Who would be the audience for you music magazine?

For my magazine the main audience will boys/men of 16 years to 30. Within these ages the main people will come from demographic group E to C1 but having said that a wide range of middle class people will be interested in the magazine. I have chosen to say that these groups will contain most of the target audience as many students are interested in Hip-Hop and stereotypically Hip-Hop is a music that is listened to by 'lower class' people but many 'middle class' people are interested in it as well. The geographical location of my target audience is North London as most of the artists are from North London and it is a regional publication.
My target audience will be people who are intereseted in 'Underground Hip-Hop' not mainstream Hip-Hop as that is what my magazine features. In my opinion, as I am part of this target audience, it will be targeted at people who aren't really interested in school and who's aspirations may not be based solely on if they do well at school but perhaps people who are interested in art or sports. On top of that the audience will mainly include people who are interested in going against the government as Hip-Hop lyrics include how the government is corrupt and money chasers willing to do anything to gain money and how they don't help the poor. On top of that my target audience will be people who are intersted in graffiti culture which links in to the Hip-Hop culture. This is clear through the use of the graffiti fonts I have used on my front cover, contents page and main article. The people my magazine is aimed at will not neccesarily be soley interested in Hip-Hop music, they will most likely like Dubstep as they are both genres that the U.K. youth that I am appealing to are interested in. On top of that they may enjoy Drum and Bass and Reggae.
The aims I have for my magazine, the uses and gratifications, is to survey about new artists and their albums and it also allows people to form a personal identity with the magazine as all the artists featured in the magazine are from around the area they are from and it lets the person think they will be able to become a Hip Hop artist. Also the interview feautred in my magazine let's the audience feel that there are many people with the same problems and aspirations as them.

Preliminary Task Front Cover

Preliminary Task Contents Page

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

I think my music magazine would be distributed at Hip Hop events around North London for example an open mic night because i don't want to stick to the conventions of how music magazines are distributed for example in Newsagents and Supermarkets. On top of that I think it would be an effective way to distribute the magazine because it would be a better way to reach out to the target audience. It will also be distributed like this because it will be a way to keep to the ‘Underground’ feel of the magazine meaning it won't appear to a wide audience from being sold in shops, it will be unveiled to a specific audience.

How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?

My magazine represents a social group that is people who aren’t interested in the mainstream music that is in production these days, they want to find music that has a meaning it also represents people who aren't stereotypical of Hip-Hop meaning that they are not interested in having expensive cars and gold chains e.t.c. I chose to represent this social group by not including any of these sterotypes in the images I have used on top of that I have represented this social group by the use of costume in my images. The social group that I have decided to represent also doesn't have any concerns with the race of people. I have shown this by choosing two artists that are black and white. The body language of the people in the imgages I chose to use suggests a social group who are relaxed and not that intereted in getting all A's at school through the poses that are given. Through the colours I've used I have represented a social group that doesn't stick to the norms as red and black aren't generally colours that are use in music magazines. Through the fonts that I have used I have represented a social group who is interested in graffiti as many of the fonts used on the front cover are done in a graffiti style.
My magazine represents youth as being ordinary people, not in the way that many newspapers represent them by showing them as 'thugs'. The reason behind this is because I don't think the way most of the media represents youth so I decided to show them in a different light.

In what way does you music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?

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My music magazine uses conventions or music magazines by the way it is laid out and by what type of content is on the front page, in the contents page and on the double page spread. For example it has a masthead, which is used to attract the audience and give the magazine a 'brand'. A lure, which draws the audience to read the magazine as it gives a brief part of the main article. A price, which indicates how often the magazine sells and at what cost. A main article which is very important to a magazine as it needs a good article to attract the audience. A contents page, and other features seen regularly in music magazines such as album reviews. On the other hand the mode of address and the genre of music content in my magazine is different. For example on my magazine front cover most of the font is done in a graffiti style to represent the target audience but also to make it stand out as a ‘different’ magazine instead of a bold style of font used in the Black Beat magazine. My lure keeps to conventions as it is drawing people in to read about the album reviews but the type of artists being reviewed aren't conventional. The price of £2 generally suggests that it is a weekly publication which it is so it sticks to conventions on that front. Also the genre of music the magazine is Underground music which generally isn’t followed by most music magazines in publication. In a way this could be challenging music magazine conventions by saying that more magazines should publish music magazines with this genre of music. My magazine defies Hip Hop magazine conventions by not representing the Hip Hop artists, through use of images, in my my feature, with a lot of expensive garments for example gold chains (as is shown in the Black Beat magazine), and showing Hip Hop artists with a lot of women all the time. The artists are shown recording and relaxing. I chose to define these conventions because in my opinion that is why mainstream Hip Hop isn't a good genre so, the fact that i chose to cover Undergroud Hip Hop means I had to represent the artists differently. On top of that the use of my main artitsts in the magazine are not presented as being very bold, which is why on the front cover one of the artists isn't looking at the camera he is looking at his lyric booking symbolising the fact that lyrics are more important than the image given by an artist. On my front cover I chose to use a long shot for the image as I wanted to give a view of where the artists work, which isn't a convention of music magazine front covers, usually they use a close up. My use of address is mainly formal langauge to go against the convention that everyone who listens to Hip-Hop speaks in a very unformal manner but on occasion i decided to use slang language as, due to the interview element of the main feature, I thought it neccersary beacuse it is how the artists speak. My double page spread keeps to conventions of the layout otherwise it wouldn't look like but I think the colours (as in throughout my magazine) are different to what you would usually see in a magazine because they represent the lyrics in U.K. Hip-Hop which is generally quite depressing.

Reason for choosing Masthead

I chose the name 'Under The Ground' for my masthead as I feel it represents the type of music that my magazine covers. I chose the masthead that I did simply because I thought it represented the underground Hip-Hop lifestyle. For example it is in a graffiti font, as many people who listen to underground Hip-Hop and in fact Hip-Hop in general are interested in graffiti. I chose the colours red and black because I think that it represents the lyrics of Hip-Hop as they are quite depressing and also because they link in with the colour scheme of the magazine. 

Questionnaire Type Up

In the questionnaires that I compiled the trend was that Hip Hop was the most poplar genre of music that the participants listened to with them listening to mainstream Hip-Hop. Due to this I chose my magazine to be about Hip-Hop but I chose to focus it on underground Hip-Hop as I didn’t want to stick to conventions and also I wanted to slightly raise awareness of underground Hip-Hop as in my opinion it is much better than what is churned out in mainstream Hip-Hop.

 

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

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To attract the type of audience I wanted to attract, first of all I chose a type of music that they would be interested in. This is mainly Hip-Hop but it is also up and coming alternative artists. I thought that theses genres of music would attract the target audience I wanted because I am included in the target audience and so are my friends and I know what type of music they are interested in. The target audience is mainly linked with the London youth culture but only certain types of social groups will be interested in buying the music magazine. Next I decided how would my masthead reflect the target audience and attract them to read the magazine. To do this I chose to use a graffiti style masthead because Hip-Hop and graffiti go together and the audience I have chosen to appeal to are interested in graffiti. Also, to attract my target audience I decided not to keep to conventions of most music magazines, which is to have a very bright and colourful front cover. My front over includes mainly dark red and black, the reason being that the lyrics in U.K. Hip-Hop are usually quite dark, certainly not cheerful so my front cover reflects the lyrics of the music which will in turn attract the type of audience I want. On top of this the lure attracts the target audience as they will be interested to know what albums are out and how good they are. The fact that I have included as chance to win a mixtape of my main feature also attracts a target audience because they may not have it or they may not have heard any of their material and are interested on if they are good or not. The main image attracts a target audience because it is quite personal being as it is set in someone's house, so this means the audience can aspire to being an artist, it helps them realise that they can do it if they want to. Through the use of the language I think I attracted an audience as they are people who are annoyed about how many Hip-Hop magazines use many puns e.t.c. in a way that makes them feel that Hip-Hop is a genre for maybe the less intelligent but my magazine uses quite formal language mixed with slang which hopefully allows them to think that I respect the people reading the magazine.  

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

From producing my music magazine front cover I have learnt how to develop my skills of creating an interesting looking text, in Photoshop, from my GCSE level of skills. Also on Photoshop I have learnt how to make manipulate shapes and fonts to make them look more appealing to my target audience for example on my front cover the box that my masthead is in. I have also learnt how to make an image look good on the page, for example being able to manipulate it the same way as the shapes, for example fading and framing. One thing that I had to learn how to use without having any past experience in using is the programme Pages which was used to create my double page spread. I also learnt how to compile a blog, for example how to upload images onto a blog and how to upload a photoshop file onto the blog. Lastly I learnt that when using technologies such as blogging and computers in general you need to be patient as they are not reliable. This helps you to organise your time as well as you may not be able to do something you want when you want to.

Looking back at your preliminary task of designing the front page of a school magazine, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel I have learnt how to make a magazine cover actually look like a magazine cover and not something that has been placed together in random places. I have also learnt how to use colours to represent the target audience of the magazine I was producing. On top of that I have learnt how to create an effective looking masthead and also how to take an image that will look good on a front cover. Within the contents page I learnt what a proper magazine contents page looks like and what it should include to make it look effective.  

I chose to use these images in my double page spread to give an insight into how the band records. I think this was effective because it allows the audience a glimpse into they way the band works and also it lets the audience relate to the band. 

I chose to use this image in my contents page because it shows the artist during a gig. I chose to do this because it links in with the interview with him, which is a look at one of his upcoming gigs.

I chose to use this image in my double page spread because in a way it introduces what the two characters in the band are like which I think is effective, especially in an interview article.  

I chose to use an image in my contents page because it shows how the band records, which I thought, would be an important thing to do because it lets the audience relate to the band. Throughout all my pictures I chose to use a mid shot because as they are a relatively new band they have not yet reached star status so this so their equality to the audience.

I chose to use this image as my front cover because it shows both members of the band while they are at work and I think it reflects well what artists do when they are writing lyrics. The image also includes a microphone which I thought was important because it I a vital part of a band. This is a long shot because I wanted to get in the different aspects how what they use to record. In my front cover this image was rotated to look more effective.