Evaluation

In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?
My music magazine front cover is similar to other magazines. I say this because on my magazine, there is a large image on the front which is the central image, with puffs and sell lines. It has a bar code at the bottom right corner, which most if not all magazines include. Just underneath the Masthead (title), there is a strap line which is a rhetorical statement. “If you’re not fly, don’t buy”. My contents page layout is different from other magazine styles. The contents page contains a lot of images, a lot of colour, and a fair amount of writing, with easy direction to the pages. Overall I would say that my magazine has a similar style to other music magazine front covers. However the content of the magazine is different from others. The contents page has been developed from a rather standard style to a different style. A convention I also stuck to is the anchorage text. This is basically text that relates to the central image and gives the reader a better understanding of the image.

How does your music magazine represent particular social groups?
My music magazine represents different types of social groups. My magazine does this by focusing on different types of music genres which obviously would attract several different types of social groups. However, my main focus in my magazine is of the hip hop genre. I wouldn’t say that ‘hip hop’ has a particular social group because it is broad and has a lot of listeners. However, I would conclude the social group to being urban street. This social group is also a broad group which include the majority of teen nowadays between the ages of 14 – 23.
My magazine also reaches out to every ethnic background as the title of the magazine is called ‘Fly’. This is a slang term which can mean a lot of things. This term could mean anything between: good looking, bubbly attitudes and having a good knowledge of dress sense. I think that every teen nowadays likes to believe that they fit in to this group of ‘Fly-ness’ when considering personality and appearance, therefore inviting different social groups. This is a little tactic I used in order for my magazine to reach out and relate to wider audiences. My magazine is also unisex. My magazine is unisex because there are also things on the contents page that would be of interest to females and males. They could be interested from anything from the posters, hip-hop battles and chances to win things.


Who would be the target audience for your music magazine?
I would say that the target audience for my music magazine is teenagers between the ages of 14 – 23 interested in the urban scene as stated above. This is an appropriate target audience for my music magazine because the people that listens to urban music are of these ages. I deliberately targeted teens because I am one myself, and this would make the production of my magazine much easier as I could write of some of the things I am interested in as a teen. I also find that teens are interested in the upcoming new artists around their own age range and also what is going on in the streets.

How did you attract/address your target audience?
I addressed my target audience in a couple different ways. The first way and probably most obvious is the title of my magazine ‘Fly’. This term is popular within teens nowadays. As soon as they spot the term they would know that the magazine is something they can all relate to. Another way I attracted my audience is by advertising some of the things I am interested in as a teen on the front cover. I done this because many teens from my social group especially, and more are interested it this. I addressed my target audience by using terminology they can relate to in the interviews and also on the front cover. I also attracted my audience by putting an attractive picture on cover.

What kind of media institution might distribute your music magazine and why?
There are different Media institutions that I think could distribute my magazine. Firstly I believe that by different media institutions distributing my magazine would help with nation wide spread and publicity of the mag. An institution that could distribute my magazine could be


What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your music magazine?
In the process of constructing a music magazine, I learnt a few new things. I already had the knowledge that when producing a magazine, you obviously need a main image, title, sell lines etc. However when the main image picture has been taken, I didn’t know that it was edited into making the person look more attractive. By this I mean they can edit womens bodies, and also alter their faces, not only women but also men. It also takes a lot of planning and construction is essential to a successful magazine.

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from creating the school magazine (preliminary task), to creating your music magazine?
Since the production of my school magazine, I have gained more experience in the production of front covers and contents pages. When I first made my school magazine I didn’t know where certain tools were located. But as time progressed I got used to it and finally started realising were necessary tools were located and that help me with my personal magazine and contents page.

My own magazine covers, contents pages, double page spread.

Your magazine planning – target audience, type of magazine, price etc

1. Who is your target audience?
I would prefer my target audience to be between the age ranges of`15 – 25. I would like it to be this because it I can relate to most of the common things people between this age group can.

2. What style, genre or time of music is your magazine about or it going to appeal to a range of music tastes?
My magazine is going to be about music but also a little bit about fashion. The magazine is going to be about different types of music, however, it will talk about the similarities between English, and American music. This will be of interest to a lot of people.

3. How often will your magazine come out, weekly, fortnightly, monthly or bi-monthly?
I would like my magazine to appear on the shelves every month. I think this would be a good tactic because people will have to wait in suspense, wanting to know what is going to be in the next months edition. How ever, if it came out every week, it wouldn’t have this effect on people.

4. How much will your magazine cost? Consider who your target audience is and also how often your magazine comes out?
My magazine will cost £2.50.

5. Is your magazine going to be glossy like Q magazine or more like a newspaper like NME?
I would like my magazine to be like Q magazine. The glossy look. Reason being is I believe this look appeals to the younger audience. The newspaper look wouldn’t.