Preliminart Task

Reasearch

This is my research page. I needed to do my research in order to find out what people wanted in my music magazine and how should I got about creating it. First of all I needed to find out; the gender of my audience, the age group of my audience and what kind of genre of music magazines they like. I also had to research into different institutions. I had to analyse magazine covers, contents pages and a double page spread to determine what to include on my music magazine. And also before making a music magazine I needed to know what it is, so I also defined what a music magazine is in my research. I’ve done all of this so I know exactly what my audience are looking for.


What is a music magazine?

A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. Such magazines typically include music news, interviews, photo shoots, essays, record reviews. Most music magazine readers read them to escape from reality to read stories about their favourite bands or artists. It also allows for readers to have exclusive access to events going on and they could freebies such as a trial CD.


Bauer Media Group

Bauer Media Group is a multimedia company originated in Hamburg, Germany which is set 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. The Bauer Publishing Group comprises 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio stations. Bauer started in the UK with the launch of 'Bella' magazine in 1987, becoming Britain's 3rd largest publisher. Their brands also include 'Women's Weekly' and TV Listing magazines. With music magazines, their brands starting out with 'Q', setting itself apart widely by using high standards of photography, text and the style consisting of Indie, Rock and Alternative.



IPC Media

IPC Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher. Their business is split into five distinct publishing divisions: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire, IPC Ignite, IPC Southbank and IPC TX.Almost two in every three UK women and over 45% of UK men read an IPC magazine. That's almost 27 million UK adults. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone. Their 80 magazines include; What's on TV, Pick Me Up, Woman, Now, Marie Claire, In Style, Woman & Home, Ideal Home, Nuts, Wallpaper*, Country Life, The Field, Rugby World, Practical Boat Owner and Look, our latest high street fashion and celebrity weekly.

After finding out that most people prefer Hip-Hop over other music genres have decided to make my magazine a Hip-Hop one. Before I do go on and make one i will research in-to Hip-Hop and its backgrounds.

VALS

This is a VAL’s system meaning; Values, Attitudes and Lifestyles System. This system sorts all the people in the world in-to eight different groups based on their resources and self-orientation. Resources includes: education, income, intelligence, health, energy level and eagerness to purchase. Self-orientation is split into three main parts; Principle oriented which means having your own set of view, Status oriented meaning influenced by others thinking and Action oriented the people that seek activity, adventure and variety. 

The eight basic Lifestyles are:
Innovators which are at the top of the “food chain” they are allocated above the pyramid to emphasise how high they are. They are independent characters that have the highest incomes and abundant resources that they can indulge in any or all self-orientation.

Thinkers are the second highest consumers, they are a group of people that are self-motivated by ideas, have knowledge of what goes on around them and are well educated with a high income.

Achievers are those consumers that are much goal-oriented and want to become successful in their fields work. They are satisfied by their career and family, also driven by their achievements.

Experiencers are basically the younger generation; they are highly energetic from their nature and also from their activities. They have high income and higher amounts of resources where they get motivated from. This group of people are usually around 25-35 years old; they have a lot of energy and seek fun and excitement from their high income, fashion, entertainment and socialization.

Believers are the people who have low resources. However they have a lot of superstitions, they believe in Gods and traditions as well as cultures to live their life. They have a modest income and also have a high belief in family, church and their community.

Makers are always at the bottom of the “food chain” and never feel superior in terms of: achievements, education profession qualification, and relationship they are the sort of people that like to do their   work themselves.

Strives are those kind of people who are very loving, really nice and usually make the people around them laugh with a joke or some funny talk. Money defines success for strives, who don’t have enough of it to meet their wishes and targets. Many of the Strives think to themselves as they have a job not a career which stops them from going on ahead.  

Survivor’s consumers are those people who have very low incomes and they are very much old in age. They are most eldest of all the segments but the good thing about them is they are brand royal and they look for change. 

The VALS system will help me to decide on what kind of audience I’m going to be focusing on. This system will also introduce me to my audience behaviour and life style. One of the main reasons I will use this system is that it will make my magazine a lot more professional, because biggest media institutions in the world such as IPC media use it in order to research into the media world. 

Hip-Hop research

Hip-Hop is a combination of two slang term-“hip” meaning current, and “hop” for the hopping movement. In 1970’s an underground urban movement known as hip-hop began to develop in African-American community in New York City. Started at the home of DJ Kool Herc at the high-rise apartments at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. Hip-Hop culture is characterized by for main elements: rapping, DJing, breaking and graffiti. Hip hop is simultaneously a new and old phenomenon, the importance of sampling to the art form means that much of the culture has revolved around the idea of updating classic recordings, attitudes, and experiences for modern audiences is called "flipping" within the culture. It follows in the footsteps of earlier American musical genres blues, jazz, and rock and roll in having become one of the most practiced genres of music in existence worldwide and also takes additional inspiration regularly from soul music, funk, and rhythm and blues. At its worst, hip hop has mirrored the worst aspects of the mainstream (American) culture that it emerged from: materialism, sexism, an internalized racism, violence, and antipathy towards intellectualism. Kwaito is a political and party-driven genre, as performers use the music to express their political views, and also to express their desire to have a good time. Kwaito is a music that came from a once hated and oppressed people, but it is now sweeping the nation. The main consumers of Kwaito are adolescents and half of the South African population is under 21. Early hip hop has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles of dance and artwork. However, with the emergence of commercial and crime-related rap during the early 1990s, an emphasis on violence was incorporated, with many rappers boasting about drugs, weapons, misogyny, and violence. While hip hop music now appeals to a broader demographic, media critics argue that socially and politically conscious hip hop has long been disregarded by mainstream America in favor of its media-baiting sibling, gangsta rap.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop

This is analysis of three different music magazines front pages

This is analysis of a Katy Perry's front cover magazine:

This is analysis of Lady Gaga's front cover magazine:

This is analysis of Kerrang's front cover magazine:

This is analysis of Lady's Gaga's double page spread magazine:

This is analysis of  NME content page magazine:

This is analysis of a Kerrang content page: 



Planning

                                                                        Logo Analysis

Music magazine “NME” is a music magazine that covers rock/popular music. The logo of the magazine is very simple just like “Kerrangs” logo but yet very effective. The logo is very bold and stands out, yet they only mention 3 letters “NME” most readers of the music magazine would recognise it straight away. The logo uses three colours: red, black and white. Those 3 colours are the three conventional colours for music magazine,  magazine that use those 3 colours always try to stick with them to keep a level of consistency with-in the magazine. The Logo has almost a sub logo in, it says “New Musical Expression” Ones again simple words but mostly effective. The word “New” suggests to the reader that the magazine is new and makes him/her  feel like they are  up to date, but in reality NME has been publishing their magazines since 1952. Also the word “Musical” shows the reader that this magazine is a musical one so it’s very hard for the reader to mistaken it with another type of magazine.  So the hall logo of the magazine emphasis that it brings new music to the reader.

Music magazine “Kerrang” is a music magazine which includes different variations of rock music. The word “Kerrang emphases the sound of a guitar. This shows the reader that this magazine focuses on different elements of rock music such as: guitar, drums and bass guitar. The masthead only uses black colour which usually associated with this genre, and it’s shattered which gives it an aggressive look and could refer to rock star behaviour of smashing the guitar.   This masthead might seem simple but it has a completely different appeal to fans of rock music.

Both of those mastheads  have something unique about it, which links it back to the genre of music it represents. So when I'm going to be creating my masthead I'm going to use some elements of hip-hip such as urbanity or graffiti with-in it to make the magazine represent and attract the audience I'm tiring to reach.
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Plan of laying out my magazine
Front page 

Double page spread 

Content page 

Those are wrath layouts of my magazine, which may change during production  of the   magazine if I find out that  it could look more professional if I placed something differently. 
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Logo Ideas

This writing looks scratchy and destroyed which will have connotation with heavy metal and rock music which is not what i need for my magazine but the black colour is perfectly suitable for my masthead .

This time the font flows and looks really neat  which will connotes it with classical or smooth music but for my music magazine i need something with an element of Hip-Hop music such as graffiti or urbanity.

Masthead Ideas with Hip-Hop elements

This is my second choice of masthead with an element of Hip-Hop with-in it. I thought this will be good for my Hip-Hop magazine because the writing is in a graffiti style which will connote with Hip-Hop and appeal its audience. 

But I'm going to use this one as my logo for my music magazine. I have chosen this one because it has an industrial urban look to it which is one of the elements of Hip-Hop. Also the base of the masthead has sky scrapers which emphases New York where Hip-Hop was born. Also it relates to streets of New York where rappers/dancers would rap or dance to entertain themselves and their audiences which also connotes to the meaning of Hip-Hop  "current hopping movement"

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Picture analysis
As far as i have learned from my reasaech the front cover has to sell the magazine to the reader. Just from looking at it, the reader has to idetify the magazines gender in my case Hip-Hop and must be very appealing.

The props for my artist are very important becuase they are the ones that will help to indetify the gender. Im doing a Hip-Hop magazine there for my artists wear has to have an industrial sporty look to it, so he looks like a rapper or a dancer.

Also the location sis very important, i had to find a place that wuill have an industrial look to it. Or a place where loads of dancers/ rappers would hang out.

Location shot:

This is one of the location where i decide to take shots. i thought this place would be really good because its an abandond cricket court. This will have a good effect because in places like this lots of gangs hang round.

Location shot:

This is also i really good place. It has an industrial criminal look to it. It is locacated behind a train station. The old broken fence and bent pole with a sign on it gives a really good criminal effect.

Images that are suitable for  my music magazine:

­­­­­­Out of all the pictures I took I thought those 8 images would be the best for my music magazine. But I'm only going to use  4 of those images for my music magazine. I'm not going to use the other four images because I don't think they look professional enough or suitable for my music magazine. Even know those images were good quality they did not have enough mode of address and didn’t create as powerful face expressions as other four images did. (Images i will not  be using 2,4,5 and 7)

 

This is a very good image which I’m proud of. The lighting is perfect and the model has great mode of address with an effective background behind him. The composition of the images is really good for a front page of my music magazine.

                                           

This image is also really good it has great mode of address. I’m thinking to either use this image on the front page because of its strong direct mode of address or because the model is in the centre of the image, or use it for a content page.

                                       

Also this image I’m really proud of. Its composition makes it suitable for a double page spread and the industrial background makes it very effective. Also the direct mode of address will engage the model with the reader.

                                       

This image I’m not too proud of. It lacks in direct mode of address and the position that the model is stood in is poor which will not engage with the reader at all. But the mise en scenes and the angle of the images is take is really good.

                                       

This image is quiet effective. The mise en scenes like wired fence and the dead plants rapped round it, working with the bridge give it a very dark criminal effect. But the model hasn’t got a strong facial expression which may not please the reader and make this image look at powerful as others. I’m thinking of using this image for my double page spread because of its composition, I could put the text on the left hand side whilst the artist is on the left hand side looking down on it.  

                                       

Also this image is quite effective with it background and the model engages with the reader using direct mode of adress. But the background on the image is quiet bluery which makes this image a poor quality. I’m thinking of using this image for my content page because of its composition and the mode of address.  

                                       

I’m disappointed in this image. Even know it has good industrial look to it, the image lacks in professionalism and direct mode of address. Maybe if the camera was held right and the model looked at it; it could have been suitable for a front cover picture.

                                       

This image is really good. II think he has a very strong mode of address and a very strong facial expression which engages with the audience. Also the background of the image is very effective with its industrial/criminal look. I’m thinking for using this image for my contents page.

                                        

                                                                              

Pictures that I'm going to use for my magazine:

I decided that out of all of all images that I took I’m going to use this one for my front cover. I have chosen this imagine because it had a really strong mode of address, whilst doing my research I have learned that it makes the front cover and the artist look powerful and dominate.  He isn’t just facing the reader, he is pointing at them which is very powerful because it connotes to the masthead “underground unleashed” it makes the reader feel like it’s going to be unleashed upon them. Furthermore, there was some space above his head which was very useful to place the tittle of my magazine. I will also be  editting all of those images slightly using Picasa . I will crop the image a bit in order to get rid of excess background and give it a black and white colour so it could connote to the hip-hop culture as much as possible. Also I wanted to give the front cover a dark background so the artists looked very powerful furthermore it  i will make it  really dark so the reader has to focus hard to see what’s there, so most of the attention would be drawn to the model straight away which is very important because I want him to be dominate on the front page which will be appealing to the reader.  

                                                                  

I then decided that I will use this image for my double page spread. I’ve choices this image for my double page spread because the composition was suitable for a double page spread and it was in a landscape frame. Also the artist is on the right hand side in the image, he is using some direct mode of address but at the same time he is facing left. This would be very useful because on this double page spread there will be an interview about him and his criminal past so the image and the text will be working together to create a very strong atmosphere on the double page spread. The atmosphere will be strong because the text will be talking about him and at the same time he will be looking at the reader, which will make the text much more interesting to read.  Also I’m thinking putting the title in top left corner because I think it will go well with the image that way. When it comes to editing I have found out that the camera had some interesting light effect whilst I was taking the picture so I didn't want to change the image too much because I thought that effect made it look very effect already. But I will crop some of the excess background and make the image little darker so it could connote to the hip-hop culture as much as possible.


                                                                             

For my content page I decided that I will use this image. I chosen this image because I think he has a very strong mode of address and a very strong facial expression which engages with the audience, also the mise en scenes behind him give it a very industrial look which makes it very effective for this type of magazine and links it with the culture of Hip-Hop. When it comes to editing I might use a paint brush and make his eyes stand out more so the reader can see straight away he is looking directly at him, also I’m thinking of making the image little bit darker but I’m not sure because the colour of it images is quite effective already.

   

                                                                                   

Also I want to use this image for my content page. I really think this image will suit it because of the industrial background and the composition of the model and the post is very effective. Firstly on the sign is says “ramp ahead” and the post is bent to the left whilst the model is putting his finger up. This may suggest he is ignoring the sign? Or he vandalised the post. I think this is very effective because it links back to street gangs that would usually graphite and vandalise it surrounding. When it comes to editing I don’t want to fiddle around with the image too much because I want to keep the contents page as original as I can. But I will crop some of the background so the focus of the reader is on the model and the post.   

Producing

Producing Front page  Image

Before Edited

After Edited

When it came to editing I didn't really want to do to much to  this image, because I thought the strange light effect was very effective already. However I cropped round the model because for my front cover I want the reader to  only to focus on the artist nothing else, but I kept some of the background because it gave an industrial feel that made it look quite effective and connoted back to the culture of hip-hop. Also I added some more colour to the model so he's not too pail and is not overpowered by anything on the front cover, which is very important because I want him to be the dominant one on this front cover 

Producing front cover 

When it first came to designing my front page I decided to cut round the image of my model and to put him against a city looking back ground, I thought this would be quite effective  image and could connote to the hip-hop culture. However for my coursework I had to use my own image and I dint quite feel like that the image fitted in with a different background so I decided to keep it original.

After that I decided to go back to my original background and I realised how effective it was already. I decided to keep the original back ground because I really liked the houses in the background which gave a feeling of industrialism and I didn't want the reader to get distracted by anything from the artist. The title also had an industrial look which made it very catchy which is very important
because I want this tittle to be easily remembered. 

                                              

This is my completed front cover which I think turned out pretty well. My favourite part of making it was the masthead and the font I used for it. All the letters had a little city as it base which made it very effective and unusual. Also I made the masthead red so I would stand from everything else on the page and stuck with 3 conventional colours: red, black and white. As I think complement and contrast to each other. Also I added a bar code with price and subtitles to my music magazine because it’s one of the codes of convention of making a music magazine and it made it look much more interesting and appealing to the reader.

Double page spread 

Producing Double page spread Image  

Before Edited

After Edited

When it came to editing this image, I firstly cropped some excess background on right hand side and some on the top of the image because I didn't want the  reader to focus on anything else than the model. Also I played around with the light and created this black effect round him but at the same time I  added some light to the model so he really stands out in this image, which is very important because the page is talking about him. Also I titled the image a little bit because I thought this way  the page has a greater effect upon the  reader.

Producing double page spread 

After I fully produced the image, I had to think of where to put the double page spread name. I originally had an idea of sticking it in the top left corner, which I decided to go with. I wanted to keep the style of the font in the graphite type so it connotes to the hip-hop culture and attracts to its fans. Also at this stage I had an idea of putting the text in a transparent box on the left hand side so it looks like the artist is looking at the text but still engaging with the reader by direct mode of address.  

This is my final design of my double page spread. Firstly I decided to add a quote from my artists on the page because most music magazines will have this on a double page spread which I have learned from my research. And I personally think myself that this is an effective technique because this way the artist and the reader will engage more. Then I placed my text on the left hand side of the page, I didn't want to over fill the page with text because the reader wouldn't want to read a lot and I didn't want the text to overpower the image. Also most important bits of text I highlighted red. And for this double page spread I stuck to the three conventional colours: red black and white. At the end of creating my double page spread at the bottom of it I added “continue to next page” And I put this their because the article  looks like it going to be carried on. Also the is a typical convention of a music magazine. 

Content Page 

Producing Content Page Image 

Before editing 

After editing 

When I edited this image I wanted to make this image similar to my others ones by using the same lighting and colour scheme. I want the images to look similar to each other trough the magazine because this way they follow my three colour scheme: red, black and white and also the reader could recognise this magazine just by its three unique colours . Firstly I darked the background on this image in order  for the artist to stand out and not be overpowered by the background.  Also I cropped the sides of the image because I didn't think they were needed and the reader could lose his focus with the image because of the excess background.Also the artist looked very pail, I went back to my double page spread and  took a sample of his skin, then I spread the sample on his face/neck using a magic brush so he doesn't look pail and his power is not undermined. 

Producing content page 
Image 

After I produced my content page image I had to lay out arrest of the content page. When it came to placing masthead I decided to follow the codes and convention of NME magazine and placed it at the top naming it “Hip-Hop This week” also I added a date under it which is another effective feature. I kept the same colour scheme all the way through the content page and used both graphite and industrial font. Also at this stage I had an idea of placing the main image in middle of the page and following the codes and convention by including sub title and index at the left and right hand sides of the image. 

Image 

This is my content page almost finished. I've followed the codes and convention of placing the index at the left hand side using a simple font in order for it to contrast from arrest of the page; I've also placed the sub-tittles on the left hand side of the image using industrial and graphite font in order to add continueniousity.  

Image 

This is my final content page. To finish my content page I made it look  aseptically pleasing and attractive to the reader. I’ve done this by adding a subscription at the bottom of the page for regular’s reader of the magazine, which is also one of the code and convention. Also I’ve placed my image on to the content page; I’ve placed it in the centre and didn’t stretched it out over hall page because it didn't look professional and would have overpowered everything else on the page.  Finally I tidied the page up and made everything come in line with each other in order for it to look professional.