MY MUSIC MAGAZINE EVALUATION QUESTIONS

By James Slator

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products ?

Although I don`t think my magazine looks like a typical music magazine it still follows traditional codes and conventions. The masthead is the main title and sets the whole tone of the magazine by the use of the font `Loki Coke` (which was downloaded from DaFont.com) which has a pleasantly old fashioned feel about it. The main image is a traditional one as it is of a single person with a `teaser` quotation on the front tempting the reader into the main article in the centre. The model used as a music artist takes up most of the page and so draws in the eye of the reader. She has an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile which encourages the reader to want to know more about her. The use of muted colours and sepia tones create a strong house style to attract the audience. During my research I looked at the styles of popular music magazines such as NME and Kerrang but felt that the bright colours, bold fonts and use of snappy puffs were too sensational for a magazine called Nostalgia. Instead, I took inspiration from old copies of Rolling Stone and Classic Rock magazines. These magazines seem to have more emphasis on the talent of the musicians than their modern equivalent. I emphasised this idea by using the strap line; `5 decades of great musicians` and underlining it. The bar code is placed on the bottom right hand side in a fairly conventional manner along with the date, issue number and price.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The demographic of the magazine is very broad as it is aimed towards anybody who enjoys music from previous decades. The readers can be male or female, young or old from any ethnic or religious group, of any level of physical ability and from any socio-economic group. The main common denominator is music from years gone by. This fits in nicely with the current trend for vintage fashion. The broad range of potential readers is shown in the photographs on the contents page of a model of mixed race an older female model and a young male

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The photographs used are stereotypical in that they are of attractive, younger people as this seems the best way to gain the attention of the audience

3.What kind of media institutions might distribute your product?

I originally thought that it might be the sort of magazine that would be owned by Emap as they previously owned “Smash Hits” and “The Face”

However, they sold these magazines in the 1990`s and so currently have no other product in this arena.Conde Nast are a massive publishing house but they specialise in fashion and lifestylepublications rather than music. Therefore I think IPC Media would be

the best fit for my magazine as they already publish NME and claim to `engage with 26 million UK adults` (www.IPCmedia.com) Ideally it would be a monthly magazine with national distribution to a wide range of retail outlets. I think it would sell well as the circulation figures for NME are going down whereas figures for classic rock magazine are going up and this is more the market for that, I think, will buy my magazine. Eventually, I would like to see my magazine with an app and on kindle as well as having an online presence as I think these are areas with massive potential for future growth.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

During my research for the type of magazine I would produce I came to realise that although the vast majority of music magazines are purchased by 16-25 year olds there were plenty of products already catering to this market demographic i.e. NME, Kerrang.

I decided, therefore, to aim myMusic Magazine at what I perceived to be a gap in the market. There seemed to be very few magazines cateringfor the slightly older music lover or the young person who enjoyed listening to music from previous decades.I decided to produce a magazine that was primarily focused on music from the 1960`s-1990`s but with a modern twist. (continued)

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

This should encompass all ethnic and socio-economic groups, both genders, a large age group and people of any sexuality or religion.This meant that I had a very large target group who could be potential readers. I made a questionnaire to find out peoples reading preferences. I asked 32 people from work :

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Nostalgia – Definition “Longing for something past”

This magazines USP is the use of the title to define the whole look and feel of the magazine. The fonts and the colours that are used help to give the feeling of

Classic coke font

Sepia tone

Something from the past. The way the models were styled was a deliberate attempt to emulate trends from previous decades for example ; The picture of `Annabelle` on the contents page is a homage to the classic images of the `Robert Palmer Girls` in the iconic 80`s video of “Addicted to love’’. (continued)

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

In particular, the later advertisement used by Lonchamp, Paris. However the tag line `Hear Her Roar` also brings it up to date by using modern day Katy Perry lyrics.

The theme was continued with the photographs of cover girl `Zoe`Again the styling was reminiscent of the `Robert Palmer girls` with the use of the guitar and strong lips but given amodern twist by using up to date fashions.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The photos of model `Joe`were styled to invoke the memoriesof the `Mods and Rockers` of the 1960`s.The moody poses and the subdued lighting and colours all serve to remindthe reader of that particular era which has been copied over the years by bands such as `Oasis` and `The Jam` -

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing the product? I have been using many different applications leading up to my finished music

magazine design. To start with I used Microsoft word and Publisher to create my starter layouts for the magazine, this was before I had experience with using Photoshop or InDesign. I went on to take the pictures for my front cover, contents and double page spread by using a Fujifilm camera which was useful but I didn’t achieve the greatest HD quality that I would have liked but it still worked well to produce a high quality photograph since I now know how to use manual settings to adapt the screen for specific shot types. I have been using online websites such as Blogger to update my progress on my magazine which works well but it lacks some of tools that I might need for future use like advanced publishing layouts for posts and pictures. For editing together my magazine I have mainly used Photoshop CS6 which has been very useful for editing together my pictures and creating new layouts. I use Photoshop over InDesign (which is also good) because I have a lot of the tools that I wouldn’t normally use to edit even the smallest parts of the magazine and because of that, its why I have stuck to using Photoshop as my main editing software tool. The drafts I have published while changing multiple aspects of my magazine have been presented through Photoshop and have been posted on Blogger. Layouts I have made have been created on Publisher and Word but have then been adapted through Photoshop.

7. What have you learnt about the conventions of magazine productions

and what process have you made from the student magazine?

When trying to get ideas for what approach I should take towards my magazine I looked towards the likes of Rolling Stone, Kerrang and NME to find out what made them stand out and what conventions they have used within their production that makes the reader want to buy them. I found out that it was what the magazines stood for that made readers want to buy them so I adapted my work and focused on that. I looked at the market for music magazines and realised that there was an unfilled gap for a modern magazine that focuses on the history of music and not just the latest sensational trends. I looked at various other music magazine genres and chose the most common layout, the one that was seen most often. I took that idea and adapted it to suit my kind of music magazine. When I looked back at my student magazine I wanted to move away from those conventions and focus on the more modern yet classic moments in music history and that’s when I came up with the name `Nostalgia`. Starting from the production of my student magazine I took those ideas combined with music magazine influences such as Kerrang and NME and adapted the layout to suit my personal type of styling.