Music magazine analysis

Music Press Timeline

1950's

In the 1950's Music in the press was very uncritical. The magazines and other forms were just listings. These included new singles, up and coming gigs and the charts. New musical express, a music magazine, focused mainly on the rock and alternative genre of music while Melody maker focused on pop and rock. Overall the music press was a positive place.

 1960's

Music press in the 1960s was the same as it was in the previous decade but with the addition of The rolling stones, The Beatles and a new drug culture which surrounded the music press.

1970's

NME start to embrace punk culture. With change in genre comes change in writing. The authors of articles for nme started to branch off into different topics. One of those were politics. They started to discuss the lyrics and the views of the band. Acts such as the likes of David Bowie, Mud, T-Rex, ELP and Yes were introduced. The whole point of the change was to get a younger audience and recruit 'hip, young gun slingers'. However the change did not go down all well. In the late 70's ratings of NME dropped dramatically because there wasn't enough things about 'normal' bands and it was becoming all about the politics. Then nearing the end of the decade, NME started to focus on the younger audience and wrote about lifetyles of band members. Pop also became more of what it is today, all about the appearance. People were more interested about the style, make-up, fashion and the music video itself rather than the the meaningful content of a song.

1980s' and 1990's

More magazines were introduced such as Face and Blitz. Magazines became more exciting, losing their newspaper style and becoming more modern with new typography, layout and graphics. Then finally came the transition from paper to technology. MTV was created and music was now on TV. This meant spending's for musicians were increased. Music videos were becoming more popular and the overall quality of music was better. This meant a small, unknown band could make money with just a well produced music video.

2000's

Music bloggers seem to have replaced the magazines. These musician bloggers can give critique, reviews and have a more unprofessional, democratic review on what they thought of the music. As these bloggers are just ordinary people, they are more relatable to avid music listeners.

Present day

Music press and pop culture is constantly surrounding us. Everyone who believes they are someone thinks they can make it big! With platforms on the internet such as YouTube, anyone can share their music. Music can now be downloaded straight onto our personal devices without us actually having to leave our home! There are still some big music magazines now like The rolling stone. Having many platforms of press means a wider audience of consumers. NME has it's very own website where they offer reviews, film, blogs, tickets and more for consumption.This is also a global website meaning everyone around the world has access and can keep up to date with their favourite bands. Magazines nowadays are very genre separated. You can have rock magazines, pop, alternative, techno, classic. There is more information around us than ever before.

My Analysis - Preliminary task

My Analysis and Evaluation

I think my magazine cover was successful. I took typical conventions from professional magazine covers and used them to create my own. I used features such as a bold Masthead which stands out on my magazine cover. I did find choosing the typography very difficult and I struggled to make it look even slightly professional. However I think the two I chose worked well together. I used coverlines that would appeal to an audience for that genre of magazine such as giveaways which was in big lettering which would catch people’s attention.

For the dominant image I wanted a candid photo of some of the sixth form students so, with their permission, I snapped photos of them just hanging around at lunch time. I feel this sort of photo is better than an intended pose as it is more relatable. But I feel that would only count for certain genres of magazine. I whittled my choices down to three good photos but in the end chose the candid of two friends looking and talking to each other.

I did some primary market research of my own and I used the results of that to build my cover to appeal to sixth form students. I think next time I conduct market research I will ask more people within the audience, I’d also make sure that the sample of people I asked had was balanced in gender and other factors.

When Photo shopping the image I manipulated the colours and curves of the original image to make the photo smoother, sharper and more vibrant. I found this quite easy. I could have played around with it a bit more though. Next time I use Photoshop I will definitely explore and play around with more adjustments and modes to see how I can make the image look more appealing to the reader.

For time management I was fairly on time. I used up all of the time I had and didn’t finish before the time was up but I managed to meet the deadline. However I did upload the majority of my work onto my media blog the day of the deadline so I know for next time to upload as my work progresses.

For my future work portfolio, I will spend more time planning before I start making my product as I didn’t have much planning to show for this task. I need to restrain myself from jumping straight into the production of the cover and spend more time planning because that is where I will miss marks otherwise.

My final cover- Preliminary Task

Plan- Preliminary Task

Magazine name idea

Play on words

Ups and downs:     simple, uses our school name

OUR DOWNS:   use ‘our ups and…’ as the slogan. A simple yet affective play on words including the Downs name.  I have used this because it’s what my market research showed that they wanted.

Coverline ideas

Gossip

Opportunities

She did WHAT?!?   (Smaller print: Miss Cerys Jones reveals her weekend adventures)

£100 worth of chocolate up for grabs!  (Smaller print: learn how to win on pg21)

An EGGcellent mess.     (Smaller print: Who egged Mr Prossers office?)

Want to be a millionaire? Find out how!

Science students ATTENTION!

OTHER FEATURES TO INCLUDE.

·        Barcode

·        Bottom bar

·        Issue number

·        Stroke on words effect

            INITIAL PLAN FOR PAGE LAYOUT

Readership Profile- Preliminary Task

Age range: The age range would be 16-18 because those are the ages you would be in the sixth form.

Gender: The magazine will appeal to both genders because the sixth form is one joint unit of both males and females. So it needs to appeal to both.

Personalities:  

·         Students interested in the school.

·         Students who like to meet new people

·         Students who like to keep up to date within the school.

I did a small survey and asked 11 people in my year some questions about a sixth form magazine.

What cover image would make you pick up a magazine?
1 person	2 people	A group	No people
0	2	8	1
What kind of title would make you open a sixth form magazine?
Alliteration	A funny one	Play on words	serious
0	4	7	0
What kind of articles would you be interested in?
Gossip	opportunities	Success stories	Updates
4	5		2
What style of writing do you prefer?
Formal	Funny	Friendly	United (we)
1	6	3	1
What giveaways would you be interested?
Stationary	Food (sweets)	House stuff (sh)
4	9	0

From this small survey I have deduced that sixth form students are more into humour than a serious or enthusiastic style of writing. I have also found out they want to read opportunities and gossip. From this information, I will make sure the coverlines are funny but also conform to the seriousness of outer school opportunities.

I have also discovered that although some wanted a funny masthead, majority wanted a clever play on words. I can use both these bits of information to create an amusing play on words, if I do this more people will pick it up and want to read inside.

Lastly my survey showed that sixth form students would prefer an edible giveaway prize rather than something for their school house or school stationary. However a few people did still want school supplies so I will include both on the front cover. I found out that sixth form students are more interested in reading a magazine when there is free prizes to be given out, especially if it is food. 

Magazine Cover Analysis- Preliminary task

•             One dominant image for audience to focus on. Usually a celebrity. In this case Taylor Swift is the dominant image. This suggests that Taylor Swift is more eye grabbing than the magazine masthead.

•             The colour red is often present in magazine covers. (Red connotes romance and/or attraction)

•             The Masthead is prominent and one of the first things you see. It’s high up on the importance hierarchy.  It’s hidden slightly behind Taylor Swifts head suggesting, as I said above, that she will attract more people than the magazine brand.

•             Cover lines are in large, bold letters to attract people’s attention. The more interesting the cover line the more prominent the lettering. There are big names on the front of the magazine to attract all ages of readers.

•             There are no giveaways on the front of the magazine suggesting an audience who is more interested in actually reading about music than winning music.

•             Typical conventions of a magazine cover is the writing is more a less a border around the dominant image. The masthead is always at the top but whether it is behind or in front of the dominant image changes.

•             The magazine addresses the audience like a gossiper spilling secrets. It uses phrases like ‘wild memories’ and ‘heart break kid’ to entice the audience to make them feel like they are knowing top celebrities big secrets.

•             The Readership appeals to anyone who is a teen or above. It uses big names for all older ages like Rod Stewart but also uses celebrities for a younger crowd like Taylor swift. It’s a unisex magazine because it features different musicians of all genders and age. Personality wise the magazine appeals to anyone with a love for music.

•             One dominant image for audience to focus on. Usually a celebrity. Like Amanda Seyfried.  

•             The colour red is often present in magazine covers. (Red connotes romance and/or attraction) It is present again in the GQ masthead just like the rolling stones and Lucky. In this case the use of red is meant to portray the celebrity in a ‘sexy’ way to attract audiences.

•             The Masthead is prominent and one of the first things you see. It’s high up on the importance hierarchy.  In this case it is the most important as the main image is behind the title.

•             Cover lines are in large, bold letters to attract people’s attention. The more interesting the cover line the more prominent the lettering. Examples in the cover include ‘diamond giveaway’ which will appeal to its readership because it sounds exciting and luxurious.

•             There are no giveaways on the cove which suggests, like GQ, that the readership is mature and don’t need or even want a giveaway or competition to be excited by a magazine.

•             Typical conventions of a magazine cover is the surrounding the dominant image. The masthead is always at the top but whether it is behind or in front of the dominant image changes. Unlike the magazine cover above, lucky has the masthead in front of the dominant image.

•             The magazine addresses the audience as women who want to know how to be ‘beautiful’. The coverlines appeal to them with things such as ‘a new way to perfect skin’ and ‘super affordable glamour’.

•             For readership, the cover appeals to women who are middle class and not particularly wealthy because the coverlines use rich words like ‘diamond’. They also have a guide to ‘affordable’ glamour which will attract an audience who care about their appearance but don’t have a lot of money.

•             One dominant image for audience to focus on. Usually a celebrity. In this case Ryan Reynolds. This suggests that Ryan Reynolds is more of an attraction or style icon than the magazine masthead, GQ.

•             The colour red is often present in magazine covers. (Red connotes romance and/or attraction) It is present again in the GQ masthead just like the rolling stones.

•             The Masthead is prominent and one of the first things you see. It’s high up on the importance hierarchy.  It’s hidden slightly behind Ryan Reynolds suggesting, as I said above, he will attract more people than the magazine brand. As he behind the coverlines it gives a 3D impression to bring more attention to him.

•             Cover lines are in large, bold letters to attract people’s attention. The more interesting the cover line the more prominent the lettering.

•             There are no giveaways on the front of the magazine suggesting a mature male audience as this magazine is primarily aimed at men who enjoy fashion and latest trends.

•             Typical conventions of a magazine cover is the writing is a border around the dominant image. The masthead is always at the top but whether it is behind or in front of the dominant image changes. Just like the magazine cover above.

•             The magazine addresses the audience as if it were a fun guide which is trendy. It uses words like ‘swagger’ to be relatable with a younger, ‘laddy’ audience.

•             For readership, the cover appeals to males because it refers to things they would enjoy like ‘male style’ and ‘sex, thugs and rock and roll.’