysed the artists picture
covers part of the masthead whereas on mine it
does not, this is because RWD is an established
brand so its readers will be able to recognise it
even though it is partially covered.
• The second convention I have used on my
magazine is the use of the main image of the
artist being a mid-shot. Mid-shots are used on
front cover because it is the right sized image to
emphasize that the artist is the most important
feature of a front cover. To add to this I have
also used a mid-shot where the artist is making
eye contact with the reader, this is a basic
convention that is used to engage the reader.

4. • Another convention I have used is
the listing of other artists related to
the genre on the edge. This is used
because it allows the audience to
get an insight to what other artists
are featured inside the magazine
which relate to the genre and will
interest the reader into purchasing
the magazine. I also focused on
using a similar number of artists to
mirror the convention.
• The graphology is a key element of
a magazine and I think the layout of
my front cover has in many ways
followed conventions for this such as
how the masthead is centred at the
top; the barcode is kept small and to
the side and how the date and price
are wrote in a small font at the top.

5. • I think the use of genre is clear in many part
of my magazine. Firstly, all of the artists
featured in the features on the contents page
are artist from the same genre so the reader
can identify this. Secondly, the front cover
incorporates a dark theme with the colours
Black, Grey and White and with all of the text
being black which can be linked to the dark
colour elements of the genre such as dark
clothes. Finally, the double page spread also
keep the theme of black and grey and also
we get a clearer picture of the artists
displaying his expression of attitude.
• In many ways I believe that I used a lot of
conventions, but one of the forms in which
my product challenges this is the conventions
of magazine is my use of the artists bold text.
The convention is that normally just a bold
text is used with different fonts for different
genre but the way I have challenged this is
that I have used a text that looks as if my
artist ‘Harry Yates’ has wrote on the
magazine himself. I did this because I felt the
slightly graffiti looking writing fitted the
genre but also fulfilled what I wanted in
challenging this.