Music Magazine Research Task Three: Genres Of Music

The genre of a magazine is very important to the way it is set out, so below are lists of popular genres and what genres music magazines are, I will also look at music I listen to, after looking at all of these I will make a decision as to what genre my magazine will fit into, it is very important that I don't pick something that has been overused, or that is present in today's media.

Popular music genres, with magazines that fit these genres next to them:

• Indie - NME
• Pop - Q, Mojo
• Rock - Kerrang
• Hip-Hop - Hip Hop Connection (American Magazine)
• Grime - Flavourmag (Urban London Music and Arts Magazine)
• Hip-Hop/R&B - Vibe Magazine
• Music in General - Rolling Stone Magazine (varies from month to month as to which artist they focus on, the magazine isn't devoted to 

all of these magazines have a layout and a design that mirrors what they are trying to represent, so for example NME has quite an indie feel to it, one that would match today's culture, with the clothing people wear, the people that feature in the magazine and other things such as the features they run and the way the codes and conventions are presented.

Music that I listen to:

• Indie - Bombay Bicycle Club, Little Comets, General Fiasco
• Grime - Skepta, JME, P Money
• Hip-Hop - Kanye West
• Rock - The Rolling Stones, The Beatles

 I think that I will make my magazine more of an indie theme, this is because I feel that there is a slight gap in the market, because although the content of NME is seen to be indie, the design wasn't originally to suit indie music, because when it was created it was more to do with popular music than anything else, and has recently changed. Whereas my magazine will be completely indie orientated, with a modern design that fits the genre, rather than optimized like NME's design has been.

Music Magazine Research Task Two: Q Magazine Case Study

For my second research task I am going to research a front cover, contents page and double page spread from Q magazine, again this will feature a few pieces which feature the Arctic Monkeys to see the difference between the two magazines. Like the post below (NME magazine) I hope to find out the various codes and conventions and how both magazines use them and how each magazine presents the same artist/band.

Front Cover

This cover of Q magazine features quite a well designed cover, using quite a professional look, with the front cover photo taken quite clearly in a studio, whereas the NME front cover was taken outside, which gives the NME cover a more casual look, where as this cover is going for a more star studded effect, fitting in with the 'awards' theme.

the whole cover seems to be very tidy, which gives the cover a professional feel to it, this is a completely different stance on the same band from NME and Q, this could be down to the subject, whether the fact that being the awards edition they have given it a different feel compared to a regular feature of the Arctic Monkeys.

Contents Page

This contents page of Q shows another method of setting it out. Instead of the one page contents like in NME, where it is mostly words, with one image, the Q contents is over two pages, with some writing still, but the images guide the reader to the main features rather than having to scroll through various different lists of page numbers the information is presented to you with pictures. I find that this contents page more matches the NME cover, this is because this contents page is a lot less formal than the NME cover from a layout point of view. The conventions that Q magazine use are present here with the fonts and colours used, there is a lot of information here that fills the page but doesn't feel cluttered, all of the information present is easily accessable and nothing is hidden because of overcrowding in the page, overall I think if I was to do something like this for my magazine I would have achieved what I set out to do and what I expect of my work.

As far as the target audience for Q magazine is concerned I think that this is something that is easily appealing, as there isn't much reading to be done, and all the images relate to something that teenagers and young people would read. 

Double Page Spread

This double page spread of Lady Gaga is fairly typical of most Q magazine articles, I think that this article, like many others by Q is quite glamorous, whereas NME are a lot more casual, suiting the indie teenager that the magazine is aimed at, whereas Q is aimed at people who listen to popular music, and the glamour of the magazine is probably to make the reader feel like they are reading a quality product, and this matters when you are aiming the magazine at a vast majority of the population, whereas teenagers don't need glamour, they need something they can pick up, read for 5-10 minutes then put it down and come back to it later, which is where I suppose NME and Q differ.

In this double page spread there are several things that lead me to believe that this is a more glamorous article than most, one is the black and white photo of Lady Gaga with the more vintage hair style, and the necklace come dress front, the tasteful nudity in the photo could suggest vintage glamor as well. as far as the text goes the font is quite small, using the initials like in the NME magazine, this time it is in a more traditionally English font, giving it that extra effect of glamor and high class. The main feature of the whole double page spread and the only colour on the whole double page is the red L in the background of the text on the right hand side, this adds to the effect of the article, and also makes it more visually appealing, contrasting the black and white that would otherwise make the article quite boring. In the top left corner it has Lady Gaga's name like the NME article, this gives all the articles in the magazine some form of unity, and can be easily found when flicking through the magazine, because after all, Lady Gaga is a massive celebrity and will be a major selling point of the magazine. Overall I think that this glamorous effect that I get from this double page spread is another technique for creating bits of a magazine, it may be a good effect for me to use in my magazine as the simplicity of it is quite effective.

Music Magazine Research Task One: NME Magazine Case Study

For my first research task I am going to analyse NME Magazine's front cover, double page spread and contents page, the next post (the post above) will feature Q magazines . All of these posts will gain my understanding of what a magazine will do to draw readers in, how well it is presented and how the cover relates to the double page spread, or section of the magazine that it it trying to sell.

Front Cover

The front cover features the Arctic Monkeys, which is a theme I have tried to keep with both magazines because looking at two different magazines and the same artist can give me an understanding of how the two different magazines produce articles, contents pages and a cover to suit the artist/group.

In this front cover there are several techniques, there are the obvious conventions of the bar code, date, the masthead etc. But there are some things used in the cover that may make this cover stand out. The first thing that comes to mind is looking at the band and the way each of them are dressed, for example Alex Turner in particular, the lead singer (middle left) has been given quite a vintage look with the aviator sunglasses and the hair style, as well as all of them being given or them opting for the vintage short back and sides look with their hair swept back. The font used, the main coverline, the bands name, matches the look in the photo, it isn't to garish and isn't an outragous font, with obscure colours, it matches the rest of the page with a similar font to the rest of the coverlines and tag lines on the page.

The box at the top of the cover also with the style of the box and the fonts used within them are almost like a banner from a 1960's American bar, advertising the next band, which in a way the coverline is trying to do ''Blur Exclusive... another crack at America''. this fits in well with the theme of the whole page, the way that it all fits in would suggest that Arctic Monkeys are being represented in the magazine like they are going back to the roots of popular music, as if the magazine itself was going for a vintage cover look.

Contents Page

The contents page of NME is fairly simple, and fairly uniform every month, all of the smaller titles have the same black box with white writing inside, like a black highlight on the white page. the title itself has the same effect, with page numbers in red, coverlines in black with a slightly bigger and more bold font than the description of each article, the text isn't to big and doesn't jump out at you, giving every part of the magazine a fair chance over the rest. The image in the centre of the page related the cover to a part of the magazine, in this case page 45, I hope to achieve something like this with my magazine as it will make my magazine flow.

apart from the obvious conventions that NME have used there isn't a lot that is out of the norm. The only other things to note is the fact that they have a box at the bottom of the page in the centre that describes how to subscribe to NME magazine, of which I feel that this box is probably in the magazine frequently a lot as well, this is a good bit of self advertisement and keeps it on the mind of the reader whilst they read the magazine.

Double Page Spread

This double page spread in NME magazine, of the Arctic Monkeys is a fairly simple design, with the image on the left, stylised, artistic writing, which could have also been an image, with the text below having an Initial (larger capital letter to start the various paragraphs). 'The Joshua Code' relates back to the fact that at the time of this NME article Arctic Monkeys had either just recorded or were about to record in Joshua Tree, California, which was where Josh Homme was born, the lead singer of Queens Of The Stonage, and a producer for many of Arctic Monkeys songs, and the album Humbug.

In the top right hand corner of the page it has the band name, it is highly likely that this is a covention throughout the magazine, and is something I am tempted to use depending on what I do for my magazine and how I set it out. I feel that this is a nicely layed out intro page to an article, with the colours not being too 'in your face', the page isn't to cluttered but gives you all the information you need with simplicity in mind.

Preliminary Task: Final Cover, Contents and Evaluation

Both of the images above are the final versions of my front cover and contents page if you hadn't already guessed! After all of the planning and drafting I finished my magazine cover and contents page for the preliminary task. On the whole I'm quite pleased with it, there are several things that if I did it again I would change, for example I spent a lot of time trying to work out what to use to link the image with the text in the contents page, and I also forgot to include the page number in the top image, the best I could come up with was arrows for the link, but I don't think that this worked that well. 

As far as the front cover goes I think I met my standards and was unusually creative with the cover-lines and choice of font. I don't think there would be much I would change with the front cover, maybe the shape of which the cover-lines formed. Overall I think that this preliminary task was a success and has let me have a snapshot as to what to do for my Music Magazine, the final task, and then what to avoid.

Preliminary Task: Draft of Magazine

The two images above show the front cover and the contents page for my College Magazine for my preliminary task. I feel that the front cover is almost complete, with several things that need changing, like the font for the date and issue number, I think they should probably be the same front as the the rest of the coverlines, Nova, rather than the same font as the masthead, Brain Flower, also I think the colour should be orange to contrast the masthead, this will mean they stand out.

Another thing, again which is a small thing I think I should tweak with the front cover of the magazine is the masthead, I think the shadow should be orange to make it stand out more, the orange will contrast the turquoise and make the magazine stand out over other things that are available round college.

With my contents page I'm planning to redo the whole page, I feel that there isn't enough text and not enough images on the page, this is due to the layout, so for my flatplan I will show how I want the contents page to look. I'm thinking of putting an image relating to something on the contents page at the top, then having the contents title to be the same font and same colour scheme as the masthead on the front cover. Then I will seperate features and regulars into different sections, with an image taking up a 1/3, and then 2/3 writing, this will take up about a quarter of the page each. The colour scheme of the writing will be the same as it is here.

Overall I think that both will turn out to be fairly successful with changes that I plan to make, and I also think after these changes the magazine will look professional and meet my standards that I expect from myself.

Proposal Of My College Magazine

I have a few initial ideas for my college magazine, overall the general idea for my magazine will be to make an individual, unique magazine that will stand out and appeal to the my target audience, teenagers who attend south downs college.

• COLOUR SCHEME: As far as colours go I think that I will use turquoise, orange and white, fairly similar to 'College Magazine' featured in the last article. I hope that the orange, being in november will symbolise autumn, which is the season we are in!
• FONTS: For the Masthead and Contents Title I am thinking of using 'BrainFlower' a font that is occasionally used in day to day life, but isn't overused, I think that it will give a fairly modern feel to the magazine, and be the kind of font that teenagers are familiar with, for the coverlines, date etc. I will use 'Nova Bold' which I have never seen used before, which makes me more inclined to use it, as I think both fonts together may not seem like they go at first but I think that they may compliment them if I use them in the right context with the correct font size. Another font I want to use, but more in the contents page than anything else will be 'Asmat 2007', I will use it for the title of the sections - regulars and features and the page numbers, I think that this will compliment the Nova font I will use in the main bulk of writing, giving the contents page a more professional effect.
• COVER IMAGE: I will use a portrait I have taken of one of my friends Jack, a photography AS student, as he is a model student of this college (haha). Also it related back to the main coverline I have in mind as it will be about the AS photography trip to Kew Gardens.
• IMAGES IN THE CONTENTS PAGE: As the magazine will feature a lot about photography of nature and it is spring I propose to use several images from the kew gardens trip and one that will look forward to next month - December, this will mean something Christmasy and something that will make the page featured stand out and make people want to turn to that page and read it, which is essentially what I want to happen with everything I do, but more so with contents with images. 
• CONTENTS LAYOUT: I think initially it will involve more about playing around with various layouts rather than sticking to one idea, one of my ideas is to have a title and a small underline, then have a list of features and regulars below, with an image at the bottom.

Hopefully all of these factors will meet the targets of the task as well as meeting my expectations of what I am capable of. I will work to what I think is a fairly high standard for myself as I want this piece to be successful, but also something that I enjoy working, so it will incorporate a lot of my work, and also incorporate a lot of things that interest me, and what I think will look effective and create a well thought out and well presented college magazine

College Magazine: Research

before I start planning my college magazine I have to do some research, for this I will take some examples of college magazines that already exist, one from America and one from Britain, both will show how the culture and how the people who attend the college affect the magazines design and content.

my first example of a college magazine that I will research is 'The LC' which is the magazine for Lewisham college in London. The general design of the magazine is a standard format with the title and the coverlines all being in the same place, all the same colour. In all of the editions of the magazine, in this case Autumn 2010 they feature a main coverline in bold, with a smaller regular description to go with the coverline, this may be a different font but it works with the rest of the magazine cover. Below this is the rest of the 'highlights' of the magazine, ie. the other coverlines. I think I might use something similar for my magazine as it gets the message of the magazine cover across and is quite effective.

Another thing I may use is something similar to the title because it stands out, people know what it is, and if you go to the college, which is the magazines target audience then you will know straight away what the magazine is and who it is aimed at, I hope that mine will be as clear cut.

The next magazine I will research is College magazine, which is an american paper format magazine with a fairly large web presence, created by students for students it has a professional layout and big stories for it's target audience, unlike most college magazines it is for college goers in general, not just for one specific college, with a lot of stories challenging problems that teenagers have, which makes the magazine more personal than a standard college magazine that will just inform the target audience of what is happening at their college. I think that main point is one that I will try to use in my magazine as it is a strong selling point of the magazine, and makes it more appealing to the audience, in both my magazine and this magazine is for teenagers.

The font used for the title and other things such as the colour scheme suit the photo and the clothing used in the portrait of Mike Posner in this case, this will be a useful thing to use in my magazine and will increase the appeal of the front cover, as far as contents go it will be a similar as far as the layout but will have more writing than photos.

Overall I think that both magazines are very appealing and have features that I can use for my magazine, of which all will increase the appeal of my magazine and make it stand out on the shelf from other items on the shelf. I hope that what I will put into my magazine, which will be explained on the next article, will make it appeal to the target audience and be a unique college magazine cover and contents as well as meeting the set criteria of this task.