Music Magazine Evaluation-Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

 

Over the time,working on the College and music magazine I would say I have learnt a lot which has helped me improve and have a better outcome for my production of my music magazine than my college magazine. When i first started the practise task I did have a history of producing a magazine from school with some knowledge of what I needed to include, however when creating the college magazine I learnt that more was needed in order to be up to the standard of a professional media product. I believe I have successfully done that, by comparing my college to my music magazine there is definitely a difference in the production value, also a deeper depth of technical and symbolic codes.

 

The use of codes and conventions has also improved, if I compare my analysis of magazines in the practice task compared to my analysis in the main task there is a much better indentification of codes and conventions and their technical and symbolic meaning. Aswell as there representation. With this greater intentifying of codes and conventions I was able to apply this to the production of my magazines, knowing representations I would be able create throughout the magazine production. Comparing the two magazines there is a much larger use of representation in the music magazine then in the college magazine.

 

Aswell as gaining a better understanding for the technical side of the print media, I have gained more practical skills in the production of media products. Before the practice task I had only used a simple form to create a magazine on the system PhotoDraw. Where as now I have learnt to use PhotoShop and InDesign, which are though more complicated to use as they are two different computer systems, it has allowed me to produce a more realistic media product. In the pratice I did really struggle using the systems not knowing what or how any of the tools worked, as a consequence my college magazine although did include the necerssary codes and conventions did not live upto the standards of a real magazine. Where as for my music magazine there was an improvement as through out the production as produced different drafts I was able to identify the different problems I needed to improve, therefore through every draft i was able to improve the standard and gained a better understanding of how the different tools worked.

 

 I also have learnt how the photography is able to have such a big impact for technical and symbolic codes as well as representation. I knew that I would have to use techniques such as direct mode of address to help my magazine connect to the audience and use a variety of other shots and angles to get a different effect for each photo both technically and symbolically. The way my photos progressed from my college magazine to my music magazine is noticeable, as i was able to edit the images better for the music magazine then the college magazine as I had applied mise-en-scene by using costume, hair and make up, also shot with props which helped add more represnetation to the magazine. Also the experiences of taking the photography was different, for my college magazine I made up on the spot the type of photos I was going to take, although I was quite happy with the outcome I think if I had time to plan the photos I could have applied symbolic codes more to create a happy environment about the college. Where as for my music magazine I was able to plan my photography meaning I was able to apply a better use of symbolic codes and representation.

Altogether I think I have learned alot about how magazines are created and that alot is taken into consideration before it is actually published as there is all the planning, production then evaluating the product to make sure that is at a high enough standard to sell on the shelves of the nations retailers. When i compare the difference between my college magazine and music magazine I can tell I have learnt alot which has come to good use to creating my final production.

 

Music Magazine Evaluation- Question 6

Music Magazine Evaluation- Question 5

Music Magazine Evaluation- Question 4

 Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my music magazine would be young people, ranging from teenagers to young adults. to find this out when I did the practise task of a college magazine I conducted a questionnaire and asked 5 people of different gender, yet the same age group to answer. I did this to see what people of my target audience would want to see in a music magazine and what music they were individually interested in.

The questionnaire had a variety of questions to help me get an idea of they were interested in and what they were associated with. Asking questions varying from what is your favorite genre of music, what their parents did as careers, what products were they interested in etc. i designed these questions to help me find out what type of audience I was trying to target to.

From this research I found out that the audience varied in the class grades of B, C1 and C2. With these class grades and the subjects I found out many of the audience were taking, it seems that they had ambitions to be successful and imporving or maintaing their social class grade. linking to their ambitions their social class grade and ambition to be successful they liked to be linked to new media products and the newest technology such as apple, cinema and music.

The ratio of males to females that answered my questionnaire was 3:2, this is quite surprising as all the males said that they did read magazines as well as the females. Though this gave me the information that the genders liked different genre's of music, it made it clear more males are interested in reading magazines than is genreally thougt. This helped give me the idea to create a unisex magazine that appealed to all music genres.

Further down the line, before I started production on my music I conducted a focus group to conduct my audience research/readership profile. I recorded the focus group to not only help me learn what features and style my target audience would like I also found this as an opportunity to find out what my target audience was like as people. To make sure I got the best of this, I only recorded the answers once or twice, this way I could get the groups first reaction to the question and get real answers from them instead of well thought and practiced answers in their heads. I also researched their behavior when playing back my audience  research, this was to help me get an idea of who my target audience was. I found out that as they are young that they do not take all of life to seriously, they like to have fun and have a laugh. However that they do have opinions, especially on topics that they know about and can relate to, this made me realize that if I take this type of information into account I can create a media product that can act as a representation of my teenage target audience to help it relate to the audience and become a source of uses and gratifications to them.

As I am the same age as my target audience I am able to connect more to the reader and have a better understanding of what they want to see and read in a music magazine. I showed them images and magazines which I thought were more relative to our age group and asked them questions about them, to help get a better idea of how to create a music magazine that was a majority of what they wanted. By getting their input, I made the readers part of the magazine and am now able to create a magazine that knows and interests them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h63-Q-Kww4


The images I used in my magazine convey importance, power and wealth, targets that some of my target audience of teeneagers aspire to. The lifestyle they live contains apects of the magazine such as clothes, technology and music, meaning it may seem similar to them.

The model I used as the artist in the pop-rock style sub-genre. As I have used a female, the way she is presented will appeal to both male and female, attracting both audiences.

Music Magazine Evaluation- Question 3

Music Magazine Evaluation-Question 2

Representing Social Groups- Question 2

Teenage Music Lovers-Pop rock style

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine contains varied genres within it but is all the featured artists are made over to have more rock look to them. Today it is known as pop-rock, it gained main-stream popularity in the 60's it is a mixture of pop and rock music, it is defined in many different ways from slower and more mellower form of rock songs, to a sub genre of pop music. Artists famous for singing pop-rock are Elton John, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart. Pop-rock became less popular as a genre of music in the 90's after pop music became the mainstream music of the time, however in recent years pop-rock has made a come back as a sub-genre. As many music artists of different genres of music have taken the kind of rock look and found a way to combine it with their music to create more of an edge and a bit more of a dramatic twist to both their music and style, such as Taylor Swift (country), Katherine Jenkins (Classical Crossover), Beyonce (RnB). These artists have taken the look and added it to their music to make a difference in symbolic messages fans get in their music and other artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, James Arthur have created more modern pop-rock music.
Examples of the pop-rock style:
(Old pop-rock style)
Paul McCartney-Junk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLWm-m6CuCY
Rod Stewart- Have you ever seen it rain?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oX2FSv4Rys
These are songs of the pop-rock genre, who have helped modern day artists use new looks to help change the image and representations of their music.

(Newer pop-rock style)
Taylor Swift is a country music artist who became popular in 2009, at first her music was very much country music with a modern day twist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhj15W23IjA
Then in 2010 she released the song Picture to Burn which she added a rock style to add a bit more edge to the video as this is a song about being angry at an old lover, this video is similar to many rock videos, featuring band shots, heavy use of black and a use of electric guitars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMqcFAigRg

Katherine Jenkins is a Classical Crossover artist who came to fame in 2004, at first she had a very traditional classical look and sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR7EaHbPe54
But in recent years she has taken a different approach and has helped make classical music more accessible. She has done this by an edgier look and covering pop songs. In 2009 she released her most accessible album called Believe in which she covered the song Bring Me to Life by Evanescence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-IX9a4r7wY
In the video she has taken on a very sexy and edgier look compared to a stereotypical classical singer, making the song seem very moody and more accessible to a wider audience.

James Arthur won the X Factor in 2012, throughout the competition he had his own thing of taking many genres of music and singing them with his style of voice, which was very much a rock voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbHhdBSk8M
With his winners single he took the pop song Impossible and sung it it with his very rock voice, this helped add more emotion to the song, which was very relevant as the music video was about his emotional roller coaster journey on X Factor. With him winning the show he is another example how by adding a sub genre to another genre of music can help be accessible to a wider audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhj15W23IjA


How pop-rock has changed?
Pop-rock used to be a selling music genre before it was taken on as a sub-genre for varied music artists today.Elton John has had a career spanning 4 decades, singing genres such as pop-rock, glam-rock, RnB, soft rock and rock. He has had over 50 Top 40 Consecutive singles, the main years in his career was between the late 60's to the late 80's before he decided to take more of a creative role in the music industry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KYAVn8ons
This happened to many other music artists who sung pop-rock, less of this genre music was played in the 90's when the new music genre faze Punk Metal came along. Similarly to pop-rock, punk metal was evolved from rock music. Within the 90's although the pop-rock genre had become less mainstream, it began to make a comeback as a style for other genres of music. This is how it began its role as a representation for the look and feel of music, examples of the first pop-rock representation look is Whitney Houston. In her music video 'I will always love you' she has gone for a very moody look, this helps convey the emotional meaning of the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU
The pop-rock visual representation in her music video is similar to the representation used in Elton John's 'Sorry seems to be the hardest word.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2e4NlnLr28
Similar technical and symbolic codes are used in the music videos. From high camera angles to extreme close ups. Slow paced editing and the low key lighting. As well as the isolated setting, use of colour for clothing. Also the mise-en-scene of being isolated and alone after losing someone and missing them. Both very similar use of style used for different genres of music.

How pop-rock is still relavant today?
Pop rock is a music genre which mixes a catchy pop style and light lyrics in its (typically) guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music. The detractors of pop rock often deride it as a slick, commercial product, less authentic than rock music.
As with many musical genres, what constitutes "pop rock" is subjective. As such, music critics and journalists have differing opinions on which category a band should be placed in. Billboard magazine provides one perspective on how to categorize "pop rock" groups from the 1970s to the 2000s.

Today in many magazines pop-rock has become the housetyle to many music magazines such as Kerrang, NME. However the best example of a pop-rock house style is Q magazine. Whenever they have a music artist on their front cover, whatever their genre they have a way to change their look using technical and symbolic codes to follow the magazines house style. For example Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole, is the typical popstar who follows the mainstream look of any other pop star. Her look is very bright and colourful to help her appeal more to a the wide audience that enjoys new release and pop music. But when she appeared on the cover of Q she had her syle changed to the house style of Q magazine, which is very much a rock style. This helped her appeal to a wider target audience, of both her fans and the fans of the Q magazine style.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIx8-YmAVk0
This is what all types of magazines do today, they change the style of an artist to help sell their magazine to a wide target audience. By bringing styles together you are combining together what would usually be 2 seperate audiences to make one. This is what I did with my magazine I took a variety of music styles and tied them with my housestyle to create a wider target audience for my music magazine.

 

Magazine Evaluation- Question 1

After completing my music magazine I have gone through all my used codes and conventions and compared them to other music magazines. To see if I have created a music magazine that is on the same sellable level as others or have created something unique and different.