Construction of Music Magazine: Planning

Music Magazine Planning Stages

The picture above shows the first stages of planning in my music magazine. I've used a picture of Beyonce on my main cover which I will try to replicate using my own images and models to create a strong main image for my magazine. At the moment, my magazine is called Pop although i think i will more than likely change this name as i don't feel it is a strong enough title for a music magazine.

As my magazine will be aged towards teenage girls, i think it's important to include lots of poster and visual images for the audience to enjoy whether that means posters of the hot new boy band or musicians they many aspire to be like.

When looking for images fro my magazine front cover, i came across this image of singer Jessie J which i love.

I feel that it is a really strong and powerful image that will look great on a music magazine of possibly a pop/indie genre.

I decided to play around with the image and try to create a music magazine front cover from this image as seen on the left. I feel that although I haven't completely finished planning the cover, it is already a much striking and powerful image that the one above.
When taking my own photos, I'm going to use this image has a huge influence for my own pictures although i will be very careful not to copy the image exactly due to plagiarism. Instead of using a Union Jack cover on the lips of my model, i am going to try and create something else which will make her stand out. For example, I may use coloured contact lenses to get the eyes to really stand out or alternativly edit her eyes so they are bright and bold.

At the moment, i have named my magazine M- the initial of music.
I quite like this name as it is short, bold and as it is written in a large font, so it stands out to the audiences who are potentially buying the magazine.
Underneath the masthead, i've added Best of British Magazine. I hope that this would attract patriotic audiences as they may want to see the current musicians of the country.

I have various different sells lines such as who else is in the magzine and a quote from the cover artist Jessie J. When designing the front cover, i will probably add more sell lines as most magazines are often very crowded and full of sell lines to attract the audience.

Music Magazine Research 2

While researching music magazines, I found that there was a variety of different genre of magazines available. For example, each of the magazines above belongs to a different genre.

• We love Pop obviously belongs to the pop music genre
• Q magazine is mainly pop/rock artists although it features covers from some other artists such as indie.
• Mixmag magazine has a genre of dance and disco style of music.
• Mojo magazine, the sister magazine to Q, has the same genres with this magazine featuring rock legend Bruce Springsteen.
• Vibe magazine belongs to the RnB/ hip- hop genre

Out of these five magazines, they one that appeals to me the most is We Love Pop.  The main image of the magazine features Liam Payne, a member of popular and current boy band One Direction. Using Liam as the cover image, it straight away has a huge amount of interest for the magazine as many One Direction fans will buy the magazine just because he is on the cover. The colour orange is heavily featured on the magazine cover. Connotations of orange are vibrancy and energy which i feel is defiantly given off through this cover. The typography used is stereotypical for music magazines . This is part of the magazines mode of address as it makes the audience more familiar with the magazine. Other aspects which could be identified as mode of address are the slang used words for some of the cover lines such as "JLS GET TOTES EMOSH." This appeals to the audience as it adds a sense of familiarity as it uses Essex like talk which is very popular and current at the moment due to programmes such as The Only Way Is Essex which are popular with the target audience of 14-16 year olds.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be applied to magazines as they promise to fulfil many of our needs particularly the We Love Pop magazine cover above. Maslow believes that people want to feel a sense of belonging and this is seen through the title of the magazine. We Love Pop- the pronoun we suggest that it is not just the editors magazine, it is also the audiences magazine which allows them to feel part of the production of the magazine.

Another way in which Maslows theory can be applied is through the use of the audience wanting to increase their levels of self esteem. Not only is We Love Pop a music magazine, it also features a small segment of fashion. Considering this magazine has a target audience of girls between the ages of 14-16, the use of the fashion segment is used effectively as this age group in particular is known to be interested in fashion and music particularly attractive boybands. The lure seen on the cover of this magazine will appear to the audience as it suggests the possible ways in which they can make themselves look and feel more confident by wearing the "hot party looks" featured in the magazine.

Music Magzine Research 1

Each of the magazine covers above appeals to me in different ways but the two covers that appeal to me the most are Q magazines Adele cover and NME Lady Gaga front cover.

Reason why Adele's Q magazines front cover appeals to me is that not only am I a huge fan of her, the simplicity of this cover really stands out for me. The use of a white background and the red and black text accompanying it makes them stand out further. Also, the main picture of Adele with her hair flowing ever where stands out to me as it is the main focus of the cover.

The Lady Gaga cover is much more 'out there' reflecting her personality. The bright yellow and blue text defiantly stands out as they are such bold, ccontrasting colours. This cover could be classed as some what controversial as the quote used on the front cover features explicit words although this has been replaced with astrix's. In the main image, Lady Gaga is wearing sheer, provocative clothing and also has a purple wig on. Based on this cover, i would buy this magazine as it looks like the interview would be good reading if it is anything like the picture we are first introduced to.

If i was to read both of the magazines cover articles in full, I would imagine that the Lady Gaga cover would be more controversial and explosive through the way she has been represented in the main picture. Contrasting this, Adele has been represented as being a nice, innocent artist and i think this would be reflected in the magazine's interview with her.

Theories used in magazines and advertising

In today's lesson, I learnt about three different theories important for the selling and success of different music magazines. The first theory is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1954)

Maslow believes that a person starts at the bottom of a theory and will initially set out for basic needs such as food and health. When one need has been fulfilled, the next need emerges and they move up to the next level- safety needs. This could include home shelter and protection. The next level, Belonging recognises that people want to be a part of a group and feel loved.

Many people seek self esteem and respect of others. This could be recognition for a job well done or doing something to achieve self esteem or esteem from others. The final need uus self- actualisation, this is achieveing individual potential. This is often measured by the amount of success somebody recieves.

Unsatisfied needs are what motivate our behaviour. Advertisements and magazines promise to fulfil many of our needs such as being accepted into social groups and our need for self respect and self esteem. This theory offers a useful insight into why we are attracted to particular products and advertisements.

The Uses and Gratifications theory tries to explore why we choose certain products e.g. we may buy a product to make us feel good about ourselves. This theory suggests that audiences use magazines and advertisements to meet some of the needs that Maslow identified.

McQuail, Blumer and Brown (1972) identified four areas of need which the media seek to gratify:

1. Diversion- This is when the audiences escapes from their regular routine and problems.
2. Personal Relationships- When the audience want to feel companionship of part of a social group.
3. Personal Identity- Exploring our own values by comparing them to others such as media producers and celebrities.
4. Surveillance- This is the constant need for a supply of information about what is currently happening in the world

The final theory is Mode of address. This is when magazine journalists adopt a mode of adress which is particular for that magazine and aimed to create a bond between the magazine and its audience

Preliminary Task- School Magazine Evaluation

School Magazine Evaluation

The name of my school magazine is called Sixth. I feel that this is a good name to use as you are immediately told the target audience which is both sixth form years.

When creating my front cover, the first thing that I wanted to do was create a colour scheme and a house style.  This is when I chose to use the Bishop Walsh badge colours of red and blue as the main colours in my magazine. Reasons why I chose to use these colours was that they can easily be associated with the school as well as being bold, stand out colours which can attract the audience to the magazine cover.

As my main image, I have used a mid shot of  a sixth form student carrying a folder, standing in a school corridor surrounded by lockers which is symbolic school iconography. When deciding on how to compose my picture, I tried to decide on a way that would stand out to my target audience.  I chose to position the camera so that it would look as if my sixth form model was coming out of the shot; this will make the picture stand out further. 

This picture represents my sixth form target audience as she is a sixth former herself. She's holding typical school things such as a folder which was used so that the target audience would be able to relate to her easily. She is dressed fashionably yet still smart which sets the tone for my magazine as I would like it to appear cool and trendy but also look smart and professional.

The masthead on my magazine front cover is shown below. 

To make my text look more interesting and school like, I searched on dafont.com to find a much larger selection of fonts than what you would find on a programme such as Microsoft publisher. The font I've used is Shift Text Demi Bold  (http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/alexandra-korolkova/chift/). This font was used as I felt as if it looked like the typical font you find in schools and in particular school letters. My masthead is the whole width of the front cover. The colour of the text is blue with a red 3D effect which I used to emphasise and make it stand out more. Blue has many great connotations associated with the colour. For example, blue is associated with freedom, strength, new beginnings, faith and protection. Each of these connotations are words which i would associate with a school and in particular, my school. I feel that new beginnings is a great connotation to have my magazine be associated with as it is for new sixth form students which are starting their 'new begining' to sixth form life.

On my magazine front cover, i have included cover lines to try and attract the audience and make them want to read the magazine. These include; How to survive 6th Form, Top Ten Universities, How to control exam jitters and School Secrets. I think that these are good topics to include in my magazine as they can be of interest to every student in 6th Form. Although my magazine offers serious information such as University league tables, if also features much more fun information such as the weeks school gossip. This will enable my magazine to be available for a wide range of audience not just specific groups of people.

Throughout my magazine, i have used the same font and font colour as mention above (Shift Text Demi Bold  (http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/alexandra-korolkova/he chift/
This adds a sense of consistency to my magazine as i have the same
 house style used throughout.

When designing my contents page, I wanted to stick to the house style I created when
composing the cover page for my magazine. To do this, I used the same font colours of
red and blue with the addition of black text for the title of the magazine articles.  The masthead on my contents page is written in large text which takes up the width of the page making it stand out to my audience.

For the background of my contents page, I edited the schools badge and made it a lighter shade so that it would not over power the text or make it unreadable. I feel that this is a great alternative from having a block colour or a heavily designed background as it is simple and extremely applicable for the school.

I tried to create interesting and appealing articles that would attract the sixth form audience to want to read the magazine. To do this, I wrote the titles of my articles in large, black font to emphasise them.  The subject of my articles vary from important information such as university league tables to the not so serious topics of school gossip. By choosing topics such as these, i think it adds versatility to my magazine as it can appeal to lots of different people looking for information on different topics. I've also added pictures, with red and blue backgrounds around them, alongside the article titles as i way of allowing the reader to see what kind of things would be included in the articles.

Overall, I feel that my magazine would appeal to its target audience as it is fun and exciting.  I feel that i have produced a front cover and contents page to a good standard although if i was to improve my front cover, i would have possibly added an outline to some of the blue text as it is slightly hard to read against the blue lockers. In my opinion, my favourite page is the contents page as although it is simple, it looks appealing and effective in attracting the audiences attention.

Preliminary Task- School Magazine Pictures

 

My First Blog :)

Welcome to my blog!
After taking Media as a GCSE subject, it soon became one of my favourite lessons as i was throughly interested in the work we were doing in particular, I enjoyed creating my own products such a fiction music band and a perfume advertising campaign. As i am now studing for A Level, I hope to continue my enjoyment for the subject and learn a lot more new skills!