Music Magazine Evaluation

AS Media StudiesMusic Magazine Evaluation By Tate Muchirahondo

Introduction

The task was to produce a music magazine. I chose to do a Hip Hop magazine as it resembles the young Hip Hop generation of today and also, because in the market right now this music genre is very popular. A lot of young people are interested in Hip Hop music as it relates to their youth.

Question 2: which music genre are you into?

R&B

Hip Hop

Pop

Rock

Metal

Dance

Other

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Series2Series1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Baselines provide additional information of the magazine.

Both mastheads are bold and bright. Base’s red masthead is big and bold and it’s against a white background. This attracts the audience’s attention. In comparison to ‘Vibe’ magazine, which has a big, bold red and black letter masthead attracts the audience’s attention.

Both magazines have direct mode of address, which helps to stimulate interaction with each individual reader. The central image is usually the main artist which the magazine is about. It usually has a tough and hard core facial expression in a Hip Hop magazine.

The main article is in big bright letters compared to the cover lines. This makes it obvious that it’s the main article.

I placed a barcode and price on my magazine front cover because this gives it a more professional look.

Cover lines give an insight into what’s inside the magazine.

Vibe magazine Base magazine

Comparison to Vibe magazine front cover

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?Comparison to XXL magazine contents page

Font – the contents page font resembles the font on the front cover. This is a continuity within the magazine as the theme is continued throughout the magazine. The name of the magazine and the date is below the main heading.

Main image - the main image for my contents page is on the left hand side. I designed my layout so it matched the outline of real music magazines. In the main image, the model is smiling even though I wanted to pursue a hard core look on the front cover by having him look more serious and having a male on the front cover. However, I wanted to create a more fun atmosphere on my contents page.

Layout – my contents page follows the conventions of a magazine contents page because it is in columns.

Simple colour scheme

XXL magazine contents page

Base magazine contents page

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Image - The image covers the whole of the left page. This is very usual in magazine double page spreads. The model is looking directly at the reader, which invites the reader in to the article.

The model is standing relaxed with his thumbs in his pockets, which most 16 to 25 year olds would do. He is also wearing designer brands such as Gucci and a Hermes belt. This acts as a form of advertising which would encourage people to buy the clothes which the model is wearing as they would aspire to become like him.

Font – The main heading ‘the rising artist’ is large and takes up about a third of the page because it is an important part of the double page spread.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Results from my questionnaire gave me a good idea of what sort of things my target audience like. It also helped me understand what sort of things to include in my magazine to draw them in.

My target audience is generally the younger generation. The social groups that are represented in my media product are people who are between the ages of 16-25 who listen to this genre of music (Hip Hop), particularly males. I used a variety of images which resemble the 16-25 year old age group, but in a way which appeals to both genders. My Hip Hop magazine portrays a mixture of multi-ethnic readers. The 16-25 year old category are usually ‘heavy spenders’. For example, they buy the latest gadgets such as iPads and designer clothes. The type of people who would buy my magazine would usually be C2 skilled manual workers.

My target audience is portrayed by how the rapper is like on my magazine. The way he is dressed helps to define my target audience. The fact that he is wearing sunglasses would relate to my target audience because my target audience would wear these kinds of things. Also, the way he is standing helps to define my target audience because it shows his attitude because of the way he is posing. My target audience would have the same attitude.

I wanted a magazine which would stand out from other magazines. After asking people in my target market I feel I have achieved this. I think my music magazine in easily recognisable and potentially appealing to someone who is specifically into Hip Hop music and culture. I feel my magazine would be popular in this social group as Hip Hop is a very recognisable genre as it is publicised in the media through celebrities and big music artists such as Drake.

Typical Hip Hop look

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A media institution that might distribute my media product might be IPC Media. This is because:

- It is the UK's leading consumer magazine and digital publisher

- Their award winning portfolio of websites reaches over 25 million global users every month.

- It has over 85 iconic print brands

- IPC Media has no Hip Hop music magazines in their market, but instead they have music magazines such as NME and Uncut

- Adding a different type of music genre will increase the number of people reading IPC Media ‘s product as it has a world wide circulation of 350 million copies each year

- I would choose IPC Media to distribute my magazine as it has partnerships with the big branded supermarkets, so this can widen my target audience as it will be more freely available in supermarkets to whoever wants to buy my magazine.

www.ipcmedia.com

I think that my music magazine ‘Base’ which portrays the niche market of Hip Hop would be successfully aimed at the social group/class of 16-25 year olds, particularly males. To learn more about the reader of my magazine I produced a questionnaire which helped me create my Hip Hop magazine for the developing world of 16-25 year olds. The questionnaire was completed by both male and female consumers. This gave me an insight into what was needed in my magazine to attract that specific audience.

In the questionnaire I asked open questions like “Who are your favourite artists?”. In response to this question, the most popular artists were Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Beyoncé, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. These artists are around the similar age groups as my target audience.

Gender: Male and femaleAge: 16-25 year oldsNationality: British and/or AmericanEthnicity: All people from different ethnicities and a mixture of white, black and Asian readers. I have tried to appeal to all ethnicities in some way. The artists I have used are from different backgrounds and ethnicities. The images I have used are of people who are from different social backgrounds, but will still relate to Hip Hop.Interests: fashion, latest gadgets such as iPads etc.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

How did you attract/address your audience?

I’ve attracted my audience in many different ways. Firstly I used a variety of images, from both white and black ethnic groups and a variety of male and female images.

In order to attract my target audience I felt that the design is one of the most important part in attracting my audience. I tried to enhance my readers and create a different simplistic view of what an actual real Hip Hop magazine should look like. In order to do this I researched many similar magazines such as Vibe. I used bold letters for certain parts of the front cover, especially for the masthead because obviously it’s the most important part of the front cover so therefore, it needs to stand out.

I think I have attracted my audience with the use of pugs such as “free music downloads inside”. The fact that this information is freely available to the reader and that they do not have to pay for it can influence whether they would buy my magazine or not. The fact that it’s a monthly magazine instead of a weekly magazine may encourage the audience to read my magazine because it will only be published twelve times a year instead of fifty two times a year if it was a weekly magazine therefore, the quality and standard of the latest information is likely to attract my audience.

Throughout the process of making my music magazine (and college magazine) I have learnt many new skills which I will need later on in life. As I am not the best of all at using technology, doing this task definitely helped me expand my knowledge and get a general grasp on how to use new programs, edit and enhance images and produce a magazine.

ProgramsWhilst making my music magazine I had to express my knowlede and understanding of different programs. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Indesign CS6 helped me make my magazine as professional as possible. Adobe Photoshop CS6 helped me enhance, alter and remove background and filter my images to make them look as eye-catching and amazing as possible. Also I could convert my images to make them to the best quality without ruining the original quality of the images and without leaving the image pixelated. Adobe Indesign helped me to be able to design the contents page and double page spread.

ICT skillsBy doing this task I was able to build my ICT skills and use different websites such as Slide Share and Tumblr. Firstly, using a blog was new for me and I love learning and experiencing new things. It helped me expand my knowledge. Tumblr allowed me to make posts and create pages expressing my work in new forms of media such as creating presentations. By using Slide Share I could embed the power points like this one to Tumblr.

PhotographyUsing a good quality camera helped me to explore the world of photography, with the use of my prior knowledge such as zooming in etc. and the use of different camera angles. Using this camera allowed me to take good images of such high quality. I did not have to alter much.

I also learnt to save my work every few minutes to help my magazine survive in the frozen madness.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I have learnt many new skills and developed my understanding and my current knowledge about the production of music magazines and the science behind it all, such as, what social groups certain magazines appeal to and why, how to attract a specific audience etc. I’ve also learnt the conventions of not just a music magazine, but magazines in general.

I think that the feedback for my college magazine and the responses to my questionnaire helped me to progress in the completion of my finished media product. I now have a stronger knowledge and understanding on programs such as Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Indesign CS6. Also, I know how to update my blog on Tumblr, edit new posts, create pages etc.