Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task, I was to design the front page of a magazine for either a school or a college. I took photographs of my friend looking 'bored' so that my main cover article 'bored with revision" would relate well to my image. I added other text advertising other features of the magazine and created a main heading for my magazine "Marys High."

As you can see below, is my front cover and layout for a contents page. 

I am pleased the the outcome of my magazine cover, it looks like the magazines that I have previously researched and the colours contrast well, the text is in proportion and the fonts that i have used were carefully selected by relating well to the image and magazine type. 

However when creating my actual magazine cover for my music magazine, i will be sure to include more text and features to make the magazine look busy and attractive. 

Double Page Spread Article Research and anaylsis

For the double page spread that I am to create, I am going to study music journalism to find out what definate skills are required. I will look at the blend in features on my artist of quotation, paraphrase and journalistic prose.
When researching music magazine double page spread articles, I noticed that all magazines approach them differently. NME's articles are worded very differently to Q magazine and so when creating my double page spread, I too need to be unique and word my article differently from the magazines that already exist in order for my article to interest readers and not only draw the readers in, but keep them interested and inticed the whole way through the article.

Contents Page Analysis

As I have to also design a contents page to include in my magazine, I decided to research and analyse the contents page in current music magazines. Below are a couple of images of contents pages from the music magazines Q and NME.

They are both very different with the Q contents page much more simple with an image being the most dominant part of the page whereas the actual contents is minimal and simple. This allows the reader to firstly look at the image then focus their attention onto the contents text, which stands out and makes it easier for the reader to read and find the page they are looking for much more quickly. I particularly like this design as it is very simple with the contents clearly standing out due to the one image in the background. All the information needed in on the page without any complicated design or irrelevant text. This contents page is a positive inspiration for the creation of my own contents page.

NME's contents page is much more detailed and complex than Q's contents page.

The actual contents of the magazine have been separated under different headings which does make it easier to navigate and find the particular page that the reader is looking to read.

Down the left had side of the contents page is a "band index which helps the reader find a specific band inside of the magazine. However this looks complicated and the white background looks unattractive to read and monotamous.

Stories that can be found on the cover are navigated by a small red arrow which makes it easier and quicker for the reader to find the story.

Inbetween the two content is columns are two pictures with a small story underneath, this is a taster to give the reader and idea of what the rest of the magazine will be like. However this does not make the page a strict contents page. Although, adding the story makes the page more interesting and fills the large gap between thr two colums. The fact that a astory was used about Oasis, makes the story more appealing as they will be recognised amonst the British audience. If the story wasn't there then the writing would go against the the common conventions of NME.

Thisa contents page is very busy with different sized fonts and colours but it also has a sensible layout with headings and sub headings,allowing it to be easier to find certain pages.

Contents Page Research

The role of a contents page is basically self explanatory, it lists the contents of the magazine and what the magazine contains. This page is usually the first page the reader will come across and so it needs to be attractive, therefore the rest of the magazine will automatically become appealing to the reader.
As the contents page determines whether the magazine is what the reader is looking for, the most popular and important parts of the magazine should stand out to ensure more sales and attract more readers.

Further Magazine Analysis

Above, I have analysed the front cover of a Rolling Stone magazine which also gave me a clear idea of what I am to include in my magazine. 

Magazine Analysis

When looking at the magazines that I had researched, I noticed that despite the variation in headings, sub headings, fonts, colouring and imagery, the layouts are all very simular. They all have the magazine name in big bold letters at the very top of the magazine, a dominant image and headings with subheadings to reveal what else the magazine has to offer inside.
Magazines have also changed over time to adapt to modernization. As my music magazine represents modern music, I feel that my magazine has to connotate this and so I looked at magazine adaptation over time to get a feel for a modern style magazine.
Below is a transformation of music magazine "SMASH HITS" from 1987 to more recent times.



Looking at the two magazines there is a clear change in logo, colours, graphics, imagaery, layout etc.The logo is much more 'pop' looking with the colours bright and attractive. It also has an attractive font type that looks modern, therefore going well with the magazine. The logo also lowers the age of an appropriate audience as it looks appealing to a much younger audience than the older version of the magazine.
The layout and contents of the cover are a lot busier than the older version creating more excitement and a higher attractive factor about the magazine. There is a bright background but only slight sections of it can be seen as the images, texts and vector images are only allowing small bits of the background to be seen.

The reason that the newer version of this magazine looks more like a pop magazine, is due to the bright colours, the busyness of the cover and the use of vector, more graphic images.

Research

This part is all my own initial research that allowed me to find out more about music magazines and get inspiration and ideas so that I can move foward successfully in my creation of my own music magazine.

Facts and Figures
Ciculation reporting firm ABC, had some disapoining news for UK music magazines: readers are getting their music news elsewhere.
Q lost 8,000 readers over the last 6months, NME lost 8000 readers and Kerrang! lost 17,000 readers
January-June 2008 Circulation (Prior 6months)

• Classic Rock 66,632(67,339)
• Kerrang! 60,294 (76,937)
• Metal Hammer 48,540 (45,809)
• Mixmag 34,073 (35,817
• Mojo 106,367 (106 218)
• NME 56,284 (64,033)
• Q 113,174 (131,330)
• Rock Sound 22,527 (23,021)
• Word 33,775 (33,217)

Music Research

As I have chosen to create a magazine that promotes female artists who perform music from the genres of RnB, Pop and indie, I have decided to research the charts to see how many of the artists in this chart are females who specialize in my choice of music genres. My theory is that the more female artists there are in the UK chart, the more popular my magazine will be due to the fact that if people in the UK like to listen to female solo artists and the genres of music RnB, pop and Indie, and so will enjoy reading about it too.

1. Kelly Clarkson- My life would suck without you.

2. Taylor swift- Love story.

3. Lady GaGa- Poker face

4. T.I Ft. Justin Timberlake- Dead and gone

5. Lily Allen- The fear 

6. Lady GaGa- Just dance

7. Kings Of Leon- Use somebody

8. Shontelle- T-shirt

9. Pussycat Dolls Ft. Misyy Elliott- Whatcha' think about that

10. Alesha Dixon- Breathe

As you can see from the above,  8 out of the 10  singles that are in the top 10 singles chart are by female artists who specialise in singing particulary RnB and Pop. From this evidence I can be sure that female artists are particulary popular in todays music industry. I therefore hope that my magazine will be just as popular.  

Music Magazine Research

For inspiration for my music magazine, I researched some current or discontinued music magazines that are already available to buy or have been in previous years. I found, when researching, that there are a only two kinds of music magazines. One for the rock/heavy metal genre, and one for the more pop side of music.
Below are some images of music magazines that I found from the two genres.

I noticed when having researched these magazines, that some are more appealing than other and i narrowed it down to two of my personal favourites, Rolling Stones and Q magazine.My reasons being that I feel they are the most attractive with the colours contrasting well and therefore looking much more appealing. Rolling stones has a very clear layout with a much lighter backgound which allows the images and dominant text to stand out.

Most music magazines feature agenda-setting news, the UK's most comprehensive gig guide, definate reviews of the weeks's hottests gigs, tracks, albums and fiery comments from the nations most opinionated . These are the kinds of things that readers are thirsty for in a music magazine and so I will include these in the creation of my very own music magazine, in order to attract readers.

Design and magazine type determines the audience of which the magazine is distributed to and so I will be using a modern design to go with the music genre and gender audience, therefore my magazine will appeal to all people of anyone interested in music of popular genres such as RnB, Pop and Indie.

Introduction and Initial Ideas.

Welcome to my blog! :)

For my practical project, I am going to create a music magazine using In-Design and desktop publisher. I decided to create this rather than a film clip, as I wanted to work independantly and felt I would be more creative in creating this than a film. Below are some inital ideas that sprung to mind after deciding on what I wanted to do for my project.

Magazine Name

All magazines have a unique name that in some way reflects the contents and genre of the magazine.
I have chosen "sound" as the name of the magazine as it is the sound of the music that determines whether of not the listener likes the music. The word "sound" also denotes clearly what the magazine is about - music.

Magazine Target Audience
I have decided that my music magazine, will target mainly females, as my magazine is based on solo females in the music industry today. I have also decided that the target audience for my magazine ranges from young girls, aged 14 to young women aged 30. I decided on this target audience as I feel that there are more and more female artists being launched into the music industry and there is a huge gap in the market for magazines that represent these people.

Magazine Genre
The magazine contains entertainment and information of music variety . Genres included are:

• RnB
• Pop
• Indie

I chose these genres of music as there does not appear to be many music magazines that cover more than one particular genres in one magazine. Magazines such as NME, Kerrang! and Rock Sound, all represent one particular genre where as my magazine with contain a variety of music, therefore appealing to a wider audience.