Freak: someone who commits to something wholeheartedly, without apology or compromise.
Every time I step back & look at the bigger picture, I see the potential to make a difference. And I get the courage to break away from the crowd.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Evaluation for Music Magazine Project
The theme of my media project, the music magazine is based on a punk emo style. Magaizines which resemble the same type of theme include: NME, Kerrang! and Define The Meaning. However, my target audience throughout the practical was focused on young, mostly girls who either have a passion for punky, rock, emo music. However those magazines use informal language and even swear words, for example in the Kerrang October issue ‘holy shit’ is used in the article on Linkin Park, which many parents would have great concern over. As a result I chose to do a emo punk magazine that isn’t as dejected. Furthermore there is evidence that children find childhood oppressive. Its possible to say it’s a status that most children want to escape and so I chose to include language that challenges young teenagers and pulls them into the article but still being able to relate to their idol by being able to see themselves in what they read and see. For instance in the article/interview I recalled an incident on CNN. This creates a relationship with the audience by complement the knowledge of those would have seen it. This is one way how my media product uses, develops and challenges other forms and conventions of real media.
My target audience throughout the practical was focused on young, mostly girls who like an edgy look. I used one of my friends as the cover star and made her look more like a young punky rock music artist to give a realistic look. The artist is a young female herself representing many of the readers. She is dressed in black and white, back combed hair and dark makeup to express an edgy emo appeal. My media product represents the punk rock emo group in a more appropriate way for the young generation. For example emo’s can be stereotyped as depressed and suicidal people, which is not what I wanted to put across. This brings me to the design of the magazine. EM is very colourful with bright blues and reds. I chose these colours as many teen magazines such as Shout are bright especially as my magazine is based upon the punk/emo scene I wanted it to stand out but staying true to the initial theme with black and white pictures, dark fonts and boarders in the double page spread. I chose blue and black for the front cover font colours as it also doesn’t exclude males but inside I switched font colours to red and black. This still doesn’t exclude males but with a female artist on the cover, contents page and double page spread it gives off a more feminine appeal. Young girls can associate themselves with the established artist and their life story and see that they, the artist too go through the same issues and are normal people, just with a unique heart for music. The pictures of the established artist are outdoors in the streets of London. I choose this location because it shows everyday life for many people. For instance having pictures of her on stage is not what most teenagers themselves do on a daily basis. Even though she is represented as an artist, the outside location shows who the artist really is. A picture can tell us a lot about a person, for example it gives an adventurous feel and the introduction of the article/interview tells the reader she now lives in the US coming from the outback Australia. I decided to have the background picture black and white for a darker feel and layer smaller matching pictures on top but coloured. This mirrors the rocky edgy theme but brings lightness to it at the same time.
My magazine is aimed for those aged around 13-17 year olds so I didn’t want it to be that abrupt for a teen magazine as parents and guardians may be concerned with what they are reading and seeing. For example DefineThe Meaning magazine had an image on their front cover of Matt Skiba holding a knife to Toby Morse’s throat and the November issue of Q 2010 had a picture of the Foals standing with knives and axes in their hands while in front pigs heads were placed on top of one another on the table. Many parents are concerned about what their children read and watch so having alarming pictures and writing in a disturbing and inappropriate for those of a young age is risky and dangerous, not giving out the right message.
The layout of the front cover is common for magazines not only music ones. Big headings catch attention and the bright blue font stands out entwining itself with the ‘M’ in the title. I made the contents page quite simple making it easy to read and search with the biggest picture continuing with the front cover artist (Pricilla) putting the focus on her. In addition I changed the font colour front black and blue to black and red. I did this to give a new, dramatic effect to change the design, relating more towards targeted genre of music. A different design makes readers want to see what else is featured as new things attract people’s attention so seeing something new on each individual page makes the reader feel as if the magazine was catered to them. The double page spread pictures are black and white pictures with smaller pictures coloured and layered them on top of one another for an eye catching effect. Also more pictures reveal more about the artist as opposed to if there was just the background picture, because pictures can tell stories.
Newsagents and shops that sell magazines like WHsmith would be an ideal place to distribute my media product. As they may already sell magazines, EM is distinctly a different genre appealing to mainly young girls. There are many young girl magazines such as Shoutbut mine is purely related to music and not going down to average pop route, being different. There aren’t many if not any emo/punk magazines for the young generation let alone girls and as explained before (by not creating an inappropriate magazine) it brings something new and exciting to young magazine buyers.
Throughout EM’s construction I learnt how to use Photoshop which was a challenge at first but after a while I finally knew what I was doing. I found Photo shop hard to use but it taught me that every little detail adds up and precision is key. Moreover the Internet helped a lot when I needed inspiration or ideas and even what the best tone was to use on Photoshop. I learnt that being an expert with technology it crucial for getting the best results especially since things like the Internet are worldwide so a lot more than what you’d expect can be done. Finally Tumblr allowed me to record ideas and any inspirations that I found on the web. I posted the responses from the questionnaire done on magazines which was done on the Internet and this shows how useful the Internet is when planning. Research and planning is the foundation to any product and the Internet enables average people to do so.
Looking back at my preliminary task I have learnt to first think and plan what message and ideas to send out then think about a way to successfully do so and then get feedback on my ideas for the product because what I thought wasn’t always what others wanted. Also knowledge of how you will make it is vital especially since wanting the best quality product and practise does make perfect. Also blogging is always better as you have the information, feedback from ideas and research for our product on their making it easier to carry out the task.
Front Cover music magazine
I kept it plain and simple with the artist drawing attention. The subheadings will also draw readers to this magazine as its a preview of what is available to read. The artist’s name is not featured on the cover. I decided to do this because Pricilla Hutchens would be such a big star many would know her and her fame is what would make people turn to the page where she is featured forcing them to see other pages.
I choose to have some text bright blue to bring colour and liveliness to the magazine differing from the normal black or white. Blue is calming according to
http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/blue.htmand so can bring a calmness to observers.
Contents Page Ideas
These are some inspirations I had in mind when designing the contents page.This contents page is from Kerrang and it definitely shows the audience they are aiming for through pictures, subheadings and the layout is echoing the punky rocky style. Mostly men appear here whereas in mine there are more females compared to males and all the pictures on the front cover, contents and double page spread are of females. This all goes back to whom my target audience is, which is mostly females aged 13-17 but never excluding males. There aren’t as many pictures on my page because I want the focus to be on the main story (article) and what is featured in the magazine. The majority of page references are on pure music for example there are no references to fashion or technology etc but this does not necessarily mean there wouldn’t be any however its just that with limited pages on show I want to get the main focus and reason across.
I have chosen the contents page to be different from the cover in colour and in some ways layout (not font). Why? Because it would keep readers interested, eager to engage with the rest of the magazine especially since the NME article (posted previously) said the contents page is the most looked at page therefore making it stand out.
Title ‘EM’
The title I chose to call it is EM.
I chose this because its short for emo music. EM is easier to remember, its short and simple making it more piratical and from feedback from class mates it also looks better. Personally emo music does not appear very enticing compared to EM. Some could say it also appeals to other audiences other then those ‘emos’ or ‘punks’.
The magazine itself isn’t very hard dramatic as other punky dark magazines for example Define The Meaning had an image on their front cover of Matt Skiba holding a knife to Toby Morse’s throat. This wouldn’t go well with my target audience aged 13-17. Not only would the teenagers fell in some way threatened and even frightened but their parents would have a great concern on what they are reading even if it was presented in a jokey way.
EM draws people to the magazine with its simplicity and elegance some could say. The formal tone of EM itself is enough with shows this title can pull itself off, holding its own position in the magazine. Still at the same time keeping the meaning and not distracting people away from the contents of the magazine.
