Conventions and Intentions of Music Magazine

Everyone has a view on music and it’s a formative part of growing up, so it’s no surprise that magazines on the topic have been one of the most vibrant sectors in magazine publishing. Changing trends and new bands can make or break a title.


Magazines in recent years can be categorised as:

• Teen glossies, such as Smash Hits;
• The 'inkies' such as Melody Maker and NME that thrived on critical rock journalism in the 1970s, so named because the ink came off the tabloid newsprint pages so easily;
• Style bibles, a genre created by The Face, reflecting the role of music and fashion in pop culture;
• Critical monthly glossies such as Q, Mojo, Uncut and Word;
• Genre-specific: Kerrang!, Mixmag, Songlines and The Wire;

NME

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. An online version of NME, NME.COM, was launched in 1996. Today NME.COM has 5 million users per month. The company that produce the magazine are IPC MEDIA.

Q Magazine

An online version of NME, NME.COM, was launched in 1996. Today NME.COM has 5 million users per month.Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing. In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled "The modern guide to music and more". Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands. The company that produce the magazine are Bauer Media Group.

This was my final draft of my Magazine cover. Firstly i decided that the writing i had in Black was difficult to read from a small distance away and didn't really follow the colour scheme very well. I chose to change it to white as that stands out and is alot easier to read from a distance. I changed the shape of my  plug in the corner as i decided the shape i previously use was too rigid and unprofessional. Some other students pointed out that i had missed out some punctuation on some of my cover-lines so i corrected my mistakes there. I added a date and an issue number to make my magazine look more professional. I removed some words from my magazine cover to make it look more minimalist and make people want to actually open my magazine. I think this final draft is a lot better that than my first attempt even though i only changed it in a small way. I have asked other students and they have said they prefer this magazine cover as it looks a lot more friendly than it did before.

Here are some of the ideas that i have had for cover lines.


- Exams in January and how to be prepared!


- Enter this weeks competition!


- Half price tickets to gigs? Find out how!


- You could be on the cover of the next College Life Magazine!


- Free college map poster!

This was my first attempt at a front cover. I haven't followed my flat plans exactly as i had planned to originally as i have left out certain things such as Price and Barcode. The cover looks abit empty at the moment and in my next attempt i will try to fill out the space with more Plugs and possibly more taglines. My main image that i have used is at a medium close-up angle but could be better if it was taken in better lighting conditions. It was quite difficult deciding where to put my tag-lines so that it didn't cover up my image. I like how i have used to colours to make the important text stand out and drawing attention towards it. I like the details such as the bullet points that i made myself using the circle tool and also using a different shape for my plug. I have asked fellow students on what they think about my work and i have been told that the brightness of the magazine makes it eyecatching. Some students have critisised some colour and i will take this into consideration. I believe this is a good first attempt, although it does need improvement it gives me a good guideline for what i want my final piece to look like.

These are a few examples of Mastheads that i may use. I have decided that i am most likely going to be using Wide Latin so this shows a few different colour choices and other things such as stroke width. I have also asked a few students which Masthead they would prefer on the front cover of a college magazine.

This was my first choice for a masthead. I believe it is a good choice as it catches peoples attention when they read it. One of the downsides of this font could be that pink is seen as a girls colour so boys may not be interested in reading this magazine.



After deciding the previous font may be too focused on a female audience, i decided to draft a different masthead. Blue is a neutral colour so it would attract both genders of my target audience. Although blue seems abit lifeless and boring and thats not what i want people to think my magazine is like.


I wanted an eyecatching title so in this masthead i used non complimentary colours to attract the attention of students. This may be too different for some peope and may be seen as unappealing if placed on a magazine cover.





This was my final draft of a masthead and i think its very effective as it may be black which is seen as a boring colour. Although the pink outline makes it stand out more and gives it a 'neon' feel which suggests fun and excitement.


After asking other students about which masthead they think would be best for the front cover. They decided that my last one was the best choice for the reasons that i have stated. Its different and exciting but not too outrageous, this makes it the perfect choice for my front cover. 

Flatplans for my magazine cover

Preliminary Proposal


My magazine shall be aimed at college students both male and female. Traditionally college students are around the age of 16-18 so i shall be aiming my product at that age range. The typical content of my magazine will contain information on college events, any changes that the students may be experiencing within the college. I will also include information on competitions that students can take part in to win prizes also i will include information on universities and students loans. A few ideas i have for my magazines title are "College Your Way" "College Life" "Student News" "The Students Guide". I decided to choose "College Life" as i believe this is the title that my target audience will most relate to and make them want to read my magazine.


So far i have thought i might use fonts such as Times New Roman or possibly Wide  Latin. I have decided i will be using Wide  Latin because it stands out and i think it represents my target audience more than Times New Roman as it is large, different and full of life. My magazine will be released just after every half term as i think this will be the time when students have finished all their work over the break and will be ready to return to college and find out if any changed have happened while they have been away. I will be using an image of a student most likely at a medium close-up camera angle. This image would be the best to use as it shows that other students are involved and shows that the students can relate to the magazine.


I have decided i will release my magazine in A4 format, this means that the magazine could be easily carried in most bags so that the students would not feel encumbered by it. The colours i shall be using on my front covers will be bright and vibrant. Possibly using Pinks and Blacks
because these colours would make the magazine stand out differently to any other magazine and would appeal to both genders of my target audience.

IPC Media research:

IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while their websites collectively reach over 20 million users every month. 

Pinpointing exactly how far IPC's roots stretch back into the midst of publishing history is a complicated business. The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the merger of the UK's three leading magazine publishers – George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications – who came together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). And IPC Magazines was created five years later, in 1968. But those three original magazine businesses each had their own illustrious history, having been established in 1881, 1890 and 1880 respectively, with a number of the titles they launched in the late 19th Century still being published today under the IPC umbrella. And when The Field, launched in 1853, joined the IPC stable in 1994 following the acquisition of Harmsworth Magazines, it saw their family tree reach back even further.

IPC media produce such magazines as

Nuts

NME

Look

Marie Claire

TV easy

And loads more.

IPC Media groups its current titles under three magazine divisions each focusing on a core audience.

Connect - IPC Connect's brands provide powerful reach, with its magazines read by 49% of all mass market women – that's eight million mass market women, while its digital brands reach 2.7 million adults. Connect's audience of mass market women are highly valuable and responsive main shoppers, responsible for the vast majority of UK purchasing decisions Mass market women

Southbank - IPC Southbank is the upmarket women's division, focusing on the two key markets of Fashion & Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest. Southbank is home to some of the most iconic magazine brands in publishing. Southbank provides a magazine for every stage in a woman's life. Their magazines offer unrivalled breadth and reach in the upmarket women's market, delivering a readership base of over nine million across two key sectors: Fashion & Women's Lifestyle and Home Interest.

Inspire - IPC Inspire is IPC's men's division. Its portfolio of 38 brands covers a huge spectrum of interests and includes famous names from Country Life and The Field to Nuts and NME.

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

In this modern day teen girl magazines are still a very popular source of celebrity gossip and finding out how to be 'popular' or the most good looking girl you can be. Question is should the media and people behind these magazines be posing these ideas to young girls. It seems that magazines will promote anything to get their magazines off the shelves and into some young girls hands. Some girls that buy these magazines can be as young as a child below 13. This is surprising as they cover such adult idea's as sex and how to improve your body. For example when you see most covers of girls magazines these days you see the main image of a 'perfect' women, an image of beauty that most girls would aspire to be like. These image are almost always photoshop rendered, so this is not giving young minds a good idea of what true beauty is. Also not everyone will have the typical 'long fair hair' that you see in most of these images as everyones taste is different but is this to say it is wrong to want to look different. This image and the taglines that would accompany it give the reader the idea that 'if they buy this magazine they will learn the secrets to looking this good' which is very misleading. Once more these main images seem to always be smiling which suggests that they are 'so happy because they look this good' which would further incourage a young mind to purchase the magazine and uncover the secrets. This view of 'attractivness before anything else' is not the idea we would want to put into a younger womens mind. We should be encouraging younger girls to treasure things such as logic and natural beauty instead of trying to get them to purchase the latest make-up product or telling them '5 steps to a hotter body'.

The focus on boys in these magazines is disturbing, should girls as young as 12 be worrying about how good they are at kissing or boyfriends in general. Mostly in these magazines boys are put in a negative light, mentioning 'cheating' and producing the idea that girls are above boys in many ways. But also boys are shown as somethign that women aspire to have and something that you need to look good to get. This tells young girls that boys do not appreciate things such as being smart as much as they appreciate 'the perfect body' or 'the perfect hair'. Girls of such a young age should not be given these ideas by media magazines and should learn about relationships/sex in other moderate ways such as the education system or parents. Young girls of this day and age are too influential to be putting these ideas in their head, they should be concentrating more on their education than looking better than their best friend.

 In conculsion i believe that what these magazines are suggesting in some cases is wrong. The focus on external beauty should be toned down alot but not erradicated. They could focus alot more on traits of personality and the concequences of being a bad person. Also the focus on boys and sex is unnessasary at such a young age, a young audience does not need to be told about 'sexting' and stories about celebrities ex boyfriends as this could give them the wrong impression about boys for the future. Parents should not let their children purchase these magazines without knowing what social ramifications that these media products can have on some people.

I have chosen to analyze a cover of Kerrang. This magazine is one of the most popular rock music magazine in the world and sells millions of copies of every issue. The main target audience of this magazine would be teenagers of around 15-19 mostly interested in rock music. Also musicians would be very interested in this magazine as it may provide them with inspiration. The main image of this magazine is an image of Dave Grohl who is the lead singer/guitarist of a rock band called 'Foo Fighters'. They are a band that have been around for a number of years but have become one of the most popular bands in the world due to their recent album release 'Wasting Light'. The main image would attract the attention of someone walking by it as it is a large close up of a well known rock icons face. A fan of the band or even someone that may not have heard them before would be attracted to this because of Dave Grohls face in the photo. He seems happy and slightly 'unhinged' which would attract a younger audience as they think that sort of thing is cool.

The masthead of this magazine is the usual Kerrang logo. The Kerrang logo is in all black with a white background so it stands out. The font is shattered slightly on every letter and this suggests that the magazine is 'loud' and 'exciting'. This would attract the target teenage rock audience as they like the idea of loud music and want a magazine that can provide them with articles about that music. Also Kerrang has an explanation after once again suggesting the loudness of the music/magazine. Over the masthead it mentions that the magazine is a 'Reading/Leeds special'. The target audience would be interested in this because they would either be going to these festivals or possibly be abit younger and want to hear about the festivals before they're old enough to go. Also another special on the page is the 'Free posters'. This would attract to the target audience as they are interested in the musicians in the magazine and would want to decorate their room with them. Also it mentions that that one of the posters is a 'Nirvana' poster.

This is Dave Grohls old band so therefore it is a link to the main image and would attract more fans of the band that are featured and rock music in general. At the bottom of the page the magazine mentions Drugs. These are things that are generally shunned by our modern society. This could attract the reader to read about the bands experiences with the drugs because they see drugs as a cool concept compared to how an old reader would see it as a bad thing to put in a magazine. Kerrang is a succesful magazine to teenagers of the age of 15-19, i think this magazine is a prime example of how they attract that audience so well.

• Body text - The main text on the page.
• Caption - Describes an image.
• Copy - Any words or pictures that go in the magazine.
• Crop - Cutting pictures to make them fit or to make them look better.
• Drop capital - Emphasizes the first letter of the first word in the first paragraph.
• Drop shadow - A shadow drawn on type or a picture to make it look as though it is raised off the page.
• Feature box - Highlights further information .
• Fillers - Small pieces of copy that fill in the holes of the magazine.
• Headers and Footers - Extra informations at the top and bottom of each page.
• Headline - The title of the feature or page.
• Images - Pictures, illustrations of photographs.
• Intro - A short piece written by the editor introducing the feature or page.
• Logo - Identifies the magazine.
• Photo credit - Identifies the photographer.
• Pull-out quote - Some text copied from the article and pasted in a box or in bold type that makes you read the page.
• Reversed-out text - White type on a coloured or black background.
• Spread - Two pages together.
• Subhead - A word or phrase that breaks up large amounts of texts.
• Typo - A typing error.

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HOW I THINK BLOGGER WILL BE USEFUL FOR MY COURSEWORK

• I believe that Blogger will be helpful for me as it allows me to update my coursework easily and regularly.
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