12C: Annie-Rose O'Neill

Music Magazine Evaluation

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

‘BPM’ (Bass per Minute) is the title of my magazine which is the most original convention of my magazine. I felt that by having such an original title, it would make the magazine more appealing to it’s target audience as they are more likely to take an interest in something they haven’t seen before.

The structure of my magazine follows that of most other music magazines to make it look as professional as possible. I looked at other magazine pages for inspiration, and incorporated their styles and fonts into my own magazine. For my contents page, I looked at a ‘Vibe’ magazine contents page and really liked the style of the title, where the word ‘contents’ is split onto three lines. I used this in my own contents page, but have a more colourful colour scheme as I think it looks more effective.

Every magazine cover I looked at had a mid-close up shot which covered the majority of the page. I thought this looked effective and found that the image on the front cover is the first thing the audience sees, so is important it stands out. I used a mid shot for my front cover, focusing on the models watch and fur hood which helped with the genre of my RnB magazine.

Looking at other double page spreads, the main structure of them have a big image on either the right or left page with an article on the other side, along with titles and quotes. I followed this structure, as again I wanted to make it look professional and follow the idea of developing real media products.

My colour scheme is a mixture of colours including pink, black, grey and white which isn’t the same as any other magazine I have looked at. I felt it was important to have something that made it look original and different to every other magazine you see. By using a colour scheme that hasn’t really been used before makes it that bit more appealing as the public wants to see different things on the market.

I liked the way Vibe magazine structured their contents page, especially the title with it on three different lines. I made my magazine look similar to this as I think it looks unusual and appealing.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine focuses on RnB music which is very popular among teenagers, so would appeal to the teenage target audience. It means that the members of the audience can also relate to the magazine themselves and feel encouraged if they want to pursue a music career. Through looking at other magazines, I saw that RnB front covers included images of characters with quite a ‘serious’ expression and my image is similar, conveying that it relates and fits in with that genre. I dressed my model in a fur hooded coat that she wore up, with a watch, similar to a Rolex. I did this as I feel the image on the front of a magazine says a lot about the magazine and speaks for the rest of it based on the first look at it. I deliberately dressed my model with clothing and props that are fashionable at this current time to attract the right teenage audience.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

When creating a music magazine, I think it is vital that the distribution of the item is thought about, and why certain places will want to distribute it. You have to think about which company would actually want to publish your magazine as there is a lot of competition within the media.

Whilst looking at different institutions, ‘musicmags.net’ stood out for me for the distribution of my product as it includes magazines that aren’t too mainstream. Although my magazine has some similar features to that of a professional music magazine, it looks original, especially with the colour scheme. This websites also highlights that the number one reason a dealer carries music magazines is to educate their customers about the product, which is important for my magazine.

There are a range of magazines published on musicmags.net, not just one style, so would be good to carry on publishing a range of different magazines.

‘Ipcmedia.com’ is the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publisher and publish a range of well known magazines that are very successful with their sales. ‘NME’ magazine is published here which is one of the most popular music magazines, so publishing my magazine on this website would ensure that it would succeed financially.
I would hope for my magazine to distribute in shops also, as it would continue to become broadly known. Newsagents and chain shops like WHSmith would be a successful place for distribution as it would be something ‘new’ on the market, so would be the new ‘in’ thing to buy.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my music magazine are for males and females between the age range of 16-22. This is because RnB music is listened to by both males and females of these ages especially. My magazine also features both sexes, to attract a wider audience rather than just males or females which are important when selling a magazine.

Other music magazines are mainly for the younger generation, so based my idea for the target audience on those aswell. ‘Vibe’ magazine is one that I focused on most because I feel it related most to the style of magazine I wanted to create, as it is RnB, with young models featured.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

For my magazine to successfully attract my target audience, I used an informal register to fake a personal relationship with the reader, resulting in the magazine appealing more to teenagers. The lexis used on the front cover connotes that the magazine is clearly RnB as for example it uses the word ‘tunes’ instead of songs, giving it more of a ‘street’ or ‘slang’ effect. I also used adjectives such as ‘hottest’ to describe the music, again giving it the ‘street’ effect that fits in with the genre.

Giving my magazine the title ‘BPM’, shortened version of ‘Bass Per Minute’ means that it’s more catchy as its short and snappy. It is also a simple name to remember and will come to the readers mind easily. The word ‘bass’ relates to the type of music included in the magazine, so as soon as the reader see’s the masthead, they will automatically be more attracted to the magazine.

The image on the front cover shows the model with a fur hood. I used this image because I feel it is important that the style of the clothing the model wears should be similar to that of the type of clothing people who listen to that style of music wear. The watch is also an important part of the image as it goes with the ‘street’ style the majority of RnB magazines have such as ‘Vibe’ magazine for example.

The price of my magazine is £2.50, which is quite a good price to attract a wide audience. With the price being quite cheap, teenagers are more likely to buy it because it’s affordable for that particular age range. It is important for the target audience to be taken into consideration when thinking about the price.

The contents page features two models that are different to the model on the front cover and double page spread. One of the models is holding a microphone. Props are important when attracting audiences as they make it clear straight away what the type of magazine is. In this case, the microphone shows the audience that it is clearly a music magazine.

In my double page spread, I have included large fonts for the models name especially as the audience are more likely to want to read the page if it has big titles and mastheads attracting them to it. It is important that the type of font you use on each page relates to the type of magazine and fits in with the genre. My magazines main feature is the female model ‘Lily Rose’, so the fonts I have used, on the double page especially are more ‘girly’ so as the text goes with the image.

The colour scheme is also one that would attract both males and females as it includes the right colours based around the images. For example, the contents page matches the colour clothing the male model featured is wearing, and the front cover and double page spread use more pinks.

6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In the process of making my magazine, I found that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I enjoyed doing the photography of my model as I learnt how to take photos using a canon camera. The importance of shot angles and sizes are significant which I wouldn’t have learnt if I didn’t have the chance to take these photos. Mid shots and close ups are the best type to use on a magazine front cover which I found by looking at other magazines for ideas. The lighting is important for pictures being taken to get the most effective look, and making it look as professional as possible.

To create my magazine pages, I had to use Photoshop which I had no experience of. Photoshop is something that needs a lot of practice to get the hang of the effects you can use to give a professional finish. All of the photos included in my magazine have been cut out using the ‘magnetic lasso’ tool. This wasn’t hard to use, however did need concentration to make sure the photo was cut out properly. I also used the basics such as the ‘T’ tool for text and the tool to create boxes.

Some of the writing didn’t stand out enough where it should have, so I used outer glow effects which gave those more of a ‘bold’ look and made them dominant. The Internet was helpful when creating my magazine as I was able to look at other magazines for inspiration and give me ideas in making it look more professional. A website called ‘dafont.com’ included a wide range of fonts that I downloaded to make my magazine look a lot more appealing.

‘Ipcmedia.com’ was a website that helped me learn a bit more about companies of magazines as it is one of the leading consumers, therefore helping in selling my magazine.

7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

Before completing both the preliminary school magazine and the music magazine, I had no experience of using Photoshop whatsoever and also used barely any of the equipment to help me create them. There is a significant change between my preliminary front cover and the main task and I feel it has improved a lot.

There wasn't as much information included on the front cover as I could have done, which meant it looked quite plain. Most other magazines are filled up with as much writing as possible, also showing that the customers are getting the most of what they're paying for.

The background of my preliminary contents page let it down the most as it is too plain, giving it quite a boring feel. Looking at music magazines, you could see that they had some kind of background colour that fit in with the images and text, so for my main task, I made sure the background was suitable.

I have learnt that when creating a product such as a magazine, every detail is important for making it look at professional as possible. The font used is one of the most important changes I made, as they were very basic on the preliminary, but much more variety on my main task.

The costuming and props were a major part of the magazine, especially the clothing because it gave it the informal ‘street’ look i wanted it to give off.

I designed drafts in sketch form for my magazine which are on my blog. The sketch of the front cover is similar to my final product, however the contents and double page spread are completely different. I changed my mind quite a bit as I didn’t think it looked enough like a music magazine.

8. Evaluate how successful your product is with your target audience using audience feedback

Feedback from others:

"From a first glance, I would personally buy this magazine as I am into RnB music, and this genre is shown straight away. The fonts used compliment the genre aswell, as they aren't too curley or too bold, they look like the type of fonts you would see on another RnB magazine. The structure of the magazine is professional, as you can clearly see the structure has been followed and closely looked at to create the effect it has given. There is a link between the colour scheme on the front cover and the double page spread, as both pages include the same person, and the colour scheme on the contents page is different which really stands out for me. I think this is effective as it is more appealing to have pages with completely different colours used, for different information. It also creates the sense that it is really clear what is where.

I can also see that good use of technology has been used to create the magazine, especially through the photography. The quality of the photos are of a high standard and there is a good use of photoshop tools shown throughout all 3 pages. The pictures have been cut out with writing behind them and over them, which makes it look really professional. To cut the pictures out, you obviously have a good idea of how to use the tools on photoshop, which shows you know what you are doing.

Boxes and different fonts have been used, creating a professional feel to it once again. The layout is especially good on the pages, for example, the front cover has each title down the sides, with the masthead at the top. The double page spread has the text split into columns like most double page spreads you would see with quotes included.

The price of the magazine is also decent for the target audience as it is affordable.

To improve upon this next time, I think you could focus even more on a professional music magazine as you have shown a lot of things that do resemble them, however I think you could gain more marks if you copied the style of them even more."

This feedback has helped me see my magazine from a different point of view, which I feel is the best way to analyse a piece of work. After reading the comments made, I agree with what has been said and feel that if I looked at magazines more closely, it would look even more professional.

The main strengths of my magazine is the fact I have used an original colour scheme, making it fit with the models clothing, and the font styles that have made it look like a professional magazine.

I feel I could include more images over the 3 pages, which may make the pages look more filled up.

Overall, I have included the main conventions of a magazine.