Front Cover

I have decided to add more text and cover lines to my front cover and change the background colour to grey so that it matches with my contents page and doesn't look too different. this is also because the previous background colour was too  light.

Front Cover Draft

Artist for my music magazine

Over the weekend, I have created an artist for my magazine Record.

I name her Stella Martino- a 18 year old girl from England. Her music is based on Pop and Alternative. She plays the guitar and has become very famous over a few weeks and is becoming a pop icon and is idolized by many teenagers.I also created draft interview which will go in the magazine.

Exclusive interview with  Stella !! Find out how she became famous and what she is planning ahead.

How do you feel, knowing that you are becoming Englands new Pop Star?

I feel really happy that people enjoy and can relate to my music and I’m really proud to represent England and I hope that one day I’ll become international.

How do you plan to accomplish that?

As my background is Italian I’m hoping some of the Italian artist would be interested in working with me and also I would really want to work with big stars like Katy Perry.

What do your parents think about this?

They are very supportive and happy for me, but also worried as this is happening so quicky and none of us are used to this kind of life.

We also heard that there was a rumor that you worked with Lady Gaga… Is it true?

Yes it is true and it was really exiting and inspiring, as I used some of her music as an influence to my song ‘Lets kick it’. We are also planning to make a video shoot in Miami.

So how did you get in contact with her?

As I was discovered from MySpace, and my music became more known in England, her manager showed my songs to her and she contacted me saying she believes I have the potential to be successful in America, so I’m hoping it works out.

Is this song going to be included in your new album?

 Yes it will be first track on the album, and I can tell you it’s a catchy song. HAHA.

What about the other songs in the album?

Well, you are going to have to find out yourself. But it will be soon, as my album come out in a few weeks.

So what about your current song?  What is it about?

Just In Case is a song about a girl who likes a boy but is insecure about his feelings toward him, so she wants to let him know that if he leaves her, she won't be heartbroken but stay strong.

Why did you make this song?

I made this song becuase I wanted my girl fans to relate to my songs, as my previous songs were related and addressed to boys. So now I wanted to make something for both.

Why did you name your album No Ordinary?

Because some of the songs are really different and ever since I was discovered, my life has been no ordinary.

When and where are you planning to go on stage for the first time?

I’ve already planned for it in February in London as it is my favorite place, so let’s hope no one asks for a refund.HAHAHAHA.

These are pictures which  I might use for the front cover and double page spread.

Magazine interview

Over the weekend I have read an interview from a pop magazine.
Firstly the interview started of with a small introduction of who the magazine is interviewing, and then ask the first question which is usually about the stars previous life or how they managed to get to 'the top'.
If the pop star is young the next question is usually : "What do you parents say about this?"or "How did your parents react?", and if not then a popular question is about new albums and song, how the stars manage on tours and what happens to them at concerts or video shoots, and frequently stars are questioned about rumors made about them, so that the magazine can deliver reliable information to their readers, to become more popular.
If the pop star has a relationship they are also asked questions such as  : " How did you find each other?"
"When did it start?".
Lastly, the magazine would also tried to get as much information from the stars as possible, so they tend to ask questions about what they plan for future or questions that the interviewed may not want to answer such as : "What is your new video going to be about?"

Planning and Research - DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

As done for front cover and contents page I have also researched the conventions of double page spreads.

Typical conventions are : Headline, short introduction, large image usually spread across the two pages - sometimes just one, each beginning of an article starts with a big letter, captions and pull quotes and most importantly - article written in columns.

Some double page spreads include a lot of smaller pictures , usually on the right side, as the large image is always the focal point of the double page. These images have captions on them explain the picture for the readers e.g. : "At concert in France."

Also, some magazine tend to include page title - which is a the top left corner, which looks like a label letting the the reader know what is on the page.
Furthermore, some pull quotes have a fixed angle, larger font and in a color which differs from the article so that its stands out and attracts reader into reading the whole article.

Most double page spreads have one dominant color used in the layout e.g. green, red, black, white. These colors are picked so that they contrast with the picture and the color of the text - so that is it easy to read and appears professional.

Rihanna

Aside from school, me and my friends had gone to Westfield shopping centre where we got the chance to take our own pictures of Rihanna, which I might use in my contents page.

Flat Plan for Front cover and Contents page

Here are my flat plans for my front cover and also for contents page. As I gather appropriate images, I will decide which flat plan is more succsesful and which I will use as my final design by doing a survey.




front cover 1



Front cover 2

  I have asked my classmates which one of the front cover design is more approprite,appealing and looks more conventional. The results were:

   front cover draft 1 = 6 people thought it was better designed as it also included cover lines for other stories in the magazine 

   front cover draft 2 = 8 people thought this layout was more succsful as the cover story was placed in the centre,however some suggested that the captions should be placed on the bottom.

Therefore, I will use the flat plan 2.





Contents page 1



Contents page 2

I have done the same survey for my contents page flat plans, and found out the second flat plan was much more conventional for everyone i have asked - as it is easier to follow and understand. This was also because the first layout wouldn't suit the rock/pop genre.
Considering my classmates views, I will use the second layout for my contents page.

Name for my music magazine

In today's lesson I'm going to look at the possible names for my music magazine. I already know that the magazine will be based on pop and soft rock genre which allows me to associate the name with it and gives me an advantage to think of possible names quicker.

RECORD - tells the readers the artists in the magazine and the magazine itself is successful. Also makes the reader think the magazine of a music records which were used for a long time and were very famous.

RHYTHM - makes the readers feel that the magazine has its own/ or the same rhythm as the music they listen to.

MELODY - tells the viewer the magazine is a part of music however, more girly type of name, as it is sometimes used as a girls name.

ICON - suggests that the magazine contains the best selling and popular artists and music - the pop icon of today.

After considering these names I have done a little survey, asking my classmates to help me decided which would be the best name for my magazine.

RECORD - 6 people said this was a good name for a magazine because of the reasons I have given and also because it sound catchy and easy to remember.

RHYTHM - 3 people like this but suggested it would only be appropriate if it was used for an R&B magazine.

MELODY - 0 People did not like this name as they thought that melody is associated to soft music rather than pop and soft rock.

ICON - 4

Ideal Reader

  This is Stacey Smith. She is Swedish, but born in England. She is 16 and a half, and just started 6th form. She plays the guitar, sings and likes swimming. At weekends she goes out with her friends a lot and enjoys going to the theatres and music events. In her free time she likes to read and write her own lyrics and songs. Her music is mainly influenced by soft rock and artists such as Pink, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Shakira, Bruno Marz, Jeff Buckley. She also dresses quiet simple but urban and shops in H&M, New Look, American Apparel. Stacey would also enjoy watching movies like Step Up, Grown Ups and School Of Rock. Her favorite TV shows are -Pretty Little Liars, Hollyoaks and One tree hill.

This is Robert Terry. He is half English and half Irish, 17 years old and currently studying A levels at college. He is a simple guy with a bit of edge and is very sociable. He enjoys various activities such as going to the gym, playing ps3 and has a major interest in music- mainly pop and rock ( artists like Kate Nash, Dizzie Rascal, Usher, Lupe Fiasco, Justin Timberlake, Kings of Leon, Maroon 5 .) and his style is mainly influenced by these genres and therefore, Robert likes to shop in stores such as Topman, River Island, JD, H&M and Blue Inc. In his free time, Robert also enjoys watching TV - programmes such as Friends, Glee, Everybody hates Chris, Gossip Girl Match of the day, X-factor and WWE. As Robert has a major interest in music he likes to read about new artists and latest music from time to time and likes to go to concerts and music festivals in summer. 

Target Audience

The target audience for a my music magazine would be around the age of 16-19 both female and male, predominantly females. I decided this because my previous research shows that females tend to read music magazines a lot more that males and it would make my magazine more successful, because the best selling magazines are mostly read by them. Also, from my visit to WHSmith - music magazines where placed around men's magazines such as - men's health and games, which suggests that music magazines are common for males to read aswell. Considering my magazine being based on pop and soft rock, the major ethnicity reading this magazine would be white and following Christianity but not necessary religious. The social class for this magazine would be working class as most teenagers do not have a job and are in full time education, and this allows them gain quick knowledge about various topics which are also easy to understand. The target audience, teenagers, would most likely be interested in the pictures of pop stars rather than serious commentary content. They would also buy other media products such as CDs, music DVDs, rock magazines. They would be interested in mainstream artists such as Katy Perry, Lilly Alen, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Justin Beiber, Chipmunk, Dizzie Rascal, Pink, Taylor Swift, Green Day, Maroon 5,  

WHSmith

Last lesson we were given homework to expand on our research for a music magazine. I visited WHSmith and looked at how the magazine section is arranged.

The first most noticeable section was the female/gossip magazines placed right next to the fashion and lifestyle magazines. Right opposite these were the home and gardening magazines to attract females into buying these magazines, who are alredy mothers or could be of older ages and have an interest in home and outside design/decorations. These are followed with the traveling and photography magazines, for those who have interest in design - which links to the home design magazines.

The wall section - biggest section, was displaying these magazines : computing, motoring,other transport, music, film and TV , men's lifestyle and last gaming.

In Thursdays lesson, I have researched a music magazine called KERRANG!

Firstly I was meant to find out the price - which was £2.20, the publisher - Bauer London Lifestyle Ltd. and how frequently it is publisher - weekly.

The mode of address used on the front cover was - serious, as the image was quiet dark and simple to portray heavy metal music.

I have then moved on to analyzing the different types of adverts included in the magazine.

Most adverts were music promotion adverts for new releases of albums and singles. Most of the appear in the beginning of the magazine and some at the end and where around £7 - £10 each. I have then noticed lifestyle adverts only only found 2 different items being advertised - games placed at the beginning of the magazine and clothes at the end which ranged from£5 - £30 and could also be considered as classified adverts which are always the small ads at the end of the magazine. Lastly I also found one advert for from the Royal Air force, offering a job and join the air force and this was at the beginning of the magazine.

moreover, I have looked at the contents page and looked at the features of this magazine :

- Feedback

- News

- Live Reviews

- Features

- K! Icon

- Album Reviews

- Gigs

- Swag

- Famous Last Words

The contents page also included a short paragraph from the editor of Kerrang magazine who wrote about his visit to the Iceland festival of music where he met lost of rock and heavy metal bands.

I then look at the image to text percentage in the magazine which i estimated to be 70% - 30%. This was because the magazines ideal reader would be a young person, and this age group particularly enjoys the great and lots of images rather than reading too much.

Music Magazines of my interest

Here I have posted some of the magazines that i sometimes buy and that interest me. I did this so that it helps me to develop my own idea of a music magazine, as I'm planning to include the music I enjoy.

Music Magazine - CONTENTS PAGE ANALYSIS

As analysing music magazine front covers I'm going to do the same for the contents page.

The contents must include these : the title 'contents', focal point,eye catching colours, page numbers, pictures and captions.

DRUMMER MAGAZINE CONTENTS PAGE
This magazines ideal reader would be people who play the drums or are interested in the rock music. I know this as most of the images are of drums and people dressed  in the style of rock .
This content page is eye catching as the choice of colours are contrasting; red and white / black and white.
As from a lesson I had learned that most articles and text in a magazines are written in a column style, which is a convention of every magazine, not just a music magazine and this is also applied in this contents page.
The features are broken down into two sections:
1. The features of ths issue - which tell the reader what the magazine contains that week/month
2. The regular features which are included every issue - so that when a regular reader buys this magazine and wants to read about a specific topic it is quicker for the reader to find it.

Planning and Reaserch - MUSIC MAGAZINE FRONT COVER ANALYSIS

To start to of main task which is the music magazine, I began by researching existing music magazines.

Firstly, I have looked and tried to identify the conventions of a typical music magazine and these were : masthead, cover lines & stories, pictures, focal point - usually an artist , captions and pull quotes, ISSN.

 BILLBOARD MAGAZINE

The target audience for this magazine would be mostly teenagers or young adults, both male and female, who are interested in pop, R'n'B and hip-hop music. This is because of the of colours used - grey and black for male and purple for females.
The use of language is formal but friendly and easy to understand as it is addressed to teenagers. The magazine has used humorous language e.g ' LADY GAGA................ Why She Doesn't Wear Pants' to attract people to buy it. This magazine used a strong image of Lady Gaga which overlays the text and makes her the focal point, as her face is at the centre of the front cover and her hair is purple.
The masthead is at the top of the page, the inside of letters 'b' 'o' 'a' 'd' are filled in with three different colours.  The main cover line has the biggest font as it is about Lady Gaga and the rest are slightly smaller so that the readers know which story is equivalent to her. The other captions are also slightly smaller compare to the cover story.
Moreover, every magazine includes an ISSN ( international standard serial number ) which is used to identify periodical publications such as magazines. This number is displayed in the bar code area.

  

KERRANG MAGAZINE
This magazine made me spot another convention of a music magazine which is small captions or cover lines above the title of the magazine. The magazine used a picture of a band called the Blackout, which is an alternative rock band. The viewers know this by the way they are dressed - modern and smart which indicated their music is soft but their hair styles tells us they are into rock. The cover story in the centre of the page is another convention as it is suppose to inform the readers about the band displayed on the front cover.
Furthermore, this magazine is also including smaller pictures with captions, such as '5 free posters' to give some viewer more reasons to buy the magazine.
Another convention is that which ever artist is on the front cover is also used as the top story in the magazine.