Mockup of my content page.

In this blogpost you will see a screen shot of my content page mockup and below it a brief explanation of why I made the choices I did while making the mockup.

The reason why I decided to have a masthead on my content page is because it helps with a house style for the content page its self, its eye catching and just brings out the colour of the background and the font around it.

The reason I decided to have a main image is since it will give the content page a main focus and will change the page up since without a main image it would just be plain normal text, but with the main image it breaks that up for the reader and makes things more interesting.

The whole idea of the page numbers, title and a short description on the left hand side is to show what you can find on what page, and I made it that simple so the reader can look what they're after and go straight to it, I also saw this idea in other content pages such as Kerrang.

The reason why I put a box for featured artists along the bottom of the mockup is because it will give the reader something with some information on different artists featured within the magazine which hopefully would make them more interested in the magazine.

Along the bottom below the box for featured artists I placed 3 boxes for advertisements, the reason for this is because if the main image of the content page or front cover had a gig or anything coming up, it could be advertised in this small space in the magazine, or anything else to do with artists could be advertised here, I got this idea since when I did look into content pages, I came across a few with advertisements which made me make my own area for them.

While making this I found it to easy to do on word since its not advanced enough to get a better picture of the mockup, I couldn't angle any box's and I had limited shapes and recourses within the technology, after making this i started using photoshop and I found that technology so much more useful since you can basically do anything you want with all the fonts, shapes, sizes and angles.

Analysing a collage magazine cover.

In this post you will see a screen shot of me analysing a collage magazine cover and giving my opinion on the things I'd keep and the thing's I'd change.

Analysing a music magazine.

Analysing a music magazine cover.

This is a screenshot of my analysis on the music magazine cover 'Metal Hammer' featuring the rock/metal band Slipknot.

Semiotic Theory.

In this blogpost you will find an image / screenshot of me simply explaining in short description what the Semiotic Theory is.

Audience Research Methods.

Audience Research Methods.

In order for a music magazine to be successful, the publisher needs to consider both qualitative research, and quantitive research and the two types of data, primary data and secondary data.

Qualitative research is used to uncover and understand thoughts and opinions thus providing a basis for further decision making. You can do qualitative research by numerous ways, the best way is an interview and or group interview, this will give you direct opinions and thoughts on what ever questions you ask the person being interviewed, while giving you detailed answers.

Quantitive research is used to measure and predict, leading to a final course of action. Quantitive research can be done also by numerous ways, the best way is most likely going to be using questionnaires, this will provide you with a lot of data, but not detailed at all, depending on the questions that are asked.

Primary data will be gathered from Qualitative research since its data received first hand and is detailed, such as through an interview.

Secondary data will be gathered throughout things such as questionnaires (Quantitive research), this type of data will be to the past or collected from another party.

Music magazine publishers can use both qualitative research and quantitive research to help them produce a magazine since with quantitive research they can find out what type of music, singer or band is trending throughout different areas, and they can find a desirable price from the public, both through questionnaires, this will help them sell a lot more magazines. They can use qualitative research to help them make a music magazine since they will find out thoughts, feelings and opinions on their previous magazines, bands and music etc.

Feminism, Beth Ditto magazine cover.

In this blogpost you will find a screenshot of me going over the magazine cover published by NME staring Beth Ditto, but referring to feminism throughout.

Feminism.

Feminism

In this blog post I will be analysing a music magazine cover and referring to feminism through out the analysation.

This is the music magazine I will be analysing, the title of the magazine is "BLENDER", the star on the cover is Katy Perry who is a famous pop star.

Feminism started to evolve around the time that woman got the right to vote. This is when woman started to campaign for change. They wanted more equal rights, especially with the fact that woman got less pay than men, such as if there was a male teacher and a female teacher doing exactly the same job, the male teacher would get paid more. Woman started to campaign for this to change through protesting and taking part in marches. In 1975 the sex equality act was passed where women were equal in terms of pay and conditions.

After this feminism gradually grew and changed the way woman were represented in terms of their appearance started to change in the eye of the public view. 

Katy Perry, she's always got a different style of clothing on every photo shoot she does, whether that be a modelling photo or a magazine cover photo. This helps attract audiences to sell more copies of the product and to get more attention and probably make more money. In reference to Laura Mulvey's male gaze, in this photo of her she's showing a lot of skin and not wearing a lot of clothes. A lot of men will find her attractive and will view her as something to look at in reference to their own personal objectification. Women will buy the magazine to read about her, and to try and identify themselves to her, maybe to copy her style. Relating to feminist theory males will gaze at her in reference to her appearance. The fact that she is not wearing hardly any clothes can be seen as "fetishism" which is the media technological word for the slang term 'eye candy'.

NME Institutional Research.

NME Institutional Research

The following link will take you to the 'Inky Fingers - The NME Story' - Inky Fingers - The NME Story

The 'New Musical Express' is a famous music magazine which is known as 'NME', this was created by a man names Theodore Symthson and was first published in March 1952. It was originally a music newspaper but then after some time was changed to a magazine format  in the year 1980.

As the NME entered the 70s they found themselves no longer dominating the musical media market due to their rivals the Melody Maker overtaking them. This was because of the NME not being able to keep up with the pace of rock music. Alan Smith was made editor and was given a short period of time by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure. It was changed around extremely fast as they started to develop a new type of music magazine that allows journalists and fans / readers to express their feelings honestly without any criticism towards themselves.

The start of 1990 made a change in the paper in the thick of the Manchester scene, and covering the new British indie bands and shoegazers.
By the end of 1990, the Manchester scene was dying off, and NME had started to report on new bands coming from the US, mainly from Seattle. These bands would form a new movement called Grunge and by far the most popular bands were Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Questionnaire.

This is my questionnaire, please take the time to fill it in, thank you.

My Questionnaire.     <== Click for the questionnaire.

Analysing a music magazine cover.

In this blog post I will be analysing the Kerrang magazine which features the rock band Nickelback.

This magazine is constructed to it’s target audience of any age and any genre who are interested in the music genre – Rock. It’s constructed in a way to get the targeted audience’s attention as it has a huge font sized mast head saying “Kerrang!”, but  half the name of the magazine is covered by Chad Kroeger’s head although since the magazine is the biggest Rock genre magazine most people who buy it will know what it say’s. On the magazine cover it also has written in cappital letter’s “NICKELBACK” Who are one of UK’s biggest rock band’s which is eye catching, along side the fact that there are lyrics on the front of the magazine which is interesting and is from one of Nickelback’s songs “Rockstar” which was one of there biggest hits in the early 20^th century. The magazine will  catch eyes of the targeted audience since there are huge band’s names on the cover such as “Foo Fighters”, “Iron Maiden” and “The Blackout”. People who are a fan of rock may also be a fan of these bands and want to read about them, there for will want to buy the magazine.

There are also smaller images on the cover of the magazine in the lower left hand side, people may also want to read about these bands such as “Kiss”, “Lostprophets” and “The Offspring” these are known as “Puffs” which is basically a small box on the cover promoting some features inside the magazine its self.

The main image in this magazine only really suits the targeted audience because of its surroundings such as the quotes, puffs and smaller images, without all these for someone who didnt know who the man was (Chad Kroeger) or the magazine mast head “Kerrang!” they may not realise that this is a rock magazine and may just by pass it and move on to another magazine.

The choice of font on this magazine cover will attract the buyer sicne Rock music has always been loud and shouting in a way (Only sub genre’s dont do this, such as “Soft Rock”), and the capital letters and like huge font size suit this because it seems as if it were to be said it would be shouted, also the use of exclamation marks on the mast head also seems as if it’s shouted if said.

The articals that are featured on the cover of this magazine are suitable for the targeted audience as it’s all about rock e.g the writing under “NICKELBACK” says “HOW THE HELL DID THEY BECOME THE UK’S FAVOURITE ROCK BAND?” , this may catch the targeted audiences attention as it shows that there is an artical all about the rock band making there name big and becoming more and more famous as time goes on through their career.

‘Kerrang’ magazine in the UK is around the price of 20 – 50 pence, I feel like this is a perfect price as it is the worlds biggest rock magazine and they will always make profit because of the ammount they sell. Also it is a perfect price considering there are many, many more popular magazines such as NME.

Magazine Terminology.

During todays lesson, we learned about magazine terminology, which you will see throughout this image.

What is a music magazine?

What is a music magazine?

A music magazine is basically a magazine, dedicated to music and will show different bands / singers, and have information of the band or singer on the covers of their magazines, there are many different types of music magazines.

2 of the biggest magazines sold are NME and Kerrang!, Kerrang is the worlds biggest and best selling rock magazine and tend to keep to the music genre of rock and metal, and the sub genres of both, such as thresh metal, light rock, heavy rock, heavy metal etc, they publish their magazines with bands on the cover such as Nickelback, Slipknot, Bullet For My Valentine and Bring Me The Horizon, this magazine is aimed towards teenagers and above (13+) who are interested in music magazines.

NME is one of the worlds biggest overall sold music magazines, NME focus on the area of pop music and some sub genres of pop, they star such pop singers as Florence And The Machine and Rihanna this magazine is aimed at mainly girls, but boys in some cases, both aged from 10-18.

Blog Introduction.

Michael Taylor's Blog Intro.

This is my Media Studies AS Level Blog, this is where I will be posting all the different things we do within our lessons throughout the course, such as, my Course work and Homework. A lot of this will be based on music and the music industry, and analysing of a lot of things that happen within the music industry, such as music videos and music magazines.