1. My Urban Pop Music Magazine...Evaluation Karmen-Marie Parker

2. FRONT COVER! CONTENTS! DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD!

3. Question! In what ways does my magazine challenge and/or develop forms and conventions of existing magazines? I feel that my magazine abides by the many traditional conventions of existing music magazines but also challenges and develops many aspects of them also. FRONT COVER... Firstly, my magazine front cover consists of; a masthead, sell lines, a feature article, banners, barcode, date, issue number, tease, slogan and a central image. These are all things which fit in with the general conventions of a music magazine. The fact that the image is ordered behind the masthead is typical of magazines which have not yet established their brand and therefore need to ensure that their name is seen and recognized, this is different to magazines such as Rolling Stone who do not do this because their brand is established. Furthermore, the advertisement banner of my front cover is placed above the masthead across the magazine which is a very common place for the advertisement to be positioned. It attracts the readers attention before they even see the name of the magazine or the featured article. The featured article is the biggest text on the page and stands out second to that of the Masthead. This is common in magazines in trying to attract the consumers interest with a story that they may find appealing. The Teaser of “Rihanna’s Photoshoot” is in a bubble which has an angle. This is often seen with magazine teasers as by it being the only text with an angle it will attract the attention of the reader. On the other hand, my magazine cover challenges the tradition of many of the other existing magazines as the page is very busy with a lot going on. This is not usually seen with magazines nowadays, but I feel that this relates heavily to the Urban Pop genre. Also, the fact that the barcode is at a 90 degree angle develops the convention of existing magazines and makes it ore appealing to y target audience. It is young and lively. Lastly, the cut and pastes nature of the pictures and text used on the cover can be related to the theme once again. Whereas, existing magazines have a clean cut professional look which I didn’t really want to do too much. My Front Cover... Like most magazines, I kept the same group of stylised text throughout.

4. DPS... My Double Page Spread was based on the layout of an NME magazine where the image was on one side of the page and the text on the other. I thought that this presentation was neat and comprehendible which my audience would want. It conforms to the traditional layout of an interview in the question and answer format. I chose to do it this way because any other way would have been too confusing for the reader. Also, it creates the feeling that you are there at that particular moment in time that the interview is taking place, heightening the effect of the emotion. Once again, I kept the same colour scheme so that it links with the contents page and the front cover. This, again is to create a recognisable aesthetic for my brand and also to create a USP (unique selling point). Like most music magazines, they feature information about when the artists next single/album is out and whether it is available to download which I included. Lastly, I developed the idea of making the magazines aesthetics link to the genre. This is what I did with this page, adding coloured stars (to relate to the artist) and colourful boxes – inspired by Andy Warhol’s pop art. CONTENTS... The contents of my magazine is mostly that of developed conventions and different ones altogether. For example; The feature article exists as the first main story that the reader will read (it is traditionally somewhere in the middle) I did this as the reader is most likely to buy the magazine due to the feature article, so I thought it only fair that this is the first thing that they see after the contents. Moreover, not all the articles or content of the magazine are listed, only the main ones. This is a development of the usual forms and conventions of a music magazine. It gives priority to the articles listed and the reader will have to find out what else in included by reading on. In addition, I chose not to add picture captions to anchor the articles as I felt that the one image would have a greater effect especially because it is the feature article. Also, I thought that too many pictures would make the page too busy and confusing for the reader. The Editors Note is not in the traditional place of the top left hand corner of the page. I chose to do this as the audience is more likely to read it after finding out what is in the magazine. I used the same form as NME magazine, which had large numbers to indicate the different pages that things were on. I felt that this would be more appealing for the reader and would be different than that of the same sized text. Also like NME I carried the colours fro m the front page onto the contents page as the colour scheme. This makes the pages link so that a brand aesthetic can be established. My Contents... My DPS... NME Magazine

5. Question! How does my magazine represent the particular social group(s) that my magazine is targeted at? The demographic of my target audience are males and females who are 16-20 year olds, a variety of ethnic backgrounds (mainly from black descent) and live in the East London area. The stereotype associated with this demographic are that they are rowdy teenagers, who are up to no good, don’t have an education and have one or two ASBO’s under their belt. My magazine attempts to divert societies attention away from this generalisation and represent them as creative, fun loving, happy, inspirational people who do have aspirations in life. Especially in relation to my selected artist (in the feature article), she has many ambitions in life for her future career in music, she has got a slight attitude (as revealed in the interview – which I wanted to portray), but that is seen as part of her urban upbringing; which many of my target audience members can relate to. This makes it more real for them so that they feel increasingly attached to the magazine. I feel that if my magazine did not represent the target audience that my magazine is circulated around, then they wouldn’t bother buy my magazine because they don’t feel emotionally attached/ linked to it in any way. Swearing

6. Question! What kind of institution would distribute my magazine and why? I feel that there will be a variety of institutions that may distribute my magazine for example; A book retailer such as WHSmith, a mainstream superstore such as Tesco’s and a variety of corner shops in the East London area where my target audience live and hang out in. Institutions such as Tesco’s and WHSmith are well known and popular; which will make sure that my magazine gets a lot of attention. Also, the fact that my magazine could be available in such high authority places such as these; my target audience will feel more accustomed to buy it, as they trust the decisions of shops like this. As many young people from my intended audience would go to these shops it would be an advantage for the retailers, as the audience is likely to buy other items from them whilst they are purchasing the magazine (therefore they earn more sales revenue) I feel that they would chose to distribute my magazine because it is colourful, young and positive. It is a friendly magazine with no negative associations, which means that it wouldn’t have a damaging effect to the brand name of the retailers. I think that it would be vital for my magazine to be available in corner shops, as due to the research of my target audience that I have taken. These are the places that they are most likely to visit to buy sweets and chocolate (things that they usually buy).

7. AUDIENCE MOODBOARD! Question! Who was the intended target audience for my magazine? Did it successfully achieve the aesthetics for this audience? The intended demographic of my target audience are males and females who are 16-20 year olds, a variety of ethnic backgrounds (mainly from black descent) and live in the East London area. I made an audience mood board full of all the things that these people like or are interested in. This was important for making vital decisions about the design and content of my magazine. Whilst making the magazine cover, contents and double page spread I kept in mind my target audience to make sure that it would be appealing to them. I found that whilst I was making each aspect, the target audience suited a more female orientated audience - not to say that males wouldn’t be attracted to it – the aspects just have a more female linked approach to it. After having asked males for their opinion of the magazine (some of the ones that I had previously surveyed), they said that it still appealed to them anyway.

8. MY SURVEY AND ANALYSED RESULTS To find out all that I needed to know from my intended audience, I conducted a survey full of questions in relation to what attracts them to a magazine and to find out the sort of things that they like. This gave me an advantage when it came to constructing my magazine cover, contents and DPS. I tried to make the questions as valid as possible, so that I could gain reliable results. I did this by asking open ended and closed ended questions, multiple choice questions and preference questions (ranking in an order). Because of this, I feel my magazine successfully achieved the aesthetic preferences of my intended audience. THE SURVEY...

9. I knew that would definitely attract my audience because it is a price that is reasonable and suits the results of my survey in relation to a question regarding the price of my magazine. Question! How did I attract/ address my audience? Attracting the audience... This puff/teaser attracted my audience as due to a survey that I had previously undertaken, it was apparent that many of the people asked liked Rihanna. Therefore, a photo shoot featuring her would interest them greatly. Addressing the audience... When addressing my audience, I made sure that I kept a friendly informal tone so that they could relate to the magazine. It would have a greater effect on them if slang (colloquial language) was used as this would not only relate to the genre of urban pop, but it would be a parallel to the audiences own upbringing and environment, which again, would make them more comfortable reading the magazine. I mainly attracted my audience using aesthetic features such as colour and design which they would like, colloquial language that they can relate to and an informal tone which will make them feel included and comfortable when reading the magazine. Moreover, I used persuasive techniques and inclusive language “you” all of this ensured that my audience was attracted to the magazine. I made this advertisement banner to attract my intended audience as people in this age group like gaining something for free. IMAGES FROM THE FRONT COVER *URBAN STYLISED FONT

10. PHOTOGRAPHY... I enjoyed taking photo’s for my magazine. This is because I knew what I was looking for, in relation to mise-en-scene of the model. I chose someone that I felt would represent Urban Pop the most and tried to keep the poses that they did and facial expressions related to the theme in order to attract the intended audience. It also helped that I had a scanned in plan (sketched) to follow when thinking of my photography. PUBLISHER... Publisher for me is the software that I am most comfortable using. It is relatively easy to achieve desired effects, but is not as professional as Photoshop. I used it for my cover, contents and DPS to create layouts (after having manipulated my images on Photoshop). This mix, I feel was more efficient for constructing my magazine and allowed me to work with my strengths. Question! What have I learnt about the various technologies through the process of constructing my magazine? PHOTOSHOP... I feel that my biggest achievement with making this magazine; has been my technical ability to work my way around the software of Photoshop. I knew from the preliminary task that I wanted to use it a bit more for the main task, to achieve a professional finish. However, as I didn’t really know much about it, I attended a Photoshop workshop to learn how to achieve the basic functions. From this, I learnt how to create an image like number 1 in which everything but the models cardigan is in black and white. Further on in the process of constructing my magazine, I became more confident with using Photoshop to make pictures blend into a background so that the overall effect on the audience is enhanced. 1 Publisher Sketch>>

11. Question! Compare what I have learnt between the Preliminary Task (School Magazine) and the Main Task (Music Magazine). Did the Preliminary Task help me when doing the Main Task? Main Task! Preliminary Task! CONTENTS FRONT CONTENTS DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

12. The Preliminary Task of the School Magazine was extremely helpful in preparing me for the main Task of the Music Magazine. I think that I learnt the basics in front cover and contents page making, but it didn’t allow me to prepare for the extent of the Double Page Spread as well (this is something that I went straight into and didn’t have any practice in so I used existing magazines to help me). The Preliminary Magazine taught me the basic forms and conventions of a magazine and where, traditionally, key aspects would be placed on both the contents and the front cover. For instance; The masthead is at the top, the image is central, the feature article is the second biggest text on the page etc. This allowed me to achieve a safe design that would be successful in attracting the attention of the desired readers. On the other hand, the main task taught me to take risks with the layout and design, as long as the intended audience was kept in mind throughout the process. Because of this, on the cover, I placed the masthead at the top, but underneath a banner that was an advertisement for a free pair of Ray-Bans. This is not typical of a magazines 1 st issue, but I made sure that the attention was still focused towards the name of the magazine (as this is important for future recognition). There were a wider variety of colours used, to relate for the theme, that were equally as loud and exuberant as each other, this was a risk, but one worth taking to make sure the magazines colour theme related to the Urban Pop genre. I feel that the Preliminary Task was much more specific and to the point in comparison with the Main Task. Firstly, the audience was restricted to people within the 6 th Form (as this was the main audience for the magazine) so this made research easier and more efficient, whereas the Main Task allowed freedom in my chosen audience as long as it was significant to the chosen genre of music. Secondly, the layout and design needed to be quite basic and professional as there was a possibility that the school governor or parents would also read the magazine, again, this was dissimilar to the Main Task as the layout and design could be as exaggerated and bold as I wanted (and this was good as this is the style of Urban Pop). The preparation for my Main Task was much more intensive than the Preliminary, I improved my skills with the software Photoshop so that I was able to achieve much more with my magazine. Because of this, I feel that the outcome of the Music Magazine far outweighs the outcome of the Preliminary one. Overall, I learnt that following your own brief and researching ideas for yourself like for the Main Task is very difficult when creating a magazine, but something that has to be done in order to achieve your own vision successfully.