MUSIC MAGAZINE EVALUATION

Ryo Panis

My Final Pieces

Front Cover Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Target AudienceWho would be the target audience for your magazine?

My music magazine was targeted at young teenagers going to young adults from the ages of 13-21 who come from the lower class as well as middle class areas of London. I intended to target my audience to people who listen or like the genre of ‘Hip Hop and Rap music’ and for those who update themselves on latest rap battles or new upcoming artists by viewing them on sites like YouTube.

For my front cover I positioned the twins as one being the superior artist and the other as being the emperor artist. This shows status and power as they are from different areas of London. Also in my front cover I tried to make the artists look like they were from a lower class and middle class by the clothes they wear. I chose to go for one of the twins to wear a navy blue polo and the other to wear a black bar bar jacket to show that they are from a lower/middle class background.

Addressing The AudienceHow did you attract/address your audience?

To attract and address my audience I used different features and techniques as well as getting feedback from my music questionnaire. I used images, sell lines, teasers, different colors and the type of language (colloquial language). I decided to use colloquial language because it would make the reader more comfortable and confident when reading the sell lines and the featured article. Some of the language used in my featured article were mostly slang and a bit of standard English.

I addressed my audience mainly to males instead of females because I was not sure if females would be into the genre of ‘hip hop & rap’ because of the lyrics used. However if it was in America then it would be considered into addressing it to females as well as males.

I tried to associate mise-en-scene with my music magazine by making the two artists wear clothes that ‘hip hop & rap’ artists would wear or for lower and middle class people would wear referring that the two artists came from the streets of London.

ConstructionWhat have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your magazine?

As I was making and creating my music magazine I used different designing and editing technology to produce my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

During the making of my product I created a questionnaire to get audience feedback on what to consider for my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I used questions like position of the image, position of sell lines, whether the masthead should be in front or behind the main image etc. This questionnaire helped me to brainstorm and think of ideas on how my music magazine would be constructed as and how to.

I decided to use ‘Photoshop CS4’ instead of ‘Microsoft Publisher’. I thought that using Photoshop would be the best way to create and make my front cover, contents page and double page spread because it has a big variety of editing and designing tools that would be suitable for creating my music magazine. Instead of using publisher which has less tools to edit and design a magazine. I chose to use Photoshop because I was familiar with the different tools such as: wand tool, brush tool etc. I used the different editing tools to create my background for my front cover, different font styles and colours for all my text and the position of the images.

The most important part needed for my front cover, contents page and double page spread was the images. I decided to use a canon slr to take my pictures which gave me a high definition image.

Presentational IssuesHow does your magazine represent particular social groups?

My music magazine represents the social group of ‘young teenagers to young adults’ as them being convicted with miss-uses of drugs, sex, alcohol and mostly violence that occur in the UK alone. This is thought to be true because they are more reckless and violent towards the community as well as the government.

Although my music magazine reflects good to the young teenagers, young adults because of the clothing I used (polo and bar bar jacket) which shows them as being mature and dressing smart and presentable. Also in my double page spread my article tells about how twins grew up in a low poor estate living with there mum and splitting up where they live in opposite areas of London. However as they grew up in these conditions they became stronger not physically but mentally through the lyrics they speak becoming known UK hip hop rap artists in London. So my article represents that most teenagers grow up in poor areas and try to achieve the best they can using what they got and what they have and making the best. So my magazine portrays that young teenagers to young adults try to achieve the best they can.

However in other countries like America ‘hip hop’ rap is kind of similar to UK ‘hip hop’ rap because of what the purpose is behind the lyrics they think of and speak as they walk to the mic. But my music magazine only portrays UK alone rather than other poor areas in the world, aiming at the London streets.

InstitutionsWhat kind of institution might distribute your magazine and why?

For my music magazine I would consider distributing it to certain institutions to gain revenue and such. My music magazine targets mainly males however could appeal to women who would enjoy reading my magazine, so I would distribute it to big institutions like ‘WHS smith’ as this institution is well-known for mainly books, newspapers, general accessories for school etc especially magazines ranging from kids to adult magazines. This could give me an advantage to target different ages as there are different kinds of magazines that held and sold there. Solely I would consider in distributing my music magazine in that store to gain revenue and to advertise my magazine to a range of ages.

Another institution which I would consider would be a food supermarket like ‘Asda’ which sells a lot off food & groceries as well as books and magazines, again ranging from kids to adults. This would be a great advantage because a lot of customers attend the shop everyday to shop which could advertise to them. So if I was to distribute my music magazine their then customers who purchase my magazine would go there every week to get the next issue which would benefit me and the company Asda.

Forms & ConventionsIn what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?

Front CoverI think that my final music magazine develops and challenges forms of conventions of real music magazines through different aesthetical features. As you can see my final music magazine has the needed components for a magazines such as: masthead, main image, sell lines, teasers, barcode, issue number and date and feature article. However to most magazines they are laid out the same but I positioned them in a unique way developing a new look/layout of magazines.

One of the main conventional forms is the ‘main image’ which I have for my front cover, instead of having 2 people next to each other in a picture for a front cover I subverted the image into putting one behind the other to show that one superior and one is emperor to show status. This positioning reflects the clash battle between the two brothers. Another conventional form is the ‘masthead’ which I have here in bold and black to stand out from the other conventional forms on the front cover. I decided to put the masthead in front of the main image because my music magazine is not that known yet and it would confuse the consumer who was too see it and think what magazine is that. So by following other magazine forms I put the masthead in front of the image to stand out and look bold so consumers can see it.

Last of all what magazines need are ‘sell lines’ to help advertise and interest the consumer which I have here and one of them say ‘Michael Cole vs. Shaun Cole’ advertising a battle between two artists. This challenges conventional forms as mine is simple and straight forward with out to much detail. That sell line is in relation to my image of the twins battling against each other.

For most magazines they have a colour trend which is consistent throughout the whole of the magazine which I considered using as it was good and efficient way of being unique because of the colour scheme chosen to use and when and where to use it. As you can see on my front cover I considered using 3 main colours which are grey, black and white which are very simple colours that contrast well with each other.

Contents PageAs you can see my contents page includes many conventional forms such as: title, content list, article images, pop-ups, subscribes and issue number and date.

My pop-ups challenges a conventional form as the shape used is different to other magazines and the way and where it is positioned, which I positioned it as being 45 degrees rotated to the left making it look slanted. Also for my title for the contents page I made the text white and the background shape around it black to make the text itself stand out as well as to show its the contents page. These 2 colours (black & white) contrasted well to make the title for my contents page stand out from the other text below therefore being the dominant text there. Rather than having different images on the contents page I used one main image which looked quite dominant as the person in the image is looking at the camera giving the feel that the person in the image is looking straight at you. This would help to attract customers to read the contents page.

Furthermore for my content list is very similar to the content list in a ‘kerrang’ magazine because of the colour indicator which highlights the important ones. As you can see my contents page has black boxes on each number as well as the features title to make them stand out from the rest of the text and to help the reader on what number the topic is about. Last of all I added in a black berry pin barcode which allows blackberry users to scan the code and automatically get information on the issue magazine and the magazine. In addition I used different font size and colours for my contents page to separate them and to make it easier to read.

Double Page SpreadFor my double page spread added in many conventional form such as: title, article content, page number, quote and main image.

As you can see my double spread follows one of the conventional forms which is the title ‘ Battle Of The Cole Brothers’ which is usually in the middle of the DPS in big and bold. Although some other magazines have other text around it which are called ‘sell lines’ to help advertise the article. I laid out my title over the both 2 pages so that it would be easier for the reader to read and it would look professional as in filling up empty spaces like most magazines that try to cover up the empty space by either enlarging text or adding more.

Furthermore I added a caption below the title of the DPS saying “I don’t rap for the money or fame, I rap for the respect” using colloquial language to help the reader interact and read the article well as it is aimed at young teenagers to young adults. The quote from one of Cole twins tells something about them that they rap for respect rather than money and fame. This helps the reader to think about the quote and to get them thinking about the quote.

Last of all for my DPS my article is laid out in 4 paragraphs starting with a big, bold capital letter for each paragraph to help the reader to know where to start from. This is a conventional form as most magazines have this for their main article using a big capital letter to start a paragraph and a small letter to finish it.

School magazine vs

Music magazine

Front Cover

As you can see my school magazine looks similar to my music magazine considering the layout.

Firstly for my school magazine I used 2 main colours (red & purple) which were 2 very simple colours that contrast. Although for my music magazine I used 3 main colours (grey,white,black) which contrasted well together to give it nice professional look. Also the way I positioned my sell lines like in my school magazine you can see they rotated a bit to a certain degree and my music magazine the sell lines are rotated a tiny bit to make it look different to other magazines. In addition my music magazine as extra aesthetical features to it like the pop-up, barcode and site names e.g. TWITTER.COM/BASS.

However my music magazine doesn't have that much sell lines on the front cover itself but the school magazine does because I didn't think that much on sell lines to add to the music magazine. Furthermore for my school magazine I used the image for the whole front cover whereas for my music magazine i edited the front cover and added in a light grey background using the software ‘Photoshop cs4’.

Last of all for my music magazine I added a more variety of font styles to use and editing tools to change them and make them look better. But for my school magazine i was limited to amount of font styles and colours. Being able to use a variety of font styles allows me to decide and choose on what font to use and would it be suitable for the purpose.