1. Music Magazine
Evaluation
BY CHARLENE

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
I believe my magazine does challenge forms and conventions of a real magazine because it
includes many main codes and conventions of a music magazine. For example my main
inspiration of the construction of my magazine was VIBE magazine, especially Drakes
issue which focuses on a black and yellow theme. I incorporated this idea into mine by
using a black background, but changed the texture to create an urban, more eye catching
look. The house style that I used was blue, grey, white and black, which was based on an
adidas jacket, I chose this because it seemed to fit in with grime/urban style and culture,
also audiences that follow grime music would typically be associated with wearing name
brand tracksuits such as adidas, Nike etc. As VIBE magazine was my biggest inspiration I
included other ideas from it, such as the usher front cover which had a quote on the
front, I thought it would be good to used this on the cover of my magazine because it
would give the audience an insight of what’s to follow up in the interview of the
magazine, making the reader intrigued to find out what's inside……..

3. I took the idea of a simple bold text and
colour white to make the masthead I used a black
I also used a top strip to indicate to the background like
stand out off the black background, but I
audience what artist are going to feature in VIBE magazine as it
changed the size and aptitude of the text
the magazine, the artist I used also made it makes other house
to create a more young and urban/grime
clear the type of audience I am trying to style colours and
feel.
attract. the central image
stand out, but I
changed the
background by
creating a glitter
effect which makes
the background
stand out more, and
also links it to
femininity.
I took aspects of other
VIBE magazines like the
Usher issue, I used the
quote on the front of
the magazine “THERE
I incorporated the idea of using IS NO COMPETITON”
The layout of VIBE ‘HIP-HOP’s NEW RELIGION’ and and change it to make it
magazine places the change it to ‘GRIME’S NEWEST “WE ARE TAKING
featured articles around TALENT’ I changed it slightly to OVER”, I decided to use
make it relevant to my magazine, the quote as it would
the central image so it give the audience an
would still be the main this is used to entice the audience
idea of what's in the
focal point and feature of into finding out more about the main article.
the magazine. artist or group, and how they
have made a mark on the music
industry.

4. Codes and Conventions of a Music Top strip which shows the
types of artists which feature
Magazine Front I used a headline tag when using
in the magazine, which show
Cover the word exclusive and new, this
the type of genre and
informs the audience that this
Left third, which is the audience I am trying to
magazine has something that no
first thing the buyer appeal.
other magazine has.
sees so I put the
featured articles, the Large, bold
word NEW, the price masthead which is
and the magazine clearly shown of the
logo. white colour font in
contrast to the black
I put the Tinie Temaph
background.
article on the cover
magazine because
currently he is one of the
most successful artist to I also used a puff which
bring UK grime into the is a short phrase to
mainstream charts, which hook the audience, I
could target a wider range took a play on words
of audiences to my from the title “STEP UP”
magazine. and made it to “A step
above the rest” this is
short and catchy
Featured articles, which show on phrase.
the front cover of the magazine Central image, is the main focal point
what main articles are in the of the magazine, I used a large shot as
Splash, which is the largest
magazine, this is used to entice it was a group shot, this also shows
most vibrate piece of text on
the audience to buying the the outfits which makes it clear to the
the front page which is
magazine if it features an artist or audience that its grime magazine.
related to the main cover
story they like.
story and central image.

5. Codes and Conventions of a Music
Magazine Contents The largest piece of text
Page which make it clear to the
audience that it is the
I also used contents page.
numbers of the
Features on the
pages, because it
contents page
allows the reader
shows new and
to find the page
exclusive articles
and article that
which will feature
they wanted
in the magazine
quickly and easily.
only the one time.
Main image, which
usually a Regulars on the
continuation of the contents page
front cover of the which shows the
magazine, I took a articles which
image of one of the features on every
group and made it issue and
Article titles, Small piece of text
the main image. sometimes has
which shows under the article titles
follow ups of
what the which is a small
previous issues.
articles are description of what's in
called the article.

6. The concepts for the titles of my articles
was taking inspiration from other forms of
media which have the similar themes and
genres……
The article ‘Behind the music’ came
from a regular programme on MTV
base which features RnB, rap and
grime artists life stories, due to the
target audience of the TV station I
thought it would relate to my
audience as they have similar styles of
music.
Tinie Tempah is one of the most
established and well known grime
I used ‘GAME OVER’ artist as he has achieved number 1
as a featured article single, making him one of the few
because it includes grime artists to do so. Therefore I
almost all the most used him as he currently the most
recognisable artist in recognisable artist in grime.
grime.
For the regulars I
thought that since
my magazine is
based on introducing
new grime and
urban artists to an
audience, there
should be an article
that gets the reader
involved

7. Codes and Conventions of a Music
Magazine Contents The contents
Page COMPARIONS page title is a
The first feature large font
article is of the main that stands
cover story which is out, also it
most likely an the way that
excusive article. it is written is
simple but
effective.
Although
the titles
of the The large
articles image of
may differ artist show
slightly, that the main
they still focus is on
are set in her.
two
different
sections.

8. Codes and Conventions of a Music I used a large, bold I took a quote which
piece of text as an stood out from article
Magazine Double Page Article intro of the magazine and I enlarged
INTERVIEW article which explains quotation mark and
what ‘BEHIND THE used it on the top of
MUSIC’ is. the magazine .
To separate the
The largest piece of questions from the
text on the double answers, I put the
page spread is question In a bolder
article Title and also font, which made it
features the group darker and clearer for
name ‘IMPACT’ the reader to establish
which is who the which is the question
article is about. or answer. I also put a
Q.(question) and
A.(answers) at the
beginning of the
sentences or
paragraphs,
I used a larger, bold
and colorful font
I took separate images
The article is for the ‘FINAL
and placed them
also in THOUGHT’ or the
together to make a
I used a 11 size font, which columns writing that
central image on the
is usually used in other which is concludes the
double page article, which
magazine articles for the typical in interview and
is of the front cover group
answers in the interview. magazine in article, which is
of artists.
general. directed to the
audience.

9. Codes and Conventions of a Music
Magazine Double Page Article
COMPARISON A quote from the interview
which has been enlarge as it
something interesting and
makes the reader want to The artists
know the story behind the name, this
quote. shows
who and
what the
article is
about.
Small font
text in the
article.
A large
image of Articles are in
the artist columns,
on one which makes
side of the it more
article. structured
and easily
readable.

10. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The music magazine that I created represents a particular social group that ranges
between E,D, C1, C2 because most likely my audience would be unskilled, under
part time employment or receive benefits, so since my magazine is targeted to
a youthful audience it is most likely that target audience would still be attending
school as a student or further education. My magazine represents them
because the music style that I focused on involves an urban style, and the artists
that I used, fashion choices and attitudes would be similar because many young
people look up to them and they aspire to achieve the same goal as them in life.
The social groups are mainly aspirers or egoists that believe that some day that
they will be make it in the music/grime industry.

11. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product
and why?
The media institute that may produce my magazine would be Hearst Corporations, because they a one of
the largest diversified communications publishing magazines ranging from “The Oprah Magazine” and
“Cosmopolitan” to ownership of cable network such as ESPN. By being apart of such a huge diverse
company could also be beneficial for them, to become apart of the music industry and explore
different types of audiences, because their main publications seems to target a more mature person,
and focuses on fashion and good health and body conscious women . Whereas the audience that my
magazine is targeted to a younger urban/grime audience.
As you can see the magazines that are published by Hearst Corporations mostly features on the front cover
a majority of women compared men, and the colours are bright and vibrate, this seems to attract a
female audience. In comparison to the codes and conventions in my magazine where, it uses dark
colours such as black and grey to attract a grime audience, both male and female.

12. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience that my music magazine would appeal to would be young urban/grime audience
based in the UK and some parts of the USA because there is a large following of this
music genre within the young British community. My audience that would buy and benefit
from my magazine would be young ambitious people that have a interest within the
music industry, either performing on stage on behind the scenes of the recording
process. I would associate my audience to be like this because the articles that feature in
magazine are based on new, fresh talent for instance, on the front cover of my magazine I
used a fictional band ‘IMPACT’ as an example of how they became successful. Also my
magazine features ways to show case if you believe you have talent on ‘STAND OUT’,
where you can perform your own lyrics. Plus, being passionate about this type of music
and know how it can change people lives by being a positive influence on young people, I
represented this in an article called ‘STEP UP IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD’.

13. How did you attract/address your audience?
I feel that my magazine attracted my target audience by using the codes and conventions
which are associated with the grime genre, for example one of my main colour house
style was black, this colour is connected with the grime industry and represents dark
colours. Other colours such as grey, blue and white were used as my house style, because
it was my colours of my adidas jacket and tracksuits are associated with urban/grime.
I also addressed my audience by using a specific type of people with a certain style, which
resemble other female grime artists. For example the clothing I used are associated with
this genre, and I based the female group that I created ‘IMPACT’ around new female
grime group ‘Ruff Diamondz’ I tried to do this by trying to create a similar style of
clothing, looks, hair styles and the type of posing in photographs. I created my group
around ‘Ruff Diamondz’ because I think that they are appealing to the audience and are
influential because of their personal style and clothing choices which I thinks speaks to
the young female grime followers and listeners.

14. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product? (Digital camera, InDesign, Photoshop)
During this process of constructing a magazine I learned how to overcome difficulties while using Adobe
Indesign and editing images on Photoshop. Although I had used Photoshop before on making my
school magazine I found it more challenging second time around, this is because editing the
photographs took longer as I had to focus on the quality and using other tools to make the
photographs up to a higher standard.
When taking the photographs for my magazine I found how it was difficult to find a image which could
work in my magazine, because I had to consider the lighting, shadows or the quality of the image,
although some of these problems could be fixed using Photoshop.
Throughout making my magazine I learned many new skills on Photoshop, for example I learn how to
adjust lighting, brightness and contrasts as well as variations, this allowed me to change or play with
different options with colours of clothing or even eye colour. I also experimented with filtering which
meant the effect of the picture changed I used this tool a lot during the making of the product.
Using InDesign was a first for me, but I learnt that constructing my magazine on this program was better as
the quality of the images being imported from Photoshop works more effectively as the images are
clearer. Also fonts on InDesign have more variety which allowed me to experiment with size, width,
height and shape, I used this for magazine because I was able to change to create a masthead which
linked with the name of my magazine.
I learnt that creating a magazine in a certain amount of time you have to known your basics using
technology and focus on making your magazine similar to ones that are being sold, and that best suit
your genre.

15. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt
in the progression from it to the full product?
The preliminary task that I had to do was to create a school magazine, the front cover and contents page,
when making the magazine the programs I used was Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, but it was
different from making the music magazine because the photographs I’d taken needed more work to be
closer to the standard of a mainstream magazine. I felt has if I’d learnt more about the programs when
using it the second time as I had learn the basics the first time round, this allowed me to try out other
tools which could make the magazine more realistic.
I learnt how school magazine doesn’t target a specific audience besides the students, staff and school
executives, these types of audiences range from a widely, aged and gender. This show that the contents,
photographs and articles in the magazine should appeal to everyone that has a link to this school. In
comparison to the music magazine where the audience that the magazine is targeted for is a particular
type for example, the magazine that I created is a grime genre, this would have a selected audience from
ages to genders, also the content in my magazine is based around grime culture, industry and the artists
,which unlike the school magazine wont appeal to everyone.
In addition there is a difference in the messages that are sent out from the magazine, such as in the school
magazine there is no focus on personal image, style or icons and less work is put in to making the perfect
person feature on the front cover. On the other hand the main focus on music magazine is to portray a
person or music icon as someone who is to be aspired to be like, working on my music magazine and
researching I learned the work that go through to keeping the image of a celebrity ‘perfect’. One of the
things that I had to do which differed from the making of my school magazine was on Photoshop using
the spot healing tool, which touches up any blemishes on the skin to make it seem to the audience the
this artist has no imperfections, this shows the manipulation that the photograph editors go through in
creating a new image which is not necessarily true. However, this is necessary in the music industry to
keep the artist with an image that portrays to the be flawless, this makes them an icon in the audiences
eyes.

16. SCHOOL MAGAZINE VS MUSIC
MAGAZINE