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

 

Final Product

 

Preliminary task

Something I've learnt from the making of the preliminary task to the final product is that it is vital to find a unique selling point. For my preliminary I very much stuck to normal and conventional aspects of magazines but after researching for my final product, it was obvious that magazines that are controversial and get attention, like Rolling Stone magazine, were much more likely to survive and be memorable. I also found that people who push boundaries in terms of editing and creating (like David Carson) were much more likely to be memorable and for their ideas to make the magazines almost collectible items and this is incredibly important due to the decline in the purchase of print press, therefore I tried to push boundaries and be creative with my final product and hope that it paid off rather than look too weird even for the target audience.

It was also vital to me that the magazine was staying within the ideologies of punk and rock and the sub genres of these and that it was opposing mainstream views of female roles in music. Trying to avoid adding to the evidence for the male gaze theory and not making women in music a sex object. As well as focussing on important societal issues; I thought that it should also be focussing on the music of the people in the magazine rather than trivial questions that are asked in other magazines like " what is your perfect date?" etc. However, it was equally important that the magazine had personality and the ability to include the audience in what they read whilst still being mature enough as to not make the reader feel like a child.

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

The first stage to creating the magazine was photography for my magazine. A variety of photos were taken using an I Phone 5 camera. This proved to be much easier and efficient to do because the quality is just as good as a digital camera and its also easier for me to transfer the images to a computer for editing.

When it came to the production I used an online photo editing program called Pixlr. This allowed me to manipulate the size of images and also change the colours of the actual photos to get the effect that I used in my final piece, this is shown in the example below.


In order to create the infrared colours on my cover, I used Pixlr's 'atomic' effect feature. From there the options for different filters appear like the ones in the image. I had to layer 'Infrared' and 'Gamma' on top of each other and then change the hue level. It was difficult to do this without affecting the colour of the text on the page. It was also incredibly difficult to have the image on top of the name of the magazine because of the features on Pixlr. So, I had to use different editing software from a peers computer as it was software which must be downloaded. 

The contents page was easiest to make in terms of layout. But it did take a few attempts to get an effective minimalistic layout but also make it look like it belongs with the magazine.  

This was not a problem for my contents page or double page spread because the text was positioned over the top of the image on the double page and below the image on the contents page. However, when creating the double page spread there was some problems involving the text because I had to find a way of positioning it so that the text could be read but also not totally cover the image in a way that it would stop being effective and no longer send a message. To do this I firstly mirrored the image before any other editing so that the text would be on the right hand side to fit with normal conventions of magazine layout, I then layered different filters to create the pinky green hue that is on the image in the actual double page spread.

 














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

The genre of my magazine is not a conventional mainstream genre but is generally a very popular genre and not necessarily niche.

One of the largest publishers is Bauer. They publish a large range of different magazines including photography and good housekeeping. Bauer also publish music magazines and some are in a similar genre as my own such as Kerrang! and Mojo. Both magazines being famous brands in their own right.  

For the success of the magazine publishing on Bauer would be better money wise than self publishing or using an independent publisher. As they cannot afford to distribute widely and possibly not weekly either. However, due to the ideologies of the genre it may be a hindrance to use a big publishing company and could raise the price significantly.

On the other hand, Rock Sound is published by the French publisher Editions Freeway. This magazine is more like what my magazine aims to be. The main rival to the magazine in Britain is Kerrang! because of the similar types of music both magazines cover. However, Kerrang! is released weekly and does not usually provide as much coverage to more alternative, new, upcoming bands or to the British rock scene. 

There is a unique selling point of my magazine in that it features other types of serious articles and older musicians mixed with young, this could encourage a variety of ages to be interested in the magazine compared to the 15-24 age range of rock sound and Kerrang. As well as this it may encourage the 50 quid bloke theory to play  part as older people are more likely to buy a magazine




  

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The magazine makes references to other rock and punk bands in the magazine. This means that it will be most likely be unappealing to people who are not a fan of the bands or genres featured inside. However, the most important thing is the band that has the main double page spread as this is what will attract people that are fans of the band who do not usually red the magazine to buy a copy and hopefully enjoy the other features of the magazine as well. 

The pages of the magazine are not totally conventional as they feature strange and multiple colours on the images for the cover and double page spread and the contents page also has a different layout than some other examples. However, this will appeal to the target audience because, the readers are likely to be interested into pushing boundaries, being in the minority and liking things that are different. 

As this comparison shows, on my cover, the colours are much darker and unconventional. A major difference between the two is the application of male gaze theory. Katy Perry is a woman known for being beautiful and sexy and the pose she is doing fulfills by flaunting her body to appeal to people who find her attractive but also to others who want to be like her. However this would not be totally suitable for the rock ad punk genres as its typically the music and looking cool and being controversial that attracts this audience. Much of the artists in these genres are not conventionally attractive to the mainstream media.

It is important that for an alternative genre that there is an aura of " I don't care"  Trying to hard and being perfect are almost frowned upon within these genres whereas its almost necessary for mainstream artists to be perfect and its not uncommon that people will be photo shopped to meet incredibly high and unrealistic standards of beauty. Which is the opposite of how I wanted to portray the musicians in my magazine. In my own opinion, I find that you connect more and appreciate a musician more if you can relate to them instead of worshipping them like a perfect god.

By looking at just the covers its easy to identify who is interested in what. Someone into mainstream, popular music want beautiful and flawless people to read about and look at with interviews that do not push boundaries and the articles are generally gossip columns; articles which are not serious or about world affairs. Almost as if these people want to ignore the problems within the world and society. Whereas rock and rap magazines do highlight these important issues. My magazine aimed to include a mixture of serious issues like feminism and mental health with the fun and rebellion of a genre like punk and rock.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

Addressing the audience is really important. If your magazine is aimed at a younger audience then the way you talk to the audience needs to be friendly and chatty with silly articles and the photography must be friendly and not too controversial however, if the target audience is a serious middle class adult the images and mode of address must fit that for example, formal and complicated or specialist grammar, more text than images etc.

For my magazine, it was important that it included features and topics that would attract a punk and rock audience. Therefore, the themes must be related to their lifestyle.

Some psychologists suggest that an opinion is formed in a 10th of a second. Which means the look of the magazine is the first most important thing to attract an audience. In order to appeal to the target audience, the magazine had to be unique and unlike any other print on the shelves. To do this I took inspiration from David Carson's designs, using his unorthodox methods of editing and photography combined with a typical punk inspired font like this:  

 

Another thing that was important to consider with the image is if the image was too much like what was in the mainstream media it would not appeal to the target audience. Most pop and rap magazines that feature women have them over sexualised and near naked.

On the cover of this edition of Vibe magazine, it features Beyoncé in minimal, wet clothing. This is obviously fitting with the male gaze theory. It doesn't portray her as a serious musician but as an object for sexualisation. Even the headline fails to mention anything about her music  or serious issues but advertises seeing images of her and saying that she 'strips down' Would this be any different if a man was on the cover?

The answer to the question is yes. Here, on this edition of Vibe, Jay-Z is on the cover. He is almost completely covered and looking serious. The headline also mentions him being a successful solo artist and talks about him being an entrepreneur. Very different to how they portrayed Beyoncé

In order to fit with ideologies of the genre it was important to do the opposite of this with my own magazine. In rock magazines the way the artist looks isn't the most important aspect. So the model in the cover image was wearing a normal t-shirt, as well as this it was edited in a way where how the person looks isn't important and being a woman makes no difference in terms of photography.

Inside the magazine, the topics and themes are all directly relevant to the target audiences lives. The magazine features topics about mental health issues and feminism which are all important modern subjects to talk about and effect the readers lives. They're also controversial issues and being controversial is apart of the punk ideology. Furthermore, the way it is written is formal but still understandable for people who aren't as educated as others as the magazine aims to appeal to all people and is written to be more personal but not insult the audiences intelligence.

 

 

 

 



Who would be the audience for your media product?

• Part of a niche audience - not mainstream popular music
• Rock music  - more specifically punk or other forms related to  punk (pop-punk, skate-punk etc)
• Belong to rock based social groups opposed to popular fashion and music 
• Ideologies based around these social groups and music genre - equality, non-conformity, anti-establishment
• Age -  aimed at younger people 16-30 not as young of an audience as Kerrang! would have due to serious subjects, language and themes.
• Gender - not totally applicable for every issue of the magazine but for the one I have made it was aimed at females as it was a women in rock special.
• Interests - music, alternative comedies and anything weird that pushes the norm and boundaries
• Lifestyle - typically not academically talented but still intelligent therefore most likely having a job but not studying or aiming for anything in particular
• Typically the socio-economic group that the audience would be is working class and the magazine price reflects that
• Penumbra effect - This could include older people. Pop music is generally ephemeral but some genres like rock and classical have musicians who have incredibly long careers.If older people or bands are featured then the magazine could appeal to an older audience as well
• 50 quid bloke - Very typical of rock music. Similar reasons to the penumbra effect but, as well ass this, more older people are buying cds due too digital downloads and the same could be happening with the purchase of magazines; where young people download the older generation still buy magazines.

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

 Conventions of a music magazine cover:

The cover is used as the main advertisement for the whole magazine, it has to be bright, interesting and enticing. An effective way of doing this is the main image.

This is usually a head shot from the chest up and is generally seen across all genres of magazines. This is shown in these examples of magazine covers. As well as this they will be looking directly at the camera or "audience" in order to capture the readers eye, very rarely will they be looking away or out of view. The photography also doesn't push many boundaries or seem unusual, for the reason that they want people to instantly recognise the star.  Most of the people featured on the front cover are celebrities within their genre. This allows the magazine to immediately grip their reader without even having to have read the headline or sub-headlines.

Another important part of the cover is the headlines and sub-headlines. It is important they are big, bold and interesting. It also needs to relate to the image in some way otherwise its an irrelevant piece of text. A few different fonts that interlink are used to break up the text and make it much more aesthetically pleasing.

Both the image and headline must fit the genre. For example on a magazine like top of the pops whose audience is young girls, they will not have an image that would feature on a more mature magazine like Vibe with guns and swearing and this would also apply to the language and topics in the headline or pull quotes. Linking with this the colour scheme must also match the target audience. If, for example, Kerrang! made a cover with a lot of pastel pink or purple the readers will be less inclined to buy it because their typical audience like darker colours like black or red. 

Top of the pops vs Kerrang!
Genre is clearly identifiable  via colours, mode of address and images 

Another typical feature that all magazines have is the barcode, price and date of issue. The price usually depends on how often they publish a magazine. A weekly mag will be much cheaper than a monthly mag.

I followed a few of these conventions for my own magazine cover. For example, my model was face on to the camera looking at the audience. Even though it is a female the photo doesn't fulfil the male gaze theory because it would be adverse to the message and genre of a rock magazine. Also, my cover featured unusual colours adverse to the conventions of a normal cover. The compulsory parts of the magazine like the barcode were featured on my cover as well as sticking to consistency rules but in terms of model pose and colours, it definitely challenges typical conventions.

Conventions of a magazine contents page:

Most content pages are very similar in terms of features. Usually they have the title of the magazine and is usually placed at the top. In these examples, the main feature is an image much like the cover but generally a different person to the cover, they're also bright and interesting. Most importantly it has to include a numbered list of what is in the magazine.

In terms of my own, I used most of these features because without them it would not look like a contents page and not fulfil the purpose. However, my image was not of a another person in the magazine, instead I chose to include photography of instruments as, personally, I find it much more interesting to look at than lots of people. Also, my list of contents was at the bottom of the page rather than a list at the side as I wanted to try out a more creative and unique layout.

Conventions of the double page spread:

A double page spread usually consists of a feature length article of the artist featured on the cover but in a different location, outfit and pose. Artists mostly appear in this for publicity, to advertise an album or new tour. The images can vary from one large image with lots of smaller ones or just a very large image used as a background. As these examples show, numerous different grid styles can be used but are mostly 2 or 3 column grids which is also the layout of my own. 



Mode of address is also important, depending on the genre, the way the magazine is written can change. A general rule is that it must be clear and easy to read for everyone but, the different types of language used is different. For example, a rock or grime magazine will feature some explicit language, innuendos or adult topics like drugs and drink whereas, a pop magazine may have more ephemeral slang terms and a classical magazine will have specific technical and formal language.

For my own double page I used a typical layout of one large image with the article on top but not covering the face of the model this is because I didn't want to take attention away from the background image. I used a pull quote to entice readers to read the whole interview to gain context for the quote and my headline was placed at the top of the page. It was also in an interview style and featured some swearing to further reinforce the genre of the magazine. Out of all the pages I created the double page was the most conventional of the three as there is very few ways to be creative with it without it being too overbearing or looking like it was trying to be purposefully different.



Magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 







Contents

Double page spread

Controversial music magazine covers

Kanye West - Rolling Stone - 2006
A quote from an article on Christianmusic.com said 'When I saw the cover, I was outraged. My first thoughts were, "How dare he?" and "Who does he think he is?" Jesus is more to me than just the central figure of Christianity. He's my personal Saviour. The one who died for my sins. The magazine cover mocked that and was a slap in the face to me as a Christian.'  Which I suppose is why this cover is so famous, the controversy that surrounds it makes it a massive talking point and is a good way for rolling stone to raise their sales. More people that see it and hear about will buy It to read the article to have something to complain about.

Britney Spears - Rolling Stone - 1999
This shoot was deemed controversial due to how young Britney was in the shoot. She appeared on the cover when she was 17 years old in a bra and shorts however what made this cover even more shocking was that she was a child star on mickey mouse and is seen clutching a teletubby to her side, this cover made people realise her maturity and in terms of readership attracted a younger demographic. 

One Direction - Wonderland - 2012
Although not necessarily controversial, the One direction lads appear in this sickeningly sweet cover that supposedly resembles an 'awkward family photo' It clearly focuses on a specific demographic, however the image isn't striking and the headline is virtually non existent. Its a cover you'd be embarrassed to buy unless you were 8 years old and does the total opposite to them than what rolling stone did for Britney. This demonstrates how men in pop must be a boy next door type while a female must be over sexualised to be taken seriously.

Miley Cyrus - Rolling Stone - 2013
'Child star' Miley Cyrus appears nude on the front cover of rolling stone, which gained a massive amount of criticism from the media. While a lot of the media were slating every move she made it gained her incredible publicity from others, defending and hating her.   





Effects of colour

Colour is a big influence to the world of marketing. Most of the theories on colour are based on personal experience. There's no real factual evidence or reasons why some colours mean one thing and others mean something else however, colour does play a part in why people buy items. If the colour fits what is being sold more people are likely to buy the product, the colour of the product must reflect the personality of the product. For example if you buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle no one would buy them if they didn't get the feeling that Harleys were rugged and cool which is why a sparkly, pink motorcycle may not be a good move

 

               

 

 

Representation of colours

 

Red    - Energy

       - Increases heart rate

       - Often seen in clearance sales

       - Passion, desire and love

 

Pink   - Romance and love

       - Friendship

       - Femininity

       - Used to market products to young girls and women

 

Orange - Aggressive

       - Creates a call for action, subscribe, buy or sell

       - Joy

       -   Sunshine and the tropics

       - As well as enthusiasm, fascination, happiness

                          and happiness

  Green  - Associated with wealth
         - Used in stores to relax
         - Colour of nature and fertility

  Blue   - Creates a sensation of trust and security
         - Often seen with banks and businesses
         - Symbolises trust, loyalty and wisdom
 
 Purple  - Used to soothe and calm
         - Often seen in beauty and anti-aging products
         - Associated with royalty
         - Symbolises power, nobility and luxury
         - As well as magic and mystery

  White   - Associated with light, goodness, purity and innocence
         - Usually used to advertise high tech products
         - And also shows cleanliness and can be associated with
                          doctors and hospitals

 Black   - Powerful and sleek
         - Used to market luxury products
         - Associated with fear and death
         - Black denotes strength and authority

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Effects models for music magazines

The hypodermic needle model:
                             The intended message is directly and wholly received by the receiver, this is an outdated view of the media. Its a form of propaganda used in the 40's and 50's with the idea that the media directly influenced the people. This could be used by music mags as it puts people into a certain group and shows how this group must dress, act and look like.

Two-step flow:
              The people with most access to media and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. 'Cool' people will often be the opinion leaders, showing people how to behave and what will gain them social acceptance. Then the 'uncool' people will follow these opinions. This then means that the mass media influences what the 'cool' members of society think.

Uses and gratification:
                       People are not helpless victims of mass media but use the media to get specific gratification. This basically means that the audience has control over what they consume and how they interpret it rather than being brainwashed by the media

Reception theory:
                 The meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but relies on the readers cultural competence and media literacy. The way we may view certain media texts depends on are upbringing, gender, social status, the location or even the mood the audience is in.
                  Post-modern theory:  Postmodernism says that there is no real truth. It says that knowledge is always made or invented and not discovered. Because knowledge is made by people, a person cannot know something with certainty - all ideas and facts are 'believed' instead of 'known'
                 
                  Death of the author theory: This means that the opinions of the author should not influence the reader. The work is what is important to the reader not the authors individual opinion. It also shows that even if you claim to be the author everything you say and write has already been written somewhere else before - no ones ideas are completely original.
                

Obstinate audience theory:
                          There is a complicated relationship between producer and audience. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The media respond to the audience by seeing what they like and then give them what they want. This means that the media follow the publics ideologies. There's no point making a product that no one wants or likes the ideas of. There's a fine line between being unique and being unnecessary.


Drip Drip Drip effect/ Cultivation differential:
                                                The mass media affects our attitudes through the repetition of messages that gradually change our world view. For example we believe that certain things are desirable because of the constant reinforcement. In this way a music magazine could encourage people to like a certain band or song and dislike/ have competition with another similar magazine






 

Are magazines doomed?

In some ways, yes, magazines are dying out. With the rise of technology and digital download, the need for a physical copy is decreasing as years go on. With many people instantly finding out what they need via the internet. With the increased use of smartphones a magazine or newspaper can be easily read in just one tap of a finger along with this it becomes easier to multitask this with other activities in day to day living.

The number of magazines being made itself has dwindled. The purchase of women's weekly mags have dropped by 24% in 2015.

On the other hand Cosmopolitan has grown its circulation by 57% year on year however, this is believed to be the growing number of free pickup copies and dropping their price from £3.80 to just £1.00. This tactic of free copies has also been followed by esquire magazine and seems to have boosted sales.

£2 billion worth of magazines were published and are read at some point by 87% of the population.
Why would anyone pay for something you can get for free? Well, in reality, reading magazines online isn't necessarily free. They're more likely to ask you for a monthly subscription whereas when buying a magazine it can be a one off purchase because you like the cover.


Statistics from the last 6 months of 2015:(from http://www.pressgazette.co.uk)                   

 These are the top 5 magazines in regards to sales in the UK

Title		Total	Y/Y % change
The National Trust Magazine		2,165,142	3.1
Good Living (Asda), previously Asda Magazine		2,042,940	3.5
Tesco Magazine		1,955,811	0.4
TV Choice		1,268,265	0.2
What's on TV		997,160	-5.8

One reason the purchase of magazines has dwindled is the steep price of the actual magazine, some even climbing to £5.00 for a weekly mag. Which the majority simply cant afford to pay. Another thing that may put people off is the paper usage. Even if this is a pedantic reason, there's a large push on recycling and being environmentally friendly, consumers could be put off buy large amounts of paper that'll be thrown away after one use

Music magazine purchase has fell dramatically since 2013. Bauer's biggest magazine NME declined a massive 23% in the last 4 years. At their most popular they would sell 300,000 copies which has now dwindled to under 15,000. The same has happened for a lot of other music magazines:

Kerring! - down 13.7%
Metal hammer - down 11.3%
Mojo - down 4.7%
Classic rock - down 6.2%
We love pop - down 6.1%
Q - down 18%

However rock sound has increased by 2.2% since 2013

Riot grrrl

 Riot grrrl is an underground feminist hardcore punk movement that originated in the early 1990s in Washington. Riot grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy, and female empowerment.
Many women found that while they identified with a larger, music-oriented subculture, they often had little to no voice in their local scenes. Women at the punk-rock shows saw themselves as girlfriends of the boys, so they took it upon themselves to represent their own interests by making their own fanzines, music and art.

There were two bands linked to the formation of riot grrrl (although regularly denying full credit for it):

Bikini Kill:
                   an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington, in October 1990. The group consisted of singer and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. Bikini kill were known for their radical feminist lyrics and fiery performances. The band  encouraged a female-centric environment at their shows, urging women to come to the front of the stage and handing out lyric sheets to them. Male concertgoers would often verbally and physically assault Hanna during shows when the tickets were still inexpensive. Hanna would  dive into the crowd to personally remove male hecklers. However, the band's reach included large male audiences as well as young women.

Bratmobile:
           Bratmobile formed when University of Oregon students Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman. At first, Wolfe admitted that they were "a fake band" because they did not play instruments, but they had written some songs which they performed a cappella.

After confessing that they were not in a band in an attempt to get out of a gig. They sought the help of 'Some Velvet Sidewalk' member Robert Christie. Christie let Bratmobile borrow rehearsal space and equipment and advised them to listen to the Ramones for inspiration. In response to that advice, Wolfe states that "Something in me clicked. Like, okay, if most boy punk rock bands just listen to the Ramones and that's how they write their songs, then we'll do the opposite and I won't listen to any Ramones and that way we'll sound different." With five original songs, the band played its first show as a two-woman act at Olympia's North Shore Surf Club on February 14, 1991, with Neuman and Wolfe sharing duties on guitar, drums, and vocals.


Culture:
            Riot grrrl culture is often associated with third wave feminism. The movement of third-wave feminism focused less on laws and the political process and more on individual identity. The movement of third-wave feminism is said to have arisen out of the realization that women are of many colours, ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds. The riot grrrl movement allowed women their own space to create music and make political statements about the issues they were facing in the punk rock community and in society

"[Riot Grrrl is ...] BECAUSE we girls want to create mediums that speak to US. We are tired of boy band after boy band, boy zine after boy zine, boy punk after boy punk after boy... BECAUSE we need to talk to each other. Communication/inclusion is the key. We will never know if we don't break the code of silence... BECAUSE in every form of media we see us/myself slapped, decapitated, laughed at, objectified, raped, trivialized, pushed, ignored, stereotyped, kicked, scorned, molested, silenced, invalidated, knifed, shot, choked and killed. BECAUSE a safe space needs to be created for girls where we can open our eyes and reach out to each other without being threatened by this sexist society and our day to day bulls**t." - Bikini Kill flier answering the question 'what is riot grrrl?'

"We're not anti-boy, we're pro-girl."
 Riot grrl bands would often actively invite members of the audience to talk about their personal experiences with sensitive issues such as sexual abuse, pass out lyric sheets to everyone in the audience, and often demand that the mosh boys move to the back or side to allow space in front for the girls in the audience.

David Carson

David Carson is an American graphic designer best known for creating innovative and 'grunge' covers for the magazine ray gun. He became the art director of Transworld Skateboarding magazine in 1984, and remained there until 1988, helping to give the magazine a distinctive look. By the end of his time there he had started to develop his signature style, using "dirty" type and non-mainstream photographic techniques.

He was then asked to design covers for a quarterly magazine 'beach culture'. Even though they only published for 6 quarters, it allowed Carson to really make an impact in graphic design.

In 1992 he was hired by ray gun, a life and music alternative style magazine. In one issue, he notoriously used Dingbat, a font containing only symbols, as the font for what he considered a rather dull interview with Bryan Ferry. The covers have a way of making the reader have to really look and take in whats going on. However sometimes this did not work and could look unprofessional, but when done well the covers have a huge impact on the reader.



I think his covers are really unique and different which is what makes him so renowned and clever because no one would dream of doing this as it completely throws out the rule-book on effective cover design. Of course there can be some occasions where it is taken too far but when it works it works extremely well. I feel like this wouldn't work for a lot of mainstream genres but work well for more edgy genres like indie.