Music magazine – ROCK

Ashleigh Inniss-During

Genre

• For my music magazine, I have chosen to base my genre around something I was not merely interested in before. This genre is Rock. Although my interest of music does not evolve around Rock I thought it will intriguing to know the history behind Rock and to know more information behind it.

• Rock music is a genre of popular music originating in the 1950s. It is a blend of black rhythm and blues with white country and western music.

Research

• In order for my coursework to be a success, it is essential I research more than one Rock magazine. Researching will help me focus on how Rock magazines appear to be as the target audience. It will aid me to understand what features attract there niche market and demographic. This is all based around the colours, the layout, the font, font size and pictures.

• For my research into the Rock genre I will be analysing closely Kerrang Magazine, Classical Rock and Rolling Stone magazine.

History of Kerrang

• Due to insufficient information on Kerrang, I have emailed the magazine editors to ask for specific details on the magazine, in order for the information to be more reliable.

• However Kerrang is a rock magazine published by the Bauer Consumer Media. It was first published on 6 June 1981.

• The magazine costs £2.20 to buy and the issue is weekly.

• The total circulation for the magazine is 52,000

History Continued

In order to contact Kerrang magazine I had to go on their website and find an email address so I can send them information.

I sent them an email from my hotmail address basically saying explaining the task of my coursework and asking if they could send me information about Kerrang.

Continued

This is proof that my message has been sent to the editor of Kerrang.

History of Classical Rock

• Classical Rock is a British magazine published by Future Publishing.

• It mainly focuses on key rock bands from the 1960s right through to the early 1990s.

• Classic Rock publishes 13 issues a year.• The first issue was in 1998 and sells the

magazine monthly.• The total circulation is 70,301

History of Rolling Stone

• The Rolling Stone is a United States based magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture that is published bi-weekly.

• It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner.

• It changed its format in the 1990s to appeal to a young demographic often focusing on young television and pop music. However it was changed back to rock. The circulation (number of copies it distributes on average for each issue) is 1.4 million.

Classical Rock analysis

The title Classic Rock is dominating the top part of the magazine. However the editors have put emphasis on the word ‘Rock’ to show who its niche market is.

Most people who see the word FREE will be instantly drawn to a magazine.

The guitar shows the electrical power the magazine will bring to the reader.

The colours chosen complies with a rock magazine.

The whole magazine brings vibe to the reader.

Words in bold to emphasise the importance.

Rolling Stone analysis

White background makes the writing and people stand out.

The colour scheme is consistent. Black, red and white are typically associated with the rock genre.

Show the rage and anger that a person can have.

Hardly any writing on the page but the picture does all the talking

You do not normally see the author of magazines.

Kerrang magazine analysis

Black emphasises the darkness shown however the white writing allows brightness to come in.

The title screams loud and the font is really noticeable although their heads are covering it.

Two well known rock band group on the cover page to draw attention.

Hardly any writing but the pictures make it effective in itself.

Magazines

There is a comparison with all three Rock magazines, the colour scheme is consistent. The main feature colours they all use are red, black and white. These are the colours I am going to use because they are typically associated with Rock lovers and Rock itself. I would say that looking at these magazines Rock magazines do not use many words just pictures to express everything. The pictures of the person has to be well known because the picture does the talking and persuading to buy the magazine.

Most Effective magazine

• I think that the most effective magazine out of the three is Kerrang. I feel that the magazine does the job it is supposed to portray which is to catch ones eyes. I feel the main picture is very inviting and the colour scheme draws me in as the audience reader.

Audience Profile

Ben is a sixth form student living in London and he is 18 years old. He spends most of his mornings listening to Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix whilst getting ready for college. On the weekends he is like a normally typical 18 year old going to clubs and gigs. He plays the guitar and has his own classic rock band called ‘ The Ways’. His first gig was at Fairfield Halls where it was a successful turn out. He is going to go on tour in April 2010 to Australia, America and Scotland.

Audience Profile

Charlie is a 17 year old boy who loves all types of rock. He goes to college studying music and hopes to create a rock band. He wants to be as big as Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. After college he has guitar lessons with a guitar teacher to help him get into the rock business. On weekends he goes to parties and gigs with his best friends. He loves Rock music because it is way of letting out his anger and frustration out on the world. It allows him to express himself the way he wants to be.

Bibliography

• Wikipedia • Myspace • Home pages of classical rock,

Kerrang and Rolling Stones.

Magazine Proposal• Name: the name of my music magazine is called Psycho - Kraze. The reason I

chose this name is because I found it to be very catchy. The word psycho means mind and Kraze; it derived from the word crazy which I would normally associate with rock lovers because of the freedom that they use to express their passion for the genre of music. However I replaced the ‘K’ with the ‘C’ in crazy because of the Kray twins. They were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in South London. So putting the words together made it sound catchy and added a sense of realism as if the name was actually on a published magazine.

• Genre: the genre I am going to focus on is rock I will focus my genre on soft rock and hard core rock. I believe this type of magazine will do excellent on the market and I feel there is a high demand for more magazines with two types of rock. Also financially I will make a profit because it is aimed at a wider audience.

• Logo: • Place in current market: the magazine will be published fortnightly in which

upcoming gigs and new established acts are going to be featured on the magazine.

• Target audience: my target audience is for rock fans who are aged from middle teens to early 30’s. I believe the features that are in the magazine will appeal to this niche market the best.

• Ideas for cover story: new established acts called the Nail Hammer • Idea for content page: pictures with page numbers, gig promotion, selection of

main stories and brief description from the editor.• Idea for double page spread: interview with Nail Hammer

Initial design

• For our initial design we had to draw a flat plan in order for

us to know what our final product will look like.

This is what my original flat plan looked like. It is very plain and shows a simple outlook of what my actual design will look like.

For this flat plan I used Microsoft Publisher because it was the quickest, most easiest way to show a simple design. Instead of drawing pictures, I just named where I would place the features on the page.

Initial design

This shows the progression from the flat plan to the actual front cover of the magazine. The use of consistency in the colours and the text shows that the magazine is of a high standard and resembles an actual rock magazine.

Progression

From my preliminary task you can evidently see the progression from Passion to Psyckraze because of the layout and the use of colours and effects. With Psyckraze more effects and colours are used to fit the conventions and forms of the magazine. The space within Psyckraze is being taken up proportionally whereas Passion has spaces in the background behind the central image.

Progression…

I believe that my magazine looks like an actual magazine, comparing it with Kerrang it looks like a real magazine because it complies with the conventions and forms. However I believe there could have been more writing to make it look less boring.

Evaluation • In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of a real media product? My product uses the same conventions as a real media product because it uses

consistency within the colours. The main colour used within the magazine is red and black. These colours were used because rock is associated with blood and darkness, so I felt that red and black would be an appropriate colour to use. I used yellow to bring, vibrancy and liveliness to the page instead of it looking dark and boring.

My product develops the forms and conventions of a real media product because it brings a new sort of genre to magazines, it brings young hip that teenagers to early twenties can relate to. My magazine develops the forms of a real product because, my magazine draws the reader in with the use of colours and photography.

When starting this task I looked at magazines like ‘Kerrang’, ‘Classic Rock’ and ‘Rolling Stones’. These magazines have been a huge influence with my work therefore the forms and conventions came from these magazines. One my magazine there is a central image with a strip that says what the name of the band is. This follows the conventions of a typical magazine such as Kerrang, this technique is used to make it more interesting to the reader and more appealing. My magazine has two other images included on the front page to show the contents of what will be inside of the magazine.

Evaluation • How does your media product represent particular social groups?Before setting out my magazine, I went around the school and got general

feedback from people within my niche market about what they liked to do on a daily basis, interests and hobbies. The reason I done this, was because it allowed me to have some insight into what my demographic liked.

My media product represents particular social groups because my niche market is aimed towards that particular social group. The social grade I will be aiming my magazine towards is the ‘E’ group. Those are the people at the lowest level of subsistence, they are casual or lowest grade workers. My magazine product represents particular social groups because they are able to relate to the magazine as it is for that niche market.

My product represents particular social groups because of the pictures used as the front cover. The picture gives a clear indication that the magazine is aimed at mid teenagers to early twenties. It is important I showed that my media product represented my particular social group because from the front cover, it should instantly tell you what and who the target audience is.

Evaluation • What kind of media institution might distribute your media product

and why?I believe that my media institution would not be in the same

distributor as ‘Kerrang’ because they are competitors. The distributor of Kerrang is Bauer Consumer Media. They also sell ‘Q’ magazine which is different to my media product because there magazine seems hard rock. However I feel my media product would distribute well with Classic Rock because I believe there is space in the market for a younger audience. I believe ‘Psyckraze’ with ‘Classic Rock’ is a great compliment and go well together because although they are different, it is still promoting the same style, genre music. I believe that as technology has advanced over the years, my magazine should have its own website in order for it to become more recognised and be featured within bigger magazine names like ‘Rolling Stones’.

Evaluation • Who would be your audience for your media product?For my media product, my audience would be people who enjoy rock

music. Psyckraze is aimed at both genders but mostly towards males. The front cover suggests that it is aimed at males through the use colours. The colours red and black would be associated with males rather than females. However as there are female rock artists on the page, it suggests that my media product is aimed at both.

Evaluation• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product? From constructing this magazine, I have learnt that making a magazine requires

time and effort in order for you to be 100% pleased with the final product. The technology I used to make my magazine was InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. These software applications are extremely hard to function, if you do not have a great understanding of how to use it. Photoshop is a graphics editing programme which allows you to manipulate your photos, for example removes spots and make eye colour different in which I used in my magazine. Using this technology helped me to develop my understanding of software because I was able to function and use the software at a competent level. However in design is where you actually make your media product. This allows you to write your text etc. Illustraor is where I got the image from on top of the title from, the people dancing.

Within constructing this product I had to use a site called blogger, in order to make a blog for my magazine. I have learnt that uploading photos via the blog site was hard but I kept on practicing – trial and error and soon it become easy to function.

Using a high standard photo camera enabled my pictures to look professional.

Evaluation• Looking back at my preliminary task I would plan my work much

more carefully making sure I am up to date with my work. Although I met all the deadlines I felt as though I could have finished the set task earlier so I had enough time to look over my work. I would also perhaps plan my time better making sure that I spread my work equally between the blog, magazine and evaluation. Researching my market is very important because it is who I am distributing my magazine to, I felt as though I could have researched into more magazines to get better ideas on how to produce an outstanding magazine although I am very pleased with my media product.

• Despite stating the flaws within how I went about doing the media product, I believe my magazine became a success at the end and the final product shows my hard work and dedication put in.

Pictures

Blog

Actual blog with entries from September

Blog for psyckraze