(Introduction)
I created a music magazine for my print project, it consisted of a Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread (Article). I wanted my magazine to cover a genre that was not very common, for example there are various magazines that talk about rock and pop. So I created my magazine with the intention of it being about Dub/Dubstep/Underground Dance music as I wanted to do something unique.
My magazine was aimed at young males, specifically 16-24 as this is what age most Dubstep fans are. My magazine is called ‘Subdub Magazine’, the name is taken from a Dubstep club in Leeds, I chose this name as Dubstep fans will instantly recognise the name and be attracted to it as it will be linked with the famous club. I decided that my magazine will be priced at a reasonable £2.99, and it will be published monthly.
I chose the Print option to create a magazine as I wanted to work on my own and felt my skills in Indesign and Photoshop would help greatly; I began by doing basic research on other magazines, taking photographs of DJs etc. I received feedback from my teachers as they posted their responses on my blog.
For my formal evaluation I will be answering seven questions relating to my product, and will thoroughly analyse what I like/dislike about it, how it uses typical media conventions, how it represents particular social groups, what skills I have used and more.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I have followed a variety of conventions to ensure my magazine is successful, I discovered that it is very necessary to follow the conventions in order guarantee large sales- this is important in any media product. When I decided to create a magazine about Dubstep/Underground dance I knew I would have an advantage as there are no specific magazines about this genre on the shelves at this moment in time; my magazine would be noticeable to a customer due to this fact.
Some important conventions that I followed are that: the masthead is at the top of the page, I achieved professional looking photographs (through the use of my Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera), the title is clear and easy to remember and the colour scheme is attention grabbing. All of the included you would expect to see in a professional music magazine such as Q, Mixmag, NME etc.
The colour scheme used includes red, green and yellow, which coincidentally are those of the Jamaican flag. The Dubstep genre did actually evolve from the Reggae genre and includes many elements of it, such as samples. I like how the colours contrast with the black background and the clean white writing of the masthead.
To make my magazine front cover as genuine as possible I added the price, barcode, website address and issue number, this is what is expected in a music magazine and the readers also expect to see them.
I like the way I managed to use typical conventions of a music magazine yet still managed to break away from the typical designs, I like how my colour schemes also reflected the genre and its influences.
The typical conventions of a music magazine contents page are that it should still match the colour scheme of the front page, have good use of space, include photographs and inform the reader of what is inside the magazine.
My magazine uses the space and does not overcrowd the contents page, it also shows what articles are inside the magazine, and the photographs are small yet eye catching and manage to gain to reader’s interest.
I also feel my double page spread has the necessary conventions of a music magazine article, such as the big clear title, photographs of the artist/DJ, have a clear and well presented layout/design and have an interesting article.
My article, I feel matches the general mood of the genre and photographs, my article has an informal tone and feels very relaxed, my purpose of the article was to introduce new comers to the music of ‘DJ Sega’ as well as maintain the Dubstep audience who follow his music. I think the big quotes are quite eye-catching and reflect his sense of humour and attitude.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
It is a known fact that the media portray social groups and sub cultures as steriotypes, fore example, in today’s society people wearing a hooded sweatshirt are automatically branded a ‘hoodie’.
My media product represents a particular social group, the DJs and Music Producers involved within the Dubstep scene. The overall image created through my article of ‘DJ Sega’ is that he is just a young man like anyone else who just creates music, he is friendly and easy to talk to which might surprise some people who could stereotype him. The clothes he wears are informal and represent his age, the photographs taken of him show him looking particularly moody yet express his concentration and passion for his music.
A lot of people believe that the dance genre is based upon drug use, raves were associated with MDMA/Ecstasy and even Reggae music promoted Cannabis use. However the times have changed and a lot of the rumours circulating about the dance scene being covered in drugs is not true and another great example of a stereotype.
My images and article basically represent that the DJs are real people and they do not constantly use profanities or talk about how drunk they were, they just concentrate on their music and delivering it to the audience.
3) What kind of music institution might distribute your media product and why?
There are several media institutions available who I believe would be interested in distributing my product, for example, the publishers ‘Development Hell’ who are based in Islington, London would be perfectly suited as they are well know for publishing Mixmag magazine.
I feel that my magazine offers the same but different, so it could attract new, young audiences who are interested in this genre; this is one key reason why I feel that my magazine would be suitable for publishing. One negative aspect of my magazine is that it focuses its attention on a male audience rather than both sexes, whereas mixmag magazine appeals to both male and females. My magazine has a dark front, which can be seen as quite mysterious, this possibly can reflect the general mood of the music.
I think that ‘Developmental Hell’ would publish my magazine because it has a lot to offer, as there is no current magazine that promotes Dubstep and Underground Dance, even though the Dubstep fans are a niche audience, my magazine also targets the young males (16-25) which are a huge audience. It would be a great investment as mainly teens and young adults buy music magazines.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
My magazines main target audience would be males aged 16-25, however, all Dubstep fans will be attracted to it and want to see the features. The reason I am targeting this audience is because Dubstep is usually associated with young males.
A target audience is important for any type of media product, mainly because the products are typically created for the purpose of selling to that audience, if for any chance the target audience are not profitable the magazine could consequently lose money.
As long as the audience are interested in the genre of music the magazine focuses on, any nationality or ethnicity could buy the magazine as Dubstep itself is a multi cultural scene. However, the magazine is in English so the readers would have to have a decent understanding of the language-this could be a problem as France and Germany also have a huge interest in the Dubstep genre and could possibly not have magazines dedicated to it in their countries.
In order to fully appreciate and to enjoy every aspect of the magazine, the readers would have to have a previous basic knowledge of the genre before reading; I would expect people who are avid fans of the genre to take pleasure in the magazine the most.
Whilst researching, I looked into the Project Phoenix, who are a UK based research project, through looking specifically at the attitudes towards music (of people aged between 15-39) they identified four main degrees of interest in music. They were: Savants (People who strongly believe in music and there is little they do not know, their lives basically revolve around it), Enthusiasts (Music is a key part of their lives however it is balanced by other interests), Casuals (Music plays a great role in their lives yet other things are more important) and finally Indifferents (People who would not loose sleep if music was not to exist.
Using my research gathered with Project Phoenix it was clear that my target audience fell into the Enthusiasts category, however a select few I am sure are definite Savants as there will be music producers and DJs buying the magazine.
In general, I feel my intended audience are a good to target as in some ways, my magazine is unique and very specific to Dubstep fans however it is a mass market as I am proposing to market teens/young adults- this I feel will definitely make my magazine successful and profitable.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
One of the ways I attracted my audience is through the use of my title, Subdub is a nightclub in Leeds specifically dedicated to the Dubstep and Dub genre, so I thought I can already be targeting an existing audience as well as advertising their club. My title also relates to the type of genre that my magazine focuses on, the title attracted my audience because it gives the impression it is about underground (sub) dub music.
The key image on the front cover attracted my audience mainly because it reflects what the magazine is about and displays the DJ live whilst performing. The composition, lighting, and colours were all taken into consideration when taking the photograph, as well as this I made sure I included the DJ’s mixing desk. I used a Long Exposure setting on the camera to create the effect with the lights, as if they are in motion just to the right of his shoulder.
On the cover, the use of features on the left (Reviews, Articles, Interviews etc), the use of DJ names towards the right (Sega, Hatcha, Skream, Benga etc) and also the use of DJ Equipment available to win all are key factors when attracting my audience.
The vast choice of features included on the contents page attracted the audience, as it informed them of what was in the magazine as well as the photographs making them want to read/see more.
On the double page spread, the headline, structure of the interview as well as content and language all manage to appeal to the audience as they follow the conventions of other magazines. The choices of the images are suitable as they are of the DJ, the way they have been taken are effective and eye catching, due to the lighting and the use of Long Exposure creates attractive patterns with the turntables (the red and green swirls)
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When creating a media product technology is very important, without the use of modern technology creating an effective magazine would be near enough impossible.
One of the main technologies I have used is the blog I am posting on, thanks to www.blogger.com
I was able to create a blog where I could post my ideas and research as well as problems, preliminary tasks and photos. Blogger allowed me to edit and delete posts, this being much easier than if I was to hand write my project. I found blogger extremely useful as I could record my whole project easily in my own personal area. I was able to access my blogger account from any computer that had an internet connection and there were few limitations with the blog.
The internet is a valuable tool that I needed when doing research tasks, for example I used search engines such as www.google.com which helped me find other types of music magazines as well as alternative fonts.
The software I used was Photoshop and Indesign, these two helped me edit and manipulate images to a great extent as well as actually creating my magazine. Without Indesign, I would not have been able to produce a professional looking magazine, at first they are hard to get a hang of but soon enough they become very easy to understand and are very helpful.
One of the most important technologies that I used was my Digital SLR Camera, a useful tool for taking photographs which look very professional. I was able to use a Long Exposure setting to create a blur of lights. The camera is a crucial device needed for magazines, I felt that there were no limitations when using my camera.
7) Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When creating my preliminary task I had a limited amount of time to complete the task, whereas with my music magazine I had a lot more. In addition to this, my skills with Indesign and Photoshop were still only basic and I had a lot more to learn. The preliminary task lacks detail, an eye catching colour scheme as well as dull fonts and the fact that I was not able to use my digital SLR camera as I had very little time.
I had learnt from my preliminary task that the magazine has to use, develop or in some cases challenge the conventions of real media products. The photograph I used for my preliminary task was lacking composition and decent editing, the lighting was not sufficient.
My preliminary task, I felt, did not look genuine at all; as customers expect when buying a magazine, for it to appear professional. Although my preliminary task included a barcode, price and issue number it still appeared to lack eye catching features. On my final product the fonts and colours look a lot more appealing and catch the eye more than the ones used in my preliminary task.
I have also learnt the importance of genre in a magazine as well as the target audience, you have to take these two in consideration mainly because they both can effect the layout, design, articles and general mood to the magazine. When developing my final product I had to portray the genre through fonts, colours and photographs whereas with my preliminary tasks you could not associate it was a magazine for students based on the photos and fonts.
(Conclusion)
In conclusion I am very satisfied with my final product, due to the fact the photographs used are extremely effective alongside the layout of my article, the fonts and specific colour scheme which is visible throughout. My favourite part of the magazine is the front cover, I am very pleased with it as it appears to be very successful. I am happy I did a rough draft first – which I posted on my blog – this definitely helped me improve the final product because I received feedback.
One of the weaknesses in my magazine I feel is the contents page, I possibly could have added another photograph as I had many to use and only chose the best, the contents page could have more information about the magazine in it also like an Editor’s Note yet I did not have the space to write one. If my magazine was to be published, I would strongly feel it would be rivalling other dance magazines such as; Mixmag; I am impressed with the outcome of my final product and I feel the research and the preliminary task helped greatly.
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