Contents Pages – Forms & Conventions

Before creating our magazine cover we studied the forms & conventions of various popular magazines cover – we went into extensive research to allow us to plan our covers with similar conventions mixed with our ideas. Moving onto contents pages I will be doing the same – this post will be based on studying the forms & conventions of three popular contents pages of magazines.

NME Magazine

Forms & Conventions -

We can see that NME has clearly put their trademark on the contents at the top – and that the mast head is large, with a date and the statement ‘This week’ it instantly tells you that this is what is included in our magazine in this edition.

The magazine has a band index which takes up the whole left 1/8th of the page. It states names of bands / artists who are included in the weeks edition and the page they are on – this allows the reader to just browse down to their most favourite artist / band e.g Alicia Keys, you can then just skip to the page regarding that artist.

The right hand side breaks it down into sections – it gives you a news section, which will most likely include most recent artist activity and updates on the celebrities life / performing. A radar section which basically means a section that scans all new movement in the music industry – so for example new bands up & coming, new tracks in production, things that would generally be ‘off the radar’ to the public. A reviews section which would clearly rate recent gigs, albums, singles etc etc. A live section informing the reader of the newest giggs, events taking place and such details. Finally a features section which tells the reader what the magazine also features, this would generally contain special information & details on the major features within the edition.

Finally the central section of the contents page is covered with a large image and a short story – I feel that stories which take this section would either be of importance or something extreme. At the bottom of the central section NME has conducted some of their own marketing encouraging readers to subscribe monthly – a fantastic idea because this works out cheaper than paying for a weekly edition 4 times a month and allows NME to have more readers on board, inclining more people to take part in the sales of the NME magazine.

Q Magazine

Forms & Conventions -

Again similar to NME they have clearly put their trademark on the magazine – it takes up a large part of the top section, with the clear statement ‘contents’ again instantly telling the reader that this page will break down where to find what. It has a reduced image of the magazine cover and a snippet of text to go with it explaining the meaning of the image in more detail followed by a page number for the full story.

Like every contents page it contains page numbers – showing the reader what page certain information on, this is usually done with the top stories – this is because the magazine understands that the reader will be eager to read these major stories and will often want to cut right to that page, it can often be that the reader will buy the magazine based on it’s exclusive stories and with this the reader will want to get to it as quickly as possible.

Kerrang Magazine

As we already know Kerrang has a very unique style brought from it’s genre. However this is not applied so much due to the way they have to present a contents page and again like the previous magazines it clearly states ‘Contents’ and is much more organized than the front cover. Unlike the previous two contents pages Kerrang has inserted an editors letter in his words. The magazine has used the right side to list what information is on what pages, under headings like NME such as Feedback, News, Live Reviews, Features, K! Icons, Album Reviews, Gigs, Swag and Famous Last Words.

Kerrang exercises a large use of photos compared to the other two contents pages, which can prove to draw in the readers more to the story than words sometimes. Finally like NME, Kerrang has done their own advertising by posting how to subscribe monthly for the Kerrang magazine.

Summary

Forms -

Images / Photos – Articles – Logo – Date – Issue

Titles – Clear Headings – Sub Headings – Caption – Quotes – Page Numbers

Introductory Text – Editors Letter – Adverts to Subscribe

Thumbnail of Magazine Cover – Broken into Columns – Colour Scheme Continuous / House Style – Consistant Use of Font

Who are your audience and how will you attract and address them?

Previously throughout my planning I have mentioned no separate occasions as to my target audience is exactly and how I will attract them. However I am going to go over it again in specific detail to ensure that it is clearly projected that I am aware as to who my target audience is and how I will attract them.

My magazine is a very niche magazine and with that comes a niche audience. With it being based on the music genre ‘Grime’ there is a small audience into this type of music, however the audience of Grime is very dedicated, what I mean by this is they are constantly looking for publicity and recent updates in the genre – this is done through several methods such as myspace sites for the artists, looking for videos of the artists on youtube or any internet publicity. So with this knowledge I feel that a magazine covering such detail really is a new form of publicity available for this niche audience, and with it I feel they will be extremely attracted with just the knowledge of an Grime magazine being available.

I have also used my masthead to attract the audience with my magazine. The title GIFTT stands for Grime Independant for the Talented – which immediately makes the reader aware the type of magazine it is, the magazine also holds an image of a recently famous artists who has come into the spotlight, with this the potential customer who is a Grime fan can instantly know what the magazine is based on Grime from looking at the image.

My audience will be addressed in various manners – at times the magazine can be informative however at other points in the magazine it may be pure entertainment – for example with Grime being a niche music genre I will hold charts in my magazine which are informative – such as the top rated 50 Grime songs in order, publicising to the young readers which songs to look for download which are being rated as very good. However on the other hand it will also contain the entertainment side meaning that the magazine will often use slang words used in the Grime scene which only the target audience would comprehend, this can often be used when we have an exclusive interview with an artist who uses such phrases.

Most importantly my magazine will overall attract the audienece through it’s specific ability to target the perfect audience through the magazine cover having famous Grime artists on it, Grime genre phrases / slang, and finally the overall feel that this magazine specifies in the Grime genre and no other – which really makes our audience aware about what they will be reading if they were to purchase the GIFTT magazine.

Masthead Possibilities

Below is an image which I found could be possibilities for my Masthead – this is not 100% final as I do not yet have my picture. The reason for this is that the picture of Leon Surrain may change my preference on what type of masthead to do baring in mind I want to stick to a consistant low number of colours, the colours in the photo will generally be the theme of my magazine cover.

As you can see from the three images they are different fonts and colours. The masthead I have chosen from these three designs is number one. My justification for this is that it appears to be the most modern of the three and I already know the Grime is one of the most modern musics in the industry. As you can see number three the font is a bit too Westerny which is what I was originally going to go for the ‘Rosewood Std’. However following looking on the internet for downloadable fonts I have decided to go for a font called Digitall which I obtained from the internet.

Grime Mood Board

This is a mood board built around my genre of music – you can clearly see what it represents and how it is represented.

Grime represents the capital city London town, Grime is a specific UK youth music from where it originated and still remains today. In my mood board you can see large artists such as Wiley, Chipmunk and Tinie Tempah. From my mood board you can also see an image of the city London Town. Finally you can see the way that Grime has been written is in an informal and messy way – this speaks volumes on the type of music it clearly is, another way of saying this is that you would never see the world Classical associated with the font which has been used.

Magazine Planning

To give me an advantage when making my magazine I am trying to produce a best as plan as possible. With this plan I am going to get into more detail with what is going to be put onto my magazine cover.

Headline + Coverlines

The headline will be the title of my magazine which is GIFTT (Grime Independant for the Talented) –  to give my title the best effect I went through every font on Apple Photoshop and chose that Rosewood Std font was most suitable for this. The title will take up the width of the page at the top.

My coverline / slogan will fall just beneath my title, a catch phrase that should hopefully be widely recognized from our brand. The coverline needs to be catchy and witty, similar to the grime genre. ‘Passion for Music = Passion for Achievement’

Hopefully the unique font and presence of the photo will be enough to catch the eye of my target market, I feel myself personally that I know exactly how to grab the attention of my target market, my justification for that is that I am from the target market myself, I have listened to grime music for several years and know all of the forms and conventions of the genre, this is why I chose it. With this behind me I feel that I can apply my knowledge of the genre into the selling of the magazine.

The main story of the magazine will as per usual tie into the photo on the front of my new artists, ‘Leon Surrain’  - it will then have a selling line to go with it in regards to how he has achieved his recent success, this story was built earlier in my planning of my artists profile.

Currently I have not yet chose to insert a strapline or selling line into my magazine, I currently feel that the magazine is the selling point itself, this is because I do not think there actually is any competition in this genre and even if there was it would be a small competition given the genre’s size of market.

My photo of the artist will dominate most of the magazine – my justification for this is that it will be the best selling point for the magazine, instantly if you are a fan of grime you can recognize by someone’s appearance as to whether they perform it, also with Leon Surrains currently break through in the UK Grime Scene and Music Channels spotlight he will be a fantastic selling point for such a small market magazine.

Also in my magazine I will include a line for the main article on Leon Surrain so this captures my audience giving them a taste of what the main story is inside, which should hopefully draw in the potential consumer to purchase the magazine and read everything else it includes.

Planning my magazine.

Planning Your Magazine

For my magazine the title must signfy to the reader instantly that my magazine refers to the genre ‘Grime’

Grime is a genre which is most famous from younger artists generally in the London area. Successful artists which originated from Grime are famous artists such as ‘Dizzee Rascal’ ‘Wiley’ ‘Chipmunk’ & ‘Kano’. Over time artists from this genre have had to change to more commercial music to make them massive sales. However there are still plenty of artists in the grime scene trying to push through to be as successful as the named artists. Intially I had ideas such as Underground or Grime Log, however I feel these are too straight to the point and do not have much uniqueness to them if we compared it to magazine names such as Kerrang! Eventually I came to the decision of the magazine name GIFTT – (Grime Independant for the Talented). GIFTT represents the difficulty of being able to perform grime and it also represents the target audience and the general age who perform grime.

My magazine will be extremely unique, grime is a genre which is not widely recognized for it’s difficult to perform and quality in music, it’s generally listened to teenagers in the United Kingdom and has only been around for the past 9 years. So everything in my magazine will be completely innovated from myself. Conventions which I found particularly attractive in other magazines was a big clear title put across to the reader at the top of the magazine, mine will follow that convention. Also I found it particularly effective to include a large photo of a Grime Artists on the cover, perhaps with a snippet of text next to the image on the main story or a success story of the artist. Finally I will be using predominately male colours constistantly perhaps no more than 4 colours such as black, red, white & yellow.

For obvious reasons I will conform to magazie convetions. My main reasons for this is that following my research on my other magazines, all three were extremely successful, yet they all were from a different genre and contained similar forms and conventions. I feel if I follow this but with my own style & genre I can achieve such a success in my own market.

As mentioned previously Grime is a very male dominant music, this is not to say it excludes females, there are very famous artists which come through vocals included in grime tracks, also grime can often be related as a UK spin-off to rap and hip-hop aritsts such as Eminem, a good example of successful artists in that area is Missy Elliot. However given most of the genre is male driven my magazine will follow that. The colours will generally be male colours, perhaps red, black, yellow on black and maybe even brown on black. This wil follow through with fonts and images – the fonts will all be of a male target and be bulky and catchy, this means that the layout of the magazine does not necessarily have to be tidy or ‘clean cut’ as the general image of the grime aritst is far from this. The overall feel of my magazine will give the expression that it is 100% focused into the grime genre.

I have vaguely mentioned earlier in my plan as to who the target audience will be. However I am now going to explain exactly who the target audience is covering their age, gender and  interests. Being that grime was initially invented from the ages 18+ I will definately want to cover up to the age of 20, however as it was created by an older age of teen this leaves room of idolism from younger ages such as 13+. Between 13-16 there are thousands of teenages in Britain who all aspire to be successful as a Grime artists and this exceeds outside of London. Grime can also be used as a fashion statement, you will often see that people into the Grime scene wear similar clothing and will converse with each other in ‘street lingo.’ With this knowledge it allows me to use such phrases from this area to catch the reader straight from the cover. Knowing this my profile audience will be between ages 13-20, generally be male and will all have interests for Grime and aspiring to be a lyrical artist.

The article I will be using for my magazine will be an interview of a recent successful artists by the stage name Lion (Leon Surrain). It will be an interview of how the artists started, what his goal first was what it is now and plenty more. The interview will also include details of the artists up and coming gigs, tips and steps to beggining grime artists on how to follow the same path as Leon did. The reason I chose such an article is because I know my target readers will often read it to see how other artists achieved coverage to get under the Grime limelight, if I draw the reader in with such snippets on the front I feel that this could increase the sales of my magazine.

My magazine will represent the difficulty it takes to be a grime artist, the dedication that is necessary and the glories of it if you believe. My magazine will be open to other genres of music though especially Rap and Hip-Hop which is argueably the origin of grime. The magazine will constantly represent the artists in a ‘hungry’ manner. 9 times out of 10 it will be a male artist as you rarely hear of female Grime artists let alone successful ones, the only one you could probably relate to is Lady Sovereign however her music leans more towards rap and hip-hop than grime. When I use the term ‘hungry’ I mean someone who is really starving to achieve that success, make a fortune of their life and following the passion for music.

My magazine will have aims which we will constantly stick to in each publication. The aim will constantly be to provide a magazine which meets the needs of it reader, for example informative information for dates, venues for events, tips for beginning artists and future releases. It will also show new artists in the grime scene trying to achieve success, a magazine which gives these ‘hungry’ artists to get that little more media coverage as a stepping stone to their dream. The magazine itself presents itself in an extremely niche manner, often using London or Street Slang which only a grime artist / listener or fan would be able to relate to, in this sense it is slightly risky but emphasises extremely on how pin-point we are on hitting this target market. With the magazine being aimed at such a small market it clearly represents it is small budget, most of the artists who will be featured in this magazine will still not be main stream famous and will really be eager to get such coverage from the magazine, this oten means to get photos of them and publish their stories they wont want to charge any money.

My photos will be taken of male friends between the ages 16-19 they will be wearing clothes which should hopefully match the colour scheme of the magazine, this will generally be either male colours of successful colours. The photos will be taken in a well lit area to represent the level success.

In my contents page I will be able to include several other stories throughout the magazine – with Grime recently coming into the music scene as a major musc such as large artists as Kano, Wiley, Dizzee Rascal & Chipmunk we will be able to include articles with them on their first steps through grime to commercial, we can also include an editors letter which tells the reader how the magazine came about, what its for, and what goes into creating the magazine.

Planning My Cover Photography

1) Who will be on your front cover? Solo artist / Band?

My front cover will be an up and coming Solo artist in the Grime scene London – Leon Surrain also known as Lion. Lion is his stage name which obviously originates from his name after the star sign ‘Leo’

As most Grime artists Leo started at  young age of 14 in North London Tottenham by attending youth clubs regularly while following the crowd in writing lyrics, performing clashes and produce amateur home made songs.

Recently Lion has received a lot of media coverage through a lot of successful songs, being broadcasted on Tim Westwood’s Radio / TV Show. Following this recent coverage and regularly played new released track ‘Spider with no rain’ we have decided to interview Leon on his recent success, where he sets his goals now and what more he is looking to achieve.

2) How do you want to represent this artist or band? Cool / Fun / Serious / Quirky / Sexy etc…

I feel that as my magazine is based on the genre ‘Grime’ I will want to represent my artist as hard working with a strong focus and dream to become wealthy and famous whilst doing what he loves. Similar to most artists in the London area such as Chipmunk they all have a story to tell as to how they have worked extremely hard to gain their achievements and avoided falling down the pit as most of their friends do through selling drugs and turning to crime.

With knowing this I will want to portray my artist as someone who has worked very hard to achieve their recent success, however I will want to ensure they are portrayed with an idolic sense of fashion and style. My artist will most likely be wearing similar coloured clothes to the  theme of the magazine cover to increase the impression of fashion represented from Leon.

3) How will you do this? Clothes / Make – up / Accessories / Props / Location / Lighting / Pose / Shot type.

To achieve my planned level of representation I will firstly take the photo in a well lit area, the lighting will hopefully give off the affect of a bright holy light, which gives off the sense of success and a bright aura from the artist. Also he will be wearing plenty of fashionable accessories which ties in with the theme of his clothing, sense of style and the type of magazine. Grime artists are always represented to be extremely masculine, with knowing this my artist will not need any make – up as it will not benefit me. I feel that a medium shot will be most appropiate to achieve this planned representation while using a strong masculine pose.

4) Find some examples of similar photographs -

This is a perfect way of how Grime artists are represented and how they represent themselves with the tattoos believe achieve and Chipmunk coming from the darkside to being in the light which he is now.

Research Music Mags

Research Music Magz

Magazine 1:

Kerrang!

Kerrang! is a magazine from the rock genre, it was released in June 1981 as a supplement to the magazine ‘Sounds’ before it broke off into it’s own title in 1991. Kerrang! now also has a radio station and their is also a Rock Music Tv channel called Kerrang! It claims to be the biggest rock magazine seller topping NME

This is an image of one release of the magazine ‘Kerrang!’

The publisher of music magazine Kerrang! is Bauer and has been so for several years, this is a link to Kerrangs! official website. http://www.kerrang.com/

Magazine 2:

Mixmag

Mixmag is a magazine from the club and dance genre, it started in 1982 and now styles itself as the ‘worlds best selling dance and clubbing magazine’ it contains details such as dance events, music reviews and club nights.

Below is an image of Mixmag

There is a direct website for mixmags on online page which is http://www.mixmag.net/

Magazine 3:

NME

NME was the first publisher to include a singles chart in the paper, it has been released every week since March 1952 – after 1976 it bega

n to lean towards Punk Rock and has done so ever since, containing more information

on the Punk Rock / Rock genre than any other genre in their content.  NME stands for New Musical Express. Further more it’s publisher is IPC Ignite.

Here is an image of NME

The link to NME is www.nme.com

Media Analysis of Music Magazine – Scratch

My final music magazine I will be analysing is the Hip-Hop magazine Scratch, again like my previous analysis, I will run through the forms & conventions, the audience it attracts, how it represents itself and what institution it has about it.

Forms & Conventions

From my third magazine analysis we are now seeing a common convention that successful magazines follow – they always have big bold titles generally in capitals that are multi-coloured, in this case almost similar to NME Scratch’s title is black and red, it is very visible and at the top of the page – this shows us how essential it is to have these big titles on your magazine as it clearly plays a roll in the ability of the magazine being able to capture the audiences eye. We can clearly see that the magazine has an entertainment style about it – we can tell this from the front cover, where they have mentioned the term ‘Life after Death’ – suggesting that rather than informing the readers they will have entertaining stories from the leading artists in the Hip-Hop music genre which is clearly what this magazine is about.

Audience

Again with such a genre of music and type of magazine you instantly know from the front cover that this magazine is not made for an maturer age group – it is the type of magazine to be aimed at the 18 – 24 age group – and we know this from the type of artists and the genre, you can always tell who the designated audience is from the front cover of the magazine – and that explains to us in a nutshell as to why the magazine is successful, they are clearly able to target their audience from the shelves. Again like VIBE, Hip-Hop can be a very male leading genre, and with this it means anything about the Hip-Hop genre will have to be slightly led towards a male market – and from this edition of Scratch I feel they have done this. My reason for this is that they have the term ‘Life after Death’ which tells us there is going to be a story about Will.i.am, The Game, and Nas – three male Hip-Hop artists. This shows us that they are attracting their male audiences through male sucessful artists. Finally Scratch are able to draw in their customers by their ability to specify in the Hip-Hop genre, at the top right we can see The Blueprint of Hip-Hop which tells us they really do get deep into the Hip-Hop genre, and when a magazine does specify deeply into one genre the fans from that genre of music will be willing to purchase the magazine.

Representation

As we have established that Scratch follows the Hip-Hop genre we can clearly see from the front cover that it portrays it in a thuggish yet stylish way, we know this from the mix between NAS – Will.i.am and The Games appearance, you can see plain, fashion and thug. I feel that it is also representing the Hip-Hop genre as if it has a difference between the artists within it, the term ‘Life after Death’ isn’t so clear to us which is great it makes you want to buy the magazine to read it, but it possibly suggest that after a previous fall out artists have managed to come together in the creation of a new record? Finally Scratch represents Hip-Hop in a serious light moreso than an funny light – we can see this from the immediate glare from the three artists featured in the cover and the texts which come with this magazine.

Institution

With Scratch magazine I feel their aims are to entertain but in a serious light, I do not feel from this front cover that they are looking to inform the Hip-Hop fans, my judgement of this is based on my analysis of previous magazines – and that I came to the conclusion that NME was the type of magazine to inform – and the way they did it was far different from this type of magazine. Clearly the rules of the magazine like the other two follows the genre – they can use intimidating language, and egotistical language – and with the genre Hip-Hop I feel that the magazine may also include reference to swearing, drinking and drugs.

 

Media Analysis of Music Magazine – VIBE

For my first magazine I will be analysing the Music Magazine VIBE. In this analysis I will go through the forms & conventions, the representation of the artists on the front cover, audience that it appeals to & it’s institution.

Forms & Conventions

One of the things that VIBE consistantly do throughout their various editions of magazine is that they will always use the large, bold and thick title VIBE. Also this form of title is one that is used with other music magazines such as ‘NME’ this clearly demonstrates that a large title must be a lot more appealing to the audience while it is on the shelves. Also VIBE will have one or more famous artists on the front of their cover, more often than not the artists they use are generally hip-hop, rap and R&B. This immediately shows to the reader what type of magazine it is just from it’s front cover, making it very clear from the front that the magazine is based on music, specifically in the Hip-Hop, Rap & RnB area.

VIBE always make the image of the artist/s the largest one on the magazine cover, this demonstrates that they want to make it clear to the reader what the magazine will specify in for its best and main story. The purpose in doing this is that VIBE believe in they promote their most interesting story on the front cover and give the reader just a taste of what is inside, it cClearlan prove appealing enough for them to purchase the magazine to read.

Specifically on this magazine cover VIBE use a few other forms & conventions. In this edition they put to good use a small amount of text of what artists are inside, mostly famous and very successful artists in their own genre. Information on such successful artists is always something that VIBEs target audience will want to read about.

Representation

For this music magazine VIBE chose 50 cent and Eminem for their front cover. They are both represented in an intimidating and aggressive way, with both artists leaning forwards, wearing plenty of shiny, most likely expensive jewelry with a hard stare into the lens of the camera. Eminem and 50 cent are very close artists, if anybody is a true hip-hop or rap fan, they should know that Eminem kicked off 50 cents career, this gives VIBE the right to say ‘A conversations between brothers’ – because with their target audience being fans of this genre of music, they should be aware what the subliminal message is with that text.

Audience

Clearly  this type of magazine is not aimed at an older age band, I feel this magazine would be aimed at the 16-27 age group. My reasoning for this is that 50 cent and Eminem are both artists of a recent era, this instantly shows us that the magazine is formed around that genre of music, and everybody knows what genre of music these artists perform. With the audience I also feel that this edition is portrayed towards a male market, we can see this from the intimidating pose that Eminem and 50 cent have where they are staring straight into the lens of the camera, also the main headline is a conversation between brothers – this is refering to 50 cent and Eminem. To be fair I highly doubt that many females would be interested in the intimidating glare towards the camera or interested in reading what Eminem and 50 cent have to say to each other, this is why I feel the magazine is aimed towards a male market. Clearly the magazine offers inside information for fans interested in the hip-hop / rap genre. With the presentation of Eminem and 50 cent it instantly tells us the genre of the magazine, the style and the information inside – I feel VIBE have portrayed themself in outstanding way to capture the eye of their target audience.

Institution

WIth VIBE I feel it has more an aim to entertain rather than inform. I feel a magazine which reviews charts and new releases would be a more informative magazine however VIBE includes articles such as conversations between 50 cent & Eminem – two large Hip-Hop artists. They put articles such as this in not to inform the reader but entertain them with their conversation, the magazine is publicised in a fashionable way with slang and a hip hop feel to it. It really is in its genre of music with artists famous in the genre all over the magazine with an adopted attitude which follows the genre.