Evaluation of Music Magazine and Double Page Spread

Boj Raphael Gonzaga

Evaluation

Before creating my magazine front cover, I first investigated real media text to get ideas and produce a successful publication that was accurate to a real front cover. To do this I did research and development into rock magazines.

After my research I created a questionnaire and gave it out to 20 young people and 20 middle aged/older people. The questionnaire had open questions like what kind of music do you listen to elicit the audience first but then there were closed questions as well  which helped me create my front cover, for example “What colours would you expect to see in a rock magazine?” and then they would pick from the colours bellow. From the information I have gathered my target audience ranges from ages 16-34 and considers of mostly male. The questionnaire has also told me that the most they would pay for a magazine is £4, because of this I have made my magazine cost £3.50. From the data of the questionnaire the front cover will fulfil the target audience’s expectations of a rock magazine because the colours they have expected to be there are reds, blacks and greys which is what I have included into my front cover.

 When investigating other rock magazines I have tried to copy similar codes and conventions as them to help my front cover look as professional as theirs but also to help accurately establish what kind of magazine it is. An example of this would be KERRANG! In their publication they included competitions to get their audience involved. To engage with my audience I have also included competitions to also fulfil the needs and aspirations of the audience. I also included social media which goes against the Hypodermic Needle Model because I am getting the consumers interacting with us.

In my research of institutions, I have chosen KERRANG! as my publisher. This is because my magazine front cover is quite edgy and has this street vibe to it which lives up to KERRANG!'s values as an institution. KERRANG!’s corporate image is known in the UK for being very in your face and bold. I feel that my publication also does this as it grabs your attention with the colours and fonts. KERRANG! Also has a monthly reach of roughly 437 thousands, which mostly consist of young males 15+ which is perfect for my magazine because that is the age group of my target audience as well. My magazine is aimed at a ABC1 audience. This is the Lower Middle Class to Upper Middle Class. My magazine is aimed at this audience because of their class. £3.50 is affordable. The people in the ABC1 class also have good jobs which allows them to spend money on items other than necessities they need. This social class would be educated and will appreciate the appropriate language I have used in my magazine.

I think my publication accurately shows that it is a rock magazine because of the colours and font. I think it also conforms with the codes and conventions of any magazine so people know what the actual media platform is. My target audience is males 16+ who are mature, because of this I have used formal language which creates a mature and more grown up feel. Atypical read would be a 16+ male, they would be in school or working in a city or town. This person would like to socialise and has a busy lifestyle of some sort and also enjoys listening to rock music. I have made my front cover appeal to them, for example the competitions engages with them and persuades uses and gratifications. The star in the centre of the magazine is being portrayed as this super famous artist because he is the biggest image and all of the text surrounds him.

In my preliminary double page spread, I have chosen the same house colours as my front cover so that the audience can see that it is from the same publication. Originally on my mock of the double page spread and front cover was just an image of Corey Taylor; however this was not my own image, therefore I got an image of someone who looked similar to him (my friend Danny Williamson). I then cropped the image and made it into a long shot and put it on my magazine front cover. On my double page spread I used a similar image of the same person, but instead it was a mid-shot. On my double page spread I added in a number on the pages as this was used in many real music magazines when I was analysing them.

Overall not much changed from my draft to my final piece, but these minor adjustments really helped my magazine look at a better standard. When I completed my final front cover and double page spread I did a Q and A with a focus group. They said I should put an image behind the text so that it didn’t look less boring. To do this I went into Photoshop and made the Slipknot logo faded and less noticeable on my double page spread. This helped me to refine and modify my final piece to make it much better.

The star is dressed in black and is playing a guitar, this target audience representation suggests the stereotype of all people in black are into rock music. My model is similar to the band Slipknot because of the model wearing a mask, just like they would, Slipknot is a band associated with the rock genre so I thought the audience would like a similar artist. That is why I have taken this photo. The uses of camera angles also engages with the audience because the camera is looking up at him, it looks like the artist is looking down directly at the audience which uses direct address but also him looking down suggests that he is better than us which again fulfils the target audiences expectations because they aspire to be like him. My magazine offers a free poster inside, this could be argued as one of the selling points because it conforms to the Reception Theory proposed by Dallas. This is because the audience would use the poster to look on a wall or something at which connotes that they aspire to that artist or respect them to a degree.

During the creation of my magazine front cover, I have used an image manipulating software called Photoshop. I already had knowledge on Photoshop however, I’ve never done photography before and I learned all about how to use a camera and learned about camera angles and the different modes of address.