MAGAZINE and Evaluating

FRONT COVER

This is a snapshot of my magazine cover in the stage of this project where the students finish all all the little problems they have with their work. I had planned for the background (the graffiti) to be a specific piece of art done by the artist Banky in Camden. When I went down to take the photos, to my surprise the Banksy piece of art had been covered by this beautiful graffiti art rather then the much preferred original image. I made did with this graffiti as I still think it presents the uniqueness and special kind of music that this specific genre is. The title itself it quite similar to the writing on the wall behind and it also symbolizes the culture of the youth today in London.

There were more ideas for my front cover such as:

This was an idea for the front cover. I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut around the image of the mysterious man leaning against the wall and then copied it to make three of them. The whole theme for this front cover is to present mystery of who this artist is and in turn making the reader intrigued and wanting to read on. I felt by doing this it didn't give me enough space to work with when doing the writing and felt the writing would look better on top of a colourful background.

CONTENTS PAGE

This was the first draft of my contents page. I liked the use of colours and the way in which i made the background picture blurry again keeping to this mystery theme. I then improved the contents page by doing this:

I created a sort of border for the magazine and put another picture to cover up the unsymmetrical gap on the contents page. I believe these small changed to the contents page makes it look that more professional. I feel that the images went very well together but I did find it hard to think of ideas for the type of text to use for the writing in the white box. This white box could have also been something slightly more creative but I felt the background image and other images around it would clash with anything but white. All the pictures are on this page present the youth's stereotypical image and I feel the readers would be more interested with what is inside.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

With my double page spread I used a very simple variation of colours for the writing and background. I believe the black, white, red and blue (all the colours on the page apart from the pictures) really contrast and enhancing how much the writing all stands out. I believe the pictures on the "HIGH ROLLERS" really summarise a teenagers night out. The pictures were taken so that it would really means something to the readers. As the people reading this magazine would be able to recognise these photos and hopefully remembers photos they have like that of themselves it would definitely present a comical effect.

With the interview I tried to make it as interesting as possible as I want to relate to the readers and show them a typical story about a young rapper who started with nothing but became reasonably big. This type of interview will definitely intrigue the readers of this magazine as rapping is exceptionally common with young teenage boys.

Plan For Magazine

OUTLINE

NAME: STREET WISE

GENRE OF MUSIC: GRIME/UK RAP/UK HIPHOP

I decided to choose this genre of music as the results on my magazine survey show that people want to read about this type of music the most. Other reasons why I chose this genre of music is that by doing "Grime" it will make my research a lot easier as it originated from London and is extremely popular with people in sixth form.

TARGETED AUDIENCE: My targeted audience would be people of the age of 18 and below as this specific genre of music is more popular with "the youth" rather than adults.

INSTITUTIONS: Independant Production

The Advantages of this type of institutional background is that it gives the magazine that I am creating more uniqueness as this type of music is so unique compared to other genres of music.

DESIGN

FONT:

I have chosen this font for the name of the magazine "street wise". The letters will be coloured in creating this graffiti type of writing. This "graffiti writing" represents the grime/uk rap industry. There is this stereotype image of the grime scene of how all the artists rap about guns, crime and drugs and this magazine looks, in my opinion, at the more talented artists who have more meaning in their songs.

OTHER FONTS:

Here are some other fonts that i was thinking of using. Some of them may still be used in the magazine for article's headlines and information in the magazine. For example the last font I am probably going to use for a title or heading in my magazine's interview on the double page spread.

PAGE LAYOUT/DESIGN

For my frontcover I want to have the background as a photo of me and some of my friends dressed in hoodies to emphasize the "street" theme I am going for with this magazine. To highlight this point even more I want us leaning on a wall in camden, where there is also a Banksy graffiti on the wall. I want this in the background as Banksy is one of the most unique artists and I want to emphasize the uniqueness of the type of music that grime and UK rap is. Here is a picture of the wall where the banksy graffiti is situated.

For my contents page I am thinking of having a picture of some other more typical graffiti writing as the background to keep this theme of "the streets" and this sterotypical image of the youth. The font will be one of the fonts I have shown in the previous section of this plan. The font will not change in the whole contents page. There will also be some picture relevant to the article titles such as where is says "INTERVIEW WITH I.N.C" there will be a picture of the rapper.

For my double page spread I am having a black background with different sections of the writing in different colours but mostly the same font. I want to still capture this image of "the streets" as I believe it is a key factor in influencing this particular type of readers acceptance of this magazine and inturn make it more intriguing.

CONTENT

On the frontcover I have explained the background picture in the previous section. I want the articles spread out on the page all in big graffiti writing or this type of faded writing (third example in the "other fonts" section.) There will be no other picture on the frontcover as I want to keep the image of Banksy in the background as I feel is the key feature of the frontcover. I haven't decided on the font colour exactly but as it is graffiti writing I will probably do it in quite a typical style where it is coloured in a few colours that mix well together and with the background.

In the contents page I want it layed out with all he articles and three pictures spread out along the page obviously nearer to the articles they are relevant to. The graffiti background is my main idea at the moment but I need to find a colour of graffiti that won't make the writing ilegible and easier to read.

On my double pagespread I want to have a black background as I've said as this goes well with all the fonts and colours I have chosen. On the first page there will be quite a big article on "grime" and "UK rap" and the history of this type of music. This will take up most of the first page but I may add another article showing how many people who started in the "uk rap scene"

have become quite big as I want it to contrast an article I have read a long time go title "WHAT TALENT COMES FROM THE UK?". Obviously it was in a music magazine and that this title doesn't referr to every type of talent just the people in the rap industry which I believe is very wrong and inturn I want to show this with the article I write.

On the second mage of my double page spread I am showing a close up on one rapper called I.N.C (real name James Kelly). I will have a small article explaining how UK rappers can get big and then afterwards with have a detailed interview with James including pictures of him aswell.

LANGUAGE

My magazine already has this quite stereotypical image of the youth in the UK but I don't want the reader to think because of this that all the writing is going to be in slang and extremely coloquial language. The language that I use may be slightly coloquial in certain parts but this does not mean I won't use the appropriate grammer in my articles. Some of the main terminology used in my magazine may seem quite dialectal but it is just the terms used by the young people of the UK. Overall, some of the writing may not make 100 percent sense to an adult but, to a person interested in this type of music, it would be extremely clear.

My Music Magazine Survey

Music Magazine Survey
1. What year are you in at school?
.year11
.year 12
.year 13

2. What gender are you?
.Male
.Female


3. How often do you purchase magazines?
.Everday
.Once a week
.Once a Month
.I don't purchase magazines very regularly

4. What genre of music do you like to read about in magazines?
.Rock
.Grime
.Rap/RnBHip Hop
.Dance
.Drum and Base
.other
Specify if you chose Other

5. Do you suscribe to any music magazines? please specify if the answers YES
please specify if the answers YES
.YES
.NO
what magazine?

6. Do you visit music magazine websites?
.Yes
.No
If yes please specify

7. Which brand of music magazines do you read alot if any?

8. Which types of articles would you like to read in a music magazine?
.Information on current bands/groups/singers/rappers that are popular
.Articles about the history of the type of music
.Large articles on specific artists
.Small articles on a variety of artists

This is the survey i wrote to give out to some pupils at my school and a few of my friends. This survey will give me information on different peoples likes and dislikes of music magazines.

case study of a specific magazine

Heat Magzine - 22 - 28 august 2009


This magazine's cover almost suggests it could well possibly be a magazine made for men as the pictures of famous women in bikinis. Even so, the headlines about the gossip inside the magazine shows that this magazine is intended for women as the subjects of "lady Gaga" and "bikini specials" obviously would be of the interest of women.
With the article about Lady Gaga they use imagery to make the reader be drawn in to that article and want to read on. With the use of celebrity pictures, showing bad photos and sometimes quite embaressing pictures the editor of these magazines inturn makes the female reader, this magazine is intended for, highly intrigued in the collumns and articles in the magazine.
The title of the magazine also adds to the type of articles are inside the magazine. The word heat as this magazine cover referrs to the "hot gossip" revealed inside the magazine.
The fact there are numerous little titles of articles on the cover means that the magazine is made to be seen more interesting as there is a variety of subjects to read about.
There is the gossip, which is seen in the three mini articles at the top on the left an right and in the bottom right. There is also articles about womens fashion and what celebritys are wearing. Alot of women that read these types of magazines buy the clothes in the magazines as they see celebritys wearing them in turn wanting them to own those items.

Review on Kerrang article

• This article is from a media magazine and is written by Stephen Hill. It is an interview with Stuart Williams. I will be taking specific quotes out of the article and commenting them.
  


• "Kerrang! is very much written by the fans for the fans." this quote from the interview shows how kerrang have used the audiences responses to previous magazines in order to make the magazine likeable by the "average reader". With Websites such as myspace it makes it easier for magazines like Kerrang to get feedback from the fans on which articles and stories they would like to see more.
  


• "You never patronise your readers. You ca debate something but you don't slag off something you know people have come to the magazine to read about." This quote shows how kerrang use specific writing tecniques to draw certain people to the magazine. They make sure they don't "slag off" idles and celebritys who people want to see do well in their career and inturn creates a much more happy audience for this magazine.
  
• I think that until recently "kerrang!'s role has been about educationg and informing and passing the knowledge on to the next generation. Undoubtedly what you have found in the last 18 months to two years is that everybody knows more about music." This shows how much more people are getting general knowledge about history of music from the media and less from magazines. The younger generations use the internet and watch TV

Investigation into magazine industry and why sales are plummeting, concept of audience fragmentation

Newsstand sales of magazines fell by 6.3% in the first half of 2008.

This is obviously due to the rising of gas and food costs are causing people send less money on non essentials.

People are saying that it is just the "impact of the economy"

People are obviously shopping cautiously and less frequently, avoiding impulse buying (which magazines are).

There are many discussions as to why women magazines sales are plummeting.

There are said to be five main reasons.

1. not much variety in the magazine covers

2. photo shop is out of hand

3. alot of "news you can't use"

4. alot of people can't actually afford what is being advertised in the magazine

5. the internet is a much easier way of getting information thats in the magazines

Semiotic Analysis of a music magazine

• This is a picture of a front cover of an NME music magazine and I will be giving a semiotic analysis on it.
  
• The cover has quite a simple colour scheme using mainly red, black and white in order to contrast and highlight certain aspects of the magazine.
  
• The title and name of the magazine (NME) is at the top of the page in big red letters. This is the same in every NME magazine making the red letters with white outlining NME's sort of trademark. The title is very clear which is essential as it is a well known music magazine.
  
• The main article the magazine is aiming to interest the reader with is "the return of kasabian". Again the writing is highlighted by using red and white colouring, two contrasting colours to highlight how important this specific aspect of this magazine is.
  
• The picture of the band Kasabian in the background shows them literally leaning over one of the letters of their band name. The great big picture catches the readers eye and makes the reader really want to know about that particular article.
  
• The bands that are mentioned in the articles that are in the magazine are there to invite a specific audience to this magazine. All the bands mentioned are all types of indie/rock bands which in turn would interest a specific audience that listen to this particular music.
  
• The type of font for the word "INSANE" and the fact that in that specific article the font changes after every few words makes this article stand out as it is quite irregular. This inturn represents how big it is that this album has come out and creates a sense of suspense as the reader will want to know what happens in the article.