I'm Tina, and this is my blog for As media studies.
Our first project is to make our own music magazine. On this blog I will write down what we are doing in the next couple of weeks. What we are doing first, is to research about different music magazines.
Saturday 1 December 2012
Friday 30 November 2012
Music magazine research
There is a wide variety of music magazines in Britain. Varying from pop, indie, rock and hip-hop.
The most popular magazines are :
NME - The New Musical Express, popularly known by the initialism NME, is a music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. The publisher of NME is IPC media.
IPC media ,a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines,most notably its namesake, Time. Other magazines include Sports Illustrated, Fortune, People, InStyle, Life, GOLF Magazine, Southern Living, Essence, This Old House, All You and Entertainment Weekly. It also owns the UK magazine house IPC Media, whose major titles include What's On TV, NME, Country Life, Marie Claire and Nuts.Time Warner Inc. (formerly AOL Time Warner) is an American multinational media corporation headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City.As of mid-2010, it was the world's second largest media and entertainment conglomerate in terms of revenue (behind The Walt Disney Company), as well as the world's largest media conglomerate.
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography
and printing.
BBC music magazine BBC Music Magazine is a magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom by BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Reflecting the broadcast output of BBC Radio 3, the magazine is devoted primarily to classical music, though with sections on jazz and world music. Each edition comes with a free audio CD, often including BBC recordings of full-length works. BBC corporation its values is to inform and educate this will reflect in their magazine. The target is more of an upperclass magazine.
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar, Kerrang! was initially devoted to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000s it became the best-selling British music newspaper
Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV and usually shortened to H. Bauer .Bauer Media Group publishes both Kerrang and Q.
Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several popular music television channels, which include:
The most popular magazines are :
NME - The New Musical Express, popularly known by the initialism NME, is a music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. The publisher of NME is IPC media.
IPC media ,a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.
Time Inc. is a subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of the original Time Inc. and Warner Communications. It publishes 130 magazines,most notably its namesake, Time. Other magazines include Sports Illustrated, Fortune, People, InStyle, Life, GOLF Magazine, Southern Living, Essence, This Old House, All You and Entertainment Weekly. It also owns the UK magazine house IPC Media, whose major titles include What's On TV, NME, Country Life, Marie Claire and Nuts.Time Warner Inc. (formerly AOL Time Warner) is an American multinational media corporation headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City.As of mid-2010, it was the world's second largest media and entertainment conglomerate in terms of revenue (behind The Walt Disney Company), as well as the world's largest media conglomerate.
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography
and printing.
BBC music magazine BBC Music Magazine is a magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom by BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Reflecting the broadcast output of BBC Radio 3, the magazine is devoted primarily to classical music, though with sections on jazz and world music. Each edition comes with a free audio CD, often including BBC recordings of full-length works. BBC corporation its values is to inform and educate this will reflect in their magazine. The target is more of an upperclass magazine.
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar, Kerrang! was initially devoted to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000s it became the best-selling British music newspaper
Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV and usually shortened to H. Bauer .Bauer Media Group publishes both Kerrang and Q.
Bauer Media Group has a 50% stake in the British television company Box Television, the other half owned by Channel 4. Box Television acts as the content subsidiary that produces several popular music television channels, which include:
- Q TV
- 4Music
- Kiss TV
- Kerrang! TV
- The Box
- Magic TV
- Smash Hits TV
Magazine Analysis
There are not many colours on this magazine, but there is only one colour that dominates, and that is red. Florence's hair is red, the masthead, the plug, other people that the magazine has written about, and Florence's name. That draws peoples attention to the red writings, which has more importance than the other writing. The plug on the top is there to make people buy the magazine. It says free music inside, and if there is anything free in the magazine, the audience will be interested in what kind of music they get.
Florence is represented in a male gaze, She is not wearing much clothes, and the way she is standing, with new york under her, makes her look very powerful and strong.Her music is very odd and special, and that reflects in this picture of her. It is a bit old fashioned, like from the mid 50's. Her look is very intense and she is looking right at you.
I think that this issue is for girls. Teenagers and young adults.
This one is very different from the one on the top. Avenged Sevenfold is represented as dangerous and rebellious with their leather clothes, the chain and their look. The man in front of the others, M.Shadows, has his t-shirt ripped apart so we can see his tattoos and he has a scary smile, which reflects to the text below ; The worlds most dangerous band.
The masthead is hidden behind the band, but the magazine is well known, so the audience who reads it every time is comes out, will know what magazine it is.
The magazine gives out free posters, which will make people buy it even more, because they will get more than just the magazine.
The main colours on this cover, are red, yellow and white. This is a rock magazine, so it will be mostly men who is going to buy it.
The colours they have used are red, blue and white.They have used the American flag in the background, which relates to the colours used for text and the insert image, and the plug which says free posters. The blue text catches your eye, because it is so bright, and it is an unusual choice.
Thursday 29 November 2012
Analyse of three content pages and three double page spreads for three different music magazines.
The layout is very simple and easy to read.
On the top it says that it is a content page. At also says what number it is and what month it is for. The content is not over the picture, but on the side, like a L. The colours are very simple. The main colours are black, white and red. The menu strip is on the left hand side, and this is the firs thing you read. because you read from left to right. This position allows you to follow down to Oasis special section, this band is iconic to British music. and will appeal to a large amount of readers. After that you'll find what is in the magazine every month, that might effect people to read it next month too.
Under the picture it says Q Review, where you can read about the worlds biggest and best music guide.
The band is looking right at you, and it is a bit of a low angle shot, which makes them look powerful.
Q Double Page Spread
The first thing you see when you turn the page over, is Lady Gaga with almost no clothes on. This represents the male gaze. Under her name, it says; what I've learned. That makes the reader want to know what she has learned.The interview page is very easy and simple. The text is in red and black. The questions are in red, the same is Lady Gaga's name over the picture of her. Her answers are in black, relating to the text under her name which is black In the middle of the interview, there is a large text, which is quite interesting, and you can find that somewhere in the text, which makes the reader want to read the whole story. Red dominates over the two pages. The colour Q has its masthead red, and in the bottom of the two pages you can see it next to the page number.
KERRANG content page
The word 'content' stands out because of the contrasts of the colours
black and yellow, and the bold font. The bold font attracts men, and so
does the pictures. The pictures on the left shows what you can read
about in the magazine, it also looks busy and well organized. The picture on the top is the band You Me At Six, intertextuality is
referencing a film within the image, and this is an halloween issue.Only the artists/band name is yellow, so it does not reveal too much information.The content page is put in to categories, that makes it easy to find what you are looking for.
On the top of the page to the left there is a note from the editor, that makes it a bit more personal. On the top under the word content, there is a quote which is a bit comical.
KERRANG double page spread.
The headline has white letters, and the background looks like blood, because it looks like the colour is dripping. Red is a symbol of blood, danger and passion.That relates to the band, that their music is dangerous and that they are passioned about their music. Because of everything the background being in red, the first thing you will see is the red writing. The red also relates to the quote in the middle, that Eva Spence said; I just love dancing and screaming. The interview is about Rolo Tomassi. The picture of them is very eye-catching, and it covers the whole left page. On the picture they look rebellious, the girls is holding a rabbit down, and the rabbit looks scared and mad.
NME content page
This content page has a black background headline with NME's logo and white writing of contents. That makes the headline stand out. The main colours on this page is red, white and black.
On the left, there is a band index, which says what page each band is on, that you can read about. Under the headline, there is a big picture of Artic Monkeys, and which page you can read about them.There is a small paragraph about what you can read about Artic Monkeys,which helps the reader to decide if he wants to read about them or not. The picture is of the lead singer, playing a guitar and singing. He is wearing a black tank top and he looks quite innocent. Under the paragraph, there is a plug where you can save £1.49 if you subscribe today. If the reader likes the magazine, this is a good opportunity to save some money, and everyone likes to save some money, to the plugs left there is another plug which is red, that says ; the uk's nr1 gig guide, that makes the reader believe that this magazine is really good, and that makes the reader want to subscribe more.
On the right, there are some paragraphs about interesting things to read about, they use words like, news, features and live, to make it look more interesting. On the bottom it says plus, in a red writing, then it will look like you get more than you paid for.
Double page spread of NME
The main colours on this double page spread are black and white. Lily Allen is wearing a red shirt, that makes her stand out and eye-catching. The headline is symbolic of ransom notes, which conceals and hides identity, which in relation to the text 'just honest' is a double meaning, suggesting that she has something to hide. the text is a construction of the punk genre. She is a construction of the rebellious image and stereotype of punk. The headline and the picture almost takes over the entire double page, there is not much text, compared to what is normal in a interview.
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Draft of my front cover, contents page, double page spread and my stylesheet.
Tuesday 27 November 2012
Feedback
We did a feedback session yesterday where we talked about our plans regarding the music magazine, where i talked about the the name, target audience, price, how often it is going to be published and what I'm planning to write in my double page spread. The pink and green is positive and yellow and orange is negative.
Monday 26 November 2012
Audience Research
Survey Monkey
Question 1, There are 56% that are from 17-25 years old, that shows that my magazine audience will be young adults.
This shows that I'm making a music
magazine for a male audience.
The main price people want to pay for a music magazine is from £2 - 3.99.
Question 1, There are 56% that are from 17-25 years old, that shows that my magazine audience will be young adults.
This shows that I'm making a music
magazine for a male audience.
Sunday 25 November 2012
Pitch document.
The magazine will be called FIST, because fist reflects bad, rebellious, dangerous, risk taker. The same things reflects rock.
The genre of my magazine will be rock, because on my survey showed that over 55% wanted my magazine to be rock. Based on my survey, it will cost £3.50, my target audience will be male and female from the age 17 to 25.
about 60 pages and it’s going to be published monthly.
Article ideas:
New music
Upcoming concerts and bands
interviews
Friday 23 November 2012
Evaluation
1) In what way does you media product use, develop or challenge conventions of real media products?
Front Cover
My music magazine magazine mostly uses the codes and conventions of real rock music magazines.The masthead on both of the magazines are on the left hand side, and the mast head is quite noticeable.The mast head is normally on the top of the magazine, so that when the magazine is in the store, you can see what kind of magazine it is, when it is stocked next to other magazines you can easily see the mast head because it is on the top.
Another thing that makes my magazine look like a real music magazine is the model. On Q's magazine, Cheryl has a intense look, she is licking her ring, she has wet hair and dark makeup. That reflects the stereotypical aspect towards females. The same with my model. She has a intense look, she is revealing her skin, with her jacket down like that and she is wearing dark make up.
On Q's magazine they have written the main story with big writing, same as my magazine. I have written down a few things that you can read in my magazine on the left hand side, the same as Q.
I used the colour red through the whole magazine. On my front cover a lot of the writing is red, the same is her shirt under the leather jacket. the same with my contents page. three out of four models is wearing red. because red represents rebellious and bad. The same does the genre rock.
Contents Page My writing is on the left of the page, because when people read they read from left to right. Q also has the writing on the left, so that makes my contents page look like a real one. It is conventional for contents pages to be organized in to columns. My example for Q magazine is that it has been organized in tree columns. Same as my magazine.
Another thing that is usually on a contents page, is to have numbers on the pictures so that you can look at a picture and find what Page it is right away.
Double Page Spread
It is quite normal to have a large splash image on the left hand side takes up one side of the page. And the text on the other side of the page.
Almost every magazine's double page spread has a large header with a strap line under it, so that you can get an understanding of what the story is about.
The text of interview is often splitted into tree or four columns.
A lot of magazines also often have a question and answer that they ask their celebrity.
2)
Gender
My magazine represents gender in a special way. The normal way to represent women is the stereotypical way where the females are sexually attractive, wears not that much clothes and reveals quite a lot.
But my main model is dressed with a leather jacket, dark makeup and long messy hair. But when it comes to the gender rock, the stereotypical woman is quite rebellious and bad.
Age
The people in my magazine are young.Young people are represented as people who are interested with their appearance. Their looks are very important to them, my models shows that. young people are also very confident with themselves. are not afraid to show who they are and what they want.
Social groups
The social groups in my magazine are rock-punks. They are represented as rebellious people. who wears a lot of dark clothes.their phallic symbols might be a guitar.
Class
The class that represents my my magazine might me middle class, lower upper class.
The people in my magazine is quite successful and well educated.
3)
Who is going to publish your magazine?
I would have chosen between Bauer media or IPC media.
Bauer media already produces a rock magazine, but they already know the target audience, so they would know what to do with my magazine. They are also a very successful company, so they would have a good financial backing. They would support with contests, and maybe have a bit more expensive contests.
But on the other side, if i chose to go with IPC media that would also be positive. Because IPC does not publish any rock magazines, so that is a gap in the market for me, so that my magazine could me the only rock magazine that IPC publishes, so that i don't have to compete with another rock magazine which gets published by the same publisher.
4) Who would be the the audience for your media product?
My target audience for my magazine are male and females at the age from 17- 25. I found that out from doing a survey.
My target audience also likes rock music, likes the festivals and concerts that my magazine has.
The way I attract my target audience is trough the fashion that my models are wearing and though what is in my magazine.
5) How did you attract/ address your audience?
I attracted my audience by having a contest on my front cover about winning concert tickets to any concert of their choice. That might attract any rock loving person. Because if they can choose any concert they want, they might choose a band that is not very well known, so if they can not afford that concert ticket, that concert ticket might mean a lot to them.
I'm having an exclusive interview with my front cover model, and I wrote that with big writing to attract my audience, because big writing is very eye catching. The word exclusive attracts a lot of people who is interested in reading about the latest gossip and news.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the beginning of our course work we made out own blog. I have never had a blog before, so i learnt a lot of interesting things, and I am still learning.
When i did my research I used a mac, which i have never tried before, so i learned how to use that.
When I planned everything we used in InDesign. I had never tried that either, so my teachers thought me to use that.
When we produced our product, we used photoshop to make the front cover, contents page and double page spread.
Before we started making our magazines I had never tried photoshop. So I learned how to edit, put on different layers, importing fonts on Dafont.com, from their website on to my product on photoshop.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I've learnt how to research for the right things.
In the beginning when we made our college magazine, I did not know anything about making a magazine.
At first we did some research about what we wanted to have in our magazine, like what kind of stories and photos.
After that we learned how to use InDesign, for our front cover and contents page.
We wrote our stories for our magazine, took the photos, and I got my finished product.
I have learned a lot from when we first started making magazines until now.
I have learned how you plan your music magazine, how to take photos and edit them in photoshop.
My music magazine magazine mostly uses the codes and conventions of real rock music magazines.The masthead on both of the magazines are on the left hand side, and the mast head is quite noticeable.The mast head is normally on the top of the magazine, so that when the magazine is in the store, you can see what kind of magazine it is, when it is stocked next to other magazines you can easily see the mast head because it is on the top.
Another thing that makes my magazine look like a real music magazine is the model. On Q's magazine, Cheryl has a intense look, she is licking her ring, she has wet hair and dark makeup. That reflects the stereotypical aspect towards females. The same with my model. She has a intense look, she is revealing her skin, with her jacket down like that and she is wearing dark make up.
On Q's magazine they have written the main story with big writing, same as my magazine. I have written down a few things that you can read in my magazine on the left hand side, the same as Q.
I used the colour red through the whole magazine. On my front cover a lot of the writing is red, the same is her shirt under the leather jacket. the same with my contents page. three out of four models is wearing red. because red represents rebellious and bad. The same does the genre rock.
Contents Page My writing is on the left of the page, because when people read they read from left to right. Q also has the writing on the left, so that makes my contents page look like a real one. It is conventional for contents pages to be organized in to columns. My example for Q magazine is that it has been organized in tree columns. Same as my magazine.
Another thing that is usually on a contents page, is to have numbers on the pictures so that you can look at a picture and find what Page it is right away.
Double Page Spread It is quite normal to have a large splash image on the left hand side takes up one side of the page. And the text on the other side of the page.
Almost every magazine's double page spread has a large header with a strap line under it, so that you can get an understanding of what the story is about.
The text of interview is often splitted into tree or four columns.
A lot of magazines also often have a question and answer that they ask their celebrity.
2)
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Gender
My magazine represents gender in a special way. The normal way to represent women is the stereotypical way where the females are sexually attractive, wears not that much clothes and reveals quite a lot.
But my main model is dressed with a leather jacket, dark makeup and long messy hair. But when it comes to the gender rock, the stereotypical woman is quite rebellious and bad.
Age
The people in my magazine are young.Young people are represented as people who are interested with their appearance. Their looks are very important to them, my models shows that. young people are also very confident with themselves. are not afraid to show who they are and what they want.
Social groups
The social groups in my magazine are rock-punks. They are represented as rebellious people. who wears a lot of dark clothes.their phallic symbols might be a guitar.
Class
The class that represents my my magazine might me middle class, lower upper class.
The people in my magazine is quite successful and well educated.
3)
Who is going to publish your magazine?
I would have chosen between Bauer media or IPC media.
Bauer media already produces a rock magazine, but they already know the target audience, so they would know what to do with my magazine. They are also a very successful company, so they would have a good financial backing. They would support with contests, and maybe have a bit more expensive contests.
But on the other side, if i chose to go with IPC media that would also be positive. Because IPC does not publish any rock magazines, so that is a gap in the market for me, so that my magazine could me the only rock magazine that IPC publishes, so that i don't have to compete with another rock magazine which gets published by the same publisher.
4) Who would be the the audience for your media product?
My target audience for my magazine are male and females at the age from 17- 25. I found that out from doing a survey.
My target audience also likes rock music, likes the festivals and concerts that my magazine has.
The way I attract my target audience is trough the fashion that my models are wearing and though what is in my magazine.
5) How did you attract/ address your audience?
I attracted my audience by having a contest on my front cover about winning concert tickets to any concert of their choice. That might attract any rock loving person. Because if they can choose any concert they want, they might choose a band that is not very well known, so if they can not afford that concert ticket, that concert ticket might mean a lot to them.
I'm having an exclusive interview with my front cover model, and I wrote that with big writing to attract my audience, because big writing is very eye catching. The word exclusive attracts a lot of people who is interested in reading about the latest gossip and news.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In the beginning of our course work we made out own blog. I have never had a blog before, so i learnt a lot of interesting things, and I am still learning.
When i did my research I used a mac, which i have never tried before, so i learned how to use that.
When I planned everything we used in InDesign. I had never tried that either, so my teachers thought me to use that.
When we produced our product, we used photoshop to make the front cover, contents page and double page spread.
Before we started making our magazines I had never tried photoshop. So I learned how to edit, put on different layers, importing fonts on Dafont.com, from their website on to my product on photoshop.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I've learnt how to research for the right things.
In the beginning when we made our college magazine, I did not know anything about making a magazine.
At first we did some research about what we wanted to have in our magazine, like what kind of stories and photos.
After that we learned how to use InDesign, for our front cover and contents page.
We wrote our stories for our magazine, took the photos, and I got my finished product.
I have learned a lot from when we first started making magazines until now.
I have learned how you plan your music magazine, how to take photos and edit them in photoshop.
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