Shoegazing

"Shoegazing" is the choice i have made for my magazine, it will involve music genre such as, indie, garage rock and alternative rock. The history of shoegazing emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1980's. It described bands when they were performing they stood relatively still in a detached and non confrontational state.
Bands who were known for this type were; My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, The Smiths and The Cure.

Choosing the name!

Choosing the name of my music magazine.
The target audience I have decided to use an indie/alternative audience, they are known for liking a wide range of music, and adopt fashion from other types of social groups. This will give me a wide range of ideas and will help as I am into this genre of music. Therefore there will be more passion involved in the magazine.

At first, I tried going through a glossary of musical terms and selected a few ideas which would link with the genre of my magazine. I wanted to use words that are calm and more subtle, rather than heavy rock. I like music such as Florence and the Machines, Mumford and sons. Therefore, the genre of my music, can be alternative or indie.

Ideas from Glossary.
Voice
Chord
Rhythm

Then, i tried using the thesaurus, and looked for different words with the meanings of:

Music Harmony
Unity
Strain

Anxiety
Trapped

After, i then liked the idea of words to link with voices and singing, such as:

Chord
Breath
Rhythm
Voice

I asked a group of ... people aged 16-18 to find out what title they liked more.

Chords I
Shoegazing IIIIIIIII
Underground IIII
Anxiety III
Psycho I

Magazine Analysis 2

General (http://www.rocksound.tv/)

Rock sound is published by a man named "Patrick Napier", the magazine has a target audience of the young adults in the UK it is targeted at them for their interest in music which is made obvious due to the lead singer Oli skyes who matches their image. The magazine costs £3.80, the high price may have something to do with not enough advertisement or circulation. The magazine is published monthly and compared to the previous magazine Kerrang, it seems that it is not as well known and popular. The magazines circulation consists of an average net of 20,011.

The cover

"Rock Sound" links with the type of music the magazine entails, "Rock Sound" is very simple, yet on point. Also, the masthead/logo only involves a slogan, "new music first. It is quite effective as it suggests to the audience that the "Rock sound" magazine is always the dominant magazine that gives out the new information first to the public. However, it is not shown clearly as it is a slogan and placed below the title.


The main image is a medium head shot of the lead singer (Oli Sykes) of the band "Bring me to the horizon", which links the previous magazine, as they are all popular bands and shot in a medium close up frame.

Oli skyes facial expression portrays a sadness Ora, as his gaze is aiming right into the camera lens like most images on the front covers. The lead singers body language is very negative as he holds his hands on his heart. The clothes he is wearing is a grey low cut V-shirt, the top allows the audience to see his amazing tattoos. The halo light above his head portrays lighting as the rest of the background is in darkness. The light is aimed at his face as this is the main focus. The front cover picture links with the target audience as the tattoos and his negativity suggests that he links with the rock lyrics, which are always sad and angry.





Other images that appear on the front coverage images of other bands. It advertises how buying the magazine will let you attain 4 art cards. Content on the magazine shows lists of bands which are also involved inside the magazine. Bands mentioned come with a subtitle which shows what the bands are going to talk about. The connotation of typefaces, graphics and colours are all linked to the style of the magazine.

Colours - yellow, green, grey and white.

3/2 types of different font.

The language used on the cover, is very simple and to the point by listing bands which will be involved inside. Also, the content involves slang and swear words to link to the young readers. The cover does look similar to other music magazines as it is very dark with bright font. However, this magazine offers things that rivals do not have, such as, there own sarcastic opinion on most bands and the way they obtain the "new music first".

Inside

Pages 113

Adverts 26

Types:

Clothing Products

New Album Releases

Gigs/Performances

Music Stores

The magazine contains about 13 double page spread which consists of only:

Interviews with bands

Music Review

The magazine uses the same style of fonts and layouts throughout, to keep a sort of house style to the magazine. They have kept it very close to the young adults of their targeted audience. The fonts used have been kept consistent throughout and pictures that have been taken, look like the same rock style. This is appropriate as it attracts and appeals to the young adults which are looking for their interests all-in-one.

Magazine Analysis 1

"Kerrang Magazine!"
General
The company that produces and publishes the magazine is a company called "Bauer Consumer Media!" (http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/)
According the the publishers website the target audience is stated to be "individually minded, independent of thought and musically experienced. An audience which is defined by attitude, passion and loyalty. Furthermore, the website http://www.uktribes.com/ claims that the magazine is for the social groups known as "Gamers, Emos, Scene kids, Skaters, Metal heads and young alts".
The magazine has a specific niche audience as the magazine concerns topics and themes that are relevant to the listeners of rock music and its background. Information given suggests that the magazine is made up of devoted rock fans which includes 60% males and 40% female. All between the ages of 16-24 years of age. The young audience is evidenced by the font, layout and the presentation of the contemporary, up to date look. Also, "Kerrang" aims itself at men by appealing them to the use of metal iconic male bands on the front, using a violent or angry expression. Whereas, the magazine appeals to females by the use of male bands and free posters.

The magazine costs £2.20, which links to how often it is published and the circulation of the magazine. Therefore, the price depends on the profit made for adverts and for the magazine company itself. The magazine was first published June 6th in 1981 as a one-off supplement to the "Sounds" newspaper. When it grew in popularity it began to be published monthly, however its high demand allowed it to decrease to weekly. Kerrang's circulation reached 44,013 copies in the first 6 months of 2009. Compared to the last 6 months in 2008, it was lower. Therefore, "Kerrang" were at a high point of 50,128. This showed how successful and leading the magazine was. Despite the fact that the target audience was still a one demographic entity. The large circulation allows readers to write in and review what may be published in the magazine.

The cover
"Kerrang" was named after the onomatopoeic word that comes from the noise made when smashing an electric guitar. It links with the angry rock music which is advertised and promoted throughout the magazine.
The masthead uses a grungy font, which will automatically appeal to attract the target audience. Also, the font is very informal which may link with the young rebellious readers, the colours used links with the colour scheme throughout the whole front cover. Furthermore, another advantage to the masthead is that is very clear as it is in front of the main image and is easy to read. The strap line is commonly known to be placed below the title. However, Kerrang have changed this to look more different and placed it above the headline.

It seems the main image always features a popular band, and is usually a medium closeup. The style is dark coloured clothing, relaxing and casual to compliment the dark background colours. Other images that appear on the front cover are free posters you gain if you buy the product, which applies mainly to female audience to attract them to buy the magazine.








Language used on the front cover is very demanding and forceful, the use of exclamation marks and exaggeration, intrigues the reader to get the magazine fast!
"WIN!"
"FREE!"





Kerrang magazine is quite full of information, with facts and music info. It is a lot more exciting than other magazines, it is not plain and the front cover is very busy with different offers that the magazine gives you.

Inside
Pages 63
Adverts 16

The adverts mainly consisted of tour dates and tickets that were being sold, TV programmes and new album releases.

Features:
Interviews, posters, tour dates, music reviews, competitions, music programmes and reviews of the all of the latest gigs and performances.

The magazine contains 7 double page spreads which involve
Interviews
Full page posters (which can be used for posters)
Photos
Reviews
Adverts

The house style was used throughout as the magazine kept the same colours, fonts and layouts. Once again approximately 3 different font styles were being used. The house style suggests that the target audience are very loud and are into heavy rock as throughout the style consists of boldness.

My Preliminary Excersise

Finished Pieces!

Finished piece

My finished edit of the contents page includes the contents pages and the information needed for all the details stated. Furthermore, I liked the way both my contents page and front cover link with their colours and style.

Stages to reach the main edit

This photo was co-operated into the contents page as it linked with the article of the netball match for charity. Therefore, this picture linked with year 12 and 13 who will go against each other in the match.











This is the first draft of my contents page, it shows the layout i chose for the contents pages. The green sections were used to elaborate onto the sections chosen. I chose to use the same colours and font styles as the front cover to create a house style. I only included one picture as I wanted to put in as much content as i possibly could. In addition, the two lines which lead down two thirds of the page were temporary to show how I was going to spread out the specific sections. However, the two dividers I thought gave a interesting layout and helps tidy the whole contents page together. And so, I decided to make the lines green to create the house colours I had chosen.

Finished piece

This is the edited photo, with added content to make my school magazine. The process of this involved me editing the photo by airbrushing and cleaning up the parts which were needed. Also, i changed the saturation of the picture to make the photo look lighter. Then the content was added and I tried to keep to the same font colours, green, blue and maroon. The magazine was used to show the events

Stages to reach the main edit

Original magazine photo

This is the original photo I used for my preliminary task for a school magazine. I decided to choose this as it matched the autumn/winter weather theme and showed the school student reading. This is going to link to the main article that the magazine will be about, "a new reading area!".