Music Magazine

What is the chosen music genre, which your magazine will focus upon?
Metal and certain subgenres of metal, for example: Metalcore, death metal, grindcore & hardcore

What are the key features of this genre?
Covers topics such as politics, personal freedom, violence, social alienation, people who follow music for the fashion (in a bad way),

What magazines, currently in publication, cover this genre?
There are no magazines that cover these exact genres but some cover similar genres such as: "Kerrang!", "Rocksound", "Metal Hammer" & "Q"

What additional features could you put in your magazine to make it stand out and appeal to an audience that is not already being marketed to?
Advertise bands that would not be advertised through media because of them not being as mainstream as other bands. Feature bands that are similar to the bands being shown in the other magazines so there is a larger chance that readers of those magazines will also like these bands.

My magazine will be released everyweek as it is only a 30 odd page magazine and I feel that monthly, that would not be enough to keep people going until the next issue came out. I think it is better to release a smaller magazine more often because then the topics in each issue can change and the main articles in each edition can be concentrated more on because it will be the main part, were as in a bigger, monthly magazine, I would have to think of several different "big" stories to make a reader buy the magazine

LIIAR

Language
Music terminology for readers who are interested in different music forms

Ideology
themes that are present in the lyrics
Institution
my magazine would be best distributed in mainstream shops such as "HMV" and also in underground companies like "Thirty days of night"
Audience
13-late 20's

Representation

I will now begin to analyse some music magazines that are similar to the one I hope to create. Starting with "Kerrang!". Kerrang is a music magazine that was first published on June 6th 1981. It's similar to magazines such as: Metal Hammer, Rocksound & Mojo in the sense that all 3 look at the Rock/Metal side of the music industry (With the latter concentrating mainly on Rock). Kerrang has also extended its branches to other areas of the media, including it's own; radio station, TV channel, online messageboard and an award ceremony, with artists featured in the other media Kerrang mediates. Kerrang magazine has looked at several different genres of music, such as; Rock, heavy metal, punk, glam metal, thrash & grunge, of course, when a style of music goes out of fashion ,(like most of the above), there is no real reason to carry on including it in the prints, so it is discarded and the next "big thing" is looked into in more detail. For example On this cover of the magazine the band "You me at six" are the main feature, and they play pop-punk music, if you were to look at a cover from 20 years ago, you would never expect that the magazine would ever include a band like this in their magazine. Although Kerrangs involvement with many different genres seems never ending, they are all sub-genres of Rock and Metal. So you know genres like; R'n'b, rap, dance & classical, will almost certainly never be featured.

The stereotypical features that identify this genre are;

The "Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle - In other media acts, such as tv shows and films, rockstars are always portrayed as being drug addicts, alcoholics & having no regards what so ever to authority.
Contrevertial song meanings - For example bands like; The sex pistols, Green day & many punk acts, having several songs about their hate for the goverment and what it is feeding the world.

The rebellious attitude, (This could also fall under my first example) - Alot of the youth who listen to music featured in this magazine seem to inhabit several of the "Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle traits, but tone them down slighty.

What content is typical of the genre?
Competitions, reviews, interviews, adverts

What colours are used? Why?
The background and fonts and titles are mostly darker colours such as blacks and browns, to re-inforce "the dark side" of the attitude to do with this genre of music

What styles of photo?
On the cover above, the photo is of the band "You me at six". The front man of the band is clearly looking very relaxed and is posing very childishly, the rest of the band seem to be very serious and are all just looking forward into the camera. This image shows the mature and immature side of the band, like it's ok to not take every 100% seriously.

What stars?

You me at six, Disturbed, Madina Lake, Trivium & more inside

How does the cover relate to the rest of the magazine?

The band on the front cover are usually the band that will be concentrated on mostly inside the publication, other articles and things inside the magazine will also be advertised on the cover of the magazine. You me at six are a growing band, and can pull in a very large audience, this is why it's a good idea to put a band like this on the front cover.

Now to evaluate the typical conventions of a music magazine; contents pages, double page spreads & front covers.

Kerrang! Magazine

Masthead
Although some of the “KERRANG!” title is covered by members of the featured band, it is still easy to recognize the name of the magazine and know what it is.

Colour photo
The picture of the band is covering the page, with the other features of the front page covering the picture, I have noticed that most music magazines share this convention.

Main headline
Grabs the readers attention and lets them know what the main feature of the magazine is going to be about. It is placed just under halfway down the page, which makes it more noticeable. In combination with the masthead it frames the picture, yet again bringing the main feature to our attention.

Plugs
Makes the reader aware of other articles in the magazine. The fact that only the bands name is mentioned makes you want to read on more to find out what the article is about.

Plugs
More plugs, this time just text, because it is lacking the image that the other plugs have, it makes it more worthwhile reading the magazine, because you may not recognise some of the bands without a picture there and this could be an opportunity to learn of some new bands of similar genres. Also because there is a bigger list than the other section, there is a larger chance you wont know all of the bands mentioned, making you want to read on.

Gifts
The appeal of a free gift would sway most peoples choices towards buying this magazine, no matter what the gift, almost everybody likes getting free merchandise with a purchase. The chances are that if you are a regular buyer of this magazine, you would want the poster included.

Q Magazine

Masthead
Like “KERRANG!” The masthead is being covered by the colour photo, but because it is iconic of the magazine, everybody will be able to recognize it even if it is not 100% visible.

Colour Photo

Much like “KERRANG!” This photo also covers the whole page, with the other features places on top of the picture (not including the barcode) This symbolises how important the band are in comparison to the print of the magazine.

Main Headline

The “MADDNESS! MAYHEM! SEX ADDICTION!” Would make people want to read the main feature of this magazine, as those three things are all quite interesting subjects and are not exactly everyday topics.

Plugs

This plug in particular will make people want to read on for two reasons; the first being that little very information is being given on what the interview is about, so readers will want to look inside to find out, and secondly because it is said that the interviewees mother is included. This is a concept that most interviews would not include so it would be quite interesting to find out what differences having a mother around would make to an interview.

Plugs
Another plug, this one pulls the reader in by offering a doorway to more music they may or may not have heard. If somebody was looking for similar artists to the ones featured in this magazine, this article would be perfect for them, as not only are the artists similar, they are what have been voted the 20 “best” ever.

Plugs
Also, this plug is quite interesting and would be a good hook from the magazines point of view. It gives us no information whatsoever on what the article is about, so most readers would be extremely intrigued and would almost definitely want to find out

Mojo Magazine - Contents page

The magazines name is printed in the top left corner, this is generally the first place a person would look when reading anything, so it immediately catches the eyes and tells them the name of the magazine, this will remind them of anything they know about what to expect in any particular magazine.

The first page is divided into pictures and text, although text fills most of the page. It tells you what stories will be on what page and has a sort of tagline, which is written in bold, for each article. The second page is made up of photos of different artists and people features in this issue of the magazine, it has a red box with the artists name and page that their story will be found on.
Mojo Magazine - Double page spread

The first letter of the start sentence of the article is a drop cap and the first sentence is all in capitals and a larger font than the rest of the article, this is to catch the readers attention for the first page and hook them with the first sentence, which would then lead on to them reading the whole article. The article also has two other drop caps included. There is a picture in the middle of the first page which makes the text look a lot easier to read as it does not look as boring and overpowering.

The second page has two larger photos on it, one of the band being reviewed, and one of a member of the band outside of his musical life. The top picture shows the professional side of the artists, which is why you would be reading this magazine, while the social picture is easier for an everyday person to relate to.

The text is all black and the background colour of the page is white, three out of the four pictures are black and white, with the only colour photo being the one featuring the band member outside of his career. This could be to show that the picture was taken by a fan who wanted a picture with the band, re-enforcing the ease to relate to the member and making them seem more approachable and down to earth, rather than how celebrities would be portrayed in the media.

Q Magazine - Contents page

Like with Mojo, Q’s contents page has it’s name printed in the top left hand corner of the contents page, just to remind the reader of the magazine and certain conventions of it.

This contents page is a lot more stylish than Mojo’s, mostly because of the layout and use of photos.

Around the edges there is a black and white chequered pattern, it does not sound very exciting but it frames the contents well draws attention to the sides, which is where the writing & information is.

There is a sub heading “On the cover” with an arrow point to the singer in the band “U2” who are featured on the cover. It gives a brief description of the main article, something which Mojo does not offer.

There is a central picture, which again is off the main featured band, it re-enforces how important this certain band are going to be to this issue of the magazine. There are a lot less picture in Q’s contents page and a lot more writing, this could make some readers lose interest and just flick through the magazine rather than reading to find out where their desired article is. There is also a pink bar under the pictures with the magazines website written on it, not only does this help advertise the magazine but it also works with the chequered pattern to frame the pictures.


Q Magazine - Double Page Spread


This double page spread is also a lot more appealing than the one I looked at from Mojo. It has the title of the article in the top left in a peachy colour, different from the black used to write the article itself. This means the reader could simply look and see if this is the article they wanted to read without having to read the article itself.

The article is an interview and the questions asked to the actors are written in bold, which means you could find the start of the next section easier because the cold catches your eye. It is also set out in shorter paragraphs, which makes it a lot easier for the reader to read. It has 3 different pictures, all of which were obviously taken during the interview, the actors look really chilled out and happy, which makes the interview seem a lot more relaxed and less serious, because when people read a magazine about music they don’t expect to be finding a deadly serious report on something.

It has a pull quote under one of the picture which is also written in a peachy colour and a lot larger than any of the other text on the page, this would draw people in as they would want to find were the quote was said and read the rest of that section of the interview. There is only one drop cap in this spread and it is used in the final paragraph, which is a review of the interview, this draws the readers eye, and they could perhaps just read the conclusion and see the main parts of the interview, rather than reading the whole thing and finding only a small section of it to their liking.

Also, there is a section on the right hand side, of famous people who love to play jazz , as this interviews main theme is how the two celebrities became friends over a love of jazz music. This re-enforces the musical side of the magazine & wraps up the article nicely. It’s background is black and catches the eye easily as the rest of the piece has a white background. Another thing I noticed is that at the bottom of every page, there is the page number next to a little Q logo and the date of the issue, this is a clever way to keep re-enforcing the magazines name, so that readers will grow fond of it and buy it again.

Overall I would say that Q is a more appealing magazine. Its contents are more eye catching and attractive, it is easier to nagivate through and covers a wide range of topics. I think that Mojo would be the kind of magazine somebody woud buy only if they had been buying it for a long time, not really a one off buy kind of magazine.

Progression of my Magazine Drafts

In the end I chose a font called "Gargoyle" as it appealed to me personally and I though that if it was used on the cover of a magazine like mine that I was looking at it would fit in with the genre the magazine was covering while looking good and being easy to read. I chose the name "Ragnarok" because it is the name of a famous metal song and I thought it would be easy to relate to for fans of metal music and would instantly make them aware of the music being covered in the magazine.

My pictures

I took all of my pictures at the same gig in either january or february, I used my friends camera and edited them on my computer. I put different effects on the pictures to make them look like they had been taken at different gigs.
This picture was taken after the gig before everyone went home, It is to be used as the contents picture to represent the As The Blessed Fall interview. I thought this picture would work will lke that because it sends more of a messing around & having fun image rather than a serious one, which i think the bands fans would like as it would make them seem alot more approachable and fun.

These two pictures (above and below) are to be used in the actual interview, the bottom picture is of the vocalist Alex and will be featured on the first page, the above picture is of bassist lloyd and is to be used on the second page. I chose these two pictures as I think they look quite good and show the energetic side of As The Blessed Falls live performances. The 3 pictures below are all to be used on my contents page.The above picture was taken at a seperate gig weeks after the other pictures

The above picture was taken the day of the first gig, it to be used in the "You, yourself & the band" section of my magazine.

The picture I used for my main image for the front cover was inspired by most full band shots. It features the members stood in a row, all visible. Most picture like this are then edited to be black & white, this has become a convention of the genre. I was originally going to place Alex the vocalist in the middle, as most people see the vocalist as the main focus point of a band, but with Matt (the guitarist) being significantly shorter then the other members I thought it would be best to put him in the middle and have the other members on either side, as this would be simetrical and look alot neater. I had them stand infront of the car to fill the background. The telephone post in the background draws attention to the central member and to the band as a whole, the wires coming out of the pole served no purpose initially but then became perfect framing for one of the plugs on my magazines front cover.

My abilities in many different programs have definately advanced during this excersize. I can use photshop and paintshop pro to create different images and edit existing ones. I can use Microsoft publisher to create a magazine layout and edit text and place images in files. I've learned how to use blogger to make a neat and easily accesible way of looking at my background work.

Magazine evaluation

My magazine uses a variety of different conventions, such as; Competitions, Interviews, Reviews & Free gifts. I feel that if I had not drawn influence from other magazines conventions it would be very unappealing and would not really get anybodies attention. It develops conventions such as introducing underground bands, by introducing extremely underground bands that you would genuinely not hear without searching for them. I interviewed a younger and less experienced band, (As the Blessed Fall), this is developing the convention of interviews because it is offering a whole new breed of bands. You can see a younger (17-18 year old) band from a different point of view once you realise what they are capable of. My magazine has a full section dedicated to fans meeting the bands, this helps people get their pictures out there and shows they like the bands which would make them feel good about themselves knowing that people could see a picture of them with their favourite band. It does not really challenge any conventions.

My magazine would represent social groups in a way not covered by most media texts. When metal music is mentioned to a regular group of people, they would assume a person who likes metal to be dressed in all leather and be a complete outcast. This is because of magazines like “Kerrang!” making people believe that metal has not evolved from the time period when people would dress in leather with big white hair. My magazine would show the general public what metal has now evolved into. Although I understand that a lot of people would find this genre of music very unappealing to listen to, I could at least offer an insight into the other side of the genre, (attitude, fashion & activities such as gigs). Other music magazines do not cover the local sides of a certain genre, magazines don’t show the spectator anything about local music scenes or support that a band would need. My magazine would not only represent “Metal kids” in a more positive & modern light, but it would also inform the public of what is needed to support a band enough for them to release records and tour the country. As for local scenes, I have never read anything about them in a music magazine, I understand that this is because the magazines are available nationwide and could not concentrate on a certain city, but I would try to make sure a few smaller bands & gigs were featured in the magazine just to help out and raise awareness of peoples local scenes.

The target audience for my music magazine would be anybody who is genuinely interested in metal music. Although I couldn’t possibly put an age limit of music appreciation, I’d like to think my magazine would mostly appeal to members of all social classes & genders and roughly from age 13-25. As people grow up they don’t tend to lose interest in music, but would most likely lose interest in their local music scene and as I am aiming to make this a large part of my magazine, I would not really be able to make an older reader appreciate the whole magazine. I like to think that my magazine would also appeal to both genders because although metal used to be seen as a more “manly” genre of music, a lot of girls are interested in it nowadays.

I attracted and addressed my audience by using a number of different techniques. I featured smaller bands from across the UK, these are they type of bands who still rely mostly on their close friends for support and funding ,(by buying merchandise and records), so chances are that their friends and members would also buy this magazine, I know that I personally would buy a magazine if a friends band were to be featured in it. The reader would read the article related to their friends band, and would read the rest of the magazine, knowing that it was their preferred genre of music that was going to be featured in the text. This would hopefully hook the reader and encourage them to buy the magazine more often.

During the course of planning, creating & finalising my media product I have learned & improved a lot in certain areas of magazine construction.

Planning – I learned that the more texts I looked at and conventions I learned, the easier it was to create my own magazine, as I knew what conventions it was that attracted a target audience. I learned that the more time I spent developing drafts and rough ideas, the more time I would spend looking at them and eventually realise what would bore me about the magazine were I to see it on the shelf in a shop.

Creation – I learned the most about creation during this task. I learned how to create and edit images on adobe photo shop. My photography skills improved dramatically and I learned a lot about framing and certain connotations I could put in my photos. I learned how to use Microsoft publisher to the extent that I could create a realistic magazine layout.

Finalising – This was the process that tested me the most. I had to check & double check every aspect of my work to see if I had overlooked or missed anything. I spent a couple of my media lessons applying small changes to my magazine such as: adding pull quotes, anchorage and by lines, making the whole magazine look more appealing & making sure my articles in the contents page seemed realistic.

When I look back at my preliminary task I can see a definite improvement with my music magazine. My college magazine was extremely messy compared to my music magazine. The pull quotes made the background look plain because they were on a white background which also clashed with the picture. I had no real headline and used more of a quote as a masthead. I also found it hard to find things that all students would find appealing, as a lot of my friends have extremely different views on what is “fun” so it was hard finding something that everybody would enjoy.

If I could go back and change anything about my music magazine, I would probably find a way to make the contents page more attractive, as I think it has all the necessary information & tells the reader about what will be in the magazine, but it has a large amount of white space around the edges which lets the image escape the readers attention. I would also make the front page more colourful as mine was black & white, which on first looks, sends out a negative message and could put off certain readers.