Understanding Labeled Music Groups & How They Are Represented

Comparison of Preliminary & Final Music Magazine Content Page's

Comparison of Preliminary & Final Music Magazine Front Cover's

Video Analysis

AS Productions – Music Magazine Evaluation

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

If I was to look at other indie (individual) style magazines, mine fits in with the category quite well and has a lot of similar features, which means that it follows the codes and conventions of the genre of music. A front cover is often bright and colorful; this is to catch a reader’s eye and to draw in customers.

Code and convention rules for a magazine front cover:

·       Masthead

·       Cover stories

·       Barcode

·       Some form of advertisement

·       Large image: (big filling majority of the page, normally with the model looking at the camera).

I believe that I have followed these codes and convention rules for a front cover and have included all of the main features in my magazine (SIGNATURE).

I have used a main image to cover the whole of the front page and in this photograph my model is looking straight at the camera making a very strong and suitable eye contact with the audience. 

Along the bottom of the page, I have included another one of the codes and conventions of a typical magazine front cover – advertisement. My advertisement is also a competition to win tickets to this year’s festival of Glastonbury, a massive music festival where a number of Indie style bands play. 

My masthead is bold and in capital letters so that it stands out and you knows the title of the magazine. It is located in the top left hand corner where most titles are featured on magazines.  I have also included other codes and conventions of a front cover including the barcode and having cover stories listed down one side.  

The main aim of code and conventions for a magazine contents page is to give the reader a small insight of what is going to be included in the magazine. It will be catchy, showing interesting pictures of people and things that will be in the magazine. I have chosen very bright colors that will hopefully draw in the attention of readers, which will make them, want to read articles within the magazine.

Code and convention rules for a magazine double page spread normally include the magazines being written in columns, this is normally done to break up the reading so that your not just reading across a page but reading down in small blocks to create more of a variety compared to normal reading articles and books.

As you can see from the image I have split my magazine article up into only two columns, most magazines will split their writing up into two or three columns. I chose to do two as I thought it fitted nicely around the pictures that I have included in the article.

Most double page spread will be advertising something or someone. Mine is an interview with Robyn Smith, so this is advertising her and her latest music. A double page spread normally includes bright colors and catch pictures to attract the readers. I have used quite a bright green color but hopefully not to bright that it is distracting when people are reading the article.  The pictures that have been used are less serious as they aren’t to attract a passing by potential customer but are friendlier in hope that people see a happier side to Robyn and will want to read the article about her.

The conventions of a title are that it is normally big and bold, often located in the top left hand corner. The title is to let some know what something it is, sometimes giving them some sort of indication of what is going to be on the inside.

My language that I have used in my magazines follows the conventions of a typical Indie style music magazine. The language is simple and easy too read.

Photos can be taken in:

·       Mid shot

·       Close up

·       Long shot

·       Point of view

·       Establishing shot

·       Extreme close up

My photos were taken in a range of different shot angles; this was to give me variety to enable me to choose the most suitable pictures for my magazine.

MULTIMEDIA:   Construct a diagram with a real text on one side and yours on the other, with arrows pointing out the similarities (for each of the three pages)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The people that I have used in my photographs in my magazine would be considered as stereotypical ‘Indie’ style people. Indie people are considered individualists, they have their own look and ways of which they follow but like all stereo type groups, we consider indie people to have a specific look just like people that fall into the categories of preps, gothic and posh people.

Here is an image of a stereotypical looking Indie person, which I have found on Google images.

My main image girl on my magazine without being done deliberately has similar features to the girl in the image off of Google. It is very stereotypical of the music category.

The main images on my magazine of ‘Robyn Smith’ featuring on both the front cover and the double page spread includes a number of the stereotypical features of an indie person.

On a number of individual magazines the body language that the model portrays is of confusion or uncertainty about something. The message this conveys to me as a reader suggests more about their individuality and how they maybe want to be on their own.

Most of the females in the indie category wear make up, and all in a similar way. The majority will have a brush over of skin colored foundation removing any blemishes and making the skin look flawless, with heavy smoky eye make up. The make up is quite simple but a strong look; the heavy eye make up can often be accompanied by a bright red or pink lip gloss/stick.

 Here is another picture, this time featuring both male and female stereotypical indie people.

 It is said that individual people generally dress nicely to a style that most people find appealing.

My picture is set in a field, which is surrounded, by a number of trees and bushes. The reason for choosing this location is because I decided the colors are quite earth like and would fit in well with my style of magazine.

The magazine is targeted at a younger age bracket, and hopefully by the magazine featuring a young model it will give readers something to relate too. A young female on the front cover and for younger people may appeal slightly older males; Robyn can possibly be seen as a role model and inspiration.

I don’t believe that my magazine represents any of the following:

·       Race

·       Disability

·       Nationality

·       Religion

·       Sexuality

My magazine isn’t linked to any of the previously mentioned topics therefore there wasn’t any need to link the pictures or the content of articles to them. 

I think my genre of music is largely represented through the images that I have used in my magazine and pertly through the style of language and text in which I have spoken in, in the article featured on the double page spread.

I have included a PowerPoint that explains how some music genres are stereotyped and pictures of how we associate people to look that listen to these particular types of music.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magazine needs to include an appealing front cover, as this is what will be attracting my audience due to the fact it is what they will see first when looking through a big line of magazines in a shop.

Magazines are distributed by publishing companies such as EMAP or IPC that have numerous titles, their magazines will be targeted at a variety of niche and target audiences. 

Magazines that EMAP distribute include:

·       Top Santé

·       FHM

·       Heat

·       Grazia

·       Angling Times

·       Trail

·       Mother and Baby

·       Car 

·       Empire

·       Closer

These magazines are all aimed at very different audiences; this means that EMAP magazines are hitting their magazines at a large amount of the population liking many different things. Some of the magazines that they distribute will only reach a niche market but some will reach a large target audience.

Mother and Baby magazine is only aimed at a niche market of women that are pregnant or ones with small babies. This product will be specific to the audience that they are trying to reach.

The music magazines that EMAP distribute are:

·       Mojo

·       Kerrang

·       Q

These three music magazines are of the genre of gothic or emo so they aren’t magazines that I could compare mine to, but on the general codes and conventions they will follow the same rules. 

I would say that my magazine would be appealing to many people or a mass audience. If it were a niche market it would only appeal to a small amount of people. However, in recent years indie style music has been growing in popularity so now my market has broadened and will appeal to a much larger audience.

Magazines make money through selling cover sales, but mainly through advertising. My magazine is an indie style music magazine so things and people that I would advertise may be:

·       Indie groups

·       Groups upcoming gigs and tours

·       Films that may feature artists or songs that my style of artists have featured in.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My media magazine that I have created is to be targeted at the group of ‘Indie’.  It is targeted at both men and women from the age bracket of around 14 – 30. In my magazine I talk about a lot of festivals that are coming up, the majority of people that go to festivals are in this age bracket that is why the magazine is more suitable to them. Most people featured in my magazine are of the younger generation between teens and late twenties so that also makes it easier for people to relate to signature.

I would say my magazine would be very suitable for funatics; it is a funny and upbeat style of magazine. All the articles are exciting to read and will hopefully be interesting to the majority of my readers.  

My audience can use my magazine to gain quite a lot of information about things I feel will be relevant to them. A lot of people by music magazines to find out information about bands and gigs, they will be able to gain upcoming and passed dates from my magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Before I created my magazine I carried out a questionnaire on my appropriate target audience to find out what they wanted to see and read in my magazine. I then designed and created my product to what my audience wanted. I tried to get a large range of results to make them as accurate as possible. I created a magazine that will hopefully be to the interests of my target audience.

I have also used a lot of terminology that I believe my audience will be able to relate to and that they will easily understand. The language is everyday language how people talk which makes it easier to read. (This is information that I gained from my questionnaire and what my audience wants to see).

I believe that my magazine was created to the standard of what people wanted in an indie magazine and hopefully this will help the sales.

Images used were of typical indie style looking people, I believe people will be able to relate to this and will also help the sales increase. The title is catchy, simple and easy to read and this is also what my questionnaire results suggested people wanted to see.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When carrying out the photography part of my coursework I began to realize that it wasn’t just snapping pictures. You need to find the correct location, find the right lighting and the person needs to suit the look, which you are looking for. As you can see from my magazine some of my images were a lot stronger than some of the others. It was very difficult trying to find a suitable place to shoot pictures and at the time of year when I needed to take them, the weather was incredibly unreliable so I had to keep rebooking my model on when we were going to take the pictures.

I began making my magazine front cover on Illustrator, after creating the majority of my contents on Illustrator I decided that I was struggling to use the program and wanted to start again on Photoshop, like I should have done in the first place as it was the program that I had been taught how to choose and knew how to carry out more on the program. Luckily I was able to move the work I had already created on Illustrator over to Photoshop however, in doing this my work became grouped and I wasn’t able to move each piece of writing or images individually without moving everything else too. After being given a small amount of assistance we were able to find a way of cutting up everything individually so that I could move it to my preference.

I learnt a number of skills from using InDesign and Photoshop this included skills such as:

·       Crop

·       Grouping

·       Brush work

·       Cutting

·       Inputting text

·       A number of different effects on pictures, text, backgrounds etc.

·       Changing levels

·       Blurring and merging

·       Filter effects on photographs

·       Rotating pictures and texts individually

·       Cloning effects on pictures

·       Putting a variety of different boarders on products. 

Double Page Spread

Contents Page