Music Magazine

Evaluation .
In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
My layout is simple and eye catching to
draw readers attention, and has a simple
colour scheme of dark red, black and
white. The simple black and white makes
the red stand out, and also has a sexual
connotation as it is dark/ sensual. This
could relate to my audience as many of
those in the R&B music scene are
interested or immersed in sex and
violence. The cool graffiti background
connotes a ‘ghetto’ kind of background,
related with R&B, Hip Hop, Rap and Grime.
The graphic feature and headline are the
main selling points with their promise
of winning freebies and a background of
a famous person. Along with the
background it suggests this famous
person is from a less fortunate area,
which some fans of R&B can relate
directly to.

My magazine was inspired my the American

R&B and Hip Hop magazine Vibe, and I
wanted to use the poster style
appearance, large masthead, and similar
colour schemes. However I wanted to give
this magazine more of a feminine flair;
removing female nudity and adding
fashion specials as a kicker on the
front cover. I also put my menu strip at
the bottom rather than the top to keep
the focus on the masthead and main
image.
 My main image is the most dominant
feature on the page, in a conventional
Left Centre Right poster style that is apparent also in
Vibe magazine that I used for a starting
point and inspiration. The model is
generally beautiful/ eye catching and
immediately connotes a glamourous or
sexual representation.
poT

The headline is
just a single word-
the name of the
model on the front
cover. It is large,
elddiM

red and all in

capital letters to
grab the readers
attention and
highlight its
importance.

The menu strip lists

artists that the reader
can expect the magazine
to cover and engage the
readers interest as
they are the artists
the audience would be
mottoB

into.

The rule of thirds on the front covers of my magazine and Vibe magazine are very similar, with the main
image vertically filling the centre third. Horizontally the top third is filled with the large masthead.
The contents page
continues my house
style and makes the
pages come together,
using the same
fonts, colours and
graphic images.

The contents are split into sections

of interest. This makes the contents
page concise and fluent. It displays
a typical layout style of a contents
page from any kind of interest
magazine from music to fashion. This
is also good as fashion is another
interest point for my audience, and I
have merged some fashion magazine
elements such as ‘Best Dressed Singer’
and ‘Beyonce’s Winter Fashion Special’
to accommodate all the interest
points for my audience.

The images generally

display who the main
articles of the week will
be about. In the case of
my magazine and this
issue of vibe- two women
with attitude and
connotations of
independence and sexual
appeals.

The article also is consistent
with my house style; using the
same fonts and colours. This is
also true for Vibe magazine. It
is important as it gives the
magazine its unique style and
all the pages can come
together.
The heading and
introductory comments are a
vital part of a double page
spread as they reel the
audience in and interest
Both articles have a them in the article. They
small section header use a bigger font and
which is likely to be
a consistent feature introduce and explain the
on every page of the main image.
magazine to give it
structure and give a
small insight into My article also copies
what each page will the image I drew for the
contain. These are contents page, to give
important to finish it continuity and to
the page off and pull give it a tattooed kind
the magazine together. of feel, which is a
connotation of the R&B
music style.
The main image is the
dominant piece of the
article. I did this to
give colour and
interest to the article
and it is consistent
with the style of Vibe.
It portrays the artists
as powerful and
independent women.

My magazine also contains a pull

quote ‘Sex is as common as money,
everyone’s doing it!’ This engages
the reader, demonstrates a
typical subject for R&B music
fans and should interest the
reader into reading the article
as they base their ideas of the
article on this quote.
 How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
My magazine communicates a glamourous lifestyle originating from a poorer or unfortunate ‘ghetto’
or ‘urban’ background. Many readers of my magazine will be cool, aspiring performers that could
have experienced a more challenging childhood than most. Stereotypically, aspiring rappers/
people in gangs/ people who are ‘street’. It could gain their interest with articles such as
‘Hannah - Back To My Roots’ as it shows a childhood situation that many could relate to, and shows
her success. This creates an ideology for these readers as it shows that people who have
difficult lifestyles can make it in the music industry. It speaks to the readers as it contains
features such as ‘Top 100 Sexiest R&B Music Videos’. This not only is attracting people by the
music choice but again presenting the sexual lifestyle that attracts so many people.
This could attract either a male or a
female audience as either gender could
be aspiring to be the people in these
videos, or just enjoying the view. Many
of the people in my audience would be
very ambitious and driven in an
unconventional direction from other
music followers. Their career
aspirations involve less stable, 9-5
jobs; such as singer, model, actress or
music video dancers, as a few examples.
Articles such as ‘Zoe; Youngest Number
One’ and ‘Beyonce and Rihanna Fight For
Album Of The Year’ display women with
confidence and drive; two qualities this
audience can relate to.
The photo shoot I took represents how the media
portrays R&B artists as sexual beings, but also as
independent and confident women. Bright or revealing
clothes and an underlying sexual invitation.
Particular groups of people present these qualities
of confidence and independence and going out with
attitude and it has been promoted by the strong
willed women of R&B. I have put some examples of
photographs that are typical portrayals of R&B
female artists, and how my photographs received their
inspiration.
R&B has promoted women to be happy in their own skin,
be who they are, and not feel like they need men to
be happy. Groups of single girls often represent
qualities that have been copied by these singers and
often it has given them more

confidence. R&B music

creates the ideology
for girls that
independence is often
the best way- and the
most successful women
won’t have a needy man
‘tagging along’. It
created the image of
the idea of an ‘alpha
female’ and the modern
idea of women being the
tougher or ‘better’ sex.
 What kind of media institution would distribute your
media product and why?
As an R&B music magazine, I believe that my
magazine would be successful working with the
institution IPC Media. This is because of its
successful influences and resources.
SIZE :
It is currently the largest publishing company,
and with that is success and connections. Being
part of a larger scale company would be the
most successful for my magazine, as there is
already an existing market for my magazine: in
America through Vibe magazine. I want to bring
this over into the UK.
MONEY AND WHAT I INTEND TO OFFER :
I know that with IPC, I’m more likely to receive
the necessary funds for more ambitious ideas.
With modernisation and VAT increases it is
becoming increasingly difficult to have a
successful magazine publication without having
online resources that can be accessed without
purchasing a paper publication. Funding for
subscriptions purchased off the internet could
also bring successful business to the
institution and also bring a fresh idea to work
around the internet and in doing so, be more
successful. This is why a large and well known
company would be essential to work with, as
funding for such projects could be quite
expensive, but would in turn bring money into
the company in a new way.
SUCCESS :
Proof off success of the company is displayed
across it’s website, and also through the large
amount of magazines it has successfully
published and maintained.
“IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands,
with print alone reaching almost two thirds of
UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million
UK adults – while our websites collectively
reach over 14 million users every month.”
It is also apparent that there is a lot of
market for magazines aimed at females, and mine
is a fresh look on R&B music with a feminine
touch. My magazine would most likely attract
females and that is why IPC Media would be
appropriate- its success rate with reaching the
female population is high and consistent.
A full list of publications it produces is
located on this site.
About IPC Media - IPC Media - The UK's leading consumer maga
IPC produce the magazine NME, which is the only
music magazine they currently produce – aimed at
males, suggested by the website.
However they produce many female magazines –
Look, Now and Chat.
My music magazine, as I have previously
mentioned, has a fashion input, as well as music
interest about celebrities. The company would
benefit from publishing my magazine as it is a
unique collaboration of music, fashion, and
celebrity interest all rolled into one for women.
AWARDS :
It is important to be able to see the
success rate so that I know IPC is the best
choice of media institution to publish my
unique magazine. This is proved as by
researching Winners of The PPA Awards 2010 I
saw that IPC won “Publisher Of The Year
(Consumer Magazines) sponsored by Wiggin
Julie Lavington, Look, IPC Media” and
“Consumer Website Of The Year sponsored
by Dovetail Services
NME.com, IPC Media” This shows that for its
women’s interest magazine and its music
magazine, it won an award. It is apparent
that its success rate for a collaboration of
the two would be high. It also shows that is
successful on paper and online. This is
important for my publication as online
access to my magazine would be a successful
project.

SALES FIGURES :
To achieve success, finding out the extent of
sales on its current magazines is important.
By searching
www.nrs.co.ukI discovered that its most
popular women’s interest magazine is Chat,
with 1 248 000 readers between October 2009
and September 2010. 1 104 000 of these
readers were women. This also shows that
although my magazine may have an obvious
feminine aim, some men will still pick up my
magazine and read it. This is important as it
will reach a wider UK audience.
With the magazines Now, Look, Pick Me Up, Chat
and Woman, the company reaches 16.4% of the
UK population. With so many other weekly
magazine rivalries, it is obvious why IPC
Media has been so successful, and has grabbed
almost a whole fifth of the UK for itself.
 Who would be the audience for your
media product?
My magazine has the conventions of a music magazine firstly, with hints of women’s interest and fashion.
Even though music is completely unbiased towards gender, the feminine feel from the subtle additions I made
are apparent to the audience. Therefore I would say that my main audience would be young women, young
mothers, and aspiring music artists.

However, there is obvious market for the male population as well. With features such as ‘Top 100 Sexiest R&B
Music Videos’ the promise of girls getting sexual is most likely enough to persuade the men to read it as
well. With successful women’s magazines being read by men the chances are that even though I believe the
majority of my readership figures would reveal women, I believe a substantial amount of men would take the
time out to have a flick through.

R&B music has a huge audience of males and females alike, and the market for a magazine on the genre had
not yet been filled in the UK until my magazine, which suggests that any fans of the music are likely to
want to get their hands on it, with or without a feminine touch I believe that females and males alike will
want to read it.

To conclude I believe that although the majority are likely to be female, there will be many males. The
certain fact is I believe this is definitely aimed at a younger generation of 16- 29 year olds, because of
its sexual content and also its upfront features about the R&B world of music.
 How did you attract/ address your audience?
To address my audience directly I used a
model dressed glamorously wearing a
dress and heels to present an attractive
lifestyle that my readers would aspire
to have. Also the fact that the exclusive
suggests that Hannah goes ‘back to her
roots’ implies that she had a very
different lifestyle previously to what
she has now. This would lure my audience
into buying the magazine as people from
more difficult backgrounds but with big
dreams are reassured that they still
have a chance in the music world.
Also, the graffiti background on the
front cover supports this, and is sending
subliminal messages to readers from less
fortunate areas that they can connect
with this magazine, and that it will be
on their wave length.
Glamorous
dress
Graffiti
background as money, everyone’s doing it!’ Is
‘Back To My of life, and also their interests in the health.
Roots’ story sexual world.
As some of the interests of my audience
would generally include fashion, many
references to fashion have been made on
the front page and the contents page, to
attract the audience as it would appeal
to them as a collaboration between
their interest in music and their
interest in fashion. It also gives the
magazine its feminine touch and so
really addresses the female population,
which explains the majority of my
readers being females.
The decorative pattern in the corner of
the double page spread and the contents
of the magazine not only gives the
magazine continuity, but subconsciously
again creates a slight gender bias, with
women stereotypically being attracted
to decorative and beautiful patterns,
contrasting with men, who
stereotypically don’t care much for
detail.
The constant reference to sex and
violence attract the audience of my
magazine as they can often relate to
their own personal experiences or
lifestyle as a whole. On the double page For example ‘my school was a nightmare
spread the pull quote ‘Sex is as common for kids and sex’ is conversational and
relatable, a lot of schools especially
successfully addressing the reader as in tougher areas have a slack view on
they can relate and compare their way the importance of sexual privacy and
It speaks to the reader in their own
language; no formality or language that
would demean them. The casual
conversational tone makes the reader
feel comfortable reading the magazine.
 What have you learned about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
During the production of my magazine, I
learned many things about how new
technologies could advance my product
further- and make it sell.
On Photoshop, tools such as the ‘magic
eraser’ and ‘eraser’ tools gave me so
many more options as to what I could do
with my magazine.
Also, using a ‘blur’ tool I could
create the effect of my graffiti
background on my front cover; it
took away the harsh corners and
colours and allowed the attention
to be focused on the model.
The ‘opacity’ tool also aided
the piece to blend in with all
its features, for example the
hand drawn pattern on the
contents page and the double
page spread. Without this tool
the deep black colour would be
too harsh against the text and
draw away from the main focus.
A magazine without a
connected website appears to
be extremely back dated. What
I have learned about the
technologies of this process
is that to be a successful
magazine and keep up with
sales, a website as well as a
paper based production is
practically essential.
Another aspect of the
technologies I learned was the
convergence between the internet
and the paper based publication.
The rise of the internet made
magazine sales dramatically fall,
so the idea of creating a website
that would support my paper based
magazine would give it popularity
and keep it selling.
I decided that the magazine would
have a supporting website that
would simply include extras from
the magazine. The paper
publication would also include
links to the website e.g.. ‘Go
online to subscribe to the
magazine’ etc. Persuading the
readers to go on the online
version could make them more
interested in the content of the
magazine, and in turn will
interest the reader in continuing
to buy the magazine, as well as
visit the website.
Creating a subscription to the
magazine bought off the internet
would push the printed feature to
be more popular.
 Looking back at your preliminary task (the College
magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to full product?
The most apparent progression I
believe I have made from the
college magazine is my knowledge
of magazine conventions and use
of space within a layout.
Understanding of headlines,
kickers, graphic features etc
dramatically improved my
knowledge of magazine conventions
and therefore made my final
product a lot more professional
looking.
Using a flat plan for my front
cover was something I used for
the music magazine which gave it
structure that I had not used for
my college magazine.
I also learned about the use of a
house style to bring a magazine
together and give it continuity. I
did not use this technique in the
college magazine and it shows
great progression from the
preliminary task to the final
product.
Another technicality I learned was
about the market for magazines.
Gaining the knowledge that the
market for magazines has been
rapidly decreasing made me think
about how I could attract my appeared to fill a niche market for
audience, with use of a website and a them, as an R&B magazine with a
subscription purchasable from the feminine edge. As they had been
internet. Converging my magazine with successful producing women’s
the internet makes it relevant and up interest magazines I decided I
to date – it gives it a place in the would be most successful with them.
market.
I also learned that the choice of
Knowing details about the audience I publisher would be important for
aim to address is something I learned funding. A larger company would be
in the progression I made. able to provide more funding than a
Information about the my targeted smaller one and that was another
audiences’ ideologies and interests reason I chose IPC so I could
made me able to connect directly to successfully fund a supporting
them and speak to them. Connecting website for my magazine.
with them directly would make my
magazine more successful.
Learning about the publishing
institutions gave my insight into how
magazines are created and sold
successfully. It was apparent that
the choice for publisher I made was
important. I chose IPC because even
though they already produced a music
magazine (NME) my magazine