Identifying media concepts and how they relate to music magazines

Media language - The language needed for print media and conveys meaning through the signs, symbols and choices made in designing a magazine. 

Ideology - An ideology is a world view, a system of values, attitudes and beliefs which an individual, group or society hold to be true or important. The beliefs and values I will be promoting in my magazine.

Genre - The type or sort of music a particular group of people listen to, for example hip hop.

Representation - The ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.

Audience - People or market segment in which something is aimed at. I will need a target audience before making my magazine.

Institution - A company or organisation that is accountable for a media text, through marketing, production, distribution or regulation. A music magazine institution is Bauer Music Group.

Narrative - The choice of words and the way that something is presented to communicate with a target audience.

Deconstructing and analysing music magazine front covers

NME magazine

NME is a British music magazine that has been published since 1952. They use a range of techniques in designing their magazine in a way that makes it appealing and attracts their particular audience. This is a pop magazine which is in the mainstream music genre and the techniques used relate to the stereotyped audience. 

Masthead
The masthead is located in the top left corner of the magazine, which is a hot spot for people to look at. It also is in purple which is in big bold standard font in capital letter, which stands out to the audience and  is a common theme through all 'NME' magazines for the audience to become familiar with. The masthead 'NME' stands for New Musical Express, this is abbreviated down to give the magazine a cool youthful style which targets the teen female target audience and is easier for the audience to say and remember.

Main image
The main image is a female pop singer Rihanna, she is used as the main image because she is a very famous pop star which will attract a wider audience as she is a mainstream figure. She is framed for the male gaze by her pose with her hand on her hip, it is a mid shot and has a direct gaze which intrigues the audience and makes a connection.

Audience
The audience for this is quite a wide range of people, because the genre of the magazine is pop which attracts the stereotypical representation of pop, which is young mainstream British and American teens, but because Rihanna is an iconic figure for music it attracts people all over the world and even conforms to a male audience because of the sexual representation that is portrayed.

Colour palette
The colours; purple, blue, white and black are common through this magazine. Purple represents power and ambition which is linked to Rihanna's personality, it also gives the magazine a feminine feel which is linked to the audience and this colour is used on the masthead, tagline, straplines and her name in the centre of the magazine. The colour blue represents being calm which is common to the music genre pop and is also quite feminine too, this is used on the bird, her dress and her eye shadow. These two colours are aesthetically pleasing and easy on the eye, this links to the female audience because stereotypically girls are attracted by bright pretty colours. The white and black is used because they are both common and stand out, black denotes strength and authority which is also linked to Rihanna's personality and females stereotypically want strength and authority. The black is used for the taglines, straplines and her top. White is used for the background to make Rihanna stand out and is used for the strapline.

Black Music

Black music was a music magazine targeted for the reggae music genre. The first issue was published in 1973 and was for fans of soul music. Reggae music is in the indie music genre and the techniques used in designing this relate to the stereotyped audience.

Masthead
The masthead is in white which is has a soul/spiritual meaning which links to the music genre in the magazine. It is in a strange 3D font to give it a cool feeling which is associated with the stereotype of the audience for the music genre reggae. It is also located in the top left which is a hot spot which the audience looks at more commonly.

Colour palette
The colour palette for this particular magazine is quite dull, the colours chosen are brown, orange, black and white. The colour brown is used to represent earth and this is closely represented to the reggae music genre. The colour orange is associated with joy which is typical to the characteristics of fans of reggae.

The main image
The main image is of Bob Marley, an iconic figure of reggae music, this picture is used to appeal to a wider range of people. The picture is in mid shot and has an indirect gaze, which is used to for effect and to look cool, which is appropriate to the stereotype of the audience of reggae music.

Audience
The audience of this is people who listen to reggae music, the things the editor of the magazine have done closely relate to the characteristics commonly associated with fans of reggae. The choice of using Bob Marley is an important factor because if they had a less known musician as the model for this, then it might not sell as much copies of this issue because Bob Marley is seen as the main image for reggae music. The stereotyped audience for reggae music is people who are rasta, smoke weed, are spiritual and have dreadlocks, this would have been heavily considered when designing this magazine to make sure that it conforms to fans of reggae music.

Conclusion

This has taught me the way I have to make my front cover of a music magazine and how to think about the things needed to please the target audience. It has taught me the detail needed in making a successful front cover and it has much more deeper meaning than I first thought.

Music Genres and introduction of new task

Introduction - Now I have finished the sixth form stage and now have gone on to a new topic which is to create a music magazine front cover, double page spread and a contents page. I have learnt the skills needed for this by the practise on sixth form magazines.

There are two types of music genres, these are;

Mainstream music - The most common music, seen as normal to listen to and is heard on radios and television.

Indie music - Not produced by big record labels and is more for people do to themselves.

Some examples of genres and the stereotyped audience of that particular genre

• Grime - Teens/early twenties, chavs, tracksuits, black ethnicity, male, lower class. In the indie music genre but some bigger grime artists have gone into mainstream.

• House - White male and females, teens/early twenties, curly hair, Adidas and Ellesse branded clothing, go to parties a lot. In the indie music genre.

• Reggae - Have dreadlocks, are Rasta, smoke weed, spiritual, black ethnicity, male and female. In the indie music genre.

• Pop - 12-20, female, mainstream people, white ethnicity. In the mainstream music genre.

• Classic - 50+, male and female, dress smart, posh, upper class. In the mainstream music genre.

• Country - 30-50, middle aged, female and male, american, middle class. In the mainstream music genre

Sub genres are smaller genres that are attached to the larger main genres, for example a big genre like country has smaller sub genres like Cajun and Bush band. 

The main record labels are Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. These are all based in the US and they cover up roughly 80% of the music market.

Contents page draft

This is my contents page, I think that it accurately conveys the forms and conventions needed for a good sixth form magazine. This is because it follows the pattern of my front cover, with the masthead in the same position which gives it a realistic theme that the audience can become familiar with. The content from the cover lines on the front cover is relevant to the detail portrayed on the contents page. 

Finished front cover

This is my finished front cover of my magazine. As you can see it turned out quite different to my original draft. This is because when I saw it in real life it wasn't as effective as I had imagined. 

The colours I have chosen go together well because they collaborate with the school logo and this is so it looks more professional to the audience. I have used a variety of fonts because it keeps the audience interested, which is relevant to the audience because they will be youth who are stereo typically interested in things that stand out and I have copied this from my analysis of front covers before because I thought it worked well on theirs. I told my model for this to have a direct gaze towards the camera to make a connection between him and the audience, I chose to have this because when I was analysing the front covers the one I chose to analyse, the model had an indirect gaze which I thought wasn't effective for this particular magazine, so it helped me with an improvement for mine. 

Overall I am happy with my finished sixth form magazine front cover, because I believe that I have obliged to the forms and conventions of a sixth form magazine and the colours and content is applicable.

Photo analysis and draft

First photo (one I chose)

This was the first picture I took and it is in mid shot. I chose this because he looks smart and happy which promotes the sixth form in a good light. It's a direct gaze to make a connection between him and the audience, it is also in good lighting which shows a positive light to the sixth form and has the sixth form sign in the background so it is relevant.

Second photo

This was the second photo I took and it is also in mid shot. This is a good photo because he looks smart and is laughing which shows he has a good time at sixth form. It's an indirect gaze which I didn't chose because I think that a direct gaze is a better choice for this magazine because it needs to intrigue the audience. It is in the first place as the first photo so it also has good lighting and has the sixth form sign in the background.















Third photo

This was the third photo I took, which is also in mid shot. I didn't chose this as my final picture because it is in an irrelevant location and has quite bad lightning. It has a direct gaze like the first photo which intrigues the audience. Obviously as he is wearing the same outfit as the first photo then he is looking smart which regards him as a positive aspiration to other students and future students.

Conclusion

I will be using the first photo that I took of him. I came to this judgement because in my opinion I think that it is the best of the three I took. This is because it follows all the forms and conventions of a sixth form magazine. It has good lighting which is a must for an image needed for a front cover to attract the audience, he also looks smart which puts a positive light to the audience of the magazine because it shows off our sixth form as classy and professional.

Draft of magazine