Lucy Twyman created a punk rock magazine called "CORRUPT" for a class project. She researched conventions from magazines like Kerrang! to make her magazine recognizable as a punk genre magazine, while also challenging some conventions. She used brighter colors on the cover than typical magazines to attract readers while still fitting the punk genre. Her photography and layouts on the inside pages were also influenced by conventions from magazines she researched but challenged in ways to better appeal to her target audience of 15-18 year old females interested in punk rock music.

1. By Lucy Twyman

2. In my magazine I have used a lot of the forms and conventions typically found in real media
products to make sure that it is recognisable as an punk-rock genre magazine. However, I have
challenged some so that my product does not look exactly the same as those already available.
For example, while researching punk and rock music magazines, a typical convention found on the
front covers was the use of darker colours to reflect the genre of music and mood of the articles
found inside. KERRANG! uses this convention in almost every issue I have looked at and analysed
during this project, though they also add in a splash of colour. Usually either red, which adds
attitude and danger to the cover, or yellow which quickly catches the eye as warning and danger
signs are made these colours. I found only two examples of bright colour schemes while researching
and I have developed and challenged that convention because, while I want my front cover to be
attractive to my target audience, I didn’t want it to appear as ‘loud’ and dangerous as KERRANG!
magazine. I wanted my product to fit the punk typecast well, which is why I have used a lighter
background colour that runs throughout the magazine and brightly coloured text on the front cover
and contents page. I have not included an exclamation mark in the masthead which is popular
within these genres, but have used the same form of layout, i.e. having it at the top of the page in
capital letters. I have used a neater font than that of KERRANG!, but one that still conveys the punk-
rock genre better than a masthead font like NME’s would do.
Colours and fonts on my front cover compared with those on Kerrang! and NME

3. I have used the typical photography conventions on my front cover and DPS. In punk-rock
magazines I researched, I found that on the front cover the image of the artist/band is usually
posed and shot against a screen and is surprisingly rarely live. This type of photography is quite
aesthetically pleasing and the posed quality appealed to my target audience, so I used the same
technique. While researching different double page spreads, especially those interviewing boy
bands, I found the photography sometimes outside, sometimes in the studio and very often
posed. I developed this convention to make the boys appear more alive, cheeky and rebellious,
which will especially appeal to the female members of my audience.
I gave the band silly string to play with and took
photographs of them when they weren’t
expecting it to create the look I wanted for my
DPS

4. I have used a font similar to the ones found
in other punk rock magazines such as
KERRANG! on the headings of my contents
page.
The photography I have used here challenges the typical
live photography used on the contents pages of other
punk-rock magazines I have looked at. I decided not to
use live images as I wanted the contents page to have the
same feel as the DPS; cheeky and rebellious. That kind of
attitude is part of the punk genre, therefore really
appeals to my target audience because they feel as if the
bands/artists are more relatable.
I have used the contents page to attract
the audience by including adverts for
competitions to win free live tickets and
prizes that the audience will appreciate,
this is a convention used in all music
magazines.
I’ve challenged the typical
colour scheme for my
contents page to bring out
the punk element of the
genre, but kept it fitting
with the rest of my
magazine.

5. The dominant age group represented in my magazine is 15 – 18. Teenagers and young adults that
belong to this age range are often portrayed negatively in the media, as shoplifters, violent hoodies
and thugs in the most extreme cases. More frequently they are shown just as rebels without a course,
first world teenagers who don’t have problems so they invent problems and teenage drinkers. In the
news, if young adults have been reported because they have achieved above average grade or done
some sort of brilliant charity work, they aren’t given half as much space or word allowance than they
would be given if they had robbed a convenience store. However, this is more to do with bad news
selling better than good news.
I have both challenged that representation and played up to it slightly in my magazine.
I have named my magazine ‘CORRUPT’, which in itself represents the magazine and music genre in a
negative way. Yet this reaches out to teenagers and young adults who feel unfairly criticized by the
media and they, just as they do with the music itself, find comfort in the fact that there is a community
who understands and accepts them. The photography on the front cover is reminiscent of a set of mug
shots, which reinforces the stereotype that the media has thrust upon young adults, yet the bright
coloured writing shows a light-hearted, humorous angle to the front cover.

6. The target gender for my magazine is female, and my magazine represents them in a positive
way. Lately there has been a lot of controversy around female representation in the media.
There is so much focus on what they wear, what size they are etc. but my magazine shows
them as being individual, in proportion, real and happy. This promotes a very positive and
achievable set of role model for young women.
My magazine doesn’t represent a certain social group, just a group of people who like the same
kind of music. The genre of my magazine is punk-rock, however it does not represent typical
punks or typical rockers. I think this is a very positive way to design a music magazine because
it is less exclusive, and it shows that you don’t have to look a certain way to like a certain type
of music.

7. I researched magazines with a similar target audience and pitch to my own
product, and looked at their various media packs to come up with a list of
institutions. I chose Bauer Media to distribute my product. They distribute
two other music magazines, KERRANG! and Q which both have similar
audiences to my product, but there is still a gap that my magazine can fill. Q
magazine represents classic rock and roll and KERRANG! appeals to
everyone ‘From the younger teenage readers who are more open to different
genres of rock music – from EMO to Thrash etc, to the readers who respect
Kerrang! as an authority when it comes to our scene’s heritage bands.’
according to they’re site. My magazine wishes to represent the smaller sub-
genres like punk-rock and indie.

8. I found that the target audience for my
magazine will be a female, aged 15-18
who loves to music. She prefers
alternative music, mostly punk rock and
all of it’s sub-genres. She enjoys
listening to music, playing music and
reading about music. She finds
interviews about her favourite bands
and artists interesting, she can’t wait to
share the information she reads with
her friends. She reads about music
every week, and spends the rest of her
time at gigs, with friends or playing her
own instrument. She either is, or knows
someone who is in a band because she
loves to hear live music, and is
fascinated by new music being created
and hopes it makes an impact in the
world. Her style and ethics are
influenced by her favourite punk-rock
stars who have good, strong morals and
show this to their fans through their
lyrics.

9. One of the ways I attracted my audience was the font I used for the masthead. I
chose this font because it is bold and easy to read, yet it’s more interesting a font
such as Arial or Berlin Sans. I wanted to attract both genders, but mainly females.
This font works for that particular target audience because the colour and the fact
it’s in capitals appeals to the masculine side of my target audience, but the font has
a certain vintage look which is very attractive to a female audience.
The colour palette I chose because it was a little different from the colours usually
used to represent heavier music. The colours catch the eye and I can choose to bring
attention to certain headings and offers which will attract the audience further. The
use of bright turquoise and pink is attractive to the female audience of my product.
On the front cover I have used words like ‘EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW’ in bright
yellow capital letters to attract attention, the word exclusive makes the audience
feel as if they’re getting something extra. ‘Free Posters’ makes the audience think
they’ll be getting free merchandise, which is one of the most attractive things to an
audience who is paying for a product. I have also added turquoise splash with a
article heading and ‘find out on page 4!’ to invite the audience inside.

10. I have used words such as gig and
festival to address the audience
with words that they are familiar
with, this gives a feeling of
acceptance. Words like ‘live’ and
‘tour dates’ work in the same way.
‘I enjoy laughing at people who think
they’re better than me’ - Addressing
the audience with situations that have
happened to them in real life.
Live music –
addresses the
audience by
relating with
their interests
‘We were just
a garage band’
– famous
bands talking
about how
they made it, a
lot of the
audience will
look up to the
artist and feel
as if they have
things in
common.

11. Technology played an important role in
every stage of creating my product, and
every stage was recorded on Blogger.
For the research stage, I began by using
Survey Monkey to ask my audience
what they would like to see in my
magazine. Here is an example of one of
my questions, and how I learned to turn
the responses into bar charts and
percentage tables. I also posted my
survey questions on Facebook and
Twitter to get more results.

12. For the planning of my product I
used Microsoft Word and Microsoft
PowerPoint to present my work.
To create my magazine front cover
and contents page I use Adobe
Photoshop CS3 to edit pictures by
changing the brightness and
contrast, I also used it to layer texts
and images which made the two
pages look more professional. On
my contents page, the most helpful
thing it allowed me to do was cut
out pictures from they’re own
background and paste them onto
the page. For my double page
spread I used InDesign.

13. I used Youtube to upload my video
interview of my target audience for
my research of my magazine. I think
that watching a video of an interview
instead of just reading a script or
listening to a voice recording is
important because as well as hearing
the interviewers opinion you can see
who they are in how the dress and
how they act and how that shows
who my target audience are.
To upload this power point to my
blog I have also used SlideShare. I
found this convenient because it
makes it easy for my PowerPoint to
be viewed online and gives the
readers of my blog a better way of
interacting with technologies.

14. It is clear from these images that my College magazine is very basic compared to my
finished product. I had not used Photoshop before so the only technique on my first
front cover was elementary layering of text on an imported image. My contents page
is also very simple, with only two images and no real layout. My final product has
improved dramatically from these practises as I have included a bigger range of more
appropriate photography, a planned layout based on real music magazines and a lot
more text. The colour scheme on my College magazine works well for the product,
but I needed something more sophisticated for my final piece. I used more colours
and because there was more text I could easily put the colours together in an
attractive way. The college magazine was useful because it allowed me to experiment
with different techniques that have improved the look of my final product.