The document discusses the ways in which the author's music magazine uses conventions of real music magazines as influences. Key similarities and differences are highlighted between the author's magazine and Vibe magazine, a popular hip hop magazine. The author also discusses the layout, design choices, target audience, and use of technology and editing in creating their magazine.

1. Music Magazine Evaluation By Salaffina D'ore

2. My magazine uses conventions of real media products in many ways. I used Vibe magazine which is a hip hop magazine as a influence. For my central image on my front page I used a mid shot angle. Mid shots and close ups are common for music magazines. The difference between the two magazines is the masthead. a well known magazine like Vibe normally has the top of the central image just covering the masthead, because the magazine is so well known. However my magazine masthead has two words so it had to b separated and positioned differently to the Vibe magazine, they also differ with size vibe is more bold and appealing than my masthead, although both mastheads are positioned at the top of the magazine. My magazine includes a main story featured on the front of the magazine which attracts the audience. This feature is also known as a kicker. It is normally in a bold appealing font. My magazines kicker is bold black with a blue outline that matches the colour scheme of the magazine issue. Vibe magazine also has a kicker which is bold red writing attracting the audience. The colour also matches the colour scheme of the magazine red and black. The kickers on both my magazine and vibes magazine is to do with the central image. The artist on the front page is normally the main story within the magazine. Features are the mini stories in the magazine. Similarities between my magazine and vibe magazine is that the features are placed around the central image, using the colours of the magazine The difference between both magazines is the backgrounds. Vibe magazine has a plain background of two shades of grey. However the background on my magazine is of a brick wall which has bin edited with colours, this is because my magazine is a grime/urban magazine on the other hand vibe is a hip hop magazine. The other difference between the magazines are the top and bottom strip. Vibe magazine includes a top strip which includes information on ‘latest tracks’ nevertheless my magazine doesn’t include a bottom or top strip.

3. The main story (kicker) on the front page of the magazine is normally a double page article in the magazine. To the right is my double page article, and above is Vibe's magazine double page article. Both articles have callouts on the article that the artist has said. Both callouts are bold and in a different colour that stands out from the rest of the text in quotation marks. This can encourage the audience to read the rest of the article On my double page article I have a title that refers to the artist dress style. However in Vibe magazine it’s a 3page article on the first page it is the title and a picture and the start of the interview and continues onto the double page spread. The difference between the double page articles is the layout. My product is layout completely different to Vibes layout. Vibe magazine, has a picture on the left page of the double page article with the callout and the text on the right side of the double page article. I have a mirror image of the artist that reflects from one page of the magazine to the other, on either side, I also have a mini image at the bottom of the page, which can b classes as a advertisement as it is promotion the artist website. The article its self (text) is written between the mirror images underneath the title. The Main difference between the two articles is that, mine is in colour and vibes is in black and white, black and white emphasises the detail of texture, line, & shape within the picture.

4. For the contents page I used vibe magazine again as my influence. As you see both products have similarities and differences. The similar things about my product and vibes product is the placement of the image. They both are long shots and placed on the right side of the page. Most hip hop magazines have one picture on the contents page. Another similarity with the two contents pages is that the text is written on the opposite side the image, with features slightly above it. However the difference between them are the font size. My product has more clear, bigger, bolder text as well as the vibe’s product as much more smaller font and sticks to one colour. I used different colour font and size to attract the audience to the main stories within the magazine. Another difference is the background. However they both used black simple colours. This is so the writing will stand out more. My contents page has the main colour white with a black box covering a section, this is so it doesn’t look unattractive. The vibe magazine has a plain grey font that is edited (lightened in the middle to match the text colour. This links to the colour scheme of the front cover as well as the contents

5. My media product represents a particular social group. My magazine is targeted to 14-25 year olds. This is because a lot of teenagers are into grime and inspire to b like older grime artist such as Giggs, Tempa T and Skepta, however its not jus teenagers that rap, so do older people that are into grime. Most grime magazines are male dominated so more males read them however there are female grime artists out and about and females that like grime and inspire to be like Lady Leshurr (upcoming artist) Ruff Diamond AKA RD (female group, who have combined r&b, hip hop and grime together) and Princess Nyah., so I designed my magazine to target both genders. By targeting to male and females it widens the audience and attracts more females to the magazine because Grime is a very male dominated genre. My magazine attracts its target audience in many ways. one way is that on the front page the magazine includes a free designer belt (New Era). New Era because a lot of people where New Era clothing. It also includes big British grime artists within the magazine such as Tempa T which will draw in the audience to read about the artist, or just look at the pictures. The contents page targets the target audience because the main image is a image of a girl which shows that the magazine is not just male dominated. Having females within the magazine can attract both genres. Males that are attracted to females and females that inspire. The content page also includes features like interviews, upcoming artist, albums, singles and latest tours, this can capture the audiences eye, and persuade them to read the rest of the magazine. It also includes the website for the magazine, this gets the audience more involved with the magazine and can find out more online than what's in the magazine, for example competitions. The double page article, is a interview with Tempa T. Tempa T is a very popular grime artist, and his songs are played a lot at raves (clubs). In the interview questions from the audience are asked, this lets the audience know what they want to know about the audience. If they asked the magazine a question and the question was brought up in the interview they would read the magazine to see the answer. This makes the audience want to be involved within the magazine

6. Hearst Corporation would be a good institution for my magazine, it is one of the nation's largest diversified media companies. Its major interests include magazine, newspaper and business publishing, cable networks, television and radio broadcasting, internet businesses, TV production and distribution, newspaper features distribution and real estate. They produce magazines such as Seventeen, Redbook and O, The Oprah Magazine. The Magazines they produce are mostly female dominated. The colours are bright and appealing, which draws in the audience. Even so, they produce so male dominated magazines such as Popular Mechanics. My product would fit in well with all these magazines because its not male or female dominated, I have tried to make it as equal dominated as possible. However they do not produce any music magazines, so my magazine would be the first to be published in the Hearst Corporation institution. This will also widen the audience. By introducing a British genre (Grime) will also widen the audience of the magazine as well as the institutions. And hopefully reach the states and out of Europe, attracting the teenagers and young adults all around the world

7. My product’s target audience are 14-15year olds who are into the rap and grime, male and female. My magazine will attract them because of the artist's within the magazine. Another thing that will attract my audience is the stories within the magazine. The stories are interviews are real life stories, to do with the life styles on and off the streets in London and in Birmingham as well as Nottingham and Manchester. This will attract the audience because they can relate to the stories. My product also has a website that the views can access and become more involved with the magazine by emailing and asking questions about UK tours or just life in general. And hopefully become as successful as XXL hip hop magazine. British American

8. Magazines use different technology and software to create different effects and manipulation of images to sell the product. They do this by using effects and variations on images and backgrounds to make them more appealing to the target audience. For example airbrushing a face for a beauty magazine to make the face as clear as possible. This attracts the audience in wanting to have a clear face such as that person so they buy the magazine. For my product I used two software Photoshop and in design. Photoshop I used for effects, cutting and editing. I learnt how to edit and use effects for more detailed parts off the background scene by using colour and texture. This will attract the target audience because the background, effects and colours link to the genre. I used a filter tool to change the background to black and white before I colourized the individual bricks By using edits and changes to the original photo it makes the image look more realist an clear. However to have a successful edited image it take time and patience. There were technical choices and difficulties I went though and had to work out. The difficult parts producing my magazine had a huge impact on the finish product. Difficulties I had was designing the background of my front page and colouring the bricks and changing the texture. it took me a long time however the finish product turned out way better than I expected it to.

9. My magazine addresses its audience through colour. And the background. The background is a natural wall edited to link the colours with the clothing of the artist. The red is not part of the colour scheme but was used because the product is a special Christmas edition. The features page links to the front cover colour palette, different shades of blue black and white. This keeps the audience interested in the magazine especially if they like the front cover. However the main article in the magazine does not follow the colour scheme (blue black and white). Instead I used yellow and black white matches the clothing which the artist is wearing. This makes the double page spread more appealing to its audience. The features in the magazine will also attract the audience. I have used my questionnaire to help with what people like to see/read in music magazines. In the interview I used real life situations. For example how it is to live of the streets , and to have no education but still get far in life. This will attract younger audience that an relate to the story and will influence them.

10. There are four main technology software I used for my magazine. Each software I used were for different steps of my magazine construction. Photoshop was a software I used to edit and cut my images, as well as my background for the front page. I also used this software for my school magazine for the same reasons. Although I had experience with this software I still had some difficulties using it, and have learnt new things about Photoshop that I never knew before. During the process of making my magazine I have become more experience with using the software. Photoshop is very helpful and easy when you know how to use it properly, and now I fully know Photoshop and its uses, it will help me in the future. InDesign is another software I used. All my images and text was placed on InDesign on different layers. This is to sort out the different levels of construction. Before starting my AS course I was not aware of InDesin and how to use it however I have learnt how to use it to its fully use. One thing I have learnt that is important to know and use when creating any form of media on InDesign are layers, layers have a big impact on the finish product. Applying outer glows and effects I learnt quite quickly considering I was not familiar with the software, by knowing how to use Photoshop, gives you an idea and head start on how InDesign works. InDesign does exactly the same as photoshop but more detailed and creative, that’s why I had some difficulties. Another web programme that helped me widen my use of media was slide share. by using slide share you can put you can import you PowerPoint into a slide share, and upload onto blogger. This shows that I have used different types of media programmes to make my work look more interesting. For this course I used an online website that I upload all my work and research on. This website is called blogger. I was aware of blogger before starting my AS course as I used blogger for my Media Studies GCSE’s last year. I have learnt more this year about how to create pages to separate the research and planning from the construction of my product. I have learnt that by creating pages, makes it much easier for the examiner to read as well as me and my teacher. Throughout this process all my achievements and research I have been able to upload my PowerPoint's on to blogger with no difficulty at all. This keeps my work into categories in order. Blogger is a big help when it comes to carrying on from my last piece of work. By looking at the last post I made helps me progress onto my next piece of work, making it clear of what I have and have not done. I have learnt a lot about how different technology software's can help and effect my product in different ways.

11. Looking back at my preliminary task, I have learnt a lot in the progress of creating my school and music magazine. Throughout making my music magazine I have changed a lot of things from colours to the layout. My finished product has improved a lot from my flat plan, even though I changed certain things, however two things stayed the same; the layout of the masthead and the position and camera angle of the central image. This is because while creating ,my magazine I have learnt about more codes and conventions for music magazines. Codes and conventions are crucial to a successful magazine. I have learnt this by comparing my magazine to professional magazines. Even though I could not find any grime/urban magazines I used a hip hop magazine to compare my magazine with as they have a lot of similarities within the genre. By using a hip hop magazine I learnt how they attract the audience by using codes and conventions. One thing I learnt is how they edit the face of the artist/model, no matter what the genre of the magazine is. Hip hop magazines try to keep everything as simple and as ‘raw’ as possible however they do edit things such as the background, even if its just a filter. I knew most of the codes and conventions for music magazines, because I researched on them, yet I learnt them in deeper concept while creating my magazine. I learnt more on the difference between a feature and a main story, on the front cover. Most magazines in general have a main article that stands out on the front page and the including features around the picture, this applies the same for hip hop and grime magazines, but some hip hop magazines have not got features on the front cover of the magazine, just an artist. Even though some magazines are like this, because the magazine is so popular the audience knows that the artist on the front is more likely the main story in the magazine. Throughout researching about music magazines, I found that magazines have a continually break in them because they have no commercial pressure-talk. This shows that magazine have to have more persuading images and headlines to attract their audience, on the other hand television commercials used audio and moving images which attract their audience much quicker. To attract their target audience, magazine producers have to make the magazine as persuading as possible. They do this by a certain layout, certain images and certain catch phrases and headlines. The way images and text are placed on a page can make a lot of difference to t he attraction. For example, if the pictures or text are scattered, the audience wont find it as appealing as if they were in order or in a certain form of pattern this is because its easy to figure out, and easier to read. Another example is the colour scheme, if there's random colours on a double page article or front page that doesn’t match a colour palette or the genre of the magazine. By having a catching headline and font it draws the audience into wanting to read the magazine, this is why magazines use big bold fonts for the main features. If a magazines main story was a small font it wouldn’t attract the audience because they wouldn't think to read it because the font is so small, however when the font is bigger they can’t help but read it. Something that is manufactured and presented as reality in the world in the magazine will also attract the audience especially if the demographics are e-c2, children, middle class and students. This attracts the audience because they can relate to the stories within the magazine even though its not a gossip magazine.

12. The power of technology and controlling and manipulating music trends and popularity is used to attract the audience. Technology is used to make the artist look perfect, by editing the skin, an example of this is airbrushing. Airbrushing makes the artist’s skin look smooth clear and fresh. This manipulates the audience view towards the artist, and inspire to be like them, so they used advertising to promote certain make up and cream that they claim the artists use to make their skin so smooth. this draws in the audience to read the magazine and also purchase products. Manipulation has a very wide meaning when referring to music industry. Modern days its meaning is influencing a person to act or react in a desire manner. The aim of manipulation can be to make a individual achieve a ambition for a product or ideology. This can have a social effect of music magazines, because of how the audience inspire to be the artist featured on/ in the magazine. Major corporations produce magazines that sell their own products as an advertising outlet. Most magazine promote their own genre of artist albums, an example of this is, hip hop magazines advertise Lil Wayne and Mims. They use the magazine as a advertising outlet. My magazine also sells and promotes grime artists cd’s and mix tapes. By having a advertising outlet magazine, it widens the grime audience, and spreads the word about artist and their music.

13. Both front covers have a mid shot image of the artist, this is common for urban/hip hop magazines covers, because is symbolises that the magazine includes big, popular artist. Because the magazine is not specifically gender dominated, one of the two magazines have a female artist as a main story and the other has a male artist. This straight away gives the audience (mostly females) the idea that the magazine isn't just male dominated like most hip hop/ urban magazines Another similarity within the two magazines are that the features are placed around the central image. However the magazine on the left has features place all around the central image as the other magazines features are just on the left. The reason for this is because my product is a Christmas edition so the Christmas feature is on the right hand side underneath ‘ Christmas edition’ My product has a free item however my classmates magazine does not, even though it is the same magazine, this is because my magazine is a different issue and also a special edition. The free item attracts the audience and persuades them to buy the magazine. The free item, isn't just an item, but a designer belt. This also appeals to the audience because grime artist wear common designer clothes and ‘New Era’ is very popular worldwide. Similarities and differences (Front Cover) An additional association with the two magazine covers are the background. Both covers have a brick background. This links to the genre of the magazine, grime. By having this background me and my peer soon came to realise that it would appeal to the target audience even more. As the two magazines are different issues and editions we decided to edit and design out bricks differently according to our colour scheme and the clothing of the artist, this is so the colour link and the front cover looks bright and very eye catching. Although the front covers are the same magazine brand there are differences as well as similarities. The main difference is the layout of the text and images. My product has features placed around the image. On the other hand my peers product has got the on the left only and the image on the right. This does not effect the appearance however my product may attract the target audience more because there are more features, and the audience will want to read them.

14. Similarities and differences (Contents page) The biggest and most clear difference between the two content pages is the angle of the image. My product (on the left) has a long shot. This is simply because of the feedback I received from my music magazine questionnaire, there was a few people that said they like to see long shots in a music magazine. So I used my classes opinion and also thought it was important to use a range of camera angles, because it appeals to the audience. Urban/hip hop magazines use long shots throughout there magazines because their audience likes to see what the artist is wearing, this is because they aspire to be like them. This is why some magazines have posters or a few pages of what artists/stars wear, because the audience are interested. My peers content page (on the right) has again used a mid shot, of the same artist, this is to keep the audience interested in reading the magazine because he his a well-known artist. The layout of the two content pages do have relations. One is the features. They are on either side of the page leaving space on the opposite side for a image that is clear enough to attract the audience. The layout of the text is in big bold writing at the top of the page indicating to the reader that this is the content page. Some hip-hop/urban magazines do not have this, however most magazines in general do. Another connection between the two products is the colours of the text. The text may not be the same colour, however they both link to the colour palette of the magazine or what the artist is wearing. Yet again this catches the audiences eye, to see that the colour palette runs through the magazine.

15. Similarities and differences (Double Page Article) There is one difference between me and my peers article. My product (on the left) is a double paged spread however my peer chose to do a advertisement on one page which is common in most hip-hop/urban magazines. By having a page as an advertisement advertises that genre of music, it also promotes artists or upcoming artist and informs the audience on where they can by the artists’ music and how much it is. Both of the articles have used different colour text to represent who is saying what in the interview, this attracts the audience because of the bright colours. The common colour for text within a magazine is black, because its bold and always stands out on a brightly coloured background. We both used white backgrounds, this helps the text stand out. For my peers article the chosen colour for the interview yet again matches the colour palette of the magazine, blue. This colour runs right through the magazine indicating that that is the colour palette for that issue. However throughout my product the colour of the writing normally matches what the artist is wearing, this is because it is the main story within the magazine, which will make the audience want to read the article because the colours appeal to them. Even though my peer has an advertisement and a article and I have a double page article she still managed to have two images on them two pages, however the difference is that my to images are actually a mirror image. When I was researching on codes and conventions within music magazines I come across and article with a mirror image, straight away it caught my eye, and I thought it was a very effective way to attract the audience. the result of having a mirror image turned out better then I thought.