Digital design drafts

I started to create some magazine drafts of what I would like my images to look like. Here is a double page spread mock up that I made featuring an image of Rihanna:



I would probably have the model in the place that Rihanna is in, in my magazine so that I can place text on either side of the page but also have room on the right hand to focus on what the artist is doing now and where you can see them in concert. I would probbaly created a faded box for the text to go in to make it stand out more from the background and I would also probably put the title/quote in a solid block shape. I would perhaps leave more space above the artist's head to out the title instead of it coverrng their head and I would also maybe try and leave space for more pictures at points in the page.

Target audience and pricing

Since there is also a pop magazine out there with a target audience of young teenage girls, I want to make my magazine available to a wider audience. I don't want to just target adults because I don't think as many adults would buy the magazine compared to teenagers but I would prefer to target an audience of 16 - 21 year olds. This way I would targetting a teen audience without making it too ideal to be a 12 year old girls magazine.
The magazine would have to be fairly cheap as the age bracket that I am targetting does include university students who would probably not be able to afford a £3 magazine every week. The magazine would have to be a weekly magazine as the music industry is always changing and  if it were a monthly magazine, other companies would probably be likely to get the information out to it's audience quicker.
There is also now added competition in gossip magazines (such as Heat) as they are also covering artist interviews and information and giving their own ratings on albums and singles so I need to create something that looks more serious and more like something that people are going to want to get the opinion of. I need to create a magazine that would be credible in the music magazine world.

Textual Analysis 1

L - The first thing that I notice about this magazine cover are the colours. Light blue, black and white and the only colours used on this cover. The most prominent colour of them all is the blue. Although it is a bright colour, to me, it gives off very negative connotations. Normally the colour blue has connotations of calmness and serenity but this blue reminds me of coldness and ice. The icey blue colouring on this magazine straight awayn gives off the impression that it is not going to be a happy and fun article. The NME logo has become such a recognisable institution that even though the logo is being covered by the artists head, you know what it is. You know that it's NME. This could also be the reason why the logo is the same blue colour as most of the other text. It blends in with the rest of the cover and doesn't make any attempts to stand out and be a standalone feature of the cover just because it is so recognisable that it doesn't need to be loud and bold, people will already know what it is.

The picture of the artist that has been used on the front cover has been edited so that it has the same cold blue tint to it as the text. The blue in the picture here lies in the shadows indicating some kind of darkness about that article. Then you see that the main article title is 'The Haunted and Mysterious death of Elliott Smith'. This is where the whole theme ties together. The cover looks dark and mysterious even though the colours aren't that dark at all. The artist isn't looking towards the camera which adds more mystery to the story and because he is caught in a mid shot, it makes you feel like you are close to him and that you want to know what happened. The models hair is wet, or has a wet look which also gives off the feeling that he has been drenched in icey water or something. The fact that there are only three colours used here (and the way that they have been used) make you feel like the artist is isolated in the cold. All because of colour.

The article teasers have been designed in the way that there are different colours for different parts. So for example blue for the title and italic black for the description. This has been done so that everything that needs to, stands out.

I -



Final choice of genre

When thinking about which genre I would choose, I originally looked to the genre of music that I like the best which is Musical Theatre. I kept trying to think of ways that I could make it work but in the end, I decided that it was going to be too hard for me to do. It would be like making a music magazine for Alternative Reggae and Folk Dance Euro Pop or something.
I decided to stick to normal conventions of a magazine and choose something that would sell and that people would be able to give opinions on easily and something that I would be able to find out a lot of information about (i.e. statistics, target audience) where I wouldn't be able to find anything like that out for a Musical Theatre magazine since one doesn't exist.

The choice that I originally decided to go with was pop. I thought I would like to do this style because there weren't many pop magazines around but when I tried to think of magazine names and picture styles for a pop magazine but everything started to come out with rock/indie features. I then thought of the name 'Anthem' for the magazine name and I really liked it but that also reminded me of a rock magazine so I decided to change the magazine genre from pop to rock.

Music genre initial research

Before I choose which genre I will be making the main focus of my music magazine I want to explore what kind of music would feature in a magazine of a certain genre and what kind of things those genres include in their magazines. I will also be looking at target audiences and looking into who actually buys certain magazines.

A lot of artists mix in their genres (for example Rihanna is an artist of both pop and R&B genres) so I will choose artists that specialise only in that certain genre.

I will analyse only main genres and not sub genres. These include: Pop, R&B, Rock, Classical and Alternative.

Pop:


After a lot of research into the pop genre, there aren't many magazines out there that cater solely for the pop genre. There are magazines such as Sugar and Vibe in the UK but there aren't many more. I have seen Sugar in shops but I have never seen Vibe. When I found the magazine on the internet I didn't think it was familiar but I thought I might have just missed it but when I looked in 3 places that sold magazines, I didn't come across Vibe at all.
With only one mainstream pop music magazine, I think the industry could benefit from more, or at least one more. I think there would be an audience for it too. To me, Sugar looks as though it is targeting 12 year old girls and I know that no adult is going to want to walk around or even admit to reading Sugar if it looks like it is made for teenagers.

R&B:


This genre is where I also place rap and hip hop. The rap and hip hop artists tend to be R&B music. R&B artists tend to be associated with gangster images and contemporary pop artists.

Rock:


The Rock genre already has magazines such as Kerrang! and Classic Rock. These magazines have been around for a long time (the the rock genre) and have devoted fans that will buy the magazines weekly and constantly support the music. Other genres have this too but this one seems to have less of a wide audience because people  who don't usually listen to rock would usually want to steer clear from it. Whereas, with the other way round, most other genres are played in the mainstream much more (on the radio) so rock lovers would hear it everywhere. There are also rock centric radio/music channels that are dedicated to the genre more than there are of other genres because most other stuff (pop, r&b, indie, etc.) is so mainstream.


Classical:

Like rock, most classical music is not mainstreamed so there are specialist channels, magazines, radio stations dedicated to the genre. Most classical music is covered over and over again so I believe that classical music isn't a genre that people want to read about. The artists cover the same songs and it gets quite boring. The target audience for this genre is also not very broad and the magazine would have to be very specific to cater to a very small audience.

LIIAR interpretation of the brief

L - Front covers of music magazines usually feature: Masthead, strapline, image of an artist, article teasers.
Contents contain: images of music artists, list of contents, letter from editor.
Double page spread: image of the artist in focus, interview, what they are doing now, where you can see them.
I need to include all of these things to make my magazine fit in with the normal conventions of music magazines. I think that for the front cover either a mid-shot or a full body shot would work. I think the mid shot would work better on the cover as the full body shot would probably work better on the double page spread. To fit in withn other conventions of magazines, my magazines logo will probably be placed in the top left hand corner (which is where most logos are placed).

I - My music magazine needs to give off a positive feel to make people want to buy it. It is a pop magazine so if I make it rocky and gothic then people are not going to want to buy it.

A - ^^ target audience above

R - My artist needs to be represented positively which is a usual theme in music magazines. An artist is not going to do an interview to be ridiculed. This means that the images and the quotes and the interview needs to be positive and not anything that would make the audience not want to read it. I want the target audience to be represented positively because people can feel patronised easily and it feels like we are trying to spoon feed the audience the information then they are not going to want to read anymore.

Music Magazine Brief

To produce the cover, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you with a minimum of four images.