31st January

Today, apart from finishing my front cover, I have added some inspirational videos from www.youtube.com, but first, I went onto www.google.com to find a list of pop singers. The list stated the top ten female pop singers. These were: Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Shakira, Kesha, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Mariah Carey.

Kesha - Take It Off [ Video ]

Rihanna - What's My Name? ft. Drake

Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) (The Official 2010 FIFA ...

Lady GaGa - Alejandro (Official Video)

Diary entry 31st January

Today, I finished my front cover of my pop magazine. I kept the name of my magazine as 'The Beats' because it goes well with all genres of music, because all music has to have a beat. I have the text as two types of the colour pink, as I always associate pop music with girls, so my target audience would be young-teenage girls. This is my music magazine front cover and the print screen. I didn't want to add too many pictures because it would look unprofessional, so I had the main picture bigger with a smaller photo in the corner. The big yellow circle was added to draw attention too one of the prizes: a samsung galaxy. I print screened my work to show the amount of layers used to make my front cover of my music magazine.

Another diary entry for 24th Jan

With my magazine, I also had trouble with InDesign, as my photos would not enlarge without going blurred. So I started using Photoshop, which is much easier and more practical with photos. This picture is a print screen on what I have started on for my front cover.

Diary entry for 24th Jan

Today, I started editing pictures to start my alternative rock/punk magazine, however, the photos I have taken do not really fit the look, therefore, I have changed to the genre of alternative pop instead. These are examples of the pictures that would be used for the magazine now

Name of music magazine

For my magazine, I have decided to use the title of: Rebel, as many people stereotype people who listen to the alternative rock/punk genre to be a bit rebellious, and not in to the ‘norm’ of music. The connotations of the word ‘rebel’ are: people who rebel against something e.g. the government, society and patriarchal values.

Diary entry for 17th Jan

Today, I did the flat plans for my music magazine, and these were for the front cover and the contents page.

Flatplans for music magazine

Diary Entry for the 10th January

This week, I added music videos to show my inspiration for my magazine. I also added my ideas for names and ideas for magazines. I also did an analysis of two music magazines and looked at 'Kerrang' magazines sales.

Twilight - Muse - Supermassive Black Hole

Tokio Hotel - Monsoon

My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade with lyrics

paramore misery business HD

Preparation for my music magazine

Having chosen your genre of music magazine, how does it represent anyone associated with the genre?

For my music magazine, I have decided to have the genres that range from alternative punk and alternative rock. Bands that fall into this genre include:

Ø  All Time Low

Ø  Paramore

Ø  Muse

Ø  Tokio Hotel and

Ø  30 Seconds to Mars

For my magazine, I have decided to use the title of: Rebel, as many people stereotype people who listen to the alternative rock/punk genre to be a bit rebellious, and not in to the ‘norm’ of music. The connotations of the word ‘rebel’ are: people who rebel against something e.g. the government, society and patriarchal values.

For my magazine, I will use the colours red, black, and white, dark blue and grey. Red will be used because the colour red can be associated with anger, rage, leadership, longing, and willpower, which is what people could associated with what alternative rock bands sing about. The colour black will be used as the colour black has the connotations of: death, evil, mystery and the unknown. Also, the colour black is also considered as a colour associated with this genre of music. The colour white will be used as it is the binary opposite of black, and suggests that there is simplicity of the music and is just as pure as music in the genres such as pop or R&B. The colour dark blue will be used because the colour represents seriousness, which shows people how serious the genres of alternative punk and rock are. The colour grey will be used as it has connotations of modern, futuristic (meaning that this genre could be more popular in the future) and fresh.

For the cover lines, I will do one that is associated with a new band, who will be the main picture on the front cover, which will be about a worldwide tour, their music and how they are doing and their plans for the future. Other cover lines will include: 1. About an artist and their new relationship to another artists, 2. Tour dates for another band, 3. A chance to win two free tickets, 4. Interview with a famous band such as Paramore and 5.  An interview about bands breaks up.

For the masthead, I would have the words bold, which will be in the colours red or grey, with a black outline. I would have the masthead in a 3-D type of text type, as 3-D is more modern and futuristic.

For the layout of the front cover, I would have the main picture in the middle right, according to the rule of thirds. I would then have the cover lines on the left hand side of the page, as this would look more professional. I would have the free win cover line on the bottom of the page, with a picture of what is to be won. I would have pictures to accompany the cover lines.

Ideas for Music Magazine band names

Names:

The Beats
Broken Record
Unplugged
Rock Out and
Rock Block

Current state of music magazine sector and audience research

My inspiration for my music magazine is 'Kerrang'. The publisher is 'Bauer' and they also produce other music magazines such as 'Mojo' and 'Q'. Kerrang first concentrated on rock and heavy metal, but now covers a more alternative rock and punk genre. Kerrang was first published as a monthly magazine, but now, because of i's increasing sales, is now a weekly magazine. Kerrang has a reputation for following the trend with the latest rock groups. however, in 2003, sales declined when they followed the genre of 'nu-metal', which was a trend that did not last long. After this, Kerrang focused on more alternative rock/punk bands such as My Chemical Romance, and by 2009, Kerrang's weekly sales were over 50100!!
Kerrang's audience is 60% male and 40% females and range from the ages of 16-24. The magazine is aimed at the rock genre and includes alternative bands such as 'Paramore' and 'All Time Low'.

Analysis for two music magazines

The first magazine cover is from Kerrang and has bands such Panic at the Disco, Paramore, Linkin Park and Muse. These bands all range in the Alternative rock or punk genre. However, the other music magazine is NME and has a variety of bands like The automatic, The Who and My Chemical Romance. These bands all come from a variety of genres, since NME changed so their magazine included more genres so more people could buy it. the colours used on both magazines are black, white and red, but NME also uses yellow, which has the connotations of happiness. Black and white are used as binary opposites, and have connotations of darkness and light. The title 'Kerrang' is broken and had the onomatopoeia sound of a guitar rift at the end, whereas NME sounds like 'Enemy' when said fast.

Photos from student magzine

These pictures are a selection of those that were used or considered to be used for my student magazine front cover.

Front cover for student magazine and the contents page

For these two tasks, I used 'indesign'.  The pro's of indesign is that it is easier to upload pictures easier. and easier to add text. However, the cons are changing the text's colour and the swatches. I also found it hard to change the text size and type (e.g.. Times New Roman). I found indesign easy because it was very good at layout, ut was not that good for editing photos.

Draft for student magazine front cover

Flat plans

These are my flat plans for my student magazine.