This document summarizes how the author's media product was inspired by and challenges conventions of real music magazines. They analyzed magazines like Rolling Stone and Billboard to inform the structure, layout, and design of their own magazine cover. Specifically, they took inspiration from Billboard's close-up artist photos and Rolling Stone's bold, eye-catching covers. To challenge conventions, the author featured an up-and-coming musician rather than a big pop star on their cover.

1. REACTIVEMedia Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. For my media product, I researched lots of different types of music
magazines to see the typical structure of a music magazine and
main features and attributes of a magazine, particularly the cover. I
analysed different covers and decided to especially focus on
Rolling Stone and Billboard as I felt that these two magazines
suited my target audience more than other magazines I analysed
such as Top of the Pops.

3. BILLBOARD
Billboard inspired me because this magazine focuses on popular artists who are
in the charts, however the style of the magazine manages to be quite simple and
mainly sophisticated. The main inspiration I took from Billboard is their cover
photos. For the most part, Billboard has cover images where the artist is
looking directly at the camera and the photo is a close up or mid-shot. I liked
this idea as these images tend to not objectify the artist/musician and keep it
looking simple but something that catches the audience’s eye at the same time.

4. ROLLING STONE
I took my main inspiration from Rolling Stone as I really like the way that these
magazines are presented. This magazine also focuses on popular artists. It is quite simple
and sophisticated, similar to Rolling Stone but also can be quite edgy. There is not a lot
of content on the cover pages but what is on there is quite bold and eye-catching and I
took this aspect of the magazine and tried to apply it to my own media product in a
similar style. My magazine cover layout is quite similar to Rolling Stone’s 2012 cover
with Taylor Swift as I used this cover as my main inspiration. I also looked closely at
their contents pages and double page spreads and used them as inspiration for my own
media product. I particularly liked the way they usually have one main ‘standout’ colour
as I think it looks very simple and stylish but it catches the eye and brings a page or an
article to life.

5. I found that most magazines have the cover artist’s name as the
largest piece of text on the cover and I took this into
consideration for my magazine, as well as adding a headline
underneath it as most magazines include this too.

6. To challenge media conventions, I looked music magazines and which people
they use to promote their magazines and put on their covers. I found that as the
majority of magazines tend to use big pop stars on their covers, that I would
challenge this by making my artist an up and coming musician who is rubbing
shoulders with artists who already have a high level of fame and success.