Music magazine brief

Brief

The brief for this piece of coursework is to produce an original music magazine and to decide on the genre of the magazine which needs to have at least four original images taken by myself.

For this piece we have to design a front cover, contents page and a double page spread.

What is the chosen music genre, which your magazine will focus upon?

The genre I am going to do is r&b music.

What are the key features of this genre?

Typically the r&b genre is perceived in a slight negative way. Usually r&b artists are full of “bling”, attitude and money. Most r&b artists are seen as trouble makers, gold diggers and thugs, they all have a reputation of shootings and stabbings and are not really seen in a positive light. However r&b music is very popular and many artists are doing well in this industry, for example 50 cent and lil Wayne.

R&b also has always been thought to be just black American males but its now spread to a small percentage of different ethic backgrounds and females also are involved in this industry now. For example female r&b artists such as Nicki Minaj have now become very popular, female artists are seen as sexy in the way they dress, act and are perceived through the media.
R&B artists also have a repetition of guns, knives and crime; these are proven in the images shown on the front of magazines such as Respect magazine.

Images of both genders that are used on current magazine covers, CD covers and videos, for example, are mainly with the person being half naked or at least showing plenty of bare skin. The images that I have noticed of r&b artists also illustrate the “bad boy” look which is what most r&b artists try to perceive through either lyrics, publications and/or media.

What magazines, currently in publication, cover this genre?

The current magazines I research and found on the r&b genre were XXL, vibe and respect magazines.

Analysis of two other college magazines

Analysis of two college magazines

I have found and collected two college magazines, in which I analysed and evaluated both to show the positive and negative aspects of these particular magazines.

From studying this college magazine I can see that there isn’t much language as such shown on the cover, however the text that is used is very relevant to the college and shows this certain colleges diversity and aspirations.

I noticed that making the mast heads font large and bold makes it stand out on the page; placing it at the top of the screen also catches the readers eye straight away and looks more professional and attractive for the viewer, which could suggest the professionalism of the students that attend this college.

The institution for this product is Ealing, Hammersmith and west London college. So undoubtedly the audience of this magazine cover is younger teenagers wanting to or attending college, I know this because of the images that have been chosen for the front cover for example using many different students all smiling and looking directly at the camera makes it seem more real and colloquial. In addition to this using a celebrity for the front cover again draws the reader in, makes them want to see more and it could suggest that if you attend this certain college you can become as successful as the celebrity chef Antony Warrel Thompson.

With using ‘traditional’ students all smiling at the camera for the front cover shows sophistication and adds to the sense of pride they have for the college which again is very beneficial for the college. However I had noticed that the colour scheme is very dull and dark for a front cover of a magazine with black and white font, this could be seen as a negative thing towards the analysis of the cover.

From studying this college magazine I did noticed many positive qualities and negative qualities. For example  the terminology used in this front cover is very relevant to teenagers but not so relevant to college and education as such; this is because the articles shown on the front of the cover aren’t based upon college and college life for example there are quotes on smoking and sleeping rather then on education and learning which is what you would think should be on the front of a college magazine.

Additionally, this particular  piece is of a college magazine and is used to promote their college in their own way.
This certain college magazine really promotes colleges in a positive way in some areas for example it shows a very respectful ‘traditional’ student on the front cover, the image is of a young girl smiling straight at the camera in a sunny field shot which straight away  proves a sense of pride for the college.

However they are some negative issues that concern including the articles used which will appear in the article. This particular college magazine cover is aimed at young people considering college; there are articles available such as ‘she’s 15 and pregnant’ which again perceives to be for young teenage people but can be considered as a unenthusiastic way to present teenagers.

This college magazine is represented in a very traditional and conventional way using this particular image and background. It seems very clear that this image is being perceived in a very positive way; in the way in which the model is photographed.

Overall both college magazines are different in many ways, yet still have the same idea in mind; to present their magazine in a professional, elegant and promoting way.

Final evaluation

Evaluation

As part of my AS media coursework I had to design a front cover college magazine and contents page, I explored many areas to design this college magazine for example the language, institution, ideology, audience and representation.

Firstly the language I decided to use on my front cover aimed to sum up the whole piece and show what this college has to offer.
I decided that the masthead would also suggest the success of the college and because I chose to do a dance college having a title that sums it up would be a good idea. I decided on “centre stage” as been the title to symbolise the college in all its aspects.
I also decided on having a sentence on the front cover that would be consistent throughout the college magazine, this sentence would be “put a spring in your step” I used this to aim on the college having different connotations such as energy and happiness, but to also encourage success and determination.
In addition to this the different articles used on the front cover also were used to determine college life and teenagers which is who this magazine is aimed at. For example the article “health week” promotes the college in so many ways, all positive towards the college and its encouragement to the students.

My initial idea of this front cover was to show the belief in the college and its success and well being of the students that attend.
It was also to show the fun side to college and to make students see there’s more to college then just books and work. Dance as a theme makes the whole magazine and college seem more interesting and different compared to other colleges it excludes dullness.

The audience I wanted to appeal to for this college magazine were young teenage students wanting to or attending this particular dance college.
Using certain aspects of this magazine was also used to aim at younger people, for example using that certain image of the model doing a dance pose adds to the reasoning of the magazine and the college.

Furthermore the decisions of the colour scheme were taking into consideration as I had many different plans and ideas for the front covers colour scheme. The final decision was to make the background a light shade of grey and to make the text different shades of black, blue and grey. I did this to make the image of the model stand out on the page more.
Also using that chosen font, font size and colour was to also make the masthead noticeable and attractive to the viewer.
However I did feel the contents page was much more straight forward than the cover page, I decided straight away on the colour scheme and layout of the contents because I knew I wanted the contents page to reflect the front cover. In order of this I kept the font style the same for more of the text.

Overall if I was to do this piece of coursework again I would have chosen a different image to use and would have taken more time to place it on the actual front cover as in my opinion I feel like that certain area was rushed. I would have also kept the font style the same throughout the front cover and contents page in order of keeping professionalism.

Contents page

Final design

Draft number one

Draft number two

Draft number two