The document discusses how a music magazine product was influenced by and followed conventions of the existing magazine Kerrang!, but also sought to differentiate itself. Specifically: Kerrang! influenced the use of bright colors on the cover to attract readers, though darker colors were used instead. Conventions like including a main image, barcode, and cover lines were followed. The contents page featured stereotypical rock clothing to indicate music genres. An article included a dropped red capital letter to tie the color scheme together. Headlines and straplines were used to intrigue readers without giving the entire story away. The only challenged convention was portraying two female artists prominently to counter the typically male-dominated representation in rock magazines

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

2. A list of conventions that are
used in music magazines:
Masthead, Cover lines,
Banner, Main image, Bar
code, Price, Date, Pug,
Dropped caps, Stand first,
Strapline, Headline, Caption,
Byline. PRICE

3. One existing magazine that influenced the construction of my
front cover:
Kerrang! magazine had a huge impact on my music magazine
construction, because it's the most popular rock magazine and
has a huge fan base, so i know my magazine would do well.
Though the trouble i had was trying to make it too similar to
Kerrang! and make it really different, because there isn't a gap
in the market for another Kerrang! i had to find my niche
marketing point, which i did through the local bands and gigs
and also the mix between new and old rock music being
showcased in the magazine.
Kerrang! had influenced my magazine construction because of
the bright colours it used, it subverted what people thought of
the rock genre, all dark and gloomy, so for my construction I
used dark colours instead with a bright red to catch the reader
attention, like Kerrang! uses one main colour each issue to
attract their audience.

4. Some conventions that I followed based on this existing
magazine research:
The conventions i followed was to have a mid-shot as my main
image, this was to attract the audience with the facial
expression and part of the body posture, it gives little away
that the reader wants to find out more but enough that the
reader knows who and what's it'll be about. I also kept the bar
code in the bottom right corner, so it's out of the way yet easily
seen when needing to find it.
I used a few cover lines, but i kept them to the left of the image
and slightly towards the bottom of the image, so the impact of
the image isn't taken away by the cover lines.
In my banner i used the bands logos so fans will see the
magazine and automatically have the recognition that it's a
band they like and will want to purchase it. They won't have to
flip through it to see there's something they like, it's on the
cover.

5. In my contents page I relied heavily on the photographs and
their stereotypical conventions of the rock genre, by doing
this I have automatically given the audience an insight to the
type of music being featured in the magazine and what type
of rock they are by the stereotypical clothing, the black
leather jackets suggest heavy rock, for example bands like
Black Veil Brides, while the jacket and t-shirt suggest more
punk rock or scream due to other bands who wear jackets
and t-shirts are Enter Shikari.

6. In my article I used a dropped cap, but I put it in red, which is
the main house colour in my magazine, this was to keep the
flow of my magazine and to tie in everything on the article and
so nothing stood out if it was a different colour or looked too
bland. I also used a headline over the photograph on the left
page, to grab the reader’s attention straight away and so they
know what the article is about but it doesn’t give the entire
article away. ‘Lizzy Red is bringing HELL to the UK!’ what hell is
she bringing and why?
To give the audience more information on what the article is
about I used a strapline, in the strapline I mentioned ‘HELL’ was
her album, so if the audience want to read about her album
they will continue reading about her. In the stand first I
mentioned how Lizzy Red was late to the meeting but how she
apologised and the first thing she did was take off her heels,
this immediately makes the interview seem more personal and
relaxed because she isn’t trying to be stuck up, the reader’s
love somebody they can relate too.

7. Some conventions that I challenged/ subverted in my own
product, and why:
I didn't really challenge conventions except a rock convention
in magazines, except that males are often portrayed to be more
dominant in the rock industry, so i challenged this dominant
ideology and made two of my main features in my magazine
females: the main article and front cover image 'Lizzy Red' and
the 'rock female of the year-Shannon Jay‘.

8. Thank you for watching my
PowerPoint on how my
product uses, develops or
challenges forms and
conventions of real media
products.