- 1. BY DAMIEN ASHTON-WELLMAN MUSIC MAGAZINE EVALUATION
2. HOW DOES YOUR MUSIC MAGAZINE REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?
- In terms of income and finance the socio-economic group I aimed
my magazine at is between C2-E on the social demographic scale
which ranges from skilled manual workers like plumbers,
electricians, taxi drivers to the unemployed, I chose this audience
because they have the characteristics associated with the genre of
rock because the mass media representation of rock is low incomes,
not well educated which are also the characteristics for those
particular jobs. On the psycho demographic scale rockers are
normally associated with the rebel group who dont conform to
society and can be anarchic and antiestablishment in their outlook.
I chose a specific music tribe within the genre of rock for my
target audience, this sub music tribe was emos.
SOCIAL DEMOGRAPHIC SCALEA:corporate CEOs, bankers, politicians
and heads of state B:lower managerial positions, executives and
layers C1:teachers, doctors, social workers C2:skilled manual
workers[plumbers, electricians] D:semi skilled manual workers [taxi
drivers, bus drivers] E:unemployed, retired and disabled 3. WHO
WOULD YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE BE AND WHY?
- The target audience for my magazine are rockers and emos, I
chose them as the target audience because when I did my music tribe
research, I found that many of my survey group knew a lot more
about those particular genres than other kinds such as pop and
heavy metal, hence they identified for me, a market. To target my
readers I used the types of articles that would appeal to them, for
example interviews with bands of the same music tribe, so in my
magazine I have a review of the emo band my chemical romances new
album, as you can see on my contents page. I also created my own
band, though they look like a heavy metal band, they are actually
an emo band, another way of broadening the appeal to encompass my
target audiences. I based my magazine style and mode of address on
kerrang magazine, although kerrangs target audience is a lot wider
covering most of the sub genres of rock, they also use the same
types of articles to get their audiences attracted to their
magazine.
4. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MUSIC
MAGAZINE AND WHY?
- Through my media institution research I found that the company
that would produce and distribute my magazine could either be emap
who own publications such as kerrang, they would be a great choice
because they could use cross publicity from kerrang by marketing it
as a niche brand. Similar but specifically different to the central
indie/rock genre of kerrang. The other choice would be Timely
Warner. They would be one of the best companies to produce my
magazine because they have a world wide influence in the media
industry.
- Time Warner - Wikipedia, the freeencyclopedia
- http://www.timewarner.com/corp/
For more information on time Warner click the hyper-links, the
first will take you to the Wikipedia file on the company and the 2
ndwill take you to there official website. 5.
- The Warner group would be great because with marketing, The
company covers most of the sub genres of media the magazine could
be carried to a TV show, a Radio show and even CDs as well as
adverts for the actual magazine, although emap could have done
this, kerrang is an example it has the original magazine but now
also has a tv network which is like MTV in content as well as a
Midlands based radio station but you would have to be very big and
earn loads of profits, with Time Warner because it is an American
company, there's a bigger chance of covering the different genres
to a global market.
Click video picture to hyperlink to a YouTube video of the
Warner brothers intro. 6. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT AND ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE?
- The colour scheme was one of the most important ways off
attracting the target audience, I created a a poll to see which
colour schemes were popular, as you can see opposite the most
popular choice was purple, black and white, these colours as well
as appealing to the target audiences they are colours associated
with the genre of rock and roll so instantly the audience
identifies with the magazine. I chose a very basic audience in
terms of age- from their teens, to young adults and I used the mode
of address most recognizable by thesocio-economic groups because my
target was working and middleclass youths there fore the language
would not be as sophisticated as it would be in other magazines. I
also had the rebellious, anarchic tone to consider as well.
I tried to not use elaborate words and keep the language short
and precise, I did this to try and get the text to resemble
kerrang, which I tried to model my magazine on, because I wanted
the samefeel /mode of address that it has, as you can see from
looking at the two of them side by side. Also my free gift would
draw the audience as it is FREE! It also acts as a band promotion.
As the institution may well be behind the band promotion it is an
example of cross pollination of advertising and promotion. 7.
- The main font style I used to achieve the overall effect was
Charlemagne std, I used this because it looked very gothic, was the
intended look I wanted to achieve, as it is associated with rock
and emos.
The choice of main article was an interview with a band of the
same music tribe as the target audience, I did this so the audience
would be attracted to the magazine because they would identify with
the article as its about the type of music they like. I chose the
writing to be white against the purple boxes because it was easy to
read and so the text stood out to the readers, making them more
likely to read it as well as well as it standing out against other
magazines when it is stacked in a shop, it also perpetuated the
gothic atmosphere of the product. For the contents The contents
page was based on the layout of Metal Hammer, with the text and
title on one side with the main image next to it. I chose another
rock magazine to look at so I could see what other magazines within
the rock genre looked like and there mode of address. As you can
see I usedthe layout as a basic guide but added my own personality.
8. I chose to have my mast head within a box, both to try and get
the same effect as Kerrang and so the shadow would stand out from
the dark back ground. I also chose to have my side article on the
left third because this is a great place to put things you want
people to see as when the magazines are stacked thats all that is
showing LEFT THIRD LEFT THIRD I wanted the text to match the style
of Kerrang, so I used a short mast head and added statement as the
sub text. I wanted also to have a free gift on my magazine because
it helps sell a magazine, I placed it like Kerrang in the left
third so that readers see a free gift first and therefore are more
likely to buy it. Lastly I placed a bottom strip like Kerrang only
I used my one as a competition were as Kerrang used it as a menu.
9. I wanted to repeat the mast head 0n the contents to keep the
house style flowing over from the front cover and to keep the
structure of the Metal Hammer magazine.I also added a main image to
my contents page, I kept the structure and placementof Metal Hammer
but instead of using lots of images I used one single main image.
For the text the position was the same as Metal Hammer as well as
using 2 different font sizes and styles, but with mine instead of
having 2 columns of information I only had 1 and added three icons
at the bottom of the text box. 10. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONTRUCTING THIS MUSIC
MAGAZINE?
- Well,from creating the music magazine I learned a lot about
InDesign which is used in the real publishing industry to make
magazines look professional, how to change the margin widths and
lengths and I got to learn how to add effects to boxs and to pieces
of text, which made my magazine look more realistic and 3D. The
soft ware was useful in showing the different layers used to
construct my magazine. I also learned a lot more about Photoshop
than when I did the school magazine, I found out how to use the
magic eraser and back ground eraser tool, this came in handy to
make the pictures edges look more real and not as if it had been
cut out, this made the back ground look as if it really was behind
the modals. I also understand how all the tiny elements combine to
create a final, unified product that must be fit for audience and
purpose to attract its audience and be a major success
commercially.
11. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU
HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?
- Well as the product went on I learned the codes and conventions
in great detail and how they make magazines look realistic, for
example exclusives, these are interviews with people or coverage of
an event that no other magazine has, they make more people want to
buy the magazine,though I dont have front page exclusives in my
magazine I do have a lot of the codes and conventions. I chose to
give away a free gift as my exclusive instead. I have a mast head
which is the title of the magazine, a headline this is the title of
the main article, a strap-line which is the sub heading for the
main article, and I have a splash which is my main article it
usually is accompanied by the largest font on the page. On the main
article I have a by-line which refers to the author of the article
and on the contents I have a menu of the listed features so the
readers no what's inside. Learning about the house style has been
crucial for the success of my magazine, I only had a limited
knowledge about what went into it, from the whole project I learned
that it did not just consist of the colour scheme, but also the
styles of font and photography. I also learned that the house style
does not just cover one issue but all issues to make the magazine
look more professional and make the readers want to buy the
magazine and ultimately make the publisher and institution behind
the finished product a profit.
12.
- When I first had an idea for the magazine I wanted to create a
type of kerrang magazine but as the project went on the magazine
took on its own identity, still incorporating some of kerrangs
designsbut also using very different styles for the final product.
From using different pieces of software I learned that photo shop
is the best to edit photos and can give a basic look for a magazine
but if you want a professional standard InDesign will give a more
realistic look, both pieces of software were good for their jobs
but both give different options for the final look. From the
research tasks I learned how to get a better standard in my
planning that when I did not give the research as much preparation
and that the planning was just as important as the actual product.
An example of this is the music tribe research, before I did the
research I didnt know how many sub genres and different types of
music there were, from this research task I got to know more about
the target audience for my magazine, so I could shape the magazine
more around them.