Music magazine evaluation complete email

Music Magazine Evaluation

Joe Barron

In what way does you media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?

It is clear that the majority of the hundreds of music magazines on the
shelves are different, but they all stick to the same sort of format. This
consists of having a barcode; a price; a glossy main image; cover lines;
strap lines/skylines; lures and so on. This way, the magazine’s brand is
established and the audience’s familiarity with the magazine can be
fulfilled for every issue.

You will notice that my
magazine has adopted
all of these
conventions, and even
attempted to develop
these. I have done this
by implementing
conventions such as the
essential main image
and the masthead being
‘eye-catching’, but I have
tried to develop a
magazine that is
different to others.

Like any other magazine, I have a masthead that is
trying to tell the audience that this is the magazine’s
name. Similarly to Q, the name is relevant to music.
Q derives from the term, ‘Cue the music.’ Taking
inspiration from this, I have used musical
terminology to try and tell my target audience that
this magazine is a serious music magazine, which
helps determine my target audience of being from
people of both genders aged from around 18-40.

The way in which it is written, ‘deciBel’, is the
technical way of writing it. I have stylised it to try and
make it look modern, sort of like the way ‘iPod’ is
written with a lower-case ‘i’. With the letter ‘i’ now
being an iconic letter in the world of media today, I
have tried to take from other elements of the media
in order to portray my magazine as iconic.

The typography is very clear-cut
and precise, to show that the
magazine is serious. It also makes
it look very neat. I have opted as
my magazine’s main colour to be
burgundy. I have done this
because it has connotations of
being regal and of a higher class.
I have tried to make my magazine
to be of a higher class, which is
why I have made the price £3.99;
luxury pricing is used to make the
audience believe that the
product is of good quality, so I
have made sure the price is in a
big enough font for people to see
it and for this effect to come into
fruition, but not for it to
overwhelm the front cover.

I have overdone the usual 6-12 cover lines that a magazine front cover
normally has, and I have done so for a reason. I have chosen this magazine
issue to be the ninth edition; so still fairly new. Therefore, I would need
the content of the magazine to contribute to the selling of it, rather than
rely on the name of the magazine or the front image. I have listed all of
the featured artists down the right side of the magazine neatly around the
main image. I have also put a big ‘+’ like Billboard Magazine and others to
show that there is more within the magazine, making the audience feel
like they are getting a lot for their money. I have selected a neat
typography yet again, but I have chosen the colour black. I have done this
because this is not the main selling point of the magazine. The theme
colour of burgundy would only be used to try and make the audience think
that anything written in this colour is important because the masthead has
been done so.

On the left I have put even more cover lines but
also with linguistic techniques such as rhetorical
questions etc. to involve the reader and create
intrigue. I feel that sometimes other magazines
such as Q fail to do this, partly because they are
already established, but I still feel that this is an
example of me trying to develop conventions of
real media. Moreover, this I have put in a bigger
font to express the importance of these cover
lines.

The biggest part of the magazine
front cover is, of course, the main
image. Researching main images I
noticed that nine times out of
10, the pose will have little or
nothing to do with music. They are
normally just iconic pictures or
quirky; striking a pose or just staring
at the camera. It is because of this I
have tried to recreate this. Using
direct address, I staged a pose to
look as if the artist is thinking about
something. It is this random pose
that will then make the audience
think about it, creating enigma
once more. The colour of the hoody
being worn is grey. This has been
done to accentuate the minimalistic
approach that this magazine has
taken.

I have also put a pull line on top of
this, underneath the artist’s name. This is in
burgundy to represent its importance. The
quotation that has been taken is the artist
criticising another artist. This could spark
controversy, making the magazine more
interesting.

When researching magazines, it was clear that
they all had a house style. A prime example of
this would be Q; with the colour red running
throughout. Therefore, I tried to imitate this
with the colour burgundy running through
onto the contents and with the same fonts
being used.

I wanted my
contents page to be
neat and clean.
Using the same font
as the masthead, I
indicated to the
reader that this
page was the
contents page, and
placed it at the top.

I then ran the contents
of the magazine round
the images. I gave a
small summary or
element of the main
body of text that
would go with the
article to give a brief
insight to the reader as
to what is going to be
spoken about in each
article in order to
create intrigue. I used
burgundy again to
stress something’s
importance.

Due to the passing of Whitney Houston, I thought it would
be a good idea to make an article about her featured in the
magazine. As she was a very important figure in music, I
differed from the house style and put the heading in gold to
represent quality, correlating with the quality her music has
shown for years. I also used a traditional font in order to go
with this. This is something I noticed that Q have done for
things to represent quality, and therefore I thought I would
adopt this technique. Moreover, I positioned it in the
bottom corner of the magazine to almost give it its own
place in the magazine as it is that important.

The images on the contents
page had to be researched to
get it right. The first thing I
noticed is that in contrast with
the main image of the front
cover, they seem to be a lot
more natural rather than
having the artificial
background etc, and they use
more props and instruments
as it is, after all, a music
magazine.

I decided to put an image of the artist on the
front cover there as he is one of the main
selling points of the magazine.

I made the artist wear grey again to go with
what he is wearing on the front cover. As well
as this, I went for an outdoor setting to go
with the artist’s persona; that being an
acoustic style artist. I was trying to imitate an
image I had seen of James Vincent McMorrow.

Then, with the other image I
went for an ‘indie’ artist
surrounded by things that
would completely contrast this
look, like a brown leather chair
and candles. I did this because
of the ironic quirkiness that is
seen in many magazines today.
Furthermore, I wanted to make
sure that an instrument was
involved because many
contents pages feature an
image from a live show, and
since I had not opted not to do
so, I still felt it necessary to
show denotative images of
music.

Double page spreads in music magazines
seem to all be very similar, apart from the
house styles that each magazine has being
shown through. Again, to correspond with the
rest of my magazine, the neat and tidy look
needed to continue.

Q and Billboard both
seemed to stress the
importance of the
image that would be
shown. It is because of
this that I dedicated a
whole one side to the
image. I positioned it
on the left as it would
be the first thing the
audience’s eyes would
see. Because my artist
has ginger hair and
that would be
something I would
feature throughout the
double page spread, I
needed to make sure it
was one of the first
things the eyes saw so
that the audience
could understand the
relevance of the
colour.

A pull quote was placed in the top left of the
main image so that the audience could
understand that the text still had masses of
importance. I put this in orange and selected a
font that would represent handwriting;
because the artist, Ed Sheeran, is a well known
songwriter, and I tried to portray this through
the typography.

To the right of the
main image I put the
artist’s name going
downward, with the
word ‘exclusive’ to the
right. Here, I was
trying to create
symmetry to make the
whole double page
spread easy on the
reader’s eye. I even
stylised it by putting
the ‘E’ in ‘exclusive’
backwards to create
even more symmetry
with the ‘E’ for ‘Ed’.

Ed Sheeran’ has
been written in
orange again so
that it can
recognised with
the artist, but the
‘exclusive’ has
been written in
burgundy to
continue the
magazine’s house
style and to show
that the magazine
has obtained
exclusivity with
this artist.

On the right side of the double page spread I
have put the main body of the text. At the
top, I have put a heading stating ‘The coolest
ginger in music.’ Here, I am emphasising the
importance of his hair colour, accentuating the
artist’s image. The heading has been written
in burgundy and the font is the same
traditional font as the main body, but the
word ‘ginger’ is slightly bigger than the rest of
the heading, once again, emphasising it.

AaBbCcDdEeFfGg...
The main body of the text has been
written almost like a tabloid paper
would do. I have used the traditional
font ‘Georgia’ as this font dominates
online tabloids and I wanted this
interview to be informative and neat;
as this would be what my target
audience would most likely want. I
was also trying to make it look
similar with Q. Q places the first
initial of the artist behind the text in
red, and this is something they do in
all of their issues. Obviously I wasn’t
going to completely imitate an iconic
feature that they have
developed, but I thought that I would
put the first letter of each section of
text in orange, once again, making
the colour and the artist’s hair colour
important; so that a quirkiness could
run through it.

At the end of the text I placed a ‘>’ to indicate
to the reader to turn the page for the rest of
the text. I found it quite the rarity that a single
interview would only take up two pages, and
therefore, I decided to portray the interview
as being longer. I placed this in burgundy
because I wanted to differentiate from the
black typography the reader has been made
accustom to briefly.

At the bottom, like other magazines, I put the
magazine logo and page number with other
added information like the magazine’s
website. I have placed all of this is the font
used for the masthead to continue house
style. I have placed the ‘dB’ in the middle and
in a bigger font, also in burgundy to show its
importance, and the other two features in
black and smaller so they will obviously still be
seen, but aren’t as important.

How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
I tried to create a magazine that
could represent a plethora of
particular social groups, not just
one. My magazine is a general
‘pop’ magazine, but not a pop
magazine in terms of the genre; it
is in terms of popular music. That is
why, you’ll notice, that the content
of the magazine ranges from artists
like the X Factor’s Cher Lloyd to
rock legends U2. This is why my
magazine doesn’t have
typographies or main images to
suggest that they are weighted
towards a particular genre of
music, they are fairly neutral but
still aesthetically pleasing to the
eye the sense that they look good
and the magazine is able to come
across as being a quality magazine.

Because of this, my magazine is of an
unconventional genre, but like the main
music magazines such as Billboard, NME
and Q, my magazine now is able to have
a much larger audience.

The pull quote on the front mentions a
majorly influential figure in UK music, Noel
Gallagher. His genre of music has a pretty
large audience rather than being a niche, so
this also increases the size of the magazine’s
audience alongside the list of artists featured
in the magazine.

The main image on the front cover represents
stripped, singer songwriters as he looks
simple, correlating with his style of music.

The image on the contents
page of the same artist
does this too, but the
second image represents a
completely different social
group, which is what I
wanted to achieve; a
diverse magazine. The way
in which the girl has messy
hair and indie style clothing
contrasts with the acoustic
genre of music my other
artist portrays, making my
magazine accessible to a
vast audience.

My double page
spread then
represents
another social
group. Being of a
completely
different genre of
music from the
other two
images, I feel like I
have achieved
this. Ed Sheeran
represents the
quirky members of
the magazine’s
audience as he has
the name ‘Cyril’
on his guitar.

I’d say it is the artists that ultimately represent
the social groups, and my magazine has to
merely remain neutral whilst still giving of the
impression of it being of quality.

In terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, I
would argue that my magazine fulfils the
higher end elements of it. It fulfils the element
of love/belonging because it represents a vast
amount of social groups so that people can
feel a sense of belonging when they read it.

It represents esteem because the way in
which all of the social groups are being
represented – which is being successful and
popular – the people who fit into the
particular artist’s social group will feel good
about themselves.

And I believe that the magazine fits into the
level of self-actualisation. This is because, for
example, the double page spread speaks
about an artist who starts at rags and ends up
in riches. The reader may read this and feel as
if they can achieve this too if they desire to.

What kind of media institution might
distribute your product and why?
There are numerous amounts of institutions
that may distribute my magazine, but the
magazine must fit into what they like just as
much as the audience. So, I researched four
institutions: Bauer Media, IPC Media and
Development Hell ltd.

Bauer Media is a very influential group in the world of
music. They own a 50% stake in music channels such as
Q TV, 4Music, Kiss TV, The Box, Magic TV, Kerrang! TV
and Smash Hits TV. As well as this, they also own Q and
Kerrang! with radio as well. Bauer Music Group issues
around 38million magazines a week. They are clearly
involved with a diverse amount of music genres and
types of media and their wide international
basis, which is why I would consider Bauer Music
Group a suitable institution for my magazine.

IPC Media is a subsidiary group, and is very
much involved in publishing – suitable for a
magazine. They own such things as IPC
Newspapers, IPC Magazines, IPC Trade and
Technical, IPC Books, IPC Printing and IPC New
Products. Because of there establishment in
the printing industry and their knowledge, I
would say that they are perfect for a
magazine, with them already having IPC
Magazines.

Development Hell ltd. is a much smaller media
group in Islington, London. However, for a new
music magazine, they would be very good for
launching domestically in order to get the
magazine up and running. They currently publish
Mixmag, the UK’s biggest dance music
magazine, with Mixmag TV also. It is because of
the domestic establishment that I would consider
these to also be a very good institution who
would distribute our magazine.

Who would be the audience for your
media product?
My magazine’s target audience would be both
men and women of the ages from about 18-
40. I would say specific social
groups, ethnicities and classes of people
wouldn’t be too specific, as my aim was to
create a general popular music magazine that
didn’t appeal to a specific group of people.

With many saying that Q has now steered
away from writing about the music and
focuses more on a band’s image, I wanted to
create a magazine that doesn’t play it safe and
that would only write about spefiic things; I
wanted to create a magazine that could fill the
gap in the market and satisfy the people who
used to read Q, but were discouraged to by
the turning point the magazine took during
the late 1990s.

How did you attract/address your
audience?
Due to the fact that
my target audience is
more mature and
more sophisticated, I
wanted to attract
them by presenting
the magazine to be of
a good quality, first
and foremost. The
typography and
clean-cut style each
element of the
magazine has
undertaken does this.

The skyline: ‘The UK’s loudest magazine!’
metaphorically describes the magazine. The
use of the word ‘loudest’ just reminds the
reader of the magazine’s genre. As well as
this, the use of a superlative tells the audience
that the magazine is the best.

Since I have a wide
audience, I made
sure that the
audience was made
aware through the
front page - the first
thing they see – of
all the artists
featured to try and
appeal to every
social group taking
an interest in the
magazine.

What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing your product?
When making my product, I wanted to make sure
that the photos were of a high quality, so I
dedicated a lot of time learning about how to use
Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 and Adobe Lightroom
4.3. I did this by experimenting on the
softwares, watching tutorials on YouTube and
reading books such as Adobe Photoshop by Focus
Guide.

I learnt the most about Lightroom; because I
needed to learn how to effectively airbrush
skin and replace blemishes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahrmz5o_
1yo

On Photoshop I mainly learnt how to change
the brightness levels and how to use colour
replacement to create an artificial
background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7sXLMV
5IhI

I also learnt a lot about using Microsoft Office
Publisher 2007. In trying to achieve a tabloid
style body of text for the double page
spread, I learnt about placing the text into
columns, using autoflow and dropping a cap.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
task?
Looking back at it, it was clear that I was again
trying to create a high quality magazine, but I
did make some mistakes.

I was quite pleased with the staging of the main
image of my preliminary task, but I didn’t know
enough about Photoshop to enhance the lighting
levels, and so the background of it is rather
orange and unappealing. Moreover, the
typography of the cover lines isn’t as neatly
around the main image as I have achieved in the
full task, so my research into music magazines
and magazines in general has helped the
structure of my magazine.

The contents page I created for the preliminary
task is where I made the biggest errors. The
contents page I made for the pleliminary task is
boring, dull, and has far too much space. I think
that I had the right idea, but I didn’t know
enough about contents pages to create an
effective one.

I think what makes my contents page for the
music magazine most effective is the
pictures, as it adds colour to it and is
something else to look at.

The contents page for the preliminary task
doesn’t relate too much to the front cover in
terms of house style, but it is something I
managed to do for the music magazine.

Overall, I would say that the research and
knowledge I gained from the point of making
the full product was key to creating a
successful, realistic media product.

Music magazine evaluation complete email

Music magazine evaluation complete email

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