This is a question that I have addressed various times throughout the production of my Music Magazine. There are many magazines on the shelf in a similar genre to that of my magazine, including Kerrang!, Q, Rock sound etc. All of these have been great influences in the creation of my magazine - in the sense that I have used ideas and styles in my magazine, that were originally presented to me in the form of an already established magazine. My magazine; I feel, also challenges forms and conventions of globally known magazines, as my magazine possesses certain attributes, not seen within established magazines. This gives my magazine an enhanced media edge as these styles and graphics used within my magazine are not found already within the media industry.
Starting with the title of the magazine. For the title of my magazine I used various quantitative research, and also some un-posted qualitative research to find out what potential buyers (target market) for my magazine were looking for. The name ORIGIN, found 100% of the participants questioned preferring it over any of the other name ideas I had - and also over some already established magazines names. I think the name is highly relevant with the genre of music to which my magazine is based around, however in great contrast to the graphic style I followed within my magazine; as the font I used, is a very evasive font, clearly extracting itself from the bland background I selected. Also the colours I used are followed throughout the magazine, and the black and blue idea is sub-consciously known within the media and music industry through already established products, e.g. songs from such artists as Mike Snow.
The images possess features of Mise-en-scene that are greatly in contrast to many other magazines on the shelf. I used very bland graphic styles to excel various features of the pictures, for example the picture on the front cover, has been sharpened using Photo shop. I did this to create a stronger feel about it, and to bring it out from the background. As the background is quite bland in itself, this also gives the same effect to that of other pictures throughout the magazine - such as the background and main image on the contents page. All of the main images throughout my magazine are selected specifically, extracted from their original backgrounds and placed unto background images that I feel were more suited to the genre of magazine I have taken upon. A prime example of this would be the double page spread, where the picture of Mark (singer + guitarist of Death of an Artist), has been extracted from a very dark, almost black background, and placed unto an image of a gig crowd. This again relates back to developing forms and conventions of real media products as I expanded on this idea from a 2008 edition of Kerrang!
The people within my magazine are fairly vague, their clothes/costumes, and expressions tell of passion. This is essential for a magazine of my genre as people within the Rock Music industry understand that it is not all about fame and money, it is mainly about creating music that is globally loved, and music being the thing that you love. The clothes that the people are wearing throughout the images I used within my magazine represent the global rebellion that is present within our society. That people are wearing clothes to express how they would like to be represented. Two out of the three main images were of the band in action, this gives an essential effect to the viewer as it shows them the band are interested in the music they produce, and the fact that their clothing is fairly bland and doesn't try to draw attention (unlike someone such as Lady Gaga), that the music is the most essential thing within this band.
The written text within my magazine, follows very similar forms and codes to that of an already established magazine, the convention of the questions asked within the double page spread are partially personal, although relating mainly back to the antagonist idea within the magazine (the band). However, one thing that sets my magazine aside from already globally established magazine, is the fact that the headlines, and cover stories are not about what is happening within the music industry as a whole, but mainly focuses on particular bands and specific outbursts within a very niche range of music. This challenges conventions of established magazines as their main worry is the profit behind their product, therefore main stories about popular bands and artists must be included for them to be assured of sales.
The layout of my magazine is very conventional, as I was yet to study music magazines as a whole before this project, I felt it was essential that I took ideas from already established magazines, to be reassured of what the target market for my magazine was looking for. The layout I used in-particular also allows me to expand and develop the ideas of established magazines, as I have created more room within the pages to allow for more promotional offers and advertisements, I believe this was a great feature of my magazine, as it does not assess or address global scenes or features, my magazine is strongly revolved around the promotion of local bands. The theme behind the layout of my magazine was similar to the conventions of the already established magazine Kerrang!, this is because I know through experience that Kerrang! delivers what the public, and target market for my magazine want to see. Therefore I developed graphic techniques used by Kerrang! to create an individualised magazine of my own.
My magazine revolves around rock music, post hardcore and partially indie - this is established through the various graphic techniques I used. Titles crashing out of the background images, giving a very up-front view on the main idea proposed on the page. The images being singled out, and placed on different backgrounds to represent the style of music to which I am addressing is another technique I used. Also the language used within my magazine is similar to that of many other established magazines, and therefore the forms and conventions of real media products are hence used, developed and challenged within my magazine.
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