My music magazine is called ‘The official UK TOP 40’.
My main aim was to create a new magazine to the market creating
what no other magazine company has done before. I wanted my
magazine to be unique to all others on the market, and create
something to a different kind of audience.
As seen by the title, my magazine consists of all artists in the current top
40. I was intrigued to find that both music channels, and radio
feature this, yet no magazine has included this. I feel the magazine
would have a very big teenage audience. In order to find out who is
top each month. I challenged uses of various texts and professional
photographic images in order to create an excellent magazine that
will bring new idea’s to the current market.
From looking online from doing my earlier
research, I was able to find a magazine
featuring the top of the pops. This
magazine features various artists and
bands, who are current each week, and
most ‘popular’. This is aimed at a very
young female audience, so I wanted to
base my magazine at an older audience
consisting of 16 +, which would both be
aimed at a male audience.
Bright pink
text
Male teenage
dominated
‘Lush lads
stripped’
‘Who’s
ready to
date a fan’
Overall
enhanced bright
colour scheme
Younger female audience
magazine:
Overall bright pink
girly colour scheme
Big bright
main cover
text
Inviting text
Use of full
image for
background
Professional/s
erious
banner for
background
Overall darker more
serious colours.
My magazine is aimed at a pop social group of people aged 16 – 25.
When creating my magazine, I wanted to aim the magazine at
a specific male audience. I felt that this would create a target
market for the magazine, and will hopefully be sold to the same
audience on a regular basis.
It was important that I had as audience in mind for who would buy the
magazine as otherwise I would not have any idea as to what
audience I should aim my magazine at, causing problems of how
the magazine should look.
Front cover:
The image on my front cover consisted of a friend of
my who is age 16. It was important that I involved
someone around this age group, as this is who the
magazine is aimed at, so it is likely to attract the same
age audience.
The expression of the person on my front cover is
proving to show a ‘hard’ look. I specifically did this as
I wanted strong characters for my magazine, and I
felt that the dominant look would appeal to my
aimed audience. My aimed audience for this
magazine was a pop audience, so it was crucial that
the subject on the front cover related to this style of
music.
From researching online I was able to find that a
common occurrence in the charts is an artist called
‘Bruno Mars’:
As you can see
From the image
To the right
There is a pop
Style which the
Artist has, this can
Be seen due to the
Casual clothing
Which occurs and the expression which the
character is portraying.
Contents page:
Again on my contents page, I wanted a varied mix of clothing to represent the
pop and casual look.
Throughout my magazine, I have gone for a very bright colored look involving
the text. The main reason I have made sure to do this is to allow it to stand out
from other magazines. From looking around various shops such as ‘WH
Smiths’, and ‘ASDA’, I was intrigued
To find that almost all magazines involve very
Dark tittles which don’t look to appealing, I felt
The mix of dark characters and bright text would
Grab the attention of my target
pop audience.
To the right is a key
Example as to who
I have based my
Images on, a very
Casual look with the
Use of standard
Clothes which
are presented in the pop style.
For this question I am going to look into a company called ‘Bauer’.
From my market research that I earlier conducted I found that a
wide range of the current magazine market share consisted of
magazines by this company.
I am going to look into the company and find out as to what the
various media products are that they create. This will then give my
a brief understanding as to if my magazine would fit into their
institution, and how this would best be approached.
In order to begin my research on this company I am going to search their site in order to get an understanding as to what media products they create
From looking on their site I am interested to find that they have a number of various magazines which are aimed at a wide varied audience consisting of the following:
Women’s Men’s entertainment
Men’s lifestyle Equire Gardening Transport Football Golf Pets
Angling Motorcycling Motoring Automotive B2B Outdoor Photography Lifestyle Big City Network (Local Radio)
I was very suprised by the large amount of various audiences of which Bauer aim their products at, and the large amount of magazines that they create.
After looking at the various types of products which Bauer create, I
was intrigued to find that they also run various music channels as
well, which feature different style’s and genre’s of music, varying
from pop, to heavy metal.
The various channels which Bauer consist of:
4Music
Smash hits
Heat
Magic
Kiss
Kerrang!
Q!
The Hits
The box
As you can see ‘Bauer Media’ own a channel which is specifically dedicated to a UK TOP 40 countdown, which keeps up to date with the current music. The site of the channel also allows you to watch video’s of the current UK TOP 40, including who are currently at the top in the UK charts. If Bauer were to create my music magazine in their company it would fit in perfectly in their institution due to that they have a dedicated music channel of the same genre. It is a particular style of music which they have not currently made a music magazine for. Bauer would be the first company on the market to do this, creating a unique selling point to the product instantly. Furthermore, due to the high publicity of both the channel and the top music, I feel the magazine would fit in perfectly in their institution.
As the figures of the UK TOP 40 are based on the most popular current music I am convinced that the magazine will be very popular. I find it amazing as to how there are loads of other magazines on the market for different styles of genre, yet no magazine for the top music? I think my magazine will be a huge success.
My audience for my media magazine is specifically aimed at a male audience of teenagers 16 - 25. I have aimed it at this age group as the UK TOP 40 charts consist of people in this age group, and this is who the media channels aims their songs at.
My aimed style of audience for my magazine is a pop audience which enjoy chart music of various different types of pop genre’s
Above is an example of my aimed audience for my magazine. As can be
seen above the audience of which my magazine is aimed is of a teenage/
young adult age group which enjoy varied pop music. As you can see from
the image above there is a resemblance between pop music and the
social group which appear in the image. They have short hair and dress
related to a pop style of music.
Not only that, but the expression shown on my subjects was also an
important aspect of the image, they needed to appear happy and
‘excited’ much like the happy go lucky pop style of music.
My audiences interests.
A big interest for my audience of course is pop music. The audience of
which I aim my Magazine at, are Male teenagers who currently listen to
music which is in the UK TOP 40. This consists of artists such as The Black
eyed peas, Bruno mars, Katy B etc.
My audience will enjoy a variety of various different artists as appose to
just one band as this is what the UK TOP 40 consist of.
Furthermore my audience are likely to be very involved into music in terms
of which they choose to buy, the UK TOP 40 is based on highest of the UK
music, so they spend a lot of money every week on pop music of which
they enjoy so that it will potentially achieve a high rating in the charts.
As UK TOP 40 is based around popularity it is very likely that my audience
will consist of the general public of male teenagers who enjoy pop type
music.
As there is a wide range of range of people who enjoy this type of
music, it is likely that there will instantly be a big audience for my
magazine, as they will want a magazine which relates to there genre of
music, which currently doesn't exist on the market.
The main way in which I am able to attract my pop audience to my
magazine is the way in which I have used pictures which relate to
my target audience as seen below
As you can see from the image to the left I have related
my front cover of my magazine to my pop audience. I
have been able to do this by relating the age of my
subject to a similar one of which my audience for my
magazine will consist of. The picture of my subject on
the front cover for my magazine was 16 when the
image was taken.
Use of style was also an important thing to consider
when taking the images for my magazine, It was
essential that I had someone who dressed related to
the pop audience. In order to relate my front cover to
my audience I attempted to dress them up as the way
in which a pop fan would. I was able to achieve this by
my subject having short hair, a standard black
hoodie, and casual overall look.
Again, when taking the picture for my front cover I also
considered the use of various props, however I thought
the simplistic use of just a microphone would be a
casual thing to use as appose to something un pop
related like a cigarette, or different props. a
Much like the official BBC
website; my image has very
close comparisons which
can be related to clarify my
audience. Both mine and
the BBC image appear to
have a very short hair
style, with a overall casual
look. Both are aged
between 16-25, and both
have a overall ‘hard’ look. I
feel I have related my
picture very well to the style
genre of my magazine.
Text colour
Another important factor to consider throughout making
my magazine was the style of text which would be used
throughout it. I decided to use a very bright and inviting
text throughout my magazine, as I felt that this will related
to the style of music which is leans towards. In the UK TOP
40, the overall style of music is of a very positive attitude
and provides a variation of different artists. I felt the use of
bright large text would reflect the style of music and
appeal further to my target audience to want to purchase
my magazine.
In terms of what font type to use, I felt it would be most
appropriate to choose one which would boldly stand out
so it can immediately grab the eye of my target audience.
I related this to the one which is on the Official UK TOP 40
website, as I felt this style would be most appropriate.
Much like the official
UK charts website
banner, my
magazine consists of
bright inviting colours
which are inviting
and appealing.
Throughout creating my magazine I have used a number of various
techniques in order to develop a finished quality product.
One of the many uses of technology I have used when creating my
magazine, is the clone stamp tool; this allowed me to remove the
text on my subjects hoodie, and match it with the surroundings.
By selecting the ‘Clone stamp tool’ I was able to
take the colour of the black from the
hoodie, and repeat it over the text. This then
allowed me to cover up the unnecessary text
which was on my subjects hoodie.
1
2
Final
outcome3
Throughout the creation of my magazine, the two main programs
which I have used are ‘Photoshop’, and ‘InDesign’.
During the course Photoshop was extremely useful as it allowed me to
edit various images in order to make them suitable for my
magazine, I was also able to make small adjustments to my images
easily by using this program.
InDesign: This program was also very useful for me throughout the
creation of my magazine, I mainly used InDesign for the various fonts
that it had to offer, and the various ways in which I could create
different size pages for my magazine.
By using the combination of both of these programs I feel it allowed me
to create an excellent final product which has a professional overall
look and outcome.
Another editing tool I was able to use was an item called the ‘pen tool’. By using this I
was able to go to cut out part of an image, as appose to using all of it, as seen
below
MolmomThe image to the left is the original image that I
used for the second page of my double page
spread. As you can see from the image to the left I
began to go round the part of the image I wanted
to keep by slowly following round each part with
the pen tool.
Eventually I made my way
around all of the image
and finished by joining the
point where I began, this
then created a white line
all the way around the
part of the image that I
had chosen.
I then copied the image
into a new layer and
saved it.
After cutting my image in photoshop, I then needed to import it into indesign to use
for my magazine, I was able to do this by doing the following:
When in
InDesign I
selected the
‘Rectangle
frame tool’
and drew a
rectangle in
the middle of
my page.
I then selected File > Place from the File menu
I then received a dialogue box which allowed me
to choose an image to import into the Shape, I
located my image from the Hard Drive, and
selected ‘Open’ to open my image.
Compared to other magazines which are currently on the market, I feel that my
magazine is of a very similar professional look. Whilst creating my magazine I
regularly checked other competition in order to relate to their magazines, and see
how I can advance on my own. Much like the official NME magazine, I had
included a small section saying about a photo shoot, which is split up into 3
images, by doing this it gave my page a more professional look as appose to
choosing just one image on the page.
To the left is the image of my
Preliminary task magazine.
Since creating my earlier magazine I
feel I have very much advanced my
style of technique and overall use of
various editing skills.
Comparisons
From creating my original magazine I feel I have advanced a number of skills.
From comparing the two, the use of of the bolder bigger and brighter text on
my magazine views much more appealing to my previous attempt.
The use of the various editing skills which I have learnt has allowed me to
enhance images and allow them to stand out further from my original
attempt.
Throughout creating my music magazine I feel I have learnt a number of key skills
which have helped me develop my practical work to a very high standard. I am
very pleased with the final outcome of my magazine and feel that I have done
very well throughout all of the task.