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Final Front Page

Printscreen Powerpoint

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Final Contents Page

Printscreen Powerpoint 3

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Final Main Article

I decided to go with a simplistic article background straight off the bat when I took this picture. The picture is of my main artist in the park playing the guitar. It makes him look natural. The clothes he is wearing look casual suggesting he's like everyone else, not a celebrity but just a normal person giving the reader a sense of approachability. The text itself is in size 11 in the font Britannic Bold which is the same font I've used for everything else which keeps everything consistant and not confuse the reader.
Making the main artist the centre of the page makes him the most important thing and it draws the readers eyes towards him.
The floating quote was added to have audiences easily relate to him because they may feel that music is their life too.
The title of the article is called "Strings, Strum and Soul." the alliteration instantly hooks the readers making it easily memorable. Strings standing for the strings of the guitar, Strum standing for the actual playing of the guitar, and Soul for the actually genre he plays or it could be that playing his music affects him spirtually.
The actual font has a black outline around it so it doesn't melt to the background and look tacky.
The questions are in subheadings which are above every answer to section each text. I felt it was important to use the right register so my audience don't become to overwhelmed with everything on the page. I had to keep it simple and sophisticated and I believe I've done this with the black shadowing around the text. When writing the article I had to make sure I wasn't using slang or colloquialisms because my target audience are of a matue age range so it is mostly all in standard english with some exceptions because I'm still trying to target younger people too.

Preliminary Task

This is the front cover for my preliminary task. The task was to design a magazine front cover and contents page for our school - a school magazine. The one thing I wanted to keep consistant in my magazines was the colour scheme. My scheme was yellow(gold), black and white. These colours are simple and I think the gold stands out making the magazine appealing. The black background looks sophisticated so I decided to add a a yellow pattern to the back of the main image to make it more snazzy and funky for the readers as my target audience are secondary school students who prefer colour and pictures to long pieces of text.
My main image is a picture of myself. I didn't bother about the main image to much though I believe I should chosen a better costume as the blue and yellow colour scheme don't really go together. However using a student as the main image was a way to appeal to my audience as they could relate to the student because he is like them.
I made the majority of my text big and easy to read because my target audience are young and want things to catch thier attention. My cell lines included subjects that would appeal to the reader because they would easily be able to relate to it - e.g. Lockers or the school canteen.
The Masthead is big and chunky making it almost a masculine targeted magazine. The silver to black was a really effective technique because I think these colours are strong, bold and silver connotes slick and stylish attitude and most of the students in this school want to be like that.



The contents page is a little different as I didn't include a picture. I didn't include a picture because I wanted to appeal to not only years 7-11 but 6th formers too. 6th formers are still part of this school and don't want to bombared with all these pictures. Having no pictures makes it seem sophisticated so in a way it is subverting the stereotype.
I added a few effects to the text to make it stand out from the black background (e.g. Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Gradient Tool).

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback

Front Cover

Good:

Bad:



Contents Page

Good:

Bad:



Main Article

Good:

Bad:

Evaluation

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

Conventions

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

Representation

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3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
While looking for publishers we stumbled upon the Guardian Media Group. This publisher seemed perfect for the publication of our magazine because of the similarities with what they already publish. GMG work on the radio stations like Smooth Radio/ Jazz FM and they also publish the newspaper The Guardian. These are the exact type of mediums my audience would read and listen to as The Guardian is a fairly mature newspaper and my target audience are mature. Smooth and Jazz Radio offer easy listening music which my magazine offer also. Therefore this would be publisher for my magazine as they already have the experience and is successful in delivering for the niche population. My audience would find easy to make the link the successfullness of Smooth Radio and such and think my magazine was just as good because of GMG's amazing publishing.

4. Who would be the audience for your media project? Our Readers enjoy:
Listening to radio stations like Smooth Radio or Heart 106.2 or even Magic 105.4 because I believe these stations offer cool, smooth, niche music which my auidence appreciate.
My audience also like to collect lots of records and CD's of their favourite artists and prefer to listen to 80's or 90's making them feel nostalgic.

Style of Audience
My audience are aspirers as well as indiviualists as they want to not only listen to music but take an active roll in the making of their own music. They are passionate about playing an instrument and truely apreciate music being their most loved hobby.
My audience are a very stylish audience as well with fashion being their many loves. What they wear when they play an instrument is as showcase for who they are.
They like to apreciate the classic musicians like Barry White, Marvin Gaye or Teddy Pendagrass.
Finally, my audience are define as indiviualists as they don't just go along with the crowd and listen to mainstream music.

Characteristics of Audience
- Middle-Class
- Prefer broadsheet newspapers to tabloids e.g. The Guardian as oppose to The Sun
- Appreciate the finer music
- Are musicians themselves
- Use the internet
- Age 25+
- The audience has a mixture of males and females

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Attracting My Audience

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6. What new technologies have you learnt in the process of constructing the product?

Media Technologies

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

Progression

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Mise-en-scene

Mise En Scene (Props)

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Article Analysis

The heading serves as an intertextuality with a real song called -
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and could be used to connote enigma, to make the reader go 'hmm that sounds familiar'. Also behind the heading you can ever so slightly make out two XX's which is the band's name and logo and the fact that it is hidden within the darkness of the page reienforces the heading.

The very interview itself is written in continuous prose suggesting a journalist or reporter style of text which signifies the bands importance.
The main image of the band themselves looks very dark and very shadowy. The members themselves almost look evil and sinister - they're wearing all black and their eyes look possessed which also serves to reinforce the title. The very fact that there is a shadow around them makes you think that that is their other self their darker self, the evil within them almost manifesting itself in a shadow so we can see it. It makes the band seem supernatural and unique, that about there's something special about them making audience want to read more about them.

The next page illustrates the rest of the article. If you read through the article you will notice several 'XX' being placed under some of the paragraphs. This a syncronised motif and ties in with the title of the band. X can connote several several different things. X could stand for target(x marks the spot) or maybe it could be a roman numeral for 10 but I think they probably intended it to connote death. Darkness and death are pretty similar themes and the fact that there are two X's could probably mean that they want to cheat death because of course you can't ie twice. They want to rebel, they want to be different and thereare similarities with this band and with the teenagers of today they're young and they seem like they want to targetting teenagers in particular because this is generally what the teens of today would be doing (rebelling and lstening to rock music and going goth or whatever).

The several additional images all seem to have a recurring theme; it is the fact that none of the images show the artists actually looking at the camera. One shot even has the use of backlighting to make the artist look like a silhouette or a shadowwhich links to their title and their themes. This could imply one thing: that they do not want to show their faces because it sort of links to the enigmatic of the title. Meaning within darkness, nobody is seen sort of suggesting they want to remain anonymous and not be swept away by the stardom of being professional musicians.
Finally, I notice at the bottom of the page their is a little floating quote saying - " I'm reluctant to go into detail about my lyrics. I don't want to destroy anyone's interpretation of the songs" Oliver Sim.
This made my realise that this band seems to be so into their own music that they don't want to be the ones to spoil for everyone else and by scrutinising their lyrics in detail it's sort of ruins everyone's own interpretation of the lyrics, by saying what the lyrics actually mean your not letting your audience imagine and explore your music their own. That would be one of the key reasons one would listen to The XX because everyone would love them for different reasons and they would discuss it with their friends and soon contributing to word of mouth and thus boosting their popularity.

Written Article

Following a whirlwind 2009, Ray Matthews shows absolutely no sign of letting up. With the release of critically acclaimed new single "Doubt" already stamped down as an early achievement, 2010 looks set to reap even more success for one of Britain’s most refreshing and unique new musician. Yet, despite such widespread praise Matthews is certainly not going to let it get to his head. For all the positives the past twelve months have brought, the emphasis remains on improvement and evolution. Talking tours, meeting new people or writing new songs it is clear that the new man of soul’s feet remain firmly on the ground.

Congratulations on "Doubt". It's got a great reception, you must be very proud of it?

Definitely, I truly really feel I've achieved something. When I look back at the start, about two years ago, becoming this big seemed like a dream come true. But I was able to get this far in terms of writing the songs and tabs, I’ve met so many people along the way and it’s been a real journey. But I’m really happy with it all. In terms of the artwork, the videos, the songs, the track listing, I’m really happy.

Your single is quite deep and controversial what is it all about and why did you choose to make this your first hit?

"Doubt" can mean many things to different people. It can be basically described as – “life without meaning leads to doubt and frustration, life with meaning can open all sorts of possibilities” The lyrics basically sum it up. I was going through quite a tough time before this whole music thing came about. I was stuck in a dead end job, not doing very well in studies or with the ladies. I had honestly given up hope. Why was I put on this Earth? There had to be more to life. The only thing that kept me going was my guitar. I felt like I was in my own world when I started playing, that I was something more. Me and my guitar have been quite a journey since then. I feel like it’s like my companion and that we’re going to conquer the world together.

Do you have a particular favourite track from the album?

If I'm being honest I haven't listened to it since we’d finished it, and that kind of surprises me. I used to watch programs like Top of the Pops when I was a kid, and they had these big bands on who would say “We don't listen to our own music”, and I couldn't understand why. But I understand now, it kind of goes past that. It's almost as if I know it so well, I don't need to listen to it, I've kind of moved on from it. But there are lots of high points on there. I grown very fond of “Doubt” as the albums centrepiece, I felt it was quite bold to put a six minute instrumental in the middle of the album. But, I’m very fond of it; it's a cheeky little tune.

You're just about to kick off a UK tour, how are you looking forward to that?

Of course. There’s a new bus with fourteen bunks, which is quite exciting, a different bunk every night I think! But no it's very exciting, there are a lot of places that I’ve never played before, a lot of places I haven't seen before, like Leamington, Suffolk, places like that. There's definitely a lot of excitement around the band about it. Every show I like to give the audience something special , something that's exciting and explosive and we work closely with our lighting guy so I've got something that's really entertaining.

I'm sure you've heard a lot of the comparisons between you and other successful artists such as Jason Mraz or John Mayer, what would you say you offer that makes you unique and sets you apart from these comparisons?

I’m just city kid from North West London; I’m nowhere near as famous as those two artists. I would find it impossible to compare between us. However soulfully, I take a lot of influence from them and other soul artists. I’m really inspired by this whole new generation of musicians that are as passionate about music as I am. This genre is so open to possibilities, I don’t feel like a soul artist but a little of everything else. Over these past few months I’ve worked artist like Dizze Rascal, Florence and the Machine and even Kasabian. I feel like I’ve had quite a rollercoaster of a journey over this last year and experiencing all these different styles of music has allowed me to broaden my own style. I’m not just your typical soul artist; I’ve got jazz, rock, R&B, Techno...the lot. I think that’s what makes me unique.

You played a fair few festivals last summer, where can we expect to see you this year?

This year should be a lot more enjoyable really. Last summer was like putting my toe in the water, but this year I start off with Coachella which is something I’m really looking forward to. In terms of other festivals in the UK we've got Smooth Radio’s Big Weekend to be confirmed, hopefully Glastonbury which will be great for us, T in the Park, maybe Oxygen. There’s also got Creamfields, Reading and Leeds and of course Bestival at the end of it all. There are lots of things cropping up that I can hardly wait for so I hope to have some real fun this year.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out, knowing what you know?

Well, I’m not going to lie to you, it took ages to get to where I am now. But I never gave up, I kept at it. And you know what, you’ve got to sell yourself. You’ve got to put yourself out there, business cards, advertisements, auditions: the lot. My whole town practically new who I was.

It's been almost a year since the release of debut single “Long Forgotten Sons”. You've had a lot happen since then, where do you see yourselves a year on from now?

I'd like to think I've finished the album cycle now. For example Florence And The Machine has done fantastically well, and she's still got another single to come which is a testament to the song writing on the album, but I don't think I'd like to tour our album for what would be another 11 months. But in reality that is probably what will happen. On another level, in 11 months time I'd like to have another release out. At the end of this year the aim is to have either an EP or another single out, and by January we'd probably hope to have a large portion of the next album under my belt, so I'd like to keep things snappy and keep on writing. Hopefully I'll be trying new things and changing myself in different ways.

Finally, if you describe your new found success in three words, what would they be?

Amazing, Awesome, Unbelievable

Pictures

This seemed like a good picture to use because he's not looking at the camera and looks like i'm fully immersed in playing the drums. The light from the windows sort of creates a silhouette around me, making me look almost anonymous.


A high angle shot of me playing seems good. You seem to get more of the drums than the instrument however and my hand looks a little blurry.


This shot sort of establishes the drum kit as a whole. Makes me look a little small compared to the drum kit though.


I chose this picture because this high-angle shot shows more of me and shows the kit as a whole.


This picture was picked because I wanted it to seem as if he is introspective while playing the guitar. You don't see his face so this seemed sort of like a negative. But the majority of the shot shows the beauty of nature which suggests his music is beautiful.


I picked this shot because you can see the artist's face but he's not directly looking at you. I want pictures that show the instrument and the artist together as if they are nothing without each other.


I believe this shot was effective because you can see his facial expression. He's not neautral, it's more like he's calm or peaceful. It's as if he is peaceful when he is playing his guitar.


I decide to get a shot of him standing up. This time he's not playing the guitar, he's holding it. Him looking off into the distance looks like he's about to go off on a journey with his guitar. It gives off a sort of natural feel to the picture.

Contents Page Sketch

This is the sketch of my contents page. In this sketch I have demonstrated my layout and features for the magazine. I made my main image the biggest picture because this image contains the main artist that is going to be interviewed in the magazine. Making the image big makes the artist seem like the most important and it is easy for the reader to identify it on the page because it is eye-catching. I have decided to include my magazine front cover in the corner of my contents because I feel like this adds a certain theme of sophistication. The two additional images would serve as accompanying artists who are going to be interviewed in the magazine and I think including their images makes them accessible to the audience - The audience know their face.
Having one section for the main features column details the contents in the within the magazine directing the reader to where the best news in the magazine will be.
The section next to the contents masthead would be reserved for the editors invoice where I would describe to the readers the contents of my magazine. This helps the reader to familiarise themselves with the magazine before they actually start reading the contents.

Contents Page Analysis - NME

There are a lot pictures used so you could say that this magazine targetted at a younger audience, maybe 14-19. I say this because the pictures show young teen musicians having fun and 'rocking out'. This can relate to the target audience as 14-19 age range can be a time when teenagers start to rebel (smoke, drink, get tatoos)and listen to rock music which is the main genre of Kerrang! magazine.

As you can see, the font is simplistic, as opposed to the contents masthead the rest of the cell lines are in capitals to make them stand out more. The use of the colour is very bold because it is a bright colour and the most eye catching colour on the page. Yellow could suggest hapiness in a teens life, maybe going out and partying because yellow connotes happiness. The rest of the page is black and white, this could also relate the audience as teens may decide to go goth or emo and decide they really like the colour black, so it's not just targetting teenagers in a broad sense, it's targetting a wide variety of teenagers.

The contents page looks well organised as opposed to "DRUMMER" contents page, there is a stronger use of images. This could be due to the target audience. Teenagers don't want to read large amounts of text, they do enough of that at school. Simple pictures of their favourite band or artist is enough to tell the consumer that this is the magazine for them. The page number and title of the artist or article title and a description sentence is positioned just under the picture, a simple guide for the reader to get to the artist they want to read about first. The largest picture must be one of their big articles. Making the picture big automatically makes it eye catching because that's the first thing we'd see when we turn the page. The image is of an artist from "Cancer Rats", shirtless, with tatoos and pointing two fingers up at the camera. This suggests despite all the success of being a rock star he's still just like a teenager because he look rebellious with all the tatoos and bandana. The two fingers also imply that he 'don't listen to noone, he does what he wants, when he wants' stereotypicial of a rebellious teen; the audience can relate to the magazine because of this picture.
The shirtlessness could imply a bit of sex appeal. This magazine looks very male dominated - Bold font, plain colours, pictures of mainly men. It seems like a masculine targeted magazine. The fact that he's shirtless could suggest that it's targetted at women aswell as men.

There is a quote situated under the masthead stating - "My favourite dance move is the Spider Walk..." BERT McMRACKEN, THE USED. This has been put here because it is an insight into the world of a famous musican for the audience. They would feel more connected to the artist after reading this statement and maybe even relate to the artist because maybe their own favourite dance move is the 'Spider Walk'.

Finally, the bottom left shows a promotional feature the magazine is offering. It says it can deliver KERRANG! straight to your doorstep. This maybe placed here for regular customers, to keep regulars still feeling like they're wanted and not just target new customers.

Contents Page Analysis - DRUMMER

This magazine contents page looks well structured and easy to look at. In some ways because of the use of the simple colours and fonts it is somewhat sophisticated and they don't bother faffing around with needless bright colours and colourful pictures. In some ways this is subversive because most 'rock' style music magazines tend to target younger audience with flashy images and lots of colour. The sophistication of the front cover could still target a young audiencebut it starts to target a more older audience. Therefore this magazine is trying to broaden audience through it's colour scheme and layout.

The image of the drum set next to the title is put purposely. Drums are big and make loud noise, the typography of the masthead reflects this because the masthead is also big and chunky; this magazine would see to target a more masculine because of this. I would even go so far as to say the two 'M's look like the two bass drums in the picture.

The main image illustrates a professional drummer at his set which suggests that proffesional artists are going to be interviewed in the magazine. This is effective because it attracts newly starting out drummers and fans of the instrument to buy the magazine because they think they'll get interesting information from the professionals themselves.
The main image is in a black and white colour scheme and the drummer is wearing and baseball cap. These are all suggestive mise-en-scene that this magazine is targeting the rock genre.

The small pictures are layed out around the main image and they all seem to have something in common, the all have a common colour scheme in the picture: red, black and white. I believe this is effective to the overall sophisticated feel the magazine is trying to portray.

The word 'EXCLUSIVE' is written next to one of the subheadings interviews. This word is a superlative and is used to attract audiences because audiences believe that this is the only magazine with an interview with this artist making the magazine more valuble.

Final Masthead Design

Final Design Masthead

Without the box around the masthead, the type was a little bland and flat after removing the box so I added effects to it (Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Bevel and Emboss, Gradient Overlay). These effects allowed the masthead to stand out more and with the new masthead my front cover looked a lot neater.

Experimenting on Photoshop - Filters

Front Cover Image Design with "Torn Edges" Filter
I chose this filter because it makes my main image look almost like a silhouette. I wanted the audience to not feel attatched to the artist because the artist is so emotionally involved with his music, it shouldn't matter whether he's famous or not.


Front Cover Image Design with "Plaster" Filter
This filter seemed effective because of the metallic effect it gave to my main image. I liked this because not only did it give my artist silhouette image again, it make the guitar look almost like a 'trophy'. It's as if the guitar is essential in his life, it is the 'key' to his music. I feel this filter highlighted the guitar more.


Front Cover Image Design with "Dark Strokes" Filter
This filter is really good because it makes my main image almost look like a painting. I like this feature because that is the message I want to send out to my audience - that soul music is like an art. This is also affective becausemy artist isn't looking at the camera. He's so emersed in his guitar it shows a certain degree of sophistication.


Front Cover Image Design with "Conte Crayon" Filter
This filter is interesting it makes my main image black and white, similar to the Plaster filter. I like this because it looks pretty sophisticated. It suggests that it doesn't need colour, that image itself is powerful enough to attract audience to my magazine.


Front Cover Image Design with "Cut Out" Filter
The same as the Dark Strokes filter only a darker shade. I like this filter a little bit more because the background isn't too bright that it would distract from the main image. It's easy on the eye and looks very deep an sophisticated.

Pictures

I figured this low angle shot of my artist made him look superior. I wanted to capture his facial expressions while he was playing the guitar. However the ceiling is not really what I wanted.

This mid-shot shows all of the artist and all of the guitar in the shot. His body posture is fairly casual, cross legged, it's as if he's just casually playing the guitar.

This is initially the picture I chose for my front page. I turned of one of the lights around the artist to create this sort of dark shadow behind him to make him look a little mysterious and dark. It made the picture look more professional and I think this picture would appeal to audiences.

Another picture I took with one of the lights off. I think this picture was a little unsuccessful because you don't really see enough of his face. Though having his back towards the camera gives him that rebel look.



These three pictures were also unsuccessful because I wanted to have him turned away from the camera but still see his faceand body. These were the set of pictures where I had the light infont of him turned off and the light behind him turned on to make his face shadowed but it didn't come out so well.

A side of view of my artist to try and get all of his body posture. I believe this was a successful picture.

This didn't come out so well as it is slightly blurry. you don't see his face at all.

I wanted the theme of direct address to apply. He's smiling and looking at the camera directly addressing the audience the smile also suggests a bit of sex appeal.

Second Masthead Design

Second Masthead Design

We were happy with this design as we thought the box made the masthead stick out more and it would look sophisticated like VIBE or XXL's mastheads. The colours are warm, gold colours (sort of a sunrise/sunset feel, will make the consumer feel easy going) and not too bright and flashy, our target audience is 25+, there's no need for it to be too flashy to attract sales, they're mature enough to buy a magazine for it's content not just the front cover. I added the puff - 'Love Soul. Love Smooth.' which I think is an effective puff because if you love soul music you will love our magazine but of course the puff needed to be short, snappy and memorable, the repitition of the word love allowed to be that more memorable. The puff couldn't be the same colour as the masthead because it's not part of the main title, it had to be seperate.

Experimenting on Photoshop - Masthead

These are several experimentations with a box around the masthead (which we thought sort of worked well in our last masthead except without the purple lighting. A simple black box is all that was needed) with various different fonts. Red seemed like a good colour at the time, it's bold, dynamic but not connoting the Soul genre. Maybe silver, silver connotes shine or metal, not very "soul" but it looked good. Eventually gold became a really good colour which not only comlimented the box but what themes our magazine was trying to sell; gold connotes luxury, wealth, shine, maybe even the sun (e.g. waking up one morning, sun is beaming in your face and a good soul song comes on the radio) It's simple, sophisticated and really good looking.

First Masthead Design

First Masthead Design

I believed this would be a good masthead to work with as the dark colours portrayed maturity and that soul is a very niche genre and dark colours sort of represent that because, like silhouette, make the genre seem unknown.
We decided to re-think the masthead because the font seemed too bold, it almosr seemed like the masthead was shouting at you and that's not what our magazine is trying to suggest. Soul music is supposed to be cool and easy going. This font sort of looks like one of those old army film Rambo fonts (not very "smooth"). The colour almost seemed too dark but we didn't want the purple too bright otherwise it wouldn't be targeting our specific audience.

Experimenting on Photoshop - Mastheads

Messing around with different fonts for my masthead. I don't really have a main idea right now just dicussing with the group which of the various fonts looks good or not.
The second image shows the remaining fonts that we're selected or we felt probably deserved a place on our magazine. These fonts we're selected because they seemed to provide a sense of professionalism and hold an official touch, without looking too bland, fancy or complicated. I particularly the silvery one. It seems funky and eye catching. I might decide to use silvery colour scheme because silver connotes wealth and shine which I think might be suitable for my magazine.

Front Page Sketch

Here are my two design ideas fo my front cover. As you can see we haven't really developed a masthead yet but the one thing that I made important to my front cover designs is the main image. I want the main image to be big and in your face. I don't want lots of cell lines as that would detract from my main image. The reason I want my main images to big is because I want it to be the first thing my audience see when they're looking at through a magazine isle. I want it eye-catching. I want my audience to be intrigued because I decided not to have my main image look at the camera. I want it to suggests that my magazines artists aren't destracted by the camera; that they are so completely involved in their music suggesting an array of sophistication.
The inclusion of musical instruments was an interesting idea because I want my audience to believe that my artists are talented not just in singing and dancing but in playing an instrument as well. I want my audience to believe that my artists are passionate about music and not just in it for the money.
I also drew a hat on both of my main images as well to give them the sense of anonymity. I don't really want my audience to know my artists, even the the main cover line would say their name, I want to surround my artists within a sense of mystery and by keeping they're face shadowed out I believe I can achieve that.

Focus Group Questions

Focus Group Questions

What would make you buy a music magazine?

Apart from music, what else would you like to see in a magazine?

The title for our magazine is called "Smooth" what does that mean to you?

What gender or age do you think "Smooth" should be targetted at?

What do you think is the most important feature of a music magazine?

Questionnaire and Results

Questionnaire
Tick or circle your preferred choice

1) Gender
• Male
• Female

2) Age
• 13 and under
• 14-16
• 17-20
• 21+

3) What type of music do you like?
• Hip-Hop
• R&B
• Pop
• Grime
• Heavy Metal
• Alternative
• Jazz
• Classic
• OTHER ―――――――――――――――

4) Who is your favourite music artist or band?

• ―――――――――――――――――――

5) Do you buy music magazines?
• Yes
• No

6) If Yes, when purchasing a music magazine how much are you willing to spend? (skip if answered no or just answer for fun)
• £1-£2
• £2-£3
• £3-£4
• £4-£5
• Even more?!… ―――――――――――――――――

7) If you did buy a music magazine (just for fun), what sort of features would you like to see in the magazine? (Tick/Circle desired choice(s)
• Gossip
• Fashion
• Gadgets
• Interviews
• New Artists
• Info on Concerts/Events
• Competitions
• OTHER ――――――――――――――――――――――
Thank you for time

Questionnaire Powerpoint

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Magazine Ideas

Genre/Type of Music Magazine: Jazz, Soul, Gospel
Target Audience (Gender, age range, class, lifestyle/interests/ethnicity): Male and Female, 21+, working/middle class, casual lifestyle, enthusiastic about music, maybe even play an instrument, their ethnicity could be mainly of black ethnicity, also the younger white ethnicity
Possible titles (masthead):
"Divine" (too religious),
"Spirit" (too religious),
"Vitality" (sounds like water),
"Essence" (sounds like a perfume ad),
"Essential" (sounds alright, doesn't convey jazz/soul genre, it's more...party disco or pop related),
"Soul" (pretty good, too plain though),
"Smooth" (i like this, the word 'smooth' connotes easy feeling and that's we want our magazine to convey)
Front Page main image: Person playing the saxaphone or guitar, maybe the person just holding the guitar by his side
Main Cover Line: Tyler Stone, Ricky Jones (made up jazz/soul musicians)
Additional Key Images: Additional bands (The Honey Bears, Mamma's Gun)
Possible Puffs:
"Real Music. Real Smooth." - Repititon of 'Real' sticks in mind. Soul music = Real music. "Real Smooth" = Pun but also makes magazine/genre sound smooth.
"Love Soul. Love Smooth." - If you love Soul music, you will love the magazine. Repitition of 'Love' implies Soul music is about Love (make you fall in love with a person and with the genre)
"Love Life. Love Music." - Life is all about music. You can't have a life without music, music is everywhere. Again 'Love' repition.
"Love Smooth. Love Soul." - Love our magazine and love the genre itself.
Typography (style, size, colour of copy): Small letters (maybe no capitals), Medium size (not too big, my audience is quite mature), Black, Red, Yellow, White, Blue, Silver, Gold
Background colour/image: White, Gray, Black, plain colours that don't overshadow the main image
Technical considerations (equipment, setting, props, costume, lighting): Instrument (Guitar/Saxaphone), set in a Studio or maybe even taken during a gig, or the artist is just casually playing the instrument in the park (natural, can relate to the audience - famous musicians are just like regular musicians)

Front Page Analysis - NME and Q comparison

The two music magazines "Q" and "NME" use very unique mastheads.
The colours red and white are both used for the masthead. Red suggests their music is strong and dynamic. NME is a rock magazine and rock music is also a strong loud genre. The white around the NME logo promotes professionalism. It also enhances the boldness of the font. The font itself is big and chunky. It suggests that this kind of genre (rock) of music is masculine and that this type of magazine is more targeted for a male audience.
You can compare this to "Q's" masthead, It also uses the colours red and white but the word itself is coloured in white and the block behind is in red. I believe it makes the magazine stand out more. The type of typography is more stylish like a signature suggesting "Q" is more of a mature music magazine and a lot more sophisticated.

The main cover line for "NME" is supposed to represent the main image showing the best band this week/month and this weeks/month the main cover line band for "NME" is "The View" written in huge typography and is in black and white which is probably the traditional colour scheme for rock music since the rock genre can be quite heavy and dark and black can be connoted in the same sort of way. It's big and chunky making it eye-catching and attracting fans of this certain band.
Comparing it to the "Q" main cover - 'The Song Writers' already you can see a major difference from the "NME" main cover line. 'The Song Writers' is placed on the left hand side of the magazine and is much smaller than 'The View'. This may suggest it is more sophisticated because it doesn't need to be big to catch audience attention and the added fact the colour of the main cover line is in gold connoting wealth, luxury or even experience suggesting that "Q" magazine are experienced in targetting their audience and not using over-the-top methods like "NME".
You could also mention the font style of "Q's" main cover line is fairly basic implying that "Q" is sophisticated because it isn't using crazy font styles because it wants to maintain it's mature audience.

The cell lines are there to allow the consumer to know what sort of bands the magazine is going to interview. "NME" shows it's cell lines as very loud very colourful, lots of pictures, big typography and lots of tie-ins. These are all put on the cover on purpose because these are the sort of features that attract a young audience who "NME's" main target audience. You also are able to identify the colour scheme from the cell lines (Red, Yellow, Black, White) simple, eye-catching colours nothing to complicated, again used to target a young audience because of the fact it's not too complicated, young people like easy things, fast.
"Q's" cell lines are a little different. There are no pictures and the font is a lot smaller in comparison. The artists are in plain, simple list with occasionally popular artist highlighted in gold because they're probably popular in the charts right now and highlighted them would instantly catch anyone’s attention. All of this again shows sophistication, they don't need pictures to attract their audience because their target audience is a lot more mature than that. "Q" even includes a superlative to make their magazine seem like they are the only magazine with these artists giving even greater reason for a consumer to want to buy their magazine.

The main image is huge compared to the cell lines to draw attention to the reader because the images are looking at the camera trying to directly address the reader. It is clear “Q” magazine is trying to appeal to older audiences because of the main images they used are of adults as opposed to “NME” using younger artists for their main image suggesting NME is targeting a younger audience. What “Q” have decide to make their main images wear is very important; it very formal dress with a tie and a shirt and a dress. This is the stereotypical dress style of mature adults therefore “Q” is strengthening its representation. “NME” on the other hand have made their main images wearing casual clothing with things like jeans jackets and having long hair and wearing black. This is stereotypical of what young audiences of teenagers wear. Having long hair and wearing black is stereotypical of your conventional rebel child. Young audiences can also relate this band because your teen years is when you start to fully appreciate music and start playing the guitar or whatever and young audiences may aspire to be like the View.

Front Page Analysis - XXL

The masthead for XXl is a unique selling point. The typography is big and chunky suggesting it is a masculine magazine. The block behind the typography is red which connotes luxury - the red carpet for instance - suggesting wealth and fame.
The typography itself is made of diamonds which suggests wealth and luxury and the genre of the magazine is R&B which identifies with the bling craze Hip-Hop artists are now adapting.
Another thing about the red background masthead is that the red is a dynamic colour. It's very appealing from afar - it's interesting and eye-catching.

Moving onto the main coverline. The typography used is also big and chunky suggesting masculinity. The font itself resembles the particular font used in army films also suggesting toughness and masculinty which will link on to the main image.
The "&" in between "Baby" and "Lil Wayne" is also in red but the font is more stylish like handwriting inviting a sort of sophisticated feel.

Under the main cover line the puff reads "Survival of the fittist" this is highlighted in a red box. This colour connotes blood and the word 'survival' further implies that it's toyugh for young rappers to make it big in the music industry because they lead tough lives. But with the main image showing Lil Wayne and Baby wearing expensive it proves to the consumer that the young can make it big.

The cell lines feature a variety of different music artists specific ro the genre XXL is trying to establish (R&B/Hip-Hop) and shows interviews from artists such as Eminem and Kanye West. The wide variety of rap artists gives choice for the consumer, if one magazine reader doesn't like Kanye but loves Eminem they'll buy the magazine for that specific interview. It widens the target.

The image portrays Baby and Lil Wayne in an arm lock looking tough. They are both wearing jewels and chains to show off their bling. This 'bling' also links to the font style of the masthead.
They're covered in tattoo, it shows how tough they are but it also suggests that the two are pretty wealthy.
But we can also see that they are half naked, they're body language suggests toughness becauwse they are brave enough to make themselves look vulnerable.
However the fact that Baby's arm is over Lil Wanye's shoulder suggests homo-erotic themes and is subversives of the stereotypical Hip-Hop culture but somehow also serves as a purpose to widen XXL's audience to the gay community to boost their sales. But it can also be interpreted that Baby is a paternel figure to Lil Wayne as a sort of comeradery.

Front Page Analysis - Hip-Hop Soul

The masthead is large and chunky making it stand out and eye catching for the consumer. The colour of the font in black and white which connotes purity suggesting that soul music is pure or easy to listen to.

The main cover line is a link the main image (R. Kelly). The typography used for the main cover line is also big and and sort of stylish in italics which suggests that this artists music is "cool" or stylish. The main cover line also gives off that sophisticated feel to it implying that this magazine is trying to attract a more mature audience. The reason the main cover line is big is because it attracts consumers to the magazine. R. Kelly may be their favourite artist and would initially buy the magazine for his interview.

There is also a little quotation from R. Kelly saying "Music is my shield." which implies that hip-hop/soul music is a sort of relief from the stresses of life, it is a "shield from reality" as a for of escapism. This serves as a purpose to attract audiences also as many people (although the Soul genre may be niche) are fans of this genre and a quote from an actually artist they listen to saying something they can actually relate makes that person feel special and a sort of empathy is created.

R. Kelly may be the main cover line an interview for this issue but there are several cell lines available on the page stating interviews from different artists. So if the consumer doesn't really like R. Kelly they can always read about another artist within the magazine, maybe Amy Winehouse or Joss Stone. So the range of artists provide choice for the consumer because all the artists interviewed are of the soul/jazz/blues/hip-hop genre which allows the consumer to broaden their artist favourite list maybe discovering an artist they had never heard of before. The artists name is also emphasised in a bold font to make it further stand out.

Now to the main image which depicts R. Kelly and a girl hugging him. The way he postured sort of portrays dominance suggesting he runs things and the girl follows which if sort stereotypical within the Hip-Hop genre where woman are almost illustrated as sex objects. This is further emphasise by the fact that we cannot see anything other than her head and arm, perhaps she's naked. However it can also be argued that the way she hugging him with her eyes closed also suggests that the music genre of soul can be soothing and calm and easy to listen to.
R. Kelly is dressed almost entirely in white which links to the colour scheme of the masthead and also further connoting the hip-hop/soul genre as pure and easy listening.

His posture with his hands crossed like that can also be mistaken or interpreted as religious maybe crossing over to the Gospel music genre further widening their audience.

R. Kelly also appears to be wearing long chains and a shiny watch or "bling" which can be stereotypical of the RnB/Hip-Hop genre. These jewels imply wealth and luxury also typical of the Hip-Hop genre. R. Kelly himself is black or African/American. The majority of Black artists are mainly involved within the Soul/Hip-Hop genre so the consumer can instantly spot this cover from a mile away and identify what genre this magazine is selling without even looking at the masthead.

To conclude, the various different techniques this magazine is using these include the use of Black artists, the cell lines, the clothes and jewellery and the masthead all serve a purpose to attract different types of audiences thus gaining a grand consumer output and maximising their profit.