Evaluation of Music Magazine

Laurie Briggs As Music Magazine Evaluation Questions 

1. In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media project “Yesterday” is influenced conceptually by the successful MOJO magazine. MOJO is a music magazine that looks at the past years of Rock N Roll with mainstays on the front cover being the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Doors. In a similar vein I’ve set my magazine up as a retro mag advertising similar things e.g articles on the white album. I also thought that the title “Yesterday” connoted both the past and a very famous 60’s song suggesting further that this is a magazine for the hippy era. The way I chose to develop “Yesterday” in a way for it to differ from MOJO was that I decided to have my magazine review not only past bands but whole genre’s of music and more importantly review bands which are bringing largely forgotten genre’s like funk back into the mainstream. My front cover conveys these aims through its psychedelic colour scheme (green and purple) and overral style and font, ia simple wish to return to the nostalgia of pre year 2000 music.

2. How does your media project represent particular social groups?  

       Condsidering the fact that YESTERDAY is a retro magazine, special focus was given to aged musicians and to emphasise the nostalgic feel of their music YESTERDAY photographed them wearing contemporary clothes and with a slightly grainy camera focus. Equally for the main feature the musicians (who are all pre 25 year olds) were photographed with a much more keen camera focus to represent the sharpness of youth. Also to dispell myths of youth aggression and antagonism the lighting scheme was used with very calming relaxed colours (purple and green) and we let them wear what they wanted to get a better feeling of diversity.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media magazine and why? 

Within the music magazine business I think the best company to distribute my magazine would be the Bauer Media Group. Given their past successes with Q and Kerrang it is evident that they know how to efficiently sell music magazines. Furthermore the success of MOJO magazine which has some very similar elements to YESTERDAY (retro style, old album reviews) shows that Bauer know how to sell retro magazines which means YESTERDAY would profit well from their guidance. I would persuade BAUER to publish it through the knowledgae that there isn't a retro magazine that really targets young people who, judging by the responses of the survey, want one. I would suggest an initial pilot magazine goes out as a free addition to MOJO and judging by its success we can see wether its successful enough to charge for individually.  

4. Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

Given my recent survey results showing more and more people listening to old rock music, my target audience would actually be fairly broad. I would probably aim the magazine most specifically at ages 16-25 as these are the peak years of magazine buying while still keeping up enough old artists like “Led Zeppelin” on the front cover of my magazine to ensure an interest for the older generations of 40+.                                                                                                    

      

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I used a retro angle to appeal to appeal to the fans of older music. The funky colour scheme was chosen from results of my survey which favoured green and purple. The language is chatty and familiar to retro music lovers and the images recapture golden moments of music history. The bands I have listed are the most popular ones, whilst introducing new ones in the sameiilke. I exploited the tags and sweet spot to my advantage. I also engaged the attention of my target audience by handing out paper surveys to people who were willing to accept them. These were people who I knew how to locate after they finished the survey. I also communicated verbally with a few unknown target audience members who assured me that they would buy a retro magazine if there was one on offer.

     6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this     product?

Through the manufacturing of my magazine I have since progressed in my technological knowledge. I utilised some the more advanced elements of photoshop, such as the layer and blending options, so as to get the best finish out of my magazine and make it look as psychedelic as possible. I also became aware of the proper method of printing the pages out, with the consideration of making my magazine fit-to-size etc. 
7. Looking back at your primary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Primarily I progressed in my knowledge of magazine production. When I first started this project I came at it as a consumer. I have had to really look at how a magazine is constructed and marketed for a  specific audience. I've improved my technical skills (using photoshop) and know how to apply them to achieve my target attractive product. With the school magazine I found that I was trying to use too many different colours for the front page, whereas with YESTERDAY, I used a palette of just green and purple for the front page which was considerably more effective. I also wasn’t that great at organizing the images on the school magazine and my front page consists of two out-of-place pictures whereas with the music magazine, one enlarged photo for the front page with everything superimposed onto it worked far better.

contents page draft

Feature draft

Deconstruction of my front page draft

MOJO feature deconstruction

Spread: the feature on Freddy Mercury in this edition of MOJO magazine covers 13 pages. This shows both the capacity and size of the magazine in general but also how much the magazine company think their readers will be interested in the subject matter. Judging by the fact the spread is 13 pages long they clearly think Freddy Mercury still appeals to many of  heir readers.

Slug: The opening line of this feature is FLASH! this is clearly to hook the reader in with not only a direct reference to one of Queen's songs but also a short, snappy summation of Freddie Mercury's flamboyant and larger-than-life nature. The writing is in a huge bold font so that it can't be missed and the contrast of the white writing against a black backdrop ensures that it is the most eyecatching and obvious thing when turning the page.

Style: The main spread has a complete white background which reflects the white clothing that the band Queen are wearing in all the photo's there are of them on these first five pages. This same background also brings out the black and white photo's on the ensuing pages into greater focus. The text is arranged  around the photographs which creates an effective almost innovative style e.g on one page 5 photographs take up the whole of the top section of the pages and the continue down the far right of the page vertically trapping the text in the rest of the page.

Entry Point:

Feature Draft

Vlog on audience survey

Music Magazine survey

Music Magazine survey

What do you look for in a music magazine?

Up and coming artists

Old-school music

Latest pop news (celebrity magazine style)

A round-up of the best gigs to go to

All of the above

What is your favourite genre of music

Classic rock

Rock

Punk

Pop

Hip-hop

R&B

Techno

Funk

What colours do you think would work for a funk magazine

Green and purple

Black and green

Red and purple

Green and red

Other

What would think is the best title for a retro magazine

Old-school

Yesterday

Get back

Play it again

A bwop bwopuloobob bud um bam boom

What is your favourite music magazine

Q     Kerrang   Mojo   NME   Uncut  Other

questions for interview feature

opening questions

how did you get into music?
how did you guys get together?

filler questions

what music influenced you?
what attracted you to funk?
do you feel that stage presence and audience participation is important to your music?
Funk is often marginalised as a genre nowadays does that bother you?
how do you make your music available to the public?
how does the band work as a unit?
what venues have you played?
do you write your own lyrics and what inspires them?
why the saxophone?

closing questions

what can we expect from you in the future?

Institutional information

Editor-in-Chief	Phil Alexander
Categories	Music magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	100,507
First issue	November 1993
Company	Bauer
Country	United Kingdom
Based in	London
Language	English

 MOJO magazine specifically targeted lovers of old rock music with artists like The Beatles and Bob Dylan making the front page on numerous issues. When this was criticized by fans who desired up-to-dates on current music as well the magazine started to include bands like The White Stripes and The Libertines as to appeal to a wider selection of people.

MOJO's advertisement mirrors that of its sister companies Empire and Q with adverts for beauty products, electronic goods and cult icon t-shirts while also advertising both new and reissued albums.

Photo Images

the main images are arranged on the left hand side adjacent to the lettering on the righthand side advertising them.This makes it easy and enjoyable for the reader to flick back and forth from the caption to the photograph.underneath the main contents are three more photographs in black and white of the people who will be featuring in the magazine.One photo entitled mojo men overlaps onto two other photo's as well as part of the contents page giving the magazine an informal feel which also appeals to certain readers e.g kids. 

Use of colour

the page itself is a white page template of which the photo's and letters are projected onto. The words have different colour co-ordination. the sub-headings are red while the page references are gold and the additional text is black. This makes it easier for the reader to find what they are looking for.

Structure

the main block of photo's advertising the contents are on the left hand side continuing down three quarters of the page. In a similar pattern the actual contents (text) take up the same amount of space on the right hand side.At the bottom of the page is 3 photographs with text of exclusive interviews that feature later in the magazine.

Text 

At the top right of the page is the title "MOJO" in a bold block capitals and also takes a large font. All the sub-headings oft the contents page are in red and are also printed in bold. Each page reference is to left of the contents text in gold while the contents themselves are a normal black colour, not in bold and in a small font.

Mojo front cover Deconstruction

Front Cover image: Photograph of Syd Barrett which takes up the whole cover. Fully establishes main topic of the magazine inside and perhaps connotes the importance of this man in the musical world. The choice of having this musician (who died in the 70's) as the front cover icon shows that the magazine is targeting an audience more interested in past music than contemporary.

Use of colour: the use of just two colours, black and red, allow the magazine to be easily read while still being eye-catching. The darkness of these colours also connote the personality of the man on the front cover and add to the magazine an intensity and intimacy which may appeal to readers. In addition to this is the colours simplicity which lends the cover a feeling of rawness and the colours red and black give off a primal almost tribal feeling.

Layout: in perspective to the main photograph the title of the magazine is above it, to the left a description of syd barrett (the photograph) , to the right a brief summary of whats in the magazine which continues down to the bottom of the page until it meets the bar code. To the bottom left there is a free C.D which adds incentive for people to buy the magazine.

Page Design: The title "MOJO" is in block capitals,a large font, and als large type size. This is to show as effectively as possible to potential readers the name of the magazine they could buy. The subheadings to each topic on the list are in red with the actual content in white so to easily determine which is which. In the top left corner are words within a circular shape saying FREE CD!. This is to effectively show potential buyers the possibility in buying this magazine of also getting a free cd. Added t that is the actual cd in the bottom left quarter of the magazine. On the top of the magazine is a one-line newspiece about Bob Dylan which emphasises the content of the magazine which is about him (the CD being about him too). All this is in front of the photo of Syd Barrett who is clearly the main feature of the mag.

Camera Angle: the photo is a medium close-up of Barrett.The photo is in black and white as this picture was taken long before the music magazine was made while Barrett was still in his youth. THe dead-on mid-angle shot of the half-naked Barrett makes this photo more intimate and almost dramatically effective which is what the magazine intended to appeal readers with.

Language: the use of the pun "Farewell you crazy diamond" ("shine on you crazy diamond" a pink floyd song) creates a familiarity with the musician that readers may find appealing. The illiteration in "Dylan Blasts Back!" alsogives a powerful snappy feel to the magazine while humourous quotes like "We got Zeps groupies!" may attract reader with its wit.

Intergrating illusions and text: all of the text is brought in front of the photograph so it can be read clearly.

It Worked!!!

possible pics