Joey's Music Magazine

When writing my double page spread it is very important to consider the language adopted by music magazines and how they address. It’s also important to keep in mind how the language can link to your target audience.

One of the features I looked at for research was one about Kings Of Leon called The Regals Have Landed. The language is quite informal but is still filled with lots of facts about the band. This suggests that it’s the target audiences are young of around 16 to 30 and they don’t like to read overly complicated text but still want to find out about this famous band. We can tell that the language is informal by the way they make jokes in their writing making the piece more light-hearted. They talk about gigs a lot in the in the piece so we can infer that the target audience likes going out to gigs and festivals. It has some metaphors witch shows that they consider their target audience quite smart so they will understand them. This also makes the article lighter hearted.

My magazine production skills have come a long way from the start of the course. When I made my preliminary student magazine with very little understanding of Photoshop. It was a good experiment to make the student magazine. I didn’t know much about the convention of a magazine at the start. My magazine didn’t have a bar code, strap line and I hadn’t considered target audience properly. All I knew about them is that they were students. If I were to do it now I would have considered what part of London they live in, how much money they have, what race they are, what their interested in and what gender they are. Because now I know that the lifestyle of you target audience is very important. My technology skills have improved over the course too. The most important thing I learnt about technology is that you can’t depend on it. Sometimes things don’t work and you should always have everything backed up. I also had no idea about the layout of a magazine. Now I have looked over magazines Bliss and NME to learn about the conventions like how to layout a typical with a close up of a young girl in the center and short feminine taglines around. Analyzing the Bliss helped me to look at the conventions surrounding the target audience for my music magazine. For example how I should address young girls using slang and girly abbreviations like ‘BFF’ and ‘LOL’. My music magazine looks generally more professional. I learnt more about what colours can symbolize. For example the colours I picked to appeal to my target audience are pink and black witch represents girly fun with edginess. But they can also mean many other things.

After I had made my magazine I wanted to get some feedback for teenagers on what they think of the magazine. I made it as a video and asked question like "would you buy the magazine?", "what do you think of the colours?" and "Do you think it will appeal to its target audience?". I got very possitive feedback. Some of the people were my friends but most I didn't know that well and they were all with in my target audience so the comments were valid.

As I was making my magazine I asked people is they would fill in a questionnaire saying what they look for in a music magazine. I hope to fine out how much to price my magazine at and what colours to use.

I had to use Photoshop to make my music magazines cover. I have used Photoshop many times before but I learnt lots of new skills making this magazine. The girls face in image where too dark so I used the selection tool to select the girl’s faces. Then I used the hue and saturation tool to make their faces brighter so that they stand out.  I gave the image a drop shadow so that the girls would pop out at the viewer.

 

It was the first time I used pages to make a double page spread. I learnt how to make columns by going to the layout menu. I also found out how to turn an image in to the background. I cut round an image in Photoshop and copied and pasted it in to the pages document.

 

Overall I learnt how to use lots of new software. And used the skills to create my music magazine.

My music magazine is one of the only music magazines to be aimed specifically at young school age girls. It'll be one of the first magazines of its kind to not take a traditional approach to the 'girls' market. Instead of the 'flowers and glitter' approach we are going for a much cooler, edgier look. This is a niche market that will hopefully grow. We want it to set trends instead of following them. Eventhough our magazine is not traditional it appeals to girls' aspirations to be cool and mature. We want the copy to be written by teenage girls so that we can abolish the condescending, patronising content of typical girls magazines which are other written and edited by older, middle-aged journalists.

The name Pop Rock keeps some of the cuteness while still adding that edge we are looking for. The cover layout is similar to other music magazines. It has a main image, a masthead, a tagline and a strapline. It has small bite-sized pieces of text because my audience will want to use this magazine as a means of escape and will not want to read a lot. It also has a barcode and issue number and a date, similar to most magazines. The girls in the cover image are holding musical instruments to suggest musical ability and passion for music, similar to all music magazines. The image overlaps the title which is an idea used many times before on other magazines to show that the logo is recognisable and the image is more important.

On the cover page I establish retro style themes and colour scheme of the magazine and its brand. The main colours are dark pink and black which challenge traditional colour schemes for girls magazines by pairing the soft, safe pink with the darker, rebellious black. Some kind of retro branding has always been in style, so this magazine will seem timeless in years to come. The flash of pink colour in the corner is repeated on the pages. It's sharp sideways angle suggests how rebellious and edgy the magazine is.

The magazine's contents page is laid out in a similar style to a rave poster, this is to show that the magazine is cool and edgy, which will appeal to young girls' wilder side. The fonts are retro which is in style at the moment. It has the typical elements of a contents page including page numbers, feature headlines and a one-line description of the feature content. There is also an image on the contents page of this month's featured band, because young girls will respond better to images than text. Similar to other magazines I have my logo on nearly every page to remind the readership of the brand and advertise the magazine.

The magazine's double page feature spread is also in the keeping with the colour scheme and overall theme. It is predominantly pictures, unlike other music magazines, because young girls will prefer to see pictures. The small amount of text is written in a large font, making it easy to read. The language is to the point and direct because young teenagers want to know the facts and don't want to beat around the bush. They will use this magazine as an escape from their daily lives and after school will not want to do a lot of heavy reading. We want the magazine to communicate with them on their level. To make the content seem more mature, we try not to use out-of-date slang and want to still communicate in a grown up fashion, unlike other girls magazines which try to fake teenage speech and often fail.

To create my masthead I went to www.dafont.co.uk to find a unique and eye catching font. It was imported to find something that would appeal to my target audience and was in keeping with the style of the magazine.

First I made one only using one font. It is a cool retro style font with art deco shapes. It will appeal to my audience because it is cool and they will aspirer to be cool. But it is hard to read and is not very eye catching. The colours are plain and will not appeal to my audience’s girly and playful nature.

The next one I made had two different fonts the pop font was very colourful and bubbly and the rock font was very jagged and dark. I decided that it was too colourful and over the top and the rock font would not appeal to young girls.

I made another masthead using two fonts. I like the fonts but together they looked messy. The sound font was not very in keeping with the themes of my magazine. But I liked the first font. I like the disco ball style. It will appeal to my target audience, they are young and will go out to parties on the weekend.

In my last masthead I used a disco font. It is cool and timeless witch my target audience will like. It is eye catching and in keeping with the music and theme of the magazine. The colour pink will show that the magazine is for young girls. The disco ball represents freedom, celebration and partying witch will provide an escape for my target audience from school and their daily lives. This is the masthead I chose for my magazine.

Target audience is something I have had at the back of my mine throughout making my magazine. My target audience is girls around the age of 10 to 17. My magazine is all about what’s cool and new witch is what girls of that group will want to read about. They will probably be still going to school but aspire to a cool and glamorous life style. I want it to appeal to as many different girls as possible so I used a multi-ethnic band on the cover. I also promote popular music that many young girls listen to. The girls I am making this magazine for will not have a lot of money so I have made my magazine cheap. The colour scheme is black, white and pink. The black and white makes it seem classy and glamour witch will appeal to their aspirations. Also the pink will give it a fun girly atmosphere. There is not a lot of text because young teens will be more drawn to image and will only want to read small bits of information. The fonts are retro because that is in fashion now and girls will want the fashionable lifestyle the magazine is promoting. This magazine provide a glamorous escape front their normally lives.

This is the image I decided to use as my cover shot. My target aurdience is teenage girl around the age of 10 to 16. This picture shows 4 pretty girls witch the viewer can look up to and aspire to be like. They have instroments witch shows a passion for music witch is a good message to send to teens. They are dresses in cool clothes witch will make the girls what their life style and shows that the magazine is cool and new witch are things teenages look for in a magazine. The girls are all different races showing that the magazine is molti-coltural, apealing to more girls and sending a powerful message. The camera is looking up at them making them seem powerful, important and cool. I am going to colour the backgound white so that they stand out. the clean white background will also make the magazine seem new and fresh.

This image is a close up of a pop star. She is pretty with perfected skin, which girls will aspire to be like. She is happy which will suggest that the music and the magazine are also happy. She is young similar to the target audience, which makes them want to buy it and show that the magazine is fresh and new. Her hair is down, which suggest freedom and relaxation. The background is white, which makes her sand out and makes the magazine seem clean and new. She fills the page making the picture more personal like she is your friend.

These pictures are exclusive concepts for the cover of POP ROCK magazine. This shows a pop star doing a model pose, wearing cool sparkly clothes. The way she fills the whole page is very effective because the view cannot look away. She is looking at the camera, which suggests intimacy. The camera looks up at her, which makes her seem important. Her smile gives that magazine a happy atmosphere. She will be well lit to highlight the colour. I don’t like her pose it looks unconvertible, which might make the viewer feel stressed.

Black Beat and Kerrang! are magazines with very different target audiences. They both promote certain types of music giving them a specific style.

Black Beat is a magazine about contemporary hip-hop and R&B. It has a young target audience so the colours are very bold and bright to show that it is youthful and upbeat. This also makes it more striking. The colours on this issue are mainly red and yellow which might suggest fire, passion and power. All the fonts are different to suggest rebellion. The image of Beyoncé shows her in a strong pose looking straight at the camera. The camera is in a long shot looking up at her this makes her seem powerful, passionate and ready to fight with the viewer. The most important thing about Black Beats image is to make it seem cool and tough. So it uses stylish, modern artist to attract its cool young target audience.

Kerrang! is a magazine that focuses on heavy metal music. It is aimed at young men aged around 17 to 27. The fonts are all in bold to make it seem important. The layout is similar to a gig or rave poster which will appeal to its young target audience. The masthead is written cracked lettering to suggest chaos and to relate to the loud style of music. The image is of five strangely dressed men giving funny faces to the camera. This and the dark masculine colours show that the magazine is aimed at men. The background is white to make the masthead stand out. The way they have made it look is as if the cover is torn shows aggression and rebellion which will provide an escape for its readers.

The two magazines have very different target audiences. Black Beat is for a younger more fashion forward reader so it uses bright colours and stylish fonts. On the other hand Kerrang! is for an older male with an interest in heavy metal music audience so it uses a chaotic motif with older men on the cover. They both use white backgrounds to make the images and text stand out. Black Beats has an image of a powerful looking woman to show its modern edge, whereas Kerrang! has an image of five middle age white men which shows that it is more out of date. Its target audience is similar to the men on the cover and aspire to be more like them. The name Black Beat show the magazine is about hip-hop and R&B because it is a style dominated by black people and uses lots of heavy beats. Kerrang! is similar to the sound of an electric guitar makes which shows the style of music. The mode of address is different in the two magazines. Black Beat uses words like ‘tasty’, ‘trends’ and ‘sexy’ which appeals to its stylish target audience. Kerrang! lists band names like Every Time I Die and Fall Out Boy which its target audience probably listen to.

The magazines are different because they have different audience and promote different styles of music.

This is my first blog. My name Joey and I am going to use this page to show the development in making my music magazine.