Music Magazine Questionnaire

1. How old are you?

16 [ ]

17 [ ]

18+ [ ]

2. What type of music are you into?

R’n’B [ ]

Hip-hop [ ]

Rock [ ]

Pop [ ]

Classical [ ]

Indie [ ]

Grime [ ]

Other [state... ]

3. Do you buy a magazine because...

...of the look of the front cover [ ]
...of the context [ ]

4. Which magazine would you prefer?

One with lots of colour [ ]

One with a few colours (2/3 different colours) [ ]

5. On your music magazine do you prefer?

One main artist to dominate the cover [ ]

Various artist on the cover [ ]

6. Inside the magazine, do you prefer?

An article with mostly writing and one main picture [ ]

An article with minimum writing and loads of pictures [ ]

7. Do you like a magazine with a colour sceme?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

8. How much would you spend on a magazine?

£1.00 - £1.99 [ ]

£2.00 - £2.99 [ ]

£3.00 - £3.99 [ ]

£4.00+ [ ]

9. How often do you buy a magazine?

Daily [ ]

Weekly [ ]

Monthly [ ]

10. Do you like a magazine with loads of writing on the front cover?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

11. What do you prefer on the front cover?

Male [ ]

Female [ ]

Both [ ]

12. Is it easier to buy a magazine with big bold bright colours?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

Analysis of a double page spread for music magazine

Analysis of a Double Spread Music Magazine

This double page spread is in vibe magazine, as I said in my analysis of a front cover they like to make the artist the main focus of the layout. The setting of this double page spread is that there is a picture of Singer Solange Knowles in large in colour, then 8 small images of her in a grey scale. The effect of this on the audience is that it makes us see that it is indeed all about her, and the fact that the smaller images are her dancing which brings the connotation of a stereotypical young girl just trying to have fun showing her bubbly personality. It also can be seen as everything is in a grey scale apart from the large image of her which always attracts the reader to look there.The costume that they have used in this double page spread denotes of a short red prom style dress with 'strappy' purple and pink high heels and a little fur coat. The short red prom dress style dress has many connotations, firstly it is stereotypical for a young girl to have a short dress due to the fact that she wants to show off her legs as the young generation like to show off as much skin as possible because they think that is what beautiful is. Also the colour of the dress is effective because red implies fiery, fierce, intensity and stands out in a crowd this could reflect her personality therefore the costume speaks for her she doesn't have to make her poses extreme. The heel has an impact on the audience because it makes the illusion of her legs looking longer and thinner. The little fur coat she has on can imply that she has a wild side. Her hair denotes to the audience big volume curls which connotes fun, carefree and adventurous character.There are not many stand-out props that we see in this double page spread the only one we see is the jewellery that she is wearing. This connotes that she is playful and one of the necklaces is colourful and the other one is long and gold which has effect on the audience telling them the she has money and she likes to flaunt it.In this double page spread the NVC (non verbal communication) shows us on the larger image of the singer shows that her facial expression is telling the audience she is bored or she is not really bothered, also the position of her arms is behind her back which can imply she is an open person or maybe she is vulnerable due to the position of her legs. However, the 8 different small images that is in the grey scale the NVC in them are fun, lively and playful. This therefore contrasts with the grey scale which is meant to be seen a boring but the poses/images are vibrant so it stands out. Vibe magazine has used both sans serif fonts and serif fonts, for the big headings they used the sans serif fonts, this has an effect on the audience because it tells them that it is modern and it catches their eye. But the serif font for the whole text shows us that they want to keep it balanced so they have an element of traditional in the writing. This is effective as this is the same sort of idea they had for the images, they wanted to do contrasts.

Analysis of a music magazine front cover

Analysis of a Front Cover of a Music Magazine

The setting of this music magazine ‘VIBE’ is that there is a main photo of Chris Brown in the middle with overlapping the masthead. Chris Brown overlapping the title connotes that he is an important factor on this magazine front cover. The writing on the on the magazine is around the photo, it is either large and old or just bold and in white green and some red. The effectiveness of the boldness is to captivate the reader, having the writing in mainly green and white shows us that its fresh new hot topics that is on the front. The writing that is in red tells us that it is extremely hot on topic, and red also tells us that it is burning fiery information. The contrast of the black against red can also connote that it’s a sinful, dark secret. In the background there is concrete, which can connote that, strong, indestructible which could represent that the magazine stands out of the crowd. However it could also be seen that the background is so basic as there is not much going on there because they don’t need to loose the main focus away from the photo in the middle.

The costume that is used in the magazine front cover is a royal red t-shirt and indigo jeans with two gold chains around his neck, a big watch, bracelet, and a belt with silver plate on the clasp and a flat peak hat. The significance of the singer wearing normal everyday clothes is to show that it is relax and comfortable vibe towards the audience. Also the red t-shirt is a contrast to the whole magazine front cover as it is what stands out the most. The jewellery he wears tells us that he has lots of money and he wants to flaunt it so everyone knows hes young and getting money. His hat is sitting half way on his head, this is stereotypical for young people because they use the hat a sign of fashion and not for the actual purpose of what a hat is for which is to protect your head/face from the sun or prevent cold.

On the front cover of this magazine cover they made sure there were no props. This brings the connotation that there is only one important thing and it is the artist in the middle, which makes a reflection that the magazine is straightforward and easy to understand.

The lighting used in this front cover is high-key lighting which in this cover is quite homogeneous; it is bright and is free from dark shadows. The connotation of high-key lighting is stereotypically angelic, innocent, goodness and joy. However the image of the artist contrasts with the high-key lighting due to the non verbal communication.

The NVC (non verbal communication) that is denotes Chris Brown with his hands in his pockets with his arms spread from his body this can connate that he is showing a hard front, trying to make himself look as big as possible therefore making him looking as intimidating as he can. His body language gives off the impression that he is a relaxed type of person due to his hands just being in his pockets and his posture is slouched so it shows us that is lazy or it can imply that he is he rebels against society as he doesn’t want to have an upright posture, this is stereotypical of the young generation not caring. The artists’ facial expression shows aggression but at the same time he give off the look that he just doesn’t care. He is looking straight on which tells us he is trying to make a connection with the audience and the fact that his lips are closed and have tension in them has the effect on the audience that it is hard to get him to say certain things, he is a closed type of person which means he doesn’t want to open up.

The shot that they used in this front cover is a mid-shot this is effective on the audience because they can see more body language and also unlike a long shot you can see more facial expression to see the emotion of the artist. It is taken from a straight on angle with a standard lens type. The composition is symmetrical and the focus of the photo taken is sharp, this is important because it makes it more eye catching for the audience just to focus their attention straight to the artist, and the background is not as sharp.

Vibe magazine uses is sans serif font, this shows the audience that it is modern and this also tells us the target of the audience that it appeals to the young generation.

Introduction of Main Task

In the main task we did an analysis on the front cover and a double spread cover. Then we have to do a questionnaire to find out what type of music magazine will attract your audience and then put the results into graphs. Then we have to take a picture to put on our front cover page to reflect the genre of the magazine. Also we have to create along side the front cover but also a contents page and a double-page spread. We have to sketch of the music magazine.

Evaluation of Preliminary

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In my college front cover I used a master head, medium close-up image and cover lines. All these are stereotypical magazine conventions. I developed the convetion of the stereotypical masthead as i used a fun font which attrects the target audience as using stereotypical fonts such as aerial can bore the audience before they have even started reading the magazine.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The magazine front cover tries to include every type of individual as it has cover-lines that includes most aspects in school/college life. Therefore not trying to leave people out making it universal.

Q3. How did you attract/address your audience?

I profiled the audience with a questionnaire and put it into graphs. Also i used a young male around the same age as the profiled audience on the front cover to draw their attention so they know its reaching out to them.

Q4. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt how to use photoshop and do various techniques. The techniques i used for the magazine front cover and the contents page are cropping (using the lasso tool), also how to make a drop shadow/inner shadow, make new layers, contrast, brightness, and sharpness.

Q5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your final product?

The strengths of my final product:

1. It had good research to get to the final product (profiling the audience).

2.. It reflects the task (you will know that it is something to do with school/college)

3. The contents page uses a range of different techniques.

The weaknesses of my final product:

1. The front cover isn’t as attractive as it could of been.

2. The picture crop was messy.

3. 3It could of had a more significant relfectiong of school/college.

Contents Page for College Magazine

Front Cover of a College