Music Magazine - Evaluation

1. Music Magazine - Evaluation By: ASHISH HIRANI

2. Forms and Conventions • My magazine, including the Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread (pictured to the right), follows the forms and conventions of real music magazines, therefore doesn’t subvert them. • FRONT COVER - My front cover has a main image which is the focal point, it has a barcode, issue number and price. It has cover lines and most importantly is had a masthead. • CONTENTS PAGE – My contents page has got a masthead saying CONTENTS, it mentions the name on the magazine again to get a sense of them being connected to each other, it has got all the featured articles mentioned on it and again most importantly is has got page numbers which the most important thing on a contents page to give the reader information about where to find things.

3. Forms and Conventions - continued • DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD – my double page spread had a conventional 50-50 editorial to image split, the page number, a article title and introduction and finally the main article in the form of an interview with the focal music artist. • Overall, I chose to follow most of the conventions of a real music magazine, therefore keeping the originality and keeping it simple.

4. Representational Issues • Due to my magazine being based around the urban music genre, which is mainly revolved around and associated with African Americans, it represents them as being artists who have turned their lives around for the better. Urban music has a lot of meaning to it and mainly it is about the artist and their personal life achievements and attributes. It represents African Americans as being people who have tried to better their life even if they didn’t get to the best of starts.

5. Institutions • My magazine would be try and sold on a national level rather than local. It would be sold in many of the big stores either associated with music magazines or magazines in general. Those stored would be those such as HMV, WHSmiths, Boots, and supermarkets. Therefore I have put a hefty price tag on it at £2.50 as people shopping in those kind of stores would be willing to pay such a price. The reason for me putting a high price on it is because it is a new exciting magazine and would easily attract a lot of custom.

6. Target Audience • My main target audience would be those aged between 16 and 30. urban music has mature content, by that I mean strong language and violence which includes guns and knives, therefore the starting age at 16. the sort of ending age of the target audience is 30 because urban music is a fairly new genre and people older than 30 may not have much interest in it or the magazine. As well as the age, the magazine is targeted at a certain ethnic group, which is African Americans. The reason for this is that urban music originates from African Americans and there are many African American artists which perform and record within that genre, therefore by targeting the magazine at that ethnic group will help readers to relate to the music artists they are reading about.

7. Addressing the readership • Attactting an audience as young as the one I have targeted my magazine at is not the easiest thing to do. However young people are always enticed when they think that they are getting more than they bargained for and by that I mean putting in many promotional offers and chances for them to win things within the magazine in every issue to keep them interested and keep them coming back to the same magazine week after week. Therefore there will be many promotional offers, coupons and chances for readers to win things within the magazine each issue. By doing this the readers will things that they are getting a lot more than they have paid for and it keeps them happy.

8. Technical/Construction Issues • During the construction of my magazine I have learned a lot more about technology and how things can be manipulated to exactly hoe you want it to look. There are many software packages available to help with this. • MICROSOFT PUBLISHER – Microsoft publisher is a common software package that I used to help edit my text and pictures around on my front page, contents page and my double page spread. • PHOTOSHOP – Photoshop I think was the most important piece of software that I used to construct my magazine. Photoshop allows you to manipulate photos to extreme levels therefore allowing users to make the picture exactly how they wish them to be.

9. Technical/Construction Issues - continued • I have also learned about the importance of photography for various parts of the magazine. The front cover required one image of the focal artist preferably taken as a long or medium shot as to get the waist up therefore detail. There are also many camera shots to think about, compositions, lighting, height of the shot and the clarity. • Constructing my magazine has allowed to explore with all those technical aspects and improve my skills at each of them. I have excelled my skills using photoshop the most and have used it to edit my main image for the front cover as well as constructing the front cover itself, the contents page and the double page spread.

10. Premilinary Task to Main Task • Below are images of both my preliminary task which was the school magazine and the main task which was the music magazine.

11. Premilinary Task to Main Task • My preliminary task was a major help in helping to create my final piece for the main task. I was able to gain experience on the conventions of a real magazine. • My prelimenary task was created on microsoft publisher and didn’t look very professional, that can not be said for my main task which was created using photoshop which allowed me to make it exactly how I had imagined it. • My school magazine helped me to understand what is required to make a good magazine, and what is essential to help make things more attractive to the reader. • By doing the prelinenary task I have been able to produce a much better final piece