Music Magazines

I am now going to compare the conventions of these music magazines: SPIN, VIBE and NME.
The language of the SPIN magazine consists of the masthead in the top left corner of the front page which happens to be slightly covered on both covers. This suggests that the institution of the magazine is a well known company. The colour scheme is also similar as it mainly is a white background however the sub contents vary in colour from pale blue, grey and black to navy blue and black. The main image of these magazine both include a mid shot of the singing artists with a big main sub content highlighting the name of the artist 'Duffy' and the band 'Panic at the disco'.
The institution of SPIN magazines is to inform its audience of the latest music and artists by doing this they have their own website http://www.spin.com/. With links on it which include magazine, reviews and news therefore the purpose is to keep people updated on the latest news in the music industry.
The Ideology of the spin magazine is to apeal to a music target audience as the sub contents contain of artists names and band names, also the bright background might connotate artists that are currently in the music lime that.
The audience of the spin magazine will have a strong interest in music and will be around the age of 15-25 because the artists included aim to sell their music to this age group.
The Vibe magazine has a larger masthead which crosses the top of the magazine, unlike the SPIN magazine this masthead doesn't consist of the same colour in each issue as the ones above include a red/black masthead and a pale blue masthead, again the masthead is slightly covered up by the artist on the front showing me that the company is well known and doesn't have to be completely visible to be identified. The main image shot varies aswell from a medium shot to a medium close up, I think this is done because the medium close up shot concentrates more on kanye's west expression looking rather cocky and confident, whereas the medium shot concentrates more on Eminem's body language (arms crossed) showing hes confident. The colour scheme is fairly basic they both have a big white background, with the sub contents in the same colour as the masthead.

Q Magazine

The Q music magazine has many conventions which relates them all in a certain significant way. For example the main image dominates the majority of the front cover in an effective way; as this creates a relationship with the band or artist on the front cover, this is because they are always giving the audience eye contact. Also the artist is always well known because it will attract the audience to buy the magazine and read about what the artist is up too in the music industry. The main image is usually either a medium shot or a medium close up as the audience will be able to identify the artist/band easily on the front cover. They are also many subtitles across the page in a big and bold font, they mostly state other artists that are in the magazines, for example if madonna isn't really liked by some people then the artic monkeys sub content might grab their attention and persuade them to buy. The sub contents are also in the colour of the Q magazines logo (red and white). The barcode consists of the price of the magazine and the date it is released to the public.

Q music magazine

LIIAR

Language (Magazine Terminology)

• Masthead
• Dateline
• Title
• Main image
• Colour scheme

Institutions

• Create media texts
• Control language

Ideology (ideas, values, beliefs)

• The values that the media text conveys

Audience - can be classified by:

• age
• wealth
• occupation
• interests
• groups

Representations (how are groups/issues/individuals potrayed?)

• Representations convey on Ideaolgy

Presentation of my work

The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination of two or more, of the following:
-A presentation using slideshow softwar such as powerpoint;
-A blog
-A podcast;

Brief:

Main Task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used be original, produced by me - with a minimum of four images.

College Magazine Evaluation

Evaluation

For my media assignment I produced a college magazine using Adobe Photoshop as my main resource and putting my images and typography onto a publisher document.
The strengths of my magazine are that the masthead is in purple and white which connotates wyke sports as the football teams kit is purple and white. Therefore this attracts my target audience of 16-19 year old male students, as they will have an interest in sport.
Another strength of my front cover is that I used effective sub contents on the which makes the audience want to read the magazine. I decided to use the font san serif because from my typography research I discovered that this is the most effective font to use because it provides a good contrasts and doesn’t overwhelm the audience with too many fonts. This appeals to the target audience because a formal college magazine with teenage audience shouldn’t have big colourful bubble writing.
The last strength of my magazine is that I used all conventions of a magazine front cover which I used by looking at a labelled magazine in my research. I used a selling line under the mast head to draw the audience in, and the date close to the mast head because that’s where most magazine’s date is found. I used a second smaller image because a few college magazines I looked at had a smaller image on to go with a less important content on the front cover.
I believe a weakness of my magazine is that I tried to include a female audience in my magazine by having netball at the top of the page however I’ve now realised this is not enough to draw females in to the magazine.
For inspiration I looked at sports magazines like 442 and match this helped me decide what I needed on my magazine for my target audience. It also help me decide on some sub contents. I also looked at some college magazines which help me decide the colour scheme because college magazine don’t have too many colours on the front cover so I decided to stick with 3 main colours of white black and purple this colours will appeal to my target audience because they are not too bright which little kids like, as shown in my research in the match magazine. For my image I took a medium close up of a football player in the sports kit which contrasts well to the typography I used and the background colour scheme. In my research I also looked at fashion magazines because I believed this is the best way to find some medium close up shots.
To improve my magazine I could of made my main image slightly larger because it doesn’t stand out from a distance so it might not be that appealing. Also I could of spent more time on the mast head because the sports part is quite blurry around the outer glow therefore it lacks that professionalism. Lastly I should of included more female sports on my front cover as the target audience is for both genres of college students.