Evaluation Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My music magazine, used, developed and challenged the typical forms and conventions of real music magazines.
Before beginning to plan my music magazine, I analysed several front covers of magazine’s a double page spread and a contents page of different music magazine’s and my results found that these magazines used different features and conventions to appeal to their specific target audience.

I analysed Kerrang magazine which had Biffy Clyro as the main feature on the cover. In this magazine I really loved the use of colour on the page, red, black and white. With this inspiration I wanted to use the 3 colours on the front cover of my magazine.
Also, I enjoyed the main image on the cover, the way the artists are giving a direct mode of address and how they look quite mysterious, and the tagline fitted in well with the image ‘Unfold the puzzles of life’

I also analysed magazine which featured Coldplay, as the main feature artist on the front cover- what I enjoyed about this magazine was the use of pull quotes around the image which relate to the article, I thought this was a good feature and wanted to use it within my music magazine. The pull quotes, were all interesting quotes which attracted the attention of the reader, I wanted to include the most exciting quotes from my interview to attract my target audience
 I also like the way the title stretched across the page attracting the audience’s attention and keeping us entertained.

 I also analysed NME magazine which featured the indie band Gossip on the front cover of the magazine. I really like this magazine’s use of cover lines around the page because it attracts the attention of the reader. Also I really enjoyed the main image on the cover, the artists are all giving a direct mode of address and it has a great impact up on the viewer of the magazine. Also I like their tagline ‘Sex, Skins and Standing in the way of control’ It really attracts attention and makes you want to find out more about the artist.

What’s similar about my product to these other music magazines is that, I used some of their typical conventions in my magazine, for instance- I wanted to use Kerrang magazine’s colour scheme of black, white and red because the genre of magazine that I am doing is a rock magazine and these 3 colours relate into this genre. The colour Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength and power. The colour black is typically associated with power, sophistication and strength. And the colour white is typically associated with innocence and perfection.
So using these 3 colours I had an idea of how my magazine would look.
When I looked at Coldplay’s cover on Q magazine, I really enjoyed the use of pull quotes on the page- these were quotes taken from the Coldplay interview. I wanted to use pull quotes on my magazine, since my double page spread would be an interview with the main artists on the cover of my magazine, I decided to use pull quotes.

  On the right is Q magazine and their use of pull quotes around the picture and on the left is my music magazine and my use of pull quotes on the page.

What is different about my magazine is the main image, is very different to ones I analysed, for instance the magazine’s I analysed all gave a direct mode of address whereas my magazine, is mainly focussed upon a hand which is obstructing the view of the artists- like they don’t want to be seen. But in the back ground you can see one of the artists looking directly into the camera, but it’s the foreground that attracts the attention more, and people who would see this magazine would want to know why the artists do not want them to see their faces.
Also in my main image, the artists are heavily made up, you can only really see one artist’ make up, but that is very heavy and you can’t really see much else of the other artist.
The reason why I wanted to put make up on my artists is because I wanted their image to fit into their genre, which is hybrid of ‘heavy metal and electro’ and the genre of the magazine itself is a rock magazine so I wanted their image to fit into the image I want my magazine to represent.
I chose to develop these certain ideas because when I was planning my ideas for a music magazine, I knew I wanted it to be a rock magazine and I developed my ideas from a questionnaire I got people to fill in for me. So I planned out ideas of what I wanted to do. When I analysed magazine’s which followed the same typical genre, I wanted to use some of their features and conventions, as I said before, I used Kerrang’s colour scheme and Q magazine’s use of pull quotes around the main image- making Coldplay the main focus of the magazine.
Another idea I decided to develop was my double page spread, I analysed Kerrang magazine’s double page spread on My Chemical Romance- which was an interview with the band.

When I was planning my double page spread I knew I wanted my double page spread to be an interview with my artists and I used this Kerrang magazine as a template for my magazine, I included smaller pictures of the band and had a 2 page spread of the interview. But I made my magazine a question and answer session with my artists whereas Kerrang magazine gave background information about the band as well as a small interview with the band, it also had a side banner giving information about new tracks that My Chemical Romance was releasing.

But for my double page spread, I used a basic question and answer session between me (Smash Resistance) and the artist’s (given the name IDGAF)
I gave a short introduction at the top of the pages to introduce the band members and then went straight into the interview, I thought this was the best approach, to let the audience really get to know the band that was being interviewed.
It’s a lot different to the Kerrang issue but I stuck to the similar colour theme and included small pictures of the artist’s featured, just like the Kerrang issue.

For my contents page I followed Kerrang’s issue which featured Bring Me the Horizon on the cover and on the contents page, I analysed this contents page on paper, as I unfortunately cannot find it on the internet.

But I analysed another contents page, from Kerrang and I wanted to follow it’s convention but I felt it didn’t focus much on one specific artist, whereas my contents page, follows the Bring me The Horizon contents page, where it’s just the image of the band and a small box at the bottom containing to contents, I mainly followed my structure upon this concept.

On the left is Kerrang’s contents page featuring My Chemical Romance and on the right, is my contents page for my music magazine- My magazine features the main title and date and issue number and a contents at the bottom which gives a brief description of what’s inside.