Article Analysis

The article has a large picture of a metal band on one page, and the other page is dedicated to the story. It is written in paragraphs with specific quotes pulled out. It includes a headline on the photo, the band name, a sub heading, and then the article.

The writing is really informal, even kind of colloquial, e.g. words such as 'shit' and 'dude' and 'man' are used. It is really friendly and audiences can relate to the contents of the article, i.e. one of the band members confessed to staying up all night playing 'Halo: Reach' a popular video game which everyone seems to be playing, also with their drinking and hookah they are portrayed as people just like everyone else, and so it makes an interesting fun article to read.

Moodboard

Questionnaire results

I created a questionnaire based on the music magazine preferences of my target audience and so got the following results from a total of 10 questionnaires:


Gender:
Male - 5
Female - 5

Age range:
13-19 - 10

Favorite genres:
Rap - 2
Indie - 4
RnB - 6
Hip-hop - 2
Pop - 6
Rock - 1
Metal - 1

Did they buy music magazines:
Yes - 2
No - 8

If so, how much magazines bought for:
£2.00-£3.00 - 1
£3.00+ - 1

Price range magazines would like to be bought at:
£1.00-£2.00 - 8
£2.00-£3.00 - 1
£3.00+ - 1

How often music magazines are bought:
Weekly - 1
Monthly - 1
Rarely/never - 8

Which features would be preferred in the magazine:
Posters - 5
Gig guides - 5
Band gossip - 8
Competitions - 4

Therefore, based on this sample of people, the results so far show that the preferred genres for teens seem to be RnB and pop, and that hardly anyone buys magazines, and if they do, they buy them rarely. Around half the people prefer posters, gig guides, and competitions in the magazine, whereas most of them would also like band gossip.
Based on the preferred genres, metal is not that popular and that is the genre that I am doing for my magazine, though it must be remembered that this is only an extremely small sample from a wide audience population.

Planning and research

My target audience for the magazine would be males and females, of any race and gender, aged in their 15-30's, who are working class people and students.

The institution would be IPC media.

Circulation figures would be around 500,000 copies on an average day, i.e. the amount of copies of one edition that is published.


I have been thinking of a variety of names for my magazine and the reasoning behind it, and so far have come up with:

• Chaos - disorderly and crazy, like the music
• Void - dark and mysterious, like the music
• Anarchy - rebelling against pop and mainstream music
• Get Crunk
• Vice

For my magazine I would be using Indesign and Photoshop.

I have also been downloading suitable fonts for my magazine from DaFont.com, so as to choose from a selection.


I have also researched IPC circulation figures and havediscovered that Chat magazine is really popular, as are TV magazines and women's magazines, followed by home magazines. NME the indie/pop/punk music magazine is fairly popular with circulation figures of around 33,333 circulation figures.
The monthly music market is 77,888 figures, and the monthly rock music market is 325,518, showing that therefore the rock magazines are more popular.
All these figures show what the industry is famous for, especially their chat magazine and TV and women magazines, which also shows that they have a large audience.


The top 40 songs are all mainstream music genres, i.e. hip-hop, pop, RnB, soul, indie, etc.


My magazine's unique selling point would be that it is cheaper than most magazines but still is as the same in print quality etc as normal magazines, and also it would include special offers and competitions from the magazine itself, also it would give away free things with each magazine in the pack, i.e c.d.'s, stickers, etc.

Hand-drawn contents page

If this contents page was actually designed properly on the computer, it would be bright and colorful, which would entice the reader to read the actual articles.
There are many pictures on the contents page, taking up most of the space apart from the actual contents list, which is how contents pages usually are like, for the readers to enjoy viewing.
All the people in the pictures are staring straight out at the audience, enticing the reader in.
The title 'contents' is at the top, where they usually are, and this obviously tells the reader that the list is of articles in the magazine.
The list of contents tells the reader everything that is included in the magazine.

Also, there could have been bigger photos which dominate the page, which would be one of the main articles in the magazine, i.e. the band on the cover could also have a large photo on the contents page as they are the main ones being featured. There are also no page numbers which are essential on the contents list as the reader may want to read particular articles and would want to find them easily.

So I would make my contents page include big photos and also page numbers etc.

InDesign & Photoshop Training

Image 1: Magazine Training
Image 2: Photoshop Training

Prelim Task

The magazine is aimed at college students, and is named after the college, also it includes a picture of a student and so is obviously aimed at students, which also matches the content regarding the 'girl of the day award'. The dark blue colors, and the white, is kind of the college style and so is defined as the 'house style', which is also established by use of the same fonts throughout.
The Mode of Address is direct address, as the girl on the cover is staring straight out at the audience. The writing is an informal, friendly style.
The girl may be a popular girl at college and so people may pick up the magazine if they see a picture of her staring out of the magazine, drawing the reader in and piquing their curiosity.
It follows all the minimal conventions of a magazine. It has the magazine name at the top, a main picture in medium shot of someone, a leading caption, a subheading, and other news bulletins. it also includes a barcode.

I made this magazine with the use of Adobe InDesign and Photoshop. I edited the photo using Photoshop, then placed it into my InDesign document. The barcode is from a website.

I do not like some things about this magazine, i.e the colors used, as I feel I could have used brighter colors. The writing is simplistic, and there are not much pictures. Also, there is not much text content on the front cover. I feel I could have done a lot better.

I have also realized that I haven't included an issue number and date. I could also have made the title bigger, as it appears to be the same size as the actual headline. The cover is very bare, and I could have included more photos, as not everyone may like or be interested in the main person, and also I could have included more text, i.e. a box about other content featured in the magazine. There is a hyphenated sentence which normally would not be there in a normal magazine, and so it should be taken out. The photo is 'squashed', and looks strange - it should have been a normal ratio of width x height.
There is no background framing in this photo, but in my project I may decide to include the background that was taken in the photo. I would have to do it in portrait whilst taking the picture.

Therefore, I would make my actual project include these things and follow the generic conventions of magazines.

NME! Magazine Cover Analysis

The name of the magazine is written in bold clear writing in the corner, leaving more space for the other content in the magazine. It is a magazine featuring genres such as indie, soft rock, punk etc, and has bright colors i.e. yellow and red, going according to the kind of music it promotes.

The band members on the cover are all staring straight out at the audience, making use of direct address.

There are only a few other small pictures using direct address and also indirect address.

The Automatic are also a band people have heard about, and they are good-looking also, so it makes people want to buy the magazine.

The front cover makes use of bright colors, bold fonts, and pictures, the fonts and colors of which are used all throughout, defining the 'house style' of the magazine, and confirming it as a soft rock/indie/punk genre magazine.

The title is of the brand name of the magazine, which makes it instantly recognizable to its members, and the headline is a band name, with a describing headline underneath swiftly captioning what the article on the band is on. The main photo is a group shot, of a close-up head and shoulders shot. There are subheadings in regard to other bands, and mini straplines featuring articles included in the magazine.

KERRANG! Magazine Cover Analysis

The images of the magazine are of band members, whom are what the magazine is about. The name of the magazine is unique and sharp, written in jagged writing. The color scheme is all black, red, and white, which follows the generic conventions of a rock magazine, thereby satisfying the audience's tastes.

The main band members featured on the cover are staring straight out at the audience, using the most common mode of address - the direct address. This invites the reader in.

Indirect address is also used for the pictures of other band members from a sideways view of them performing at live gigs. Enthusiastic, friendly writing is used, compelling the reader, and making them want to get the magazine.

Good looking, famous band members are featured on the cover, which promotes the magazine, as in this case where Bring Me The Horizon is used, a famous band that mostly everyone that likes this genre would have heard of it.

This front cover is appealing, making use of pictures, and eye-catching fonts and colors to catch the reader's eyes. The color theme reflects the type of magazine it is, defining it as a rock magazine, and have a small variety of fonts which are used all the time.

The title is the brand name of the magazine, making it instantly recognizable to its readers, and features a band name as it's headline, and a describing headline underneath regarding the band. The main band photographed has a close-up face and shoulders shot [shown as a group]. By the caption underneath the band name, it appears that the article is about the band. Also there are subheadings in reference to other articles about other bands. There are straplines showing names of other bands being featured in the magazine.

More ideas && research etc

I bought a music magazine for my coursework to see what kind of cover page, content layout, and double spread articles it had. It actually helped me plan a rough idea of my magazine in my mind, with regards to pictures, fonts, colors, where to situate the text, etc.

Over the weekend I brainstormed ideas for the content of my magazine and also researched more into the genre of my choosing, finding more bands such as Escape The Fate, Enter Shikari, Parkway Drive, Alesana, Nirvana, AFI, etc.

I have brainstormed names for my magazine and also names of bands to put into my article.

So far, I have come up with the name of Get Crunk for the magazine, and for my main band that would be featured on the cover page and headline, and which I would also do a double page article on, would be called Gaz Has A Death Wish. They would be promoting their new album called ...And I'm A Genie.

Initial Idea

I am making a music magazine for my AS media studies coursework.

I have already decided on the genre of the magazine; it will be aimed at those who like hardcore music, such as rock, metal, death metal etc.

I still have to think up the name of the magazine, and have been researching names of metal magazines, also band names. I would have to base most of the magazine on one band, i.e the cover page and the double spread article, but I would have to have other bands featured on the cover and contents page, and so would have to brainstorm to think up original band names.

For my pictures, I would have to have a few pictures of my main chosen band for the cover and the article on them, and also several pictures of different bands to include on the front cover and also on the contents page. To get ideas for this, I would have to view at least one music magazine to see what they have done about pictures for the cover and contents page, and also the kind of content they have included in their contents page.

I am also going to look through several past student projects to see what they have done and how they have done it, so as to get ideas etc so that ultimately the quality of my work would be as good as theirs and presentable for examination.

My inspiration/influences for the genre and bands would come from bands such as Avenged Sevenfold, Bring Me The Horizon, Eyes Set To Kill, Asking Alexandria, Silverstein, Brokencyde etc. For magazines, I would be looking at magazine such as Kerrang etc, just for layouts etc.