Evaluation

In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?

The research I did before I started making my media product was good, because it made me understand the conventions of the genre of my music. The conventions I had followed were a chart board Hip-Hop/RnB genre, which would have the latest charts of music as well as news on Hip-Hop/RnB scene. There are a lot of similarities within my front cover and Billboard magazine, and I modelled my front cover of the magazine to the way billboard modelled theirs, for example I designed my masthead in the billboard style with four colours. This is shown from my front cover. If you put both covers together you will be able to see this. Throughout the project I took into account the conventions of the magazine are quite simple and its not too flashy. When it came to my contents page I looked at many Hip-Hop, RnB and club contents pages so I could get a rough idea on what I wanted to do. Most of the contents pages were quite lively. For my contents page the pictures that are used in the contents page I photographed. I chose a white back ground with a bit of black lines and colours along the side, I did this to keep the contents plain but structured, I also had different coloured lines to match subheadings and writing of in the contents page, making it different to other magazine and unique in its own way. Having the contents sign in the top corner going across the picture is good as it draws the reader’s attention to the picture and makes the audience appreciate the way the picture is taken. Also the writing of the contents page relates to the genre of music. My media product uses conventions of real media products by being very standard and not to flashy, also stuck to a sort of similar font and some colour schemes.

How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

·      The audience I have aimed for are people who are low to middle classed lifestyles, that may be from a poor background in some cases but take music seriously and see it as a route out of where they currently are in life. My magazine represents the urban social group that are interested in music from the hop-hop, R’n’B or rap culture. This can be easily recognized from the front cover alone from the mane image of a black female who is represented as an artist, and also from the other artist names surrounding her who are known from these genres of music such as Lil Wayne and Kanye west from the "Hip Hop " genre, therefore this magazine represents people who are either interested or involved in the this type of music or lifestyle. So at the same time this may attract people aspiring to be like Lil Wayne or Kanye West in the sense of their musical achievements.

·      My audience would access music online from websites like Youtube, WorldStar Hip Hop; they would download their music from Itunes, Amazon etc. my audience group would also be people that like to keep up with their idol artists and in some way try to imitate them E.g. dress like them, make music and say what they say.

·      My target group would spend their extra cash on clothes, concerts

·      They would listen to music, go out with friends, house party’s, concerts, play games, socialise online E.g. facebook, Youtube and twitter.

·      The products that would be advertised in my magazine are things like 10 Deep clothing, music equipment E.g. mp3 players and headphones

What kind of institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

I would like my magazine to be distributed by mainstream shops such as HMV and other well known record shops as I want it the be well known and main stream. I will also want it to be sold at music events and festivals that promote the R’n’B, hip-hop and rap culture. I believe that in order to have the most success with my magazine these are the best places to have my magazine distributed, this because it would not make sense to distribute it at a rock gig for example because people who go to them will not be interested in my magazine. I came to the decision of HMV due to the fact that they distribute all genres of music so as well as people who like R'n’B music buying the magazine; people who may not me too keen on the genre may come across it and purchase also purchase it to see what its about.

Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

My magazine has been designed for people who love finding out the latest music, listening to Hip-Hop/RnB music and that enjoy going to concerts or events around the UK to listen to famous rappers/singers/ artists. Everything that is written in the magazine is to appeal to the target audience of an age from 16 -19 year olds, and this has represented my target audience to be very informal and streetwise. Also another reason for this choice was that I am in the age group so in terms of the production and how I want the magazine to come across I will be better at making decisions as I will know what will appeal to my target audience. This magazine is mostly set to appeal to black people as stereotypically they are more attracted by this type of music. I have represented a young black male who is an up and coming artist to star as the main story, as I thought it would be a good way to show how a young black male is doing positive things. 

How did you attract address/the audience for your music publication?

I attracted the audience with my publication by using cool fonts and colour coordination to make my front cover look presentable, which I felt would be eye catching and which has proved to be. I also used a lot of well-recognized artist names on my front cover to attract readers these included stars such as Kanye West who is a legendary artist and trey songz who is a new upcoming artist who is becoming very prominent in the music scene and also very popular amongst girls.

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

The use of technology during the course has had a lot of influence on my project throughout from the beginning to the end. I have found out about blogger.com and used Pages, Photoshop, also how to work well with camera's etc. Blogger.com is a way of publishing work so teachers and other people can view my work and comment on it. Its also easy for accessing work and power points or information for my project, it also is easy as it allows you to add to a project whenever you want. With camera work I used my SLR camera during the project, this helped me understand more about camera work and photography, as I do not know that much about it. I have learnt how to take photos of my featured artist from convincing angles that will attract my target audience. Also although I had some previous knowledge of Photoshop my understanding of Photoshop has exceeded my expectations of using it because over the course of the project using Photoshop has developed my skills more and I can use it even easier than I could before. I also learnt how to use a program called Pages this allowed me to write my double page spread for my magazine whilst keeping the interview aligned in columns.

Things I have learnt how to do:

• How to crop and enlarge pictures appropriately to add effect to the magazine

• How to change colours to make my magazine look better

• How to adjust the brightness of pictures

• How to produce a double page spread.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it into the full product?

I have learnt about different production skills and how to design to convey a message or target a specific audience. I had to remake my front cover and contents page several times until felt I had successfully done this. My preliminary task has no real structure and to be fair I did not really know too much about what I was doing, it was just normal random text on a page because I did not fully understand the conventions of the genre of the magazine.

I also struggled at first with using the pages program to make my double page interview attractive and I also feel as though I have achieved this now. But from the preliminary task up till now I have advanced so much in my production skills as my preliminary task was kept very basic as I wasn't to confident with it, so I didn't want to go overboard and ruin it. However now I know to include a lot of content in a presentable way and what the conventions are to represent the Hip-Hop/R’n’B genre and also that all fonts need to be same throughout the magazine and that it needs to represent the target audience. I have also gained a better and true understanding of the target audience and what they want from music magazine. I think that my magazine appeals well to the target audience because it meets all the needs of a Hip-Hop/R’n’B magazine.

How does your magazine represent particular social groups?

·      The audience I have aimed for are people who are low to middle classed lifestyles, that may be from a poor background in some cases but take music seriously and see it as a route out of where they currently are in life. My magazine represents the urban social group that are interested in music from the hop-hop, R’n’B or rap culture. This can be easily recognized from the front cover alone from the mane image of a black female who is represented as an artist, and also from the other artist names surrounding her who are known from these genres of music such as Lil Wayne and Kanye west from the "Hip Hop " genre, therefore this magazine represents people who are either interested or involved in the this type of music or lifestyle. So at the same time this may attract people aspiring to be like Lil Wayne or Kanye West in the sense of their musical achievements.

·      My audience would access music online from websites like Youtube, WorldStar Hip Hop; they would download their music from Itunes, Amazon etc. my audience group would also be people that like to keep up with their idol artists and in some way try to imitate them E.g. dress like them, make music and say what they say.

·      My target group would spend their extra cash on clothes, concerts

·      They would listen to music, go out with friends, house party’s, concerts, play games, socialise online E.g. facebook, Youtube and twitter.

·      The products that would be advertised in my magazine are things like 10 Deep clothing, music equipment E.g. mp3 players and headphones

What kind of institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

I would like my magazine to be distributed by mainstream shops such as HMV and other well known record shops as I want it the be well known and main stream. I will also want it to be sold at music events and festivals that promote the R’n’B, hip-hop and rap culture. I believe that in order to have the most success with my magazine these are the best places to have my magazine distributed, this because it would not make sense to distribute it at a rock gig for example because people who go to them will not be interested in my magazine. I came to the decision of HMV due to the fact that they distribute all genres of music so as well as people who like R'n’B music buying the magazine; people who may not me too keen on the genre may come across it and purchase also purchase it to see what its about.

Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

My magazine has been designed for people who love finding out the latest music, listening to Hip-Hop/RnB music and that enjoy going to concerts or events around the UK to listen to famous rappers/singers/ artists. Everything that is written in the magazine is to appeal to the target audience of an age from 16 -19 year olds, and this has represented my target audience to be very informal and streetwise. Also another reason for this choice was that I am in the age group so in terms of the production and how I want the magazine to come across I will be better at making decisions as I will know what will appeal to my target audience. This magazine is mostly set to appeal to black people as stereotypically they are more attracted by this type of music. I have represented a young black male who is an up and coming artist to star as the main story, as I thought it would be a good way to show how a young black male is doing positive things. 

How did you attract address/the audience for your music publication?

I attracted the audience with my publication by using cool fonts and colour coordination to make my front cover look presentable, which I felt would be eye catching and which has proved to be. I also used a lot of well-recognized artist names on my front cover to attract readers these included stars such as Kanye West who is a legendary artist and trey songz who is a new upcoming artist who is becoming very prominent in the music scene and also very popular amongst girls.

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

The use of technology during the course has had a lot of influence on my project throughout from the beginning to the end. I have found out about blogger.com and used Pages, Photoshop, also how to work well with camera's etc. Blogger.com is a way of publishing work so teachers and other people can view my work and comment on it. Its also easy for accessing work and power points or information for my project, it also is easy as it allows you to add to a project whenever you want. With camera work I used my SLR camera during the project, this helped me understand more about camera work and photography, as I do not know that much about it. I have learnt how to take photos of my featured artist from convincing angles that will attract my target audience. Also although I had some previous knowledge of Photoshop my understanding of Photoshop has exceeded my expectations of using it because over the course of the project using Photoshop has developed my skills more and I can use it even easier than I could before. I also learnt how to use a program called Pages this allowed me to write my double page spread for my magazine whilst keeping the interview aligned in columns.

Things I have learnt how to do:

• How to crop and enlarge pictures appropriately to add effect to the magazine

• How to change colours to make my magazine look better

• How to adjust the brightness of pictures

• How to produce a double page spread.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it into the full product?

I have learnt about different production skills and how to design to convey a message or target a specific audience. I had to remake my front cover and contents page several times until felt I had successfully done this. My preliminary task has no real structure and to be fair I did not really know too much about what I was doing, it was just normal random text on a page because I did not fully understand the conventions of the genre of the magazine.

I also struggled at first with using the pages program to make my double page interview attractive and I also feel as though I have achieved this now. But from the preliminary task up till now I have advanced so much in my production skills as my preliminary task was kept very basic as I wasn't to confident with it, so I didn't want to go overboard and ruin it. However now I know to include a lot of content in a presentable way and what the conventions are to represent the Hip-Hop/R’n’B genre and also that all fonts need to be same throughout the magazine and that it needs to represent the target audience. I have also gained a better and true understanding of the target audience and what they want from music magazine. I think that my magazine appeals well to the target audience because it meets all the needs of a Hip-Hop/R’n’B magazine.