Friday, 8 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
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Evaluation
My music magazine follows many generic elements and conventions of a mainstream music magazine; this will enhance the verisimilitude of my music magazine and create a music magazine that is instantly recognisable on a rack in a store. Generic conventions sell and advertise magazines from a distance which is why I stuck to them.
The generic conventions of a mainstream magazine include;
A large masthead which draws the reader to the magazine, it distinguishes the magazine from other genres and magazines. The masthead includes the magazine name or an abbreviated version which is the same with all editions of the magazine. My magazine is called Music For The People and so to stick with my style model which is a magazine such as NME I abbreviated it to MFTP, just like new musical express is abbreviated to NME. Red and white is a typical colour duo in many music magazines, and so I used these in the form of a red background with white drop shadowed text. These colours show contrast between each other which once again makes the magazine noticeable at a distance. The five white lines on the background image of the masthead represent the lines of a score of music which is a semiotic.
I took many photos intended for my magazines cover image although some turned out to be not suitable for a front cover, I took inspiration from a cover of NME where band made up of males were arranged in a tiered format with one slightly behind the other. I arranged my models for the front cover image in a similar but not identical pose to preserve the generic conventions but to keep a unique feel to my magazine. Many mainstream music magazines such as NME have smaller pictures of bands or solo artists with their name on as a caption to invite the reader to read more about the artists featured. I arranged my pictures in a way that simulated how they would look if they were dropped onto the page loosely, whereas NME just has their pictures wonky.
NME and other mainstream magazines have mini adverts for freebies such as band posters and so I incorporated this onto my front cover image with a Free Poster advert along with Free MP3 Downloads.
A controversial pull quote is what draws readers into reading more of the magazine. In my magazine I used KINGS OF LEON with them quoting “MUSIC JUST ISNT MUSIC ANYMORE”. I made the pull quote bold and white so it would stand out on the black clothes of the cover band.
For the contents page I followed a style model of Kerrang with photos arranged on the left side and the small page numbers area on the right with a ratio of around 3/5 Pictures 2/5. The similar gold and black colours are common within music magazines and so I incorporated this too. Each picture had a small intro into the person featured underneath the picture so I also used this. The fonts I used were boulder for the front cover and trebuchet for the double page spread. I also produced two other front covers to be shrunk down into an advert to persuade readers to subscribe to MFTP.
My double page spread includes many generic forms and conventions of a music magazine splash article for example, a main picture that encroaches onto the second page. Drop capitals are used to further enhance the look of a professional article. A large pull quote is another generic form of a music magazines double page spread and so I used “I love my life now” to invite the reader to read on and find out why. An advert for the new album was used as the double page spread was all about “The Unwanted” and I believe this should be a feature in future music magazines. As this would promote new music groups such as The Unwanted.
All media products are mediated to represent a certain social class or meaning that is encoded by the producer, as Stuart Hall 1980 said, as MFTP is not a gender specific magazine, all the images in my magazine have been mediated to represent ideal self’s, or ideal partners. The people featured in my magazine represent the rich and famous or at least the new to be rich and famous. The type of pose that is found in such a magazine such as NME is a very serious stern look that connotes power and which some readers may find attractive, whereas a rock magazine such as Kerrang has their cover pictures featuring long haired hair rockers with a look of anger or rage. The type of pose determines what the magazines music featured is going to be and so I went for a serious look for the front cover to draw readers in, and to represent the music. Laura Mulveys theory of male gaze could be reversed in my magazines images as it could be said that women lust over the men on the front cover, and her theory could also be supported with the images of women in the rest of the magazine as the poses I have mediated connote attractiveness. The ideology that artists worship their fans support should have been reinforced in my magazine as this would keep up the fans faith and ultimately sell more magazines in the future. I didn’t reinforce this to the reader I could have improved with this with a section in the article.
In the world of the magazine industry there are two key publishers of magazines, and each has a major music magazine. Bauer is conglomerate which owns many magazines with some mainstream and some niche genres but mainly it owns NME New Music Express. Another conglomerate with similar status is IPC Media which owns Kerrang. Both these companies have the size to widely distribute my magazine although with Bauer already owning one Mainstream music magazine I believe it would be beneficial to get it published and distributed with IPC media to create competition which could boost sales although this would be a risk. The circulation would be large, and I would aim to get copies of MFTP in all newsagents across the country and I would aim for the readership to also be large as the magazine is mainstream and not a niche subject which can lessen not only circulation but also readership. Cross media ownership would work well with MFTP is TV adverts could be used to promote the magazine of music channels owned by the conglomerates, and even radio stations such as IPC media owning Kerrang radio station and the Kerrang tour. Sites on the internet such as MySpace and Facebook could be used to advertise and promote the magazine which would increase circulation.
The Masthead title is MFTP = Music For The People, this instantly has connotations of no specific gender and signifies that as long as you are a member of “The People” which everybody is, then this is the music magazine for you. My target audience for MFTP would be around 60% Male and 40% Female due to the lack of female centred mediation of the magazine, women’s magazines usually have pink colours and delicate design with features on gossip whereas MFTP has more semiotically in common with a males magazine with the colours and layout and content although the magazine is still not gender specific. The types of readers will depend on the genre of music they listen to and this will influence whether they will buy the magazine. The age of my readers I would expect to be around teenage age towards last twenties early thirties as this would entirely follow with music taste which tends to differ with age.
Atm the beginning of the task to make two magazines I only had experience of one of the two main software’s used which was Photoshop. During the prelim tasks I expanded my knowledge of Photoshop and applied it into my project, using it to make my front cover and contents page on the prelim. For my main project of the music magazine I was introduced to Quark Express which I hadn’t even used before but as the lessons progressed I became productive at using this software and applied it to make my contents page and double page spread for my music magazine. I used most of Photoshop’s features and tools to complete the task including arranging layers and using the selection brush to cut out people from the backgrounds. As for Quark the features are less than Photoshop but I used most such as the picture box tool and the text box tool, and also applying drop capitals too he start of my article to overall make my music magazine seem of a professional standard.
