Evalutation question 2

The genre of my magazine is pop/punk. I decided to go with this genre because it will stand out with todays teenagers. I chose to target teenagers and young adults around the age range of 16-24 because these are the main ages in our days that buy music magazines. I have represented this age range by using a picture of a girl in this age range on my front cover and double page spread. I have also represented this age range by using the colour black which is a very rebelious colour, and this is the age where people rebel and change within themselves. Another way i represent this age range is in my double page spread with the facial expression she had. She has a sort of cheeky grin which makes her look like she has done something wrong and is slightly smug about it. This is easily relatable to my age range.

In specific social grades i have decided to target the C1 and C2 grades. This is because my price of £2.40 is easily affordable to a typical working class family once a week. Also the type of language and storys that i cover are easily relatable to these classes e.g. drug problems on streets.

I have decided to target my magazine toward females. I did this by using a girl that doesn't have her body on show which is typical to male magazine. Instead she is in a pretty red dress which women would like to own. My aim was to hopefully make them envy her style which includes her make up too. Her mascara was very defined which made her eyes stand out, women tend to notice these things where as men would only see a pretty girl.

Evaluations question 1

In this media project i was asked to create a front page, a contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine. I have stuck to forms and conventions of other magazines in various ways and also challenged them in other ways. I decided to have my title of the magazine at the top of the page in the middle like other music magazine, and also i have my main image slap band in the middle spreading over the whole page. Both these are examples of sticking to codes and conventions of other magazine. I also only used 3 main colours, black white and red, which is very usual to magazine. I chose to do this because in my backround research i saw that many magazines only used 3 main colours and the mainly used these colours. They use black and white because they contrast eachother which works well, and the red is used to make it stand out on a shelf. This is why my main title of the magazine was red, because it is very noticable and will stand out on a shelf. I decided to also have my bar code in the bottom right hand corner where they usually are on other magazine.

I challenged the usual codes and conventions by having the main title slightly behind the main image, this was effective i believe because it is not usual and is unique. The outer shadow around the main title helps it stand out so the reader still knows what magazine it is.

I had my main model in a top hat which is typically masculine, but she had a rose on her head which is feminine. This challenged the forms and conventions because it isn't what you would usually find in a magazine, but it does make it stand out among other magazine. The final challenge to the usual forms and conventions was that i put negative quotes on her hand shaped as a gun to connote the doubt that she has made a true reform and a positive quote above the rose to show that she would truely make it in the world of music.

Terra Firma vs Citigroup

A New York jury has found in favour of Citigroup in its legal battle with Terra Firma boss Guy Hands, over the company’s selling of EMI in 2007.
Hands had claimed that Citigroup’s David Wormsley had misled him in the run-up to the deal being finalised, convincing Terra Firma that it was in a bidding war when, in fact, rival bidders had pulled out. So, Citigroup won and Guy Hands lost. However, the real question now is whether the outcome will continue to have a destabilising effect on EMI itself, which has been facing the same business challenges as its rival music companies with the added distraction of the Terra Firma / Citigroup clash.

My chosen music magazine front cover image.

This is the image i have decided to use for various reasons.

Firstly i have a woman looking away from the camera with a hand pointing at her head. The hand shape connotes a gun. The fact that she is facing away from the gun shape means that she is ignoring speculation on her and anyone trying to bring her down, she simply wants to get back on top of the music world.

I chose a woman with black coloured hair because this would connote mystery evoking a sense of potential and possibility. This would be sort of silver lining on the cloud, that even though things are grim, there is always that possibility.

The black nails on the end of her fingers are also important. They connote evil and maybe anger against her. The gun shape hand connote people that are against her, either the public or fellow musicians.

I chose her to be in a pink dress because this is quite a good colour for a female, and also to signify peace and calmness. The pink dress connotes that she doesn't want to be a fighter anymore and she no longer wants to do things on her own. Instead she wants peace in her life and maybe wants to find someone to share it with, this is because pink can also signify love and passion.

Kerrang double page spread

This double page spread is very much halloween based. The main image stands out and also looks rather scary whith the makeup they are wearing. The positioning of their hands and their postior suggests that they are evil in ways and are "up to no good". This could relate to the type of music in this issue of the magazine.
The image and text are kept very much apart. This is to make sure that the image stands out as much as possible.
The main colours used in this is green, white and black.

The green was used because it is a traditional halloween colour, it is spooky and can also signify slime which is also another halloween tradition.

The black was used as a backround for the white text. The white text is used to lighten up the article a little bit, because it is a scary double page spread, for young children, and would hopefully take away some of the suspense within the article.

NME double page spread

The main image and the text have been separated to most likely ensure that the reader doesnt get confused by overlapping text and images.

The main image is of a man who is definetly posing to the camera. His pose signifies power and a demand for respect.

The main title uses the word "throne" which re-enforces the signified meaning behind the image, that he has a lot of power.

The main colours used are three simple colours to not distract the reader from the main image and title.
One of the colours is red which is used in teh backround. This is a very attractive backround which will attract the readers eyes.
The next colour is white. The white is to be a backround for the text to make it look more attractive. The black is used for the text, this is a good contrast.

Kerrang contents page

This contents page has a very interesting main image. It is a halloween issue so it has a man dressed up in a scary outfit. This is most probably to signify the danger and anger within this man's music.
The top half also shows smaller images of double page spreads that are withheld in the magazine. This would be like a tease so the reader will definetly want to carry on reading.

Underneath the main image is the page numbers and information on stories within the magazine

The main colours used on this contents page is also black and white, but also yellow.

The backround is white to bring attention of the main images and storys to the readers eyes and not become distracting.

The black was again used for text because it is very effective over a white backround, it stands out very well.

Finally the yellow was used only on the words "this week". I dont know why this was done but my guess would be to signify that it is always changing and the stories next week could be completely different.