Audience Profile

Cally, 19, South Africa

This is Cally, a student from South Africa currently on her gap year travelling around Europe. Cally loves music of all genres, but some particular favourites include pop artists like James Blunt and Adam Lambert, to Indie bands like the Arctic Monkeys, to the greats like Queen and even bands from South Africa like the Parlotones and Zebra & Giraffe. 

In her spare time, Cally likes to go running, spend time with her friends, and listening to music, either on her iPod or in concert... of course!

"Uprising"

From my research, I found that the most common age range for a new rock magazine is 15-16 year olds, but there are also quite a few people aged between 17-20 so I think my target audience will be between 16-20 years old. 

Most of the people who answered the survey did like listening to Rock music, so this helped me see the popularity in making a new magazine for this genre. 

The most popular colour for a rock magazine was, by far, red. This was closely followed by black, and then yellow, so I now have an insight to what colours I should be using for my front page, and also for the colour scheme of my magazine. 

Finally, the most popular name for a new rock magazine was "Uprising". "Sound Check" was also quite popular, as was "Revolution", but I can see that the audience would think that a name like "Uprising" could stand out, and it can also connote rebellion which I think would be good for a rock magazine, as many sub-genres of rock were made to rebel against mainstream music. 

Therefore, my music magazine will be called "Uprising". 
-Janet

Magazine Survey

Click here to take survey

I have created a survey to see what my audience's response would be for my magazine name ideas. 

-Janet

Music Words...

This is a mind map I have made with music words which I think connote Rock Music effectively, and I want my magazine to relate to the genre of rock. I think that using a word that people relate to rock music will help make it clear what sort of Magazine I am selling. This has helped me to come up with some ideas for a name, because it made me think of what I relate to rock music. 
The general idea was to have something loud, almost onomatopoeic so my magazine can stand out. 

-Janet 

My chosen genre...

After doing my research, I've decided that my chosen genre will be Rock. I think I'd prefer to do Rock as a whole, rather than doing a sub-genre like Alternative Rock, because I think I would have more to work with and I could include other sub-genres so I can use the research I did for Alternative. 

Types of magazines include:

These magazines are some of the most popular magazines for Rock and it's sub-genres. The conventions are all very similar, as they all have about three main colours, which is mainly yellow and red. Also, they have the whole band, which shows that within the Rock genre, there are mainly full piece bands- vocals, guitars and drums- rather than just one singer. 

Kerrang! is slightly different to the other two because the band is covering the majority of the masthead, whereas with NME and Q, it's not covered as much. 

The Audience:

The stereotypical audience for Rock music is generally men, maybe slightly older, but Rock is a very popular genre for all ages and both genders. With bands such as Metallica, a metal/hard rock band, this stereotype will be more prominent because many people associate the loud music with chaos and violence, so they may be put off. However, fans of this genre might say that you have to listen to the lyrics and not just the music.
One of the most popular sub-genres of rock today is Alternative Rock, with bands that include 30 Seconds to Mars, Muse, Paramore, and Biffy Clyro. 

-Janet

Codes and Conventions

Production Plan

Pop Music

From researching another genre, I have learnt that a lot of different genres have similar codes and conventions with each other. For example, almost all music magazines have the masthead at the top of the magazine, and the main image in the middle. 
The main difference, I have noticed, is the use of colour, font, and how the artist(s) have been  composed in the photoshoot. Quite often, the artist will be looking straight at the camera, but sometimes, especially if there is a band, they don't always look straight at the audience. 
This has helped me understand how to make my magazine stand out, and how to make it clear that my magazine will be in the rock genre somewhere, so I will closely follow those codes and conventions. 

-Janet

Alternative Rock

From my research  into Alternative Rock, I have learnt that all magazine of this genre have colours other than black in them, such as red, blue, yellow and green. I think that if I choose to do this genre, applying this convention will make the magazine stand out and the audience can clearly see what genre magazine it is. 

-Janet

Kerrang! Deconstruction

Magazine Deconstruction

The fact that Matt Bellamy is looking down could connote power, and that Muse are one of the biggest rock bands today. NME is overlaid onto his head, so this could imply that even though he is important or powerful, they are the ones who are successful enough to bring the story to the reader. 

-Janet

Music Magazines

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Mood Board

This is my Mood Board for Classic Rock. I chose to do Classic Rock because it is a genre that I am quite interested in, and it is where most modern sub-genres of rock, such as Alternative and Indie Rock, originated from. 
I thought that my Mood Board turned out quite well, but I think I should have used more pictures instead of writing, and also use lyrics because many Classic Rock songs have meaning to them and also, many of the lyrics are very well known today so people would instantly recognise them. However, I think the use of the band logos was good because they are some of the most well known rock bands and people will know who they are- even if the logo doesn't have the name of the band. 
Classic Rock would be a good genre to do, because it is still very popular today, but I think that it could be quite hard, as I feel that  I don't know enough about all of the artists considered as "Classic Rockstars". 

-Janet

Main Task- Music Magazine

Genres: Rock

Preliminary Task- School Magazine

Hello!

Here is our first task, to make a school magazine. From this experience, I have learnt about how to use photoshop to make my photos look more professional, and how to successfully layout a front cover and contents page of a magazine. I think that I need to use photoshop more, to become more comfortable with the process, but generally I think it was a good start.

-Janet

Mise-en-scene

 

Hello!

In the powerpoint above, I chose five photos which I both found online and took myself which I thought were good and I am going to explain why I chose them. 

I chose the two underwater photos because I love underwater photography. The first one in particular I really liked, because it's in black and white, so it makes the photo looks old and relaxing at the same time.  
The reason I chose the one of the mini outside McDonald's is because I liked the simple humour of it, and also because the Christmas Tree on top of the car with the lights on makes the restaurant look welcoming. 
I liked the third photo of the traffic lights in the water because it is so unreal yet fascinating, but you can picture being there on a stormy day. The stop sign underneath could also symbolize how reality can stop in unlikely events.
The photo of the diver shows how lighting can be used for a really cool effect. The dark blue around the diver, and his black silhouette could represent the mystery of being under the sea, but the circle of white light can show that there is always something else out there.
Finally, the fifth photo is one of my own. I was really proud of this because I like the effect the blurred background brings the center of the flower into perspective. The blue flower against the green makes it really stand out for the audience. 

-Janet