Genre - The genre of music I have chosen for my magazine is 'POP'.
I have decided to base my music magazine on pop music. I personally like a variety of music, but the majority would be 'chart music'. I would know the type of artists and bands that would be included and what would be expected of a typical pop music magazine.
'Pop Music' is a very broad genre of music as it literally means 'popular music'; a lot of genres such as rock and R&B can fall into 'pop music'. An artist like 'Beyonce' would be classed as an R&B singer but she is also known as a pop singer - she also can fall into rap as she does a lot of songs with rappers such as 'Jay Z'.
I am constantly surrounded by pop music; it is the music that me and my friends like. I listen to BBC Radio 1 - this is a radio for popular music and a lot of different genres fall into this - rock, R&B, rap, hip-hop, country, soul, funk/dance etc.
History of Pop Music
The term 'pop song,' was first used in 1926 for of a piece of music having a popular appeal.
Pop music really hit Britain in the mid-1950's - it was the description of 'new youth' music styles such as Rock and Roll.
In the early 1960's the term ‘pop music’ was officially associated with 'beat music' in England, while in the USA it overlapped with ‘Rock and Roll’.
Pop music has always linked with rock music, but over the years the style of music has changed along with the type of people that listen to it; in the past few years rock and pop music have slowly separated into their own genre.
Pop music has always linked with rock music, but over the years the style of music has changed along with the type of people that listen to it; in the past few years rock and pop music have slowly separated into their own genre.
Pop music grew from vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, jazz, country, rock and orchestration from classical music and it is now based on the tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythm from hip-hop music, and has recently been focusing on rap.
Typical Instruments For Pop Music
* Vocals * Piano
* Electric Guitar * Synthesiser
* Bass Guitar * Acoustic Guitar
* Drums * Keyboard
Magazine Research
* Location
This cover does not have a 'location'. It is all different pictures taken and edited afterwards. As the pop genre is quite broad it may be hard to have a background that is suitable for them all.
* Images
This magazine consists of a lot of pictures, the majority of the pictures are professional photo shoots and have been edited 'air brushed' afterwards. I do like that the cover has a lot of pictures as it shows that it holds a lot of stories, however some people may think that it is too much to look at. Although, my primary target audience are quite young and a lot of today's magazines consist of many pictures.
* Layout of text
The title of the magazine 'top of the pops' is not actually that bold; the main story 'How to date JLS' id bolder and more eye-catching. As this is quite a popular magazine the title is not too important as people can see what magazine it is just by the font of text, the typical celebrities on the cover etc. The title is at the top of the magazine - but there is a story and 'BBC' logo above it; the main picture of 'JLS' is covering the title which shows how important the band are and their story. All of the sub-stories 'title' are in their own boxes next to its own picture which helps the layout look professional and easy to read.
* Text
You can tell what age group this magazine is aimed for by the language. 'How To Date JLS!'
Young girls are going to believe that this type of thing will happen - they will want to buy the magazine to see how they can date members of a popular band. 'Justin's Private Pics!' Again, young girls that are fans of Justin Beiber are going to want to see private pictures of ANY celebrity. 'My Secret Double Life' with Taylor Swift, this is also another popular celebrity singer that has a 'secret' and girls are going to love to have the 'gossip'. This type of magazine is music and gossip - usually meaning gossip about artists and bands with interviews about their new album coming out or something similar. These types of magazines call the celebrities by their first name - like the magazine is 'friends' with them, this gives the reader a more personal approach to both the magazine and the people in it.
* Colour Scheme
The colour scheme of this magazine shows the gender that it is aimed at; young females. The pinks and purples are stereotypically the colours that females like, so they have covered the whole magazine with these colours. Even the main band on the cover 'JLS' are wearing pink and purple to match the magazines colour schemes. The background of the cover is pink, so some of the sub-stories that are in separate boxes have different coloured backgrounds so that it stands out - dark blue, light blue etc.
* Location
This magazine does not have a location as such either - it must be at a professional photo shoot that is deliberately for this magazine cover. The smaller pictures at the bottom of the magazine are all different pictures and these all have backgrounds as the majority are either paparazzi pictures - taken at black tie events and at concerts ob stage.
This magazine does not have a location as such either - it must be at a professional photo shoot that is deliberately for this magazine cover. The smaller pictures at the bottom of the magazine are all different pictures and these all have backgrounds as the majority are either paparazzi pictures - taken at black tie events and at concerts ob stage.
* Images
The main picture of this magazine is on 'Lady Gaga'; in fact all of the pictures on the front cover are of 'Lady Gaga'. The main image shows what the artist is like, and if you have heard of her and know her music then this image is not surprising. You can see that the image is very edited - 'airbrushed' to make the artist look her best.
* Layout of text
The layout of the text looks quite professional - it is clear to read. The title of the magazine 'Smash Hits' is at the top, like a typical magazine. The main image is over-laying the title to draw the readers eyes to the title from the image. The main story is about 'Lady Gaga' so this is the clearest text. The sub - stories text is to the right of the cover which is very clear to see and well layed out.
* Text
The text on this magazine is very extravagant - words like 'BIGGEST' and 'CRAZY' make the stories seem very fascinating which obviously gets the readers attention and gets them to want to read it. The writing is very blunt - which is a good thing. It gets to the point, it's catchy and makes it seem a lot more interesting. 'THE WORLDS BIGGEST STAR UNCOVERED' gets the audience interested as 'Lady Gaga' is a very famous singer. The target audience would be interested to find out more about this famous artiste so the magazine is just selling a good gossip story to get them to buy and read the magazine.
* Colour Scheme
The colour scheme of this magazine is also very good - it looks very professional. The plain white background works really well as the text them stands out and it is a lot more eye catching. The title 'Smash Hits' is in bold red text and some of the sub-stories are written in red. The main story of 'Lady Gaga' is written in black; this matches the outfit that she is wearing - this is good professional colour coordination. Other colours such as yellow are used for other important things like - 'FREE POSTERS'; this helps that information stand out amongst the rest.
* Location
This magazine does not have background either. It is similar to the others in the fact that it is a professional photo shoot with a plain white background. I really like this idea as it is a lot easier to add pictures without the background being distracting and making the magazine look unprofessional.
* Images
The main image 'Calvin Harris' takes up the majority of the cover; this is good to grab the audiences attention. This image is professionally taken - with the artist deliberately dressed to suit the 'pop' genre and to get recognised. The only other picture on the cover is of 'Carl Cox' at the bottom. This is obviously the main sub-story with not a lot of information but a picture that will tell the audience who it is as they will recognise him.
* Layout of text
The text is layed out quite differently to the other magazines. Apart from the mastered, the text is all slightly slanted to the left. The 'CALVIN HARRIS' title is the first slanted text that you see, and you can see that it is slanted because behind it are slanted lines - perhaps to represent a musical stave which relates to the genre of the magazine. You can't clearly see the text very well on this picture but the layout of the stories is well thought out - you can see clearly the main stories and then the sub-stories in smaller text.
* Colour Scheme
The colour scheme on this magazine cover is quite different. The plain white background with the artist wearing a white jacket is not something I would do as I think that it doesn't stand out - I think that is the point of having a plain background. The bold pink masthead is very eye catching; and the 'titles' of the magazine stories match with the pink. The main sub-story is in a separate box with a blue background - this is very outstanding but I think too outstanding. They could have got the story to be colourful and grab the audiences attention but more subtle and colour coordinated.
* Location
This magazine does not have a 'location' either; as like all of the above this looks like a professional picture - we know this because it is very bright with a very plain white background, and we can tell that it is very edited.
* Images
This magazine cover has got only one picture - the main story of 'Kelly Clarkson'. This picture shows the genre of music clearly - not just because she is very well known but the 'look' she has. She is not wearing any particular jewellery, glasses, hats, bizarre outfits, over-the-top make-up and has a very neutral facial expression.
* Layout of text
The title of the magazine 'BLENDER' is right at the top of the page with just an advert for free downloads above it. The title is overlaying the main image to show that the masthead is very important and should be one of the first things to see. The majority of the text is on the left hand side of the cover, this is normal to the reader as we read from left to right. There is just one bit of information on the right hand side of the cover which shows that it has been separated for a reason.
* Text
The text on this cover is very plain but colour coordinated. The three colours of text are black, red and grey - the masthead being black, the main story being red and the other information of the magazine is grey. Most of the text is on the left of the cover - this looks tidy and organised. The masthead is very big and bold -this is to catch the readers eye; the other main text is 'Kelly', this is the main story on the magazine - you know this because of the main image.
* Colour Scheme
The colour scheme of this magazine cover is white, black and red - this is very sophisticated and professional. On the main image she is wearing a white top with black and red on the front - this must be where they based the colour scheme on. The masthead is black - all of the other stories titles are in black, the information underneath is grey and the name of the artist on the cover is in red. The majority of magazines usually stick to three colours - this is what this magazine has done. The plain white background helps the black and red text stand out.
The colour scheme of this magazine cover is white, black and red - this is very sophisticated and professional. On the main image she is wearing a white top with black and red on the front - this must be where they based the colour scheme on. The masthead is black - all of the other stories titles are in black, the information underneath is grey and the name of the artist on the cover is in red. The majority of magazines usually stick to three colours - this is what this magazine has done. The plain white background helps the black and red text stand out.
My Magazine
Target Audience
The primary target audience for my magazine would be female teenagers aged 15 - 19. Pop music magazines are always typical for young girls, but I want to make mine for girls of this age as it is quite rare. The typical audience for my magazine would be young, female, who listens to radio stations like BBC Radio 1, watches reality television programmes and obviously has an interest in today's pop artists. My target audience is quite niche so I don't think it will be too hard to find the appropriate language for the magazine. I am going to do a questionnaire for my magazine audience - to see how much they would pay for a music magazine, what magazines they currently read and what radio stations they listen too - I would always ask them to state their age and gender so I can see what different ages like.
Questionnaire
I made a questionnaire to give me a better idea of who my target audience would be and what they like. I got the idea of aiming my magazine at young females who would listen to BBC Radio 1 and watch reality shows from doing this questionnaire and asking them questions. I printed out a lot of these sheets and gave them to friends and class mates to answer, I then looked at all of the results and got the idea of my target audience and what my magazine should include to meet the needs and expectations of this audience.Text Fonts
I have started to look at what type of fonts I will use on my magazine cover - what would be appropriate and suite the genre of music and target audience. It is really important as I will be sticking to the same few fonts I use on the cover for my contents page and double-page spread. Here are just a few examples-
Possible Mastheads
* Remix
* Hot Pop
* Top Tunes
* Pop
* Pulse
Images
This image is very plain and simple, looking at the camera with her hand on her hip. The clothes she is wearing do show pop music, so I need to take some more pictures with her wearing a different outfit. Florals and pink are always used when it some to girlie pop music.
I wanted to take some pictures with different poses, this is just one of them. Leaning forwards is a very feminine pose - with her hands on her hips with her hair in front. This is the edited version of the picture - ignoring the background as I still have to crop it and change the background white.
This image is another example of a different pose, her leaning slightly to the left scrunching her hair. She is wearing a floral dress - this represents girlie and pop music. Scrunching the hair shows a bit of the attitude of the artist. The background of this image is a plain white wall, however I am still going to crop it so I can make the picture brighter as it looks quite dim.
This image is not going to work - I wanted to do a pose where she would be holding her dress, like a'curtsy'. I don't the body language would suggest pop music, I don't think that it would have been taken seriously. It was simply to experiment with outfits and poses.
Front Cover Mock-Ups
Version 1
This is the first version of my magazine. I think that it represents pop music but I think that it contradicts what I said about doing a magazine for pop music but not aimed at young girls. The colour scheme doesn't really work - the pink, yellow and orange looks quite 'tacky'; to use these colours you would really have to make it work. On the banner at the bottom some of the writing is blue - this looks odd as there is no other blue on the cover. I do like the main image - the clothes she is wearing represent pop, the body language (slanting and scrunching her hair) can also be related to pop. The layout of this cover looks like it needs some 'tweeking', a lot of magazines have the layout more organised and professional. I like where the barcode, masthead, image and main story are placed. I need to make some changes to the layout of the text, the colour scheme and perhaps adding some more text and images.
Version 2
This is the second version of my magazine. Not a lot has been changed, but what has been changed has made a really big difference. The colour scheme is completely different - the masthead is now red/orange instead of pink/red, the banner at the bottom has had the background changed to orange instead of pink, the text on the banner is now yellow and black not blue and orange and some of the text has also been altered. The main story 'CAITI MAY' has been changed; it is not 3D, it is now orange and it is a bit smaller and has moved slightly to the left (more aligned). The main image has remained the same. I have added another image at the bottom left of the cover - this relates to another story in my magazine. The majority of the text in this cover has now been mover to the left, leaving it neat and tidier. The only other bit of text is the 'FREE POSTERS INSIDE' that is on the right of the cover. I definitely prefer this version to the first - it looks a lot more professional. I like the colour scheme of orange, yellow and white - a lot of music magazines stick to a very plain and simple colour scheme which can be very effective.
