The document discusses the evaluation of a music magazine created by the author for a school project. It examines how the magazine uses conventions of real music magazines in its design, such as color schemes, mastheads, and cover lines. Images are included showing the design and layout elements of the magazine, such as the cover, contents page, and double-page spread. Conventions from magazines like Vibe and Q are analyzed and how the author both challenged and developed certain conventions in their own magazine design.

1. My music magazine
evaluation
BY FARZANA AHMED

2. Q1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
My music magazine uses a few codes and conventions of a real music magazine such as the clolour
scheme. Before creating the real magazine on photoshop I had researched many R&B/hip hop magazines
and from that I have gathered a typical pattern of colour schemes:
In these particular R&B music magazines, there is a re-occuring colour theme of vibrant colours such as
RED and ORANGE. These colours connotate with ideas like rebelling, danger and seems to evoke more
with loud, out spoken people. This is a convention that I have more developed than used, however I
used red more as it really does seem to be the main colour for R&B, like their trademark almost. It helps
identify this genre of music on shelves on hundreds of other music magazines, these secondary colours
really favour the magazines in helping them stand out from the rest.

3. Q1. continued...
Front cover
Here is my front cover and it's colour scheme: I have
chosen a colour scheme of orange, red, and white,
mainly, as I have some blue in it too. I have gathered
these range of colours froma mixture of R&B magazines
such as VIBE, XXL etc. These colours arevery popular
in this particular genre of magazine. They stand out as
opposed to dreary colours which would catch the eye of the
demographic for this magazine. I think I followed the
convention whenit comes to colour schemes as I think
this is a very important factorfor the audience when it comes
to buying this magazine out of the rest
as it acts as a determining factor to what
could be inside this magazine.

4. Q1. continued...
Another convention of a music magazine is a masthead. On most popular R&B magazines such as XXL,
Billboard, Seventeen, all have very prominent mastheads that are big in font size yet part covered by the
main centre image. From my research this is something I had considered in the making of magazine. I
wanted, and did, emulate this particular code of a music magazine as I think this is highly important in
distinguishing mine, and other, magazines from each other. The masthead is one of the first things a
person should notice about the magazine, as well as the centre image. A lot of magazines, VIBE, overlap
the main centre image onto the masthead, this gives it a cool and edgy look to the magazine and
makes it seem very casual.
Also cover lines are must to make a music magazine look as authentic as possible, these are tiny snippets
or quotes of what is inside the magazine which could be of interest to the buyer which they would then
purchase to read. My cover lines are stories of which usually dominate the music industry media like what
is popular in the charts now and new music artists/bands they may be interested in as they are of the
mutual genre the buyer likes and what the magazine has to offer, this allows people that'll actually be
interested in their music to discover them . However I did challenge this convention in a certain way as I
didn't necessarily change it, but I used less of it. I only used two pull quotes on the front cover of my
magazine as I didn't want to jam pack the front cover with tonnes of stories like girly gossip magazines do,
I wanted mine to be cool yet classy.

5. Q1. Continued...
Here is the centre image overlapping the
masthead as I had said in the previous slide.
''VIBE'' magazine is arguably the biggest
R&B magazine in America. The main
image of Beyonce, her head overlapping
the ''VIBE'' masthead is a very normal
convention for this genre of magazine,
in almost every single issue of ''VIBE''
they do this. It gives off a very edgy
impression of the magazine, almost as
if they don't follow the rules because it
isn't 'normal' per se. Hoever I kept this
very popular convetion as it looks good
and also adds a sense of authentication to
my magazine

6. Q1. Continued...
The common convention of cover lines as I had mentioned, I have used here in my front cover as this
is something all music magazines use. This attracts buyers to your magazine as it's something they read
IN the shop which would eventually decide whether they would like to buy YOUR magazine.
Therefore these cover lines need to be relevant to your genre and audience. My cover lines are of
two different topics/articles that are in my magazine. As it's a R&B music magazine, my audience
would want to be in the loop about the hottest hits out right now, also a chance to advertise a new
band which enables readers to find new musical love in my magazine, making this magazine even
more special to them as it may have birthed new idols.

7. Q1. continued...
Here is the transition from my first what I
thought was completed, to my actual
final music magazine front cover. Here
you can see I have taken out all the
secondary images from the internet and I
have taken my own using the green
screen at my school to replace them with
my own primary images. I have also
made my ''GENESIS'' masthead much
more dominant as I had seen 99% of
music magazines do so. I also added in a
pull quote at the top of the magazine as
this adds more credibility to the
magazine. I also put in a puff quote at
the bottom of a competition and made
other changes like font, colours etc to
finally make an authentic looking music
magazine.

8. Q1. Continued
Contents page My contents page follows codes and conventions of other music magazines
as tried to emulate a copy of a ''Kerrang'' Magazine issue I had seen, on the
contents page, at the bottom, there is a letter from the editor. I did one too as
I had seen quite a few magazines do this as part of my research. Especially
those that issue their magazine only monthly. I feel as though this makes the
magazine more personal to the reader, as well as adding my own picture to it.
I had my picture taken with a green screen and had my brother send me a
picture of his music mixing studio which has his music degrees hung up on the
wall and then superimposed my image onto that background because it
looks like a professional music magazine editor's office, to give the impression
of reality, as much as I could. Also along the top of my contents page there is
a series of names I had placed, one after another, as I had seen a copy of
''VIBE'' do this which briefly tells you what artists/bands will be in the magazine.
Everything on my magazine, down to the content of the writing to the images
are original which means I had to make up a lot of different names but I used
my knowledge of this genre to my advantage and made them sound as
realistic as possible. For the ''G'' in the top left hand corner, I took inspiration
from ''Q'' magazine as I thought it looks very sophisticated and could end up
being a trademark in a way to gain more recognition. The main image of the
female 'artist' on the right, I took with a green screen is an image that is very
likely to be used as a contents page image as I see a lot of this sort in ''VIBE''.

9. Q1. Continued...
As you can see, I have made a great amount
of changes to my contents page from the
beginning of production. The boxes had made
it look extremely amateur hence why I have
removed them and merged some. I also
changed the formation of my page numbers
due to more research I had found magazines
put the numbers in boxes and on the first line
of the sentence, as opposed to the last,
another convention I have followed. I have
also kept the colour scheme consistent with
the front cover with neutral/bright colours like
orange, red etc. I also replaced the
secondary image with a primary one I had
taken my self as I hope it keeps it consistent
with the front cover images with the same kind
of dress sense which would determine the
type of audience that would buy this
magazine

10. Q1. Continued...
Double page spread
My DPS colour scheme is of grey, reds, and white,
this challenges and uses the convention of other
music magazine colour schemes as a lot of R&B
magazines use red more often than not as it
seems to be 'their' colour as it connotates with
danger and rebellion. However I have
challenged this convention also as I used a lot I put my article down one side and then the images of
of different variations of grey and I haven't seen who I was writing about (George B) next to the article
a lot of magazine also use this. I chose to do this as this is a convention I have seen in an issue of ''NME''
because I feel it compliments the red writing very magazine do so. I used this convention as I feel it allows
well and the clothes of ''George B'' my centre the magazine to look more professional and structured,
image artist. It also fits in well with the 'album given a few ammendments to my flat plan for the DPS.
covers' along the side that I have also took myself I also did a album recommendations section on my DPS
and superimposed. I added my competition box as an issue of ''Q''' did this on their DPS, I feel it adds a
in the bottom right hand corner in a blue colour lot of authenticity to my magazine also the reason it's
as this is also another typical R&B colour, with a there is people are always looking for new music, that
hint of red to add consistency. I also added a they'll enjoy, to listen to. So adding the album art, name
cover line down the bottom of the page which is and a few words about the album would be enough to
an internet URL to ''George B's'' iTunes page which make them curious about the artist/bands and
I had seen quite a few magazines do like ''Q'' and hopefully open up new artists to the reader, which I feel
''Seventeen''. is very helpful.

11. Q1. Continued...
After some feedback, I had decided to change my DPS quite a
lot from my first one (in the middle of the production of it), firstly I
had decided to remove all secondary images, so I removed the
picture of Trey and took my own primary images of ''George B''
using a green screen. Also initially anything I wrote about was
about Trey, an already existing artist so I made changes to make
it all fictional like album names etc. Hence why I removed the
''Chapter V'' logo and replaced it with ''Chapter 4'' which is
George B's. My layout also changed drastically as I gave it a lot
of thought and after research into more music magazines I
realised I couldn't make the boxes look so... boxy. So I cropped
around George B's body and placed it in order to get a more
realistic photo shoot effect as a lot of music magazines now do
that, without a mis en scene, however I did add a mis en scene
to the album covers on the side as after looking at many I felt it
was necessary to keep the realism up . I kept the colours as I said
I agree with the colours I have chosen.

12. Q2. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
My music magazine genre is R&B. As I took most of my inspiration from ''VIBE'' magazine which is usually
aimed at older teenagers, I tried to emulate this myself for my magazine. People of black ethnicity are more
likely to pick up my magazine as it may appeal to them more as my magazine focuses a lot on rap artists.
My social demographic of ethnic teenagers would be into what they wear a lot, and new fashion trends
that their favourite artist is wearing. In regard to my research beforehand I found that my demographic are
more females than males, however not that much more, more or less the same which would mean they're
into the same kind of things in regard to their music tastes as rap is becoming more and more versatile and
even a lot female rappers are uncovering more recently hence why my social demographic may get wider.
Also when it comes to fashion, my social demographic of females would be more into their trainers, jackets
and beanies. Since society is now changing a lot, so are music magazines, to fit in and get more people to
buy their magazines. The dominant representation of my demographic is that they dress with gold chains,
baggy jeans and a hoody. Always looking for trouble maybe, and all they know well is music. This may be
true, or may not be true because what we DO know is that they can't live without their music! It's one of the
biggest parts in their lives and can't go a single day without it, hence why music magazines are such a
booming business. My media product represents my targeted social groups through the language, images
and what it has to offer, why are teenager may buy it as opposed to a 28 year old from Windsor is all in the
image. The familiar faces from their T.V programmes will gain interest, their music icons etc. This particular
factor is extremely important as a lot of teenagers these days are aspiring music artists, more so now than
ever as you see so many successful people blowing up in the media, this magazine gives them hope as a
lot of articles in these types of magazines are stories of how they achieved as they may as well of started off
from reading the same magazine too.

13. Q2. continued...
Here are images of what my demographic may look like/similar to:
FEMALES:
MALES:

14. Q3. What kind of media institution
might distribute your media product
and why?
For me to understand what type of distribution would be best for both me and my audience, I researched
what ''VIBE'' did as it one of the most popular R&b magazines out at the moment with the most similar
demographic to mine and also because I have used this magazine as an inspiration to me many times
throughout the production of this music magazine. Therefore whatever institution distributes theirs, would be
most likely to distribute mine. I would like my magazine to be available to purchase in stores as ''VIBE''
magazine sell their magazine in stores. This allows buyers to physically own the magazine and may feel more
personal to them. Also as these types of magazines frequently advertise that there are glossy posters in their
magazines which is an important factor in these magazines as the target audience are teenagers who lust
over their favourite celebrities featured in the magazine. They also have a website in which can be accessed
via iPod, iPhones, iPads, Mobile devices and the computer. This is something I would like my magazine to have
as a method of distribution too as it touches a much wider market. Making it far more accessible to a
generation where everyone uses these devices on a regular basis.
The current publisher for ''VIBE'' magazine is ''Acess Network'', they are especially associated with urban
entertainment and media. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that it would be a disadvantage if I was
to ask them to publish my magazine as they already publish so many that are so similar! My magazine is very
much so similar to the style of Access Network, however they have already 25 websites associated which
would make it that much more difficult to get mine to succeed. Although this is expected as I picked a very
large part of the media, thought this doesn't degrade my magazine any less as I followed many conventions
to achieve this look.

15. Q4. Who would be the audience for
your media product?
The target audience for my R&B music magazine would be 16-19 year old teenage boys and girls. A
mixture of cultures perhaps of black, white, Asian and biracial people. In regards to the class of people, I'd
say middle class people who're studying in college/sixth form/university, as they'd most likely be students.
They would listen to a range of artists from rap to soul singers and those two categories have recently
combined to create one whole different genre that appeals to a more mass of people. The artists that
would be in my magazine would highly appeal to the target audience because when you know a
specific range of people like this one artist, it makes it easier to identify what other artist they like, either
through collaborations and similarity of music. R&B music does tend to appeal more to teenagers which
already this fact in itself attracts my target audience seeing as it is a R&B music magazine. The magazine
also holds conventions in which are typical of what the audience would expect like posters, exclusive
photoshoots etc. Also the fact that so many R&B magazines are such global hits, it shows this is exactly
what they want, you must deliver this every issue. Also through customer feedback which is so easily
accessed through the internet, you can alter what they like and what they don't like which gives you more
of an idea of what my target audience wants. Teenagers who know their music, who want to know what
are the biggest hits out at the moment, what new artists/bands that have formed, excited to enter
competitions and simply who have a passion for R&B music

16. Q5. How did you attract/address your
audience?
In order to attract and address my audience, I had to find out what attracts them
into buying a particular magazine off a shelf amongst hundreds of others. I did this
by first looking online at magazines and my own magazines at what were re-
occuring in magazine issues. In addition to this research, I did my own survey on
www.surveymonkey.com and issued them through my social networking site
(Facebook) and asked people to fill them out, I then gathered the responses and
made different variations of charts and graphs on www.chartgo.com. I also
interviewed the target audience to get first hand information (video is on my blog).
Through all this research I had gathered I considered this all during the production
of my music magazine.
Firstly it had come to my attention that the main and biggest image on the front
cover is the most important. 18 out of 20 people who had done my questionnaire
had said ''yes'' to buying a music magazine based purely who was on the front
cover. This was enough evidence for me to enable me to focus on getting a perfect
centre image. At first I had picked a secondary image of a global superstar, during
my ammendments it had been recommended that I use primary images, therefore
I took a picture of someone who looks like they could be one, by dressing him in
suitable rap star attire and pose. The pose of George B is of him looking into a
distance with arm behind him, by first glance of this image you can see a story
being told, which is complimented by the pull quote going across his image, this
enables the magazine to almost tell his story through the image on the front cover,
thus readers feeling inclined to buy it to find out more.

17. Q5. Continued...
Another way I attracted my audience is through the art of name dropping. In my double
page spread there is an article on star ''George B'', from my research I have found out that
my demographic especially are hooked onto names they see in the magazine, any familiar
names they see or have heard of is something that would make them buy the magazine,
therefore in my DPS I added big time celebrities stating that George B has worked with
them or will, this enables the audience to develop an interest in MY magazine. Now to
address my audience I used the style of language that would relate to them, a style in
which they would understand, this was an easy task for me to do seeing as I actually am my
demographic of audience. I talked formally yet adding bits of slang/colloquialisms they
would understand, this way the magazine stays sophisticated yet urban. Also on the
contents page, along the top I put a banner of 'celebrity' names as ''VIBE'' does this pretty
often, almost as a hook.

18. Q6. What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
During the process of constructing this product I feel as though I've learnt more about technology than I ever
have. When I first started this course I only knew the absolute basics of Microsoft Office and I had absolutely
no idea how to use Photoshop. Not only have I developed skills on Photoshop, but other software too like
Fireworks, in Design etc. When I first opened up Photoshop, which is what I mainly used to construct my music
magazine, I couldn't even open up a blank canvas, in my first lesson I was extremely nervous and thought I'd
never get the hang of it. Eventually I did. After much practice and trial and error I can finally create and edit
in Photoshop. Now I can help people! I had some difficulty in cropping images (around a body for example)
and after looking on YouTube at tutorials and help from class mates, I eventually ended up cropping all my
images by self in less than a couple of hours, after many attempts. On Photoshop I have learnt so many new
things, a few of them are how to fade images, add different types of fonts of a website called ''DaFonts'' and
also I learnt all about what ''Layer'' means and how helpful they can be when creating a complicated piece
of work. I also learnt techniques in making things such as images look more professional with the help of the
rubber/fade tool. I also used many other websites to help organise my blog and work. For example to help
complete my evaluation I used ''Snaggy'' a website which allows you to copy and paste images to instantly
crop and save and then insert, this was extremely helpful as it allowed me to instantly put in images of what I
was talking about in my previous slides. Also organising my work with the help of Microsoft Word and the ability
to email work has helped my construction of my product as it has made it really accessible anywhere. All this
technology combined has enabled me to create great pieces of work, and along the way allowed me to
gain such precious experience in technology that I may need in the future, experience that would put me
ahead of others, thanks to this piece of work.

19. Q7. Looking back at your
preliminary task, what do you
feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full
product?

20. My
preliminary
task at the
beginning of
the year. We
were asked
to make a
school
magazine
cover using
the
knowledge
we have of
editing and
producing
now and a
camera.

21. My final front cover,
contents page and
double page
spread

22. Q7. Continued...
Looking back at my initial task, I have realised I've come a very long way. My preliminary task is the epitome
of basic. I used Microsoft Word as I has already said that I literally had zero knowledge in editing and creating
using that sort of software like Photoshop and in design. There is no structure or actual thought put into it, as I
didn't have the first clue about a magazine. It doesn't look at all like a magazine, all I did was big writing and
a primary image I took of students at my school. Because that was all I knew at the time really. However I
have evidently learnt so many new things, the list doesn't stop. My progression is immense as my final products
aren't perfect but they are hundred percent more authentic than my preliminary task, from the content to the
structure. After much research I have learnt what music magazines must entail and my own ideas of what
music magazines could include. I have realised images are one of the biggest factors music magazines
producers must think about, if the image isn't right, the magazine isn't right. After many trials and tribulations
with my transition from secondary images to primary images I can now understand why they are so important,
the foundations of these magazines are the correct looking images, you can always tell when a image
doesn't belong, and this is why I dressed my 'artists' in what they are wearing, for example the girl band all
have different styles which enables them to have different types of personalities and characteristics that other
females can relate to. I also had to think about my audience, attracting the audience, what my DPS would
be about, all these details down to the page numbers. Before this I had no idea about how much thought
and production and research goes into a music magazine as I learnt through making surveys and interviews.
When creating my R&B music magazine, I had realised there is already so many different ones already, how
could I challenge codes and conventions without altering it too much till it becomes not even part of a genre,
initially I thought I could do this with ease, then eventually when it came down to it, it proved to be extremely

23. Q7. Continued...
difficult. However I think I have done the best I could I have given my lack of
knowledge to begin with, although I have most definitely learnt plenty on the
way of construction. In Photoshop there are many tools which enable you to
give off the impression you know what you're doing (even though I really did
at one point), for example the blur tool which I used in some of my images
(album covers) to give off a professional effect.
Overall I am very satisfied with the production of my magazine, I think the
organisation, research and construction of the magazine had paid off as I
have learnt so much in the process, and the progression I made from the
preliminary task is unimaginable.
Farzana Ahmed