MUSIC MAGAZINE EVALUATION

Alex O’Leary

WHO WOULD BE MY TARGET AUDIENCE FOR MY MEDIA PRODUCT?

My music magazine is targeted mainly at ‘Mods and rockers’ and indie music fans. Throughout my magazine I’ve tried to cater for the older generation of music lovers but also the small minority of teenagers that are fans of traditional rock music. I have included many older and new bands from “the jam” which are a 70’s mod band to the enemy that are a mod revival band. Using this image I have shown the type of style many of the people who would read the magazine would wear as the image has a strong presence of indie fashion. Also the use of a female on the front shows this magazine is unisex but also as the girl on the front is very attractive it catches men’s eye. My magazine is very too do with challenging stereotypes as it well known that older generations think teenagers are rough and ‘chavvy’ but reading this they’ll see some teenagers are not so different to them after all and they do appreciate similar music. I believe this sends a positive representation of teenagers as it shows they can be un conventional, different and imaginative and can add to society. It could also be a negative representation however in all of the pictures I have used showing teenagers they’ve not been smiling to it could give a negative attitude showing that all teenagers are emotionless and miserable.

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

The idea of red for my magazine come from two ideas combined, firstly as my magazine is mainly typical English punk rock but also there’s the odd American rock song involved in the magazine so I have stuck to both countries traditional colours; red white and blue. Secondly I got the idea from ‘NME’ magazine as they are famous for the their traditional bright, bold red font.

Red is apparently the easiest seen and most eye catching colour to so as throughout my magazine front cover I have included three separate red boxes/circles also in a triangle shape really highlighting my magazine. I have chosen to use these bright colours as the majority of magazine purchases are done spontaneously so if my magazines the one that draws them they may go on to buy it.

Throughout my planning I have used several different features such as the air force symbol in the back ground and the red, white and blue writing at the bottom. Once I completed it I coincidently come across a very similar magazine by NME, they have used very similar concepts such as the typography and the signifier in the background. This symbols the genre of audience were targeting as the signifier is easily recognisable by all fans of mod music. Fans of indie music and rock music can also relate to this style of music instantly attracting them to my magazine.

For my masthead yet again I have chosen to take inspiration from the magazine NME yet again as I've chosen to use a bright and bold font and also a short and easily recognisable trying to create the masthead as quite an iconic and instantly recognised brand creating an image and brand identity.

For this bit of text I have not challenged usual conventions, however I have took on ideas from other magazines. I have used the bright red colour to really attract the audience, also the typography I have used is very traditional with the big and bold “free” yet again this is a media device often used to attract attention as everybody likes something for free so they instantly see the big “free” and feel more inclined to purchase my magazine.

As a large percentage of my audience are fans of mod music I have decided to put a large symbol which can be instantly recognized as a sign for mods therefore they will see this symbol and be attracted to it as they can relate to it. This challenges traditional conventions as most magazines don’t use symbols such as this, I have used a double image whereas they just use the picture with the actual background where the picture was taken or just a plain background.

This typography does not challenge any media conventions as it is very traditional for a music magazine , it is just used to highlight the artist and who they are.

This typography used here relates back to my background image as I have used a repetition of the colours red, white and blue symbolising patriotism of both Great Britain and the USA as the strong majority of the music in my magazine comes from these countries.

How does your media product represent particular social groups.The social group I have tried to attract in my media product are fans of rock, ‘mod’ and indie music. I have gone for the audience of Caucasian males aged from mainly the 60’s and 70s generation but also there's music to attract younger people aged about 16-21. The way I've gone about attracting both of these ages groups even with the big age difference is by mixing old and modern rock together involving all sorts of bands all with an retro style and sound.As my magazine is mainly targeted at Caucasian males I’ve have shown a few signs of this throughout my front cover such as the repetition of the colours; red, white and blue. This symbolises patriotism for both Great Britain and the USA as they are the colour which make up their flags. Even though my magazine is mainly focused on Caucasian males that does not mean that the magazine is not for women or different races such as black people. I have demonstrated that the magazine can also be for women as the artist on the front cover is a women. I believe this was quite a useful tool as the use of a women can be used to attract both sex’s due to women not feeling prejudiced against as they do have an involvement within the magazine but also as the female on the front cover is very attractive it an lead males to be attracted to it.

Both of these images either side of this font is a typical example of the teenagers that would read my magazine. As you they are both Caucasian but also from the picture you can see I have aimed my magazine at a very specific type of teenager, they both have quite a strong and different style giving the idea of quite indie and non-mainstreamers due to the irregular styles of music for the new generations of teenagers as traditional old fashioned music is slowly dying out with all sorts of new music coming out completely changing and ruining music in my opinion.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Bauer media group is a private European publishing group. They are a subsidiary label involving both magazines, TV and radio. They have produced many well known and successful magazines such as ‘Q’, ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Heat’. I decided to use this company for distributing my music magazine as I feel my magazine can relate to many of their current products. I decided to use Bauer media as many of the magazine they produce are very similar to my magazine such as ‘Kerrang’ and ‘Q’ as the music within their magazines is very similar to mine, also their target audience for them magazines are the same as mine and as these two magazine are a very well known and followed magazine, if Bauer did decide to produce my magazine they would already know exactly where to distribute their product as they are already very experienced within magazines.

Where would my music be played?

My music will be played on several different areas such as on the radio. There are many radio stations that distribute music for my genre but specifically I would play it on radio stations such as ‘Kerrang’ yet again linking in with bauer media. I would also try do ‘sets’ getting multiple artists that are traditional for the type of music involved in my magazine and doing a gig called for example “ERA tours” getting a reputation for my brand name and also getting an image. I would not perform in arenas however, i would perform in venues able to hold up to 4000 as the music in my magazine is not very mainstream so the following wont be to great but if my brand did become successful it should be able to sell out comfortably at average sized venues.

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

I tried to attract my specific audience by using very bright colours really attracting the audience as it catches there eye, I have also used a very iconic signifier that my target audience will recognize instantly as my magazine is targeted partly at fans of mod music and as the signifier I have used is there iconic symbol, logo possibly they’ll instantly feel attached and apart of my magazine.

Also as my magazine is targeted at males I have used an image of a stylish female who is very attractive making them read on and been attracted to it due to sex appeal. This could also work for attracting females towards my magazine as they may see that image and want to be look like due to her appearance as well as dress sense.

Most of my target audience is white males stereotypically I have used very patriotic colours i.e.. Red, white and blue.

Finally, I believe just the masthead and name of my magazine alone could also attract my audience as a good majority of my audience are older generations such as 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, the name ‘ERA’ is referring back to their era which my music magazine mainly involves in a believes that's where music was at its best.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES DURING MY MAKING PROCESS?

During the making of my media product I have used and learnt a lot about different types of technologies and how they can be used to benefit you. Throughout my magazine I have used several different technologies available on the computer to help create such as Photoshop elements 5.0, Microsoft PowerPoint/publisher and the internet using many different websites such as www.picnik.com and www.dafont.com .

The main software I used for the creation of my magazine was Microsoft PowerPoint. I have used this software as I believe it is the easiest and also the best for the making of my magazine due to the diversity of different things you can do on there such as from simply writing to adding pictures and changing everything about them to how I specifically want them.I used both Photoshop and www.picnik.com to edit, crop and enhance my photos, I used Photoshop to manipulate my photo removing the background of my image so I could then add my duel image of the mod symbol for example on my front cover. In order to firstly get my photos I used a Nikon digital. I found the use of this camera very useful for the making of my magazine and I don’t really know where I'd be without it! As the camera was very high megapixel it enabled me to get quality pictures giving the picture a professional look. I found the internet very useful as there was plenty of useful tools on there to really get the most out of my media product but also it was really helpful for research as there were many examples of professional music magazines already made to give me ideas on what to do on my magazine.Overall the use of technology throughout my magazine has really helped me get through it and without that I believe my finished product would of been of a much lower, amateur standard.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

Preliminary Main

Preliminary Main

II believe from my preliminary task to now there has been a huge improvement in the quality of my work. For example, In the preliminary task I was not to familiar with different technologies such as Photoshop and picnik so all I done was take the pictures and insert them straight onto PowerPoint without manipulating them in anyway however, now due to practice and being taught little tricks within these 2 software's I know several ways to crop, enhance and manipulate pictures to just the way I want them for example, in my contents page on my main task I used www.picnik.com to change the colour of the image making it a bit more of a suitable colour to go with my magazine.

There was also a huge lack of planning for my school magazine, I just started the magazine without having any idea of a traditional and typical school magazine but for my main task I spent a lot of time collecting information, learning what to, and what not to do as far as a music magazine is concerned and just overall a better understanding of media concepts in general to really aid and improve the quality of my work.

For my school magazine I only used the resources available to me on Microsoft publisher whereas now used to researching into different technologies available to me I was able to improve many different aspects of my work for example the masthead as yet again I used the internet and the websites available on there (www.dafont.com) to give me a more professional and stylish font.

Overall I believe there has been a great improvement in the quality of my work due to the use of different technologies and planning.