Using many inspiration magazines, ranging from the hip hop genre (VIBE) to rock (NME), I have decided to base my music magazine around the Hip Hop/RnB genre. I have looked at how a single figure of a model has been used to be a main focus on the front covers of a music magazine and this has helped me to decide on what my front music page cover should be like. This challenges conventions of existing magazines as the main focus would be used as a lure and to grab the audience's attention.
The main factor was to research on different music magazines and find out what is needed to be included in a magazine. This meant I have to deconstruct the magazine conventions and analyse them and look at them in more detail. With the different magazine I compared the masthead, straplines, layout, colours, contents and the articles. With comparing the magazines, I found out how the genre and target audience of the magazine reflects the colours, use of language, font size and layout. The images and colours used for the magazine were different for example, NME magazine has more dark colours to it with gives it a Gothic look and also the images used for it was mainly the punk type of people, which meant that the genre of the magazine was Rock. Whereas, a hip hop magazine VIBE, a completely contrasting magazine to NME had used more bright colours. This showing that it appeals to the target audience as the hip hop clothing style is full of bright colours. With this research, I applied these conventions to my main production. I identified the masthead and straplines that would be suitable for magazine and made them appealing to the target audience. For example, my masthead was large, red which made it stand out and a graffiti styled font which straight away appeals to the hip hop genre. I also used the name 'Freshh' for my magazine because this is a colloquial term for looking good and having style. Also it is a term referred by some people when they comment on a song, for example they may attempt to say 'this beat is fresh' which means that the beat of the song is really good. Using a colloquial term for my masthead reaches out to my target audience as this is the language often used by the young audience, instead of formal language. For the main image of my music magazine, I used a mid-shot of a female and made it cover the whole page. But this time I put the masthead in front of the image because I wanted the masthead itself to stand out and present what type of magazine Freshh will be. My straplines and lures were put around my main image and used contrasting to the background so it stands out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My music magazine represents young music artists between the ages of 16-24 of different ethnicity's. This is because in the music industry, the hip hop genre is associated with so many different races from Black, White, Asian and Hispanic etc. I have shown this by using these different ethnicity's of both sexes for my front cover and contents page. This means that my magazine appeals to all nations and therefore will form an interest in my magazine. By reaching out to the different ethnicity, this would mean that my magazine has a much wider audience. Also I have challenged the stereotypes of hip hop music through using an Asian person for the main focus of my magazine as there are hardly any Asian music artists in the music industry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It would be appropriate to sell my music magazine in newsagents across the UK. Not many places outside London sell hip hop magazines so I think this would be an advantage to the people that are interested in this genre. Also by selling it in the newsagents or supermarkets, the magazine would easily be available to the public. As I have put a price of £2.00, this should be easy and affordable for my target audience to purchase. I think that many independent shops would benefit from distributing Freshh music magazine because there is a wide range of audience who are interested in hip hop. I have also included a web-site as Freshh Magazine's target audience are frequent computer users, so this means that sneak peeks of the magazine can also be seen online and you can also purchase the magazine on the online website.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The audience of my music magazine would be aimed at young adults between the ages of 16-24 of both sexes. Freshh music magazine appeals to the hip hop genre and therefore would appeal to the hip hop and rap music lovers and also RnB as this genre is also quite similar to hip hop. The magazine has covered three genres so this should make a large audience. I have also looked at a audience who are frequent users of technology and computer and spend a lot of their relaxing time to listen to music. As I have targeted the 16-24 year olds, this would mean that they would spend a lot of their time studying so therefore may look at a magazine of diversion. In other cases, Freshh Magazine is also seen as a important source of socialisation as it features new music updates, upcoming music stars, fashion etc. The language that I have used for the magazine is colloquial so this would also appeal to the hip hop audience as this language is mostly used in the everyday life. Using colloquial language gives an impression for freedom of speech as it is not formal. As this is the sort of language used for this magazine, it also gives out an idea of freedom in your own lifestyle.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The methods I used to attract the audience of my publication was that first I did a survey to find out if the use of celebrity in magazines affects the purchasing of a magazine. The result came out showing that celebrities do affect most peoples purchase of a magazine so I took this into consideration and used a 'new' appealing upcoming UK music artist for the front cover to attract the audience.
Questionnaire Question and results:
Does the use of celebrities in magazines affect your purchasing?
Yes- 75%
Sometimes - 24%
No - 1%
Also as my music magazine is aimed at young adults who are interested in the hip hop genre, I have used colloquial language throughout my magazine. An example is shown on my front cover where I have used words such as "dibble" and "dabble". These are colloquial terms which interact with the audience as they use these words a lot in their everyday life.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the process of constructing my music magazine, I have used many new technologies that I have never used before. Firstly was the Apple Mac. This helped me create my contents page and front cover easily on Photoshop CS3 which is also another new technology that I have come across. I have also used Pages for my double spread which can only be used on Apple Mac so this was an advantage of learning another skill from the Apple Mac. I also used a digital camera to take my pictures which then was transferred onto the computer via USB wire.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I look back at my preliminary task of designing the front page of my school magazine, I feel that I have progressed in many new skills. In the preliminary task I did a flatplan for my school magazine which I roughly sketched in pictures and added in the text I wanted on my pages. Doing the flatplan gave me a head start into producing my school magazine as I knew what I was doing. So I took this into consideration and also produced a four page flatplan for my music magazine. For my preliminary task, I have reflected as much as possible on the school, so this meant that it would involve the multicultural society and both genders as much as possible. Doing this helped me to undertake my real publication. So this meant that I have to replicate as much as possible on the hip hop genre in order to produce a suitable music magazine. Doing the preliminary task helped me in order to produce the music magazine much better and professionally as I had a good practice on it first and I knew what I was doing.
EBONY
THIS MAGAZINE COVER WAS A INSPIRATION TOWARDS MY MUSIC MAGAZINE BECAUSE OF THE USE OF CONTRASTING COLORS WHICH HELPS THE WHOLE MAGAZINE ITSELF STAND OUT.
