Proposal

I intend to create a Pop music magazine's Cover, Double Page Spread Article and Contents Page. The target audience I intend to hit will be Pop music fans within the age range 15-25. Its going to be a monthly magazine, at a reasonable price of £2.99. I intend to create a interesting article about a debuting artist who has become very popular in the charts recently. I believe that, if the story behind it was true, the audience would be very interested in the story, since it tells them more about the practically unknown artist. Also, since they are rather high in the charts the group would interest readers even more since the magazine is aimed at pop music fans.



Reason for new proposal:

-After reviewing my draft article it occurred that, despite the article being very interesting and written in the right Formal and Informal balance, I, unfortunately, have no Korean models to use for my photography.  

Initial Ideas for the Magazine

Initial Thoughts.

-From the research I've done by analysing two different pop music magazines covers I know that many Pop magazines have names/titles that have some connection to music.

-It should be easy to remember. 

-One word?

Thoughts:

Strung.

- Relevant to music but too serious for target audience.

The Muse.

-Well known band. Don't feature in charts though. Connection to Greek Goddesses.

Aloud

- Connection to Girls Aloud, female pop band. Connection to volume.

Beat

-Reference to music, short word, easy to remember.

Logo Design Ideas:

 

Logo with strap-line.

Mood Board

Analysis of Two Articles

 Music Magazines Article anayasis

Vibe

Vibe is a Pop, R&B focused magazine, aimed at audience age range of 16-20. You can tell this from the amount of text that's written by the journalist, since a older audience are more likely to want to read paragraph after paragraph. Also the length of the writing could also suggest that the target audience are people very interested in the genre of music the magazine focusses and are more likely to buy the Magazine for the stories inside. The colour scheme has more or less neutral colours, yet when there are grouped together they give off a more feminine look.

I believe that the images are also edited very well, the small ones creating a interesting layout to the double page as they are edited across the top of the page, though they are black and white it looks good because the main image on the page is in full colour. This means that the black and white images are less likely to cause the audience too be distracted, also it draws attention the main image. The image is also used to break up the text to give the impression that there isn't alot of reading to do.The text itself seems to be informal, but not so informal to the point of being colloquial language.

Top of the pops is a pop music Magazine aimed at teenage girls. This is apparent threw most of the magazine and articles. You can see this epecially on the double page spread for a number of reasons. The main feature of itcthat attracts teenage girls to it is the images of one direction, a popular boy band whom have recently had there big break after performing on the x-factor.
Each image comes with a few small paragraphs about the boy the text is next to, the length of the txt alos implying that its made for teenage girls since theres not too much to make it seem like theres too much to read, yet enough for fans to be intrested. The colouring, simular to Vibe, is blue, grey and white. The colours look gender neutral, though with the images of the boys it gives a more feminine feel. The text I believe s also alot more colloqiual then Vibe, this is because the article is written a a interview, also because the readers will be more intrested in what teh boys say, rather then facts about them.

Top Of The Pops

Analysis of two contents pages

Analysis of Music Magazine Cover

Pop Music Magazine Research

Codes and conventions of a Pop music Magazine cover:

Two pop music magazines covers.

Vibe, aimed at male pop music fans.

Top Of The Pops, aimed at female pop music fans.

Mast Head and Magazine name:

All Mast heads need to be large and either along the top of the magazine or in the top left hand corner. This is so that when the Magazine is in the shops stall being sold the name of the magazine can be seen. Both of the Mast heads below achieve this.

The Top of the pops mast head is a glittery pink, suggesting that the magazine has a female target audience and possibly a younger one than Vibe. Also, the font of Top of the Pops, especially the "S" will be more appealing to a female audience then a male one. The name, top of the pops, is the name of a old popular TV show where Popular music was performed to the audience watching at home. The name therefore is well known and has some connection to music.

Vibe on the other hand is aimed more towards a male audience I believe, the bright red being a more attractive colour for men then the glittery pink of Top of the Pops.  The font also gives off a more mature feel then Top of the Pops. Vibe, is also a word that is often used to describe the mood at a gig, for example: "The vibe here is amazing!" This gives the name of the magazine a connection to music.

Common features: 

• Both have names that have some reference to music.
• Colours and fonts that appeal to audience.

Feature Article Photo:

The feature article Photo for the Top Of the Pops Magazine is of popular english singer and songwriter Jessie J. Jessie is popular among many teenage girls and she is also as music artist and therefore has some connection to music. Also, because she is popular in England, the target audience will easily recognize her. 

Vibe's Feature Article Photo is of Kesha. Kesha is yet again another popular american singer-songwriter and rapper. Vibe is sold in the US therefore the audience will be interested in reading about her, also the pose that Kesha is hold would be considered sexually suggestive...therefore attracting the male audiences attention.

Common Features:

• Both are music artist rather than a model or something unrelated to Pop music.
• Both capture that target audiences attention.

Cover story Headline:

This cover line, in the pink circle is joined by a quote from the article.  Each letter is in the same font on a angle in italics and each letter as a different colour to the last on but still keeps with the house colours: Hot pink,pink and lilac. The actual cover story headline, is quite small in comparison. The colours obviously attract a female audience's eye and  offers more info on the story then most cover headlines. This main cover story headline takes up a lot of room, almost the whole width of the magazine cover.The language of the cover line is informal and uses emotive language like "incredible". This emotive language will definitely make women want to read a celebrities real life story. The quote take is more colloquial language and uses slang words like "haters" which the audience will recognise.

Vibe on the other hand is quite snippy and just informs the reader of the Main feature articles artist that they feature. In this case the colour red is used to emphasis the artist and draw attention to her. Also the font is large and easy to read but doesn't take up a lot of room probably only just a little more then the other cover stories. The language of the headline is more informal then formal, using the well known phrase "guilty pleasure".

Common Features:

• Contain font, colours and language to attract target audience.
• Both use informal language

Cover lines:

Both Cover lines for TOTP have used similar font, and you can therefore tell that they've kept in with the house style for the fonts. The colours are also similar and go well together and fit the appropriate audiences likes. They are also have similar language: informal and quite colloquial that are appropriately for the target audience. Two have images giving more info and the two picture of the celebrities will definitely attract the female audiences attention.

Vibe keeps most of its cover lines the same and uses a similar font even for the information underneath, having the headlines in bold though to disguise between the two. The colours are all the same, white background and black writting. The information isn't formal but isn't as colloquial as TOTPs. Many of teh head lines are connected to music in some way as well. (David Guetta.)

Common Features:

• Language that is relevant to reader.
• House style and colours fitting target audience.

Plugs:

TOTP Doesn't really offer up many Plugs. The main reason for this I believe is that the audience are less likely to notice the plugs when there's so much going on underneath also because the people whom read this magazine may not read it regularly and occasionally pick it up there for they may need more info then a plug can offer . However the plug that is there has relevant colours that keep the house colours and small piece of info that will arouse the readers interest, using emotive language like stealing. The plug also happens to cover the top of the magazine cover.

Vibe has two sections for plugs, one going across the magazine. It uses emotive language that is relevant for the target audience: Exclusive. The colours and font keep to the house style and all are related to music artists. The one with all the artists names gives the readers even less info about the storys. Just about who its about. This suggests that readers of  Vibe regularly read the magazine and wont need that much persuasion to read the magazine.

Common Features:

• Both have a plug at the top of the magazine cover.
• Target audience relevant house style.

Institutions Research

Publishers:

Bauer

Bauer is one of Europe most successful publishing companies. It mainly publishes Magazines, many of which are women's gossip magazines, women weeklies. Bauer made a very significant change in the women's magazine market when they released Bella into the UK in 1987.The magazine with interesting real life stories made many readers want to buy the magazine, the publishers even more attention in 1990 with the release of Take a break. It quickly became the markets leading magazine and despite many competitors in later years it remained the UK's leading magazine.

IPC Media

IPC Media are a publicised that have published a vast amount of Magazines, ranging from Sport and Leisure to Women's Weeklies. They create media for a range of devices: Mobiles, Apps, Tablets, Online, Newspapers. They are committed to establishing a working relationship with their consumers , advertisers, business partners and are determined to employ employees that deliver great service and creativity. 

IPC Media is a publishers with a long running history that is very hard to fully track. The first official publication was a newspaper called, "The Field" in 1853. Having released many Newspapers and Magazines since then the company has evolved with the times. With the change of the millennium the company changed their name from IPC Magazines to the IPC Media that we know today.

The company is slit into several divisions the main ones being; IPC Connect, IPC Inspire and IPC Southbank. 

Future PLC

Future PLC is a media group, founded in 1985 that is known internationally. When it was first founded it only published one magazine. However now it creates over 200 publications, apps, websites and events for specific interests. They believe that they should share the same passions as they're consumers so that they can build they're leading positions in the UK and other countries they work in.  Future is one of the biggest music publishers in the UK and the biggest guitar amd music making publisher. 

Target Audience Research

Research Target Audience

Genre Research

Pop Music Genre Research:

-Pop music is any popular music of the present day, and usually in the charts.

-Usually involves a popular artist.

-Evolved from rock and roll.

-Aimed at a youth market.

-Usual instruments used for the music: Keyboard, Drums, Guitar, Bass.

-Usually the music is aimed at a board range audience rather than a particular group and/or community.

-Artist concentrate on recording, production and video rather then live performances.

-Usually a fast, up tempo and beat encourages people to dance. Which is why many music videos have a dance routine.

-Pop has many notable artists. Two of the most famous pop artists were Michael Jackson: King of Pop, and Madonna: Queen of Pop.

Target Audience and Genre Brief

Target Audience and Genre Brief 

I plan to design a Music Magazine for a large age range of people, though mainly teenagers through to people in their twenties, interested in Pop. I have chosen to cover this genre because its one of the most popular music genres there is and therefore many people will be interested in purchasing a Music Magazine of this genre, also I believe that people of this age range are more likely to waste their money on things like this because they don't have to provide for the whole family usually.

Evaluation - Preliminary Task

Evaluation of Preliminary Magazine

Front Cover of the Magazine.

Contents Page of Magazine

For the Preliminary task we we're given the task of creating a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. To learn more about a school magazine we studied a series of Magazines, almost all of these have been posted on blogger. However, for since this task was to create a school Magazine we had to study the school magazine: Excel. I found that the magazine was fairly basic. Though the Mast head was had a effect on it which meant it stole most of the attention from the other cover lines and images, it was generally very basic and minimalistic. The reason for the very basic layout and little information on the front was probably because of the Magazines target audience, all pupils from the ages of 11-18 wouldn't be interested in the cover, unless of course they were on it. They'd be more interested in the contents of the Magazine. Plus it may be because the school couldn't afford to print lots of different things on the cover because of financial issues.

Taking on this idea of simpleness I believe I could have improved my cover page dramatically if I'd stuck to that. However I felt constricted by the things that the Magazines that we'd studied had on. I felt I had to place a extra cover line on to the cover. 

When I thought of the name I decided to use one of the most positive words that is one of the schools values. This would make the title something they could relate to and under stood. Then I created a fancy effect on it and used a red stroke on the out side of the text. The colours I used on the effect and stroke soon became my house colours; Red, White and Blue.

My font was also fairly simple and easy to understand. This was because my audience wouldn't read a Magazine that they couldn't under stand, plus the simple sans serif text went well with the basic and simple design of the overall cover and contents page. My images were of things that many of the students would be interested in. For example students that love musicals or are in Fame will be interested in the story. This meant that it would attracted more people attention since more people could relate to it if it was the main cover line photograph. 

My contents page was just as simple as the cover, yet it looks unprofessional for some reason. I believe this may be because of the dramatic contrasting house colours I've used. Despite have stuck to the house colours the font of the introduction is too large and looks like the editor couldn't write enough, so next to the already unappealing colours this just adds to the general unprofessional design of it. 

If I'd of had more time, I would have changed my colours to suit better and wrote more in the editors welcome so that it would look more professional. When I do my music Magazine I will learn from my mistakes in this Preliminary task and create a very interesting and almost professional Magazine cover.



Re-written Article

Article rewrite into informal language.

GCSE HELL!!!

As I'm sure many of you will agree, taking your GCSEs is no walk in the park! You have to study for some ridiculously, long and stressful hours to get even a decent grade. So, why on earth would anyone think that its a bad thing that these hard working diligent students and earning even better results then previous years?

Well Ofqual ( A regulator, clearly ignorant to the pressures and stress that GCSEs bring) claimed that:

"GCSE English is Too easy"

So, because of this stupid and ridiculous comment all the exam boards panicked and found the need to exam grade boundaries...

Two weeks before the final results were released.

So, all of the sixteen year old's who have taken their GCSEs unaware of these absurd changes have not reached their targets, especially those hoping for a good C grade which their teachers had promised they'd meet in the exams with flying colours. Now, many of these wanting to carry on into further education cannot meet the qualification acceptance levels they require to continue their education!

Here's what other sixteen year old have to say:

"Like, Oh My God! I can't even, like, college course...Its just so, like F***ing unfair!"

Said Anonymous from Hull.

"Its ridiculous, why haven't the government done anything about this!"

Complained Mia from London.

"Now I have to resit my GCSE English course in sixth form rather than one of my chosen subjects!" 

Martha from Lincoln

I personally think we should sit down all those regulators and exam boards in an exam hall and see how well they do since its too easy. They should pass with flying colours, right?
Its safe to say that we're all, well and truly, pissed off!

Proposal

I intend to create a Pop music magazine's Cover, Double Page Spread Article and Contents Page. The target audience I intend to hit will be Pop music fans within the age range 15-25. Its going to be a monthly magazine, at a resonable price of £2.99. I intent to create a article about K-pop as it connects with the recent Popular music single gangnam style. The house style and colours will be gender-neutral, so that it will be more likely to attracted a wider ranged audience of males and females. The cover image will be of either a band or artist who has been inspired by K-Pop.