Drafts of double page spread

Drafts of contents page

Drafts of front cover

Mood Board

Profiling Audience

The EMERALD magazine: Steven is 19 years old and is a passionate music fan, specifically of hip hop and rap music. He got interested in this type of music in the age of 15 (2 months from 16) He is in part time employment, working once a week on Sunday’s. He is currently at university studying 4 times a week and also goes training for wing chun every Saturday.  He is a heavy consumer of music buying up to 4 albums a month. He loves reading ‘EMERALD’ magazine to discover new music and to get the latest news on his favourite artists. Steven is a very social person, as he likes going out with his friends often and is a frequent user of facebook, twitter and MSN. He is a big fan of football and goes to watch Arsenal FC occasionally.  Steven loves the live music experience, opting to go to certain concerts. He is also interested in the latest films and is also a heavy gamer and likes to watch TV.

I would target my magazine to Steven by gaining information on the artists he likes, for example I know that he is a fan of Eminem, so I would consider putting up information about Eminem to gain his attention. Also I know that he listens to hip hop and rap music so most of my sub heading will be based on those kinds of artists. I would put stories, gossips and other related stuff involving his favourite artists. Also I know that he a fan of the latest films, so I can give small information on the upcoming movies that are soon to be released. Possibly the football results to interest him in his football hobby.

Audience research

Music magazine analysis 4

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. It is a medium close up showing his head, part of his arms and up to his chest. He is in a still position, standing still and facing forward. The chest and below of the character is not visible. The background of the photograph is plain black and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind the man is a ‘Vibe’ masthead, and in front of him are six separate cover lines in yellow and white. The photographed man’s name is on the top mid, right of the magazine in big bold yellow letters. There is also a logo at the bottom right of the magazine front cover and there is a visible bar code in the bottom left corner.

Masthead:

The vibe’s masthead very plain but affective.  Just big plain, white bold letters with the affect of the black background contributing. The font used is a sans serif font, and each letter is on its own with a distant gap between each letter. The font used is a basic font with no related cultures behind it. The title vibe gives the impression that the magazine is modern and in a funky sort of style. The word vibe portrays rap, hip hop and pop artists which obviously makes it a modern magazine.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the successful American artist/singer ‘Drake’.

Composition: He is posed in a very suggestive ‘I’ unstoppable’ kind of way. His pose, body language and clothing all stereotypes the type of songs he sings and where he grew up from.

Costume: His clothing is of a plain black tank t shirt with the writing ‘UNSTOPABLE’ in the middle in big bold white letters. He is wearing a designed cap and has two different chains around his neck. This costume has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be male. The type of cloths he is wearing can be stereotyped of being black cloths as black people tend to wear those sorts of cloths.

NVC: His non verbal communication also has that very stereotypical look look towards the artist himself. His head is tilted slightly to the right and is looking straight at the camera.                               

Lighting: The lighting is low key, even though there is no specific background image, the colour of the background makes it low key.

Setting: There is no setting at all the front page of the magazine. The magazine is obviously trying to focus on the main artist instead of any kind of location.

Cover lines

The main cover line that relates to his photograph says: “Drake, hip hop’s next religion” which is making reference to the type of music he sings/plays, that he done before this picture was taking and is probably still. People find Drake’s songs to be really unique, modern and a new form of rap and hip hop music. Some of his singles were: “Best I ever had” and “Successful”. Most of his songs tell the audience to appreciate life, there obviously other songs with different morals as well. Drake’s songs have hit the US and the UK charts in the number one spot over 10 times. Meaning that Drake is really successful in the music industry. The other sub cover lines show that the magazine is not only about him but other big name artists as well, such as ‘Lil Wayne’ and ‘Serena’. Part of the cover line, there is an official website attached to it which shows that the magazine is reliable and trustworthy.

Target audience:

Considering all of these points, the likely target audience would be people, who have a taste for rap and hip hop songs, which can be male or female, but the preferably male as males tend to listen to those type of music more and it relates to them more as well. The most likely age group would be between 14 and 45.

Music magazine analysis 3

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a group of 4 men’s looking directly at the camera. It is a mid shot showing their head, arms and waist. They are standing in a line but one in front of the other but it isn’t too noticeable. The background of the photograph is plain white and has no specific setting. Behind the three men is the rolling stone masthead, and in front of them are four different cover lines in grey and yellow. The photograph band’s name is in yellow at the bottom right of the magazine, and the title of each sub heading is in the colour grey to separate it from each other.

Masthead:

The rolling stone’s masthead is very distinctive: red and white outline with a back drop shadow. The font used is a serif font, and after the first letter of each word, the lower case letters join up with each other with a small curve at the bottom (feet like). The font may look familiar to some people as it is very similar to the famous ‘Coca Cola’ writing, the gives the impression that it supports the American culture. The rolling stone comes from a proverb, the example is: “a rolling stone gathers no mosh”. The rolling stone is also known as a very famous band by the same name. The word rolling stone tells the audience that it is music based.

Character

The cover photograph is of the successful; uprising American band ‘The Jonas Brothers’

Composition:

They are posed in a very calm and attractive way, they pose, body language, and clothing suggests that they a modern band.

Costume:

All their clothing is made of the same type of material of cotton type. All three members of the band are wearing a white T-shirt and two of the members are wearing a brown leather jackets (different styles) but the lead singer is not wearing any jacket. This shows the idea that the three are brothers and are around the same age.
NVC: Their non vocal communication is very composed. They are all giving different impressions of their selves with their own pose. All are looking directly at the camera with their mouths closed.    
Lighting: The lighting is high key but there is no real background.
Setting: There is no setting at all as the magazine is trying to focus on the band group rather than the location.

Cover-lines:

The main cover line that relates to the magazine and the photograph is “Boys to Men, inside the worlds of the Jonas Brothers” This is making reference to their past lives when they first started in the music industry, they started with playing the theme song of the Disney channel cartoon “American dragon”, this compared to the Jonas Brother’s present life is completely forgotten. The Jonas brothers are making hit albums and songs as well as acting in several of films and programmes. Also Nick Jonas (the youngest of the three brothers) and Joe Jonas (the lead singer) have also had experience as solo artists with ‘See no more’ of Joe and ‘who I am’ of nick. Controversially the band are still together and are rising along the charts and in the celeb lists which all connects to the heading of becoming men’s. There are also other sub headings which shows that the magazine is not only based on the Jonas Brothers but of other celebrities as well.

Target Audience:

Considering all of these points, the most likely audience would be people of male and female, but mainly female as the Jonas brothers looks attracts the girls audience. It also in the age group of around 13 to 30 as teenagers got to know them from Disney channel.

Music magazine analysis 2

Denotation:

The magazine cover consists of a colour photograph of a woman looking directly at the camera. The photograph is a medium long shot showing the character’s head, arms, waist and up to the knees. Her body is turned away from the camera with the upper body turning towards the camera. The background of the magazine is plain white and the photograph covers the whole of the magazine. Behind the woman is a ‘Blender’ masthead and in front of her are six different cover-lines in black and pink. The woman’s name is labelled in the top left of the magazine in big black and pink letters.

Masthead:

The blender masthead is very plain. A big bold black writing right at the top of the magazine. The font used is sans serif font, and all letters in the masthead is separated by a small gap with no joining letters. The blender magazine is an American magazine as you can see by the way the title is written. Blender can be known as a kitchen appliance tool but in this case and in most American cases it is known as the popular music magazine.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the successful American singer ‘Katy Perry’

Composition:

 She is posed in a very suggestive ‘come get me’ kind of way. Her pose, body language and clothing are very sexually suggestive and active.

Costume: Her clothing is a soft material type of clothing with a type of bra for the top and the same type of material for a short pant. The costume has been carefully chosen to attract the target audience which in this case will be male, to give ‘Katy Perry’ that sexual figure.                                     
NVC: Her non verbal communication is also very sexually attractive. Her eyes are gazing at the camera and showing her red/pink lips                                                                                                      
Lighting: The photograph is high key as it is just plain white to allow the audience to focus on the main character (Katy Perry).                                                                                                                        
Setting: No setting

Cover-lines:

The main cover-line that relates to her photograph says: “ Katy Perry Kiss N tell, with pop’s bi-curious babe”. This is advertising one of Katy Perry’s songs which is called ‘KISS N TELL’  by the name of the title it seems as if it is a type of song where she will be very sexually active. There is also many other cover lines which shows that the magazine is not only about her and not only about pop musical artists as it also mentions ‘David Cook’. There is also a little arrow sign near the letter ‘R’ of the masthead, which is the sign to symbolise feminists, which will show that the magazine is aimed at females.

Target Audience:

Considering all these point of the magazine. The magazine would probably be aimed at the age of between 20-45. The sign near the title symbolises that the magazine is for females only but the pose of Katy Perry will also attract the male audience. These people will have a good knowledge in the modern music and very interested in the American culture.

music magazine analysis 1

Denotation:

The magazine cover above has a colour photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. The picture is a mid shot, showing his head, arms and waist. He has tattoos all over his arms, a silver watch on his right wrist and a silver cross chain around his neck. The background of the photograph is a grey-white colour and the main picture covers pretty much the whole of the magazine. Behind the character is the masthead of the name of the magazine ‘VIBE’ and there are also 5 different cover lines behind the character in red and back. The characters name is in a big bold red writing behind the photograph with a two line story with it.

Masthead:

The ‘VIBE’ masthead is very attractive: A faded black colour on the top half of the writing with red at the bottom. The font used is a sans serif font, and all the letters are separated from each other. The font used is a basic font with no related cultures behind it. The title vibe gives the impression that the magazine is modern and in a funky sort of style. The word vibe portrays rap, hip hop and pop artists which obviously makes it a modern magazine.

Character:

The cover photograph is of the successful American rapper ‘Eminem’ or previously known as ‘Slim Shady’

Costume:

Eminem’s clothing is just a plain black tank top vest. This allows the picture to reveal his tattoos around his arms and his muscles are quite visible as the tank vest is tight and allows the audience to see it. This has been used to attract the target audience which will be people who are fans of rap and in the age of between 12 and 45.       

NVC: His non verbal communication is very stable. It’s just a very still; stable kind of image who is looking directly at the camera.                                                                                                                     

  Lighting: The lighting is a very dull colour and represents the gangster type.                                           

 Setting: There is no specific background. It is obviously an indoor picture, with a dark colour which suggests the stereotype of gangsters in dark alleyways.

Cover lines:

The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says:” ‘I literally almost died’ Eminem comes clean” This is suggesting that Eminem has moved on from his previous life and songs as he made some rude and dirty songs in the past and has become clean. His previous songs contained violent words, dirty images and him cussing a few well known people. This compared to his most recent hits and albums e.g.: ‘Not afraid’, ‘Love the way you lie’ and ‘Things get worse’ (all released in 2011) shows that Eminem has really changed and his recent music shows more of the right than the wrong compared to his past songs. This didn’t really have any impact on the charts list as Eminem has always been a top artists with almost all of his albums and songs hitting number 1. The different cover-lines tell us that the magazine is not focused on just Eminem and one genre of music. The likes of ‘lil Wayne’, ‘Kanye West’, ‘Jay Z’ and ‘T.I’ (shows that magazine is focused on American artists. There are also other headings such as “are the roots too black for Jimmy Fallon” who is an American actor. So the magazine is not just music related but on current affairs as well but it is strongly linked with celebrities only.

Target Audience:

Considering all these points of the magazine, there is no specific target audience, it can be male or female but preferably male because male’s tend to listen to rap music more often, and it’s probably aimed at the age group between 12 and 45. The target audience will have a good taste in the latest music. They are likely to be really outgoing with a good knowledge of the American culture.

Composition:

He is posed in a very suggestive ‘who cares’ kind of way. His pose, body language and clothing are very stereotypical towards the rap fans.

My college magazine

ME

I am 16 yrs old. Studying A Level at christ the king college. The point of my blog is to record all my media cousework.