In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?
My music magazine develops other forms and conventions of Rnb and hop hop magazines by having a uniformed colour that represents the audience, that is the U.K. Also i use more language conventions to attract my chosen audience such a colloquialism and rhetorical questions. I also used the stylization of VIBE magazine when the masthead blends into the background.
Which I feel came out very successful.
The lure in my magazine has a sense of being positive which I feel
other black influenced magazines lack at the moment. Such as the
vibe issue with lil Wayne on the front. This issue highlights an iconic
figure lil mama and her ‘Drug Drama’, which I feel, shouldn’t be
advertised to the youth. Furthermore I challenged other existing
magazine by limiting the amount of ‘bling’ and lack of clothing that
the celebrity especially females put on. By doing this I feel I am
challenging the stereotype of black females and the way they show
themselves and this I think is a positive attribute and hopefully will
change how people stereotype
How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?
By using the union jack colours, the magazine already
represents people that live in the U.K especially Britain.
By using a young female on the front cover it also shows
that my magazine is aimed at younger social groups,
mainly black british as the genre of music is Rnb,
Funkyhouse. However i would also say it is for other
social groups as Britain especially London where is would
be promoted has diverse cultures. The clothes that is
worn by the 'model' is very stylish and the sequins help in
making it look this way. Also the diamond jewellery suits
the genre of music being portrayed. This represents
social groups that are also interested in other means of
entertainment other than music: which is fashion and
keeping up with the latest trends. My social group are
also people that would be inner city living youngsters
such as London they also still attend school and also have
dreams for the future although are motivated by external
rewards such as money and material things.
What kind of instituiton might distribte your music magazine and why?
The type of instituitions that would sell my music magazine would be cornershops and convinience storesas that is where mots music magazines like 'Black beat' and 'VIBE' are sold, as they are local meaning there would be a huge profit. Other instituitions i would make use of are festivals and workshops aimed at youth, prefferably 16-19 as this is my target audience. The workshops would be music workshops and thses usually take place in schools and universities and also during the half term and holidays. As the magazine helps to promote up and coming artists it would be a good recognition where people can purchase it at a reasonable price. As it is a generation where the internet is widely accessible i included a website for my magazine where readers can access and are able to order magaziens from online and read the latest stuff, this would prove to be successful as other mainstream music magazines have webistes were you can access them.
Who would be the audience for your music magazine?
The generic music conventions in my music magazine suggest the audience are of a youthful generation, to be more specific 16-19 although an aspirational age of 15-20. With a gender split of 50% male who are interested in music downloads, and whats out and 50% female. My audience are also into Rnb/Funkyhouse and other entertainments such as fashion and gossip. They would also come from the U.k mainly. When i researched other Rnb magazines they made use of vibrant colour and images with sexy provocative or 'gamgsta' influenced mode of adressess which i encorporated into my magazine as the audience is rather similar.
Here is an example of a magazine>>>
How did you attract/address the audience for your music publication?
To attract the audience for my music publication i used bright bold colours on the Masthead, other texts and imagery. The masthead is red which connotes the audiences lust and passion for music with a black drop shadow and as i didnt want to make it boring it fades into the background. . I think by doing this it makes it more effective and attractive as its different to the normal one colour masthead.By also keeping a house style of red, blue, black and white its makes the page more uniformed giving it a uniformed feature. I also added a lure which is some of an interview with the celebrity on the front.
The image on the front acts as a lure and assists in attracting the reader as there is eye contact. The camera shot is a mid-shot which is a normal view of an image. The camera angle is eye level which connotes that the the person is of equal with the target audience. I wanted it to look professional so i used a studio in a university as the backgrounds of these magazines are usually clear so the main focus is the celebrity. The clothes that the female is wearing is a shiny sequined top that has the union jack on it. Becaus i took the picture i could control what she wore and it is a very stylish young top also the jewellery is iconic of wealth and fashion. Body language is also used to attract my target audience, to boys it would be seen as a sexy or provocative stance and this is what they mainly look for in the purchance of a magazine, if not male icons they look up to. With girls her pose is very feminim and this helps relate to the girls of this generation. Also from her pose you can see shes in control and confident which is what people look for.
On the front page i use different language conventions which suits the chosen audience. the mode of address is informal as there is the use of Colloquilism where is says 'Swaggerjack'. this is the type of language that they relate to, although as they are students they are not illiterate but educated. There is also adjecives and opinion used where it say '50 greatest hits'. By using these it exaggerates and sells the magazine as they would want to know what songs are so great. In addition to these conventions i added rhetorical questions asking them 'who is the best artist ever?'. By doing this it involves the reader as they would wan to decide.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt how to use Photoshop very effectively. I've also learnt that you can add different effects like 'stroke' and 'glow' to attarct your chosen audience. Using these also helped me to develop my ideas further and i could create what my target audience wanted. Further although i found pages more difficult than Photoshop i was stil able to make my double feature to the best of my ability.
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 that there is a big improvement in my phtoshop skills. before creating the actual cover on Photoshop i created a flat plan of my school magazine to make it easier for me to do. By outlining where i wanted images and text to go i knew how it would look. i did teh same plannign fo rmy music magazine to make th eprocess easier and quicker. My pictures for my school magazine were taken with a normal digital camera from school. i thought i could improve the quality of photography so i used a professional Canon HD camera in a studio to acheive a proffesional look. i have learnt how to make pictures look realistic on the backgorund of a magazine and i think i did very well overall on my music publication.
Welcome to Baseline Magazines official blog. Providing you with you're weekly dose of Rnb and other ranges of music,Baseline also gives you an insight on the latest gossip, reviews and exclusive interviews in the UKs music industry. Also voted Britain's number 1 music mag and blog. 
