Contents Page Research

Out of these Contents covers, I was particularly drawn to the plainer ones as the focus is then on the actual writing other than large pictures distracting from the actual information. These magazines are also similar to the genre of my own magazine, which has inspired me for my own contents page.

Where does my magazine "fit" in the market?

I have styled my own magazine on other more independent less well known magazines that are usually only found in larger book or newsagent shops such as borders and WHSmith. These magazines are often monthly, this may be due to the price. The price of the magazines is usually over £3, but no more than £5. The quality of the magazines however is usually very high, as they are usually thick glossy magazines, sometimes with many advertisements. There is also only usually a few avaliable in stock as iv notcied they are supplied for a niche market. Also alot of them are American, which means they would have had to have been shipped over. These include, NYLON, N.E.E.T, INDIE, TEEN VOGUE, amoungst others.
I decided to do a small survey on a group of peers that fit the genre of my magazine to see how much they would pay for a similar magazine.

Survey on Magazine Prices

After doing my survey on 8 teens, the outcome proved that they were willing to pay between £2-£3 for the magazine. I priced my magazine at £2.80 as I was then able to stick with the needs of the consumer but also able to make a profit.

INDIE MAGAZINE

I decided to look at "INDIE" magazine. This magazine really caught my eye, which I think is very important for magazines, as when they are put next to many different magazines they need to stand out. This particular magazine challenges the generic look of magazines as there is no text around the outside of the main image explaining what is in the issue. I think this could work well as it makes the magazine seem even more intriguing as the consumer would actually have to pick the magazine up and have a quick flick through before buying. This also could have a disadvantage as they wouldn't know what the magazine featured, so could be mislead. However, as the image is the main focal point, it is important that this captures the eye, as it should promote the magazine in the right way. Below the masthead however, there is a sub title that states "The Independant Style Magazine", the word Style is very important here as style can be related to may things, including music and fashion. Especially as the magazine is named "INDIE"

Again, like "NYLON" magazine, the front cover of "INDIE" magazine is also kept simple. Even more simple than NYLON infact due to lack of text.

I think the use of colour is also effective on this magazine. The background is kept plain, but the colours that are used on the magazine are linked to the colours of the clothing that the model is wearing. So they compliment each other which looks good. There is use of contrast which makes the magazines look visually attractive and eye catching. For example, a darker image paired with a lighter more pastel background. Or a black and white image on a black, or white background also looks very striking.

NYLON MAGAZINE. FRONT COVER.

Although my magazine is to be a music magazine, I wanted to gain ideas from various different magazines, for example fashion magazines as I feel this would be very closely linked to my magazine. I fet looking at other publications would provide me with ideas on typography, imagery, and colour schemes.
I first looked at NYLON. Nylon is a magazine which mainly focuses on fashion, music and indie culture. It could be described as being an "Indie" style magazine due to the style of clothes and music that it promotes.

It stood out as being different to me as it is always kept very simple. Simplicity is somthing that I would like to encorperate within my own work. This makes the image more of a focal point, which is exactly what I want to acheive. I also find the colour scheme quite interesting. The colour scheme fits/goes with what the model is wearing. The colours range from black, through different shades of purple and lilac, fitting in with the white background.

The fontography is also interesting to look at and makes the magazine look quite quirky and cool. It also higlights what is going to take up bigger sections of the magazine, for example, the main feature is in a bigger font, and the smaller features are in smaller fonts, etcetc.

Research,

Year 12 Media Coursework.

The brief for my coursework is to create a music magazine front cover with a contents page and also a double page spread using all original images and text.

I started looking at different music magazines with already a faint idea of what I wanted my final product to be like. I understand that there are many different types of music, and many sub types of music, for example there are larger genres such as rock, but then genres underneath this such as rock pop. Different music magazines usually have a slant on a type of music to appeal to people who enjoy that type of music, who will then, therefore also most likley enjoy the sub genres. In recent years "indie" music has gone from a transition from being a sub genre of rock, to a large music genre of its own. So now indie has its sub genres.
I am particularly interested in smaller, less well know acts that are of the indie/electro genre. So I would like to focus my magazine on these sort of artists.


I am particularly interested in "Indie" music. It was once a sub genre below Rock, but has now become a genre in itself due to many bands and artists being labeled indie. I am also interested in this genre as it has increasingly become more popular with events and fashion. For example music festivals have become alot more popular with this type of music, and the artists are very closely linked to fashion trends.



So to further my research on this, I looked into the sort of magazines that promote this kind of music. I found the following;



This is the front cover of NME. NME is a British music magazine which in its early days was very closely linked to Punk Rock, but through the years has widened itself and it now features a veriety of artists and genres which are all related closely to the Rock Genre. And particularly features British acts.

All of the NME magazines follow a similar patturn in the ways in which they are presented. The masthead is always in the left hand corner, which is unique as for a lot of magazines the masthead fills the top of the page. It is large and bold, and is in the vibrant colour of red. This way it can be seen above other magazines and it stands out to the eye. The colour red also gives connotations of strength which could be linked to the heaviness of the "rockier" music that the magazine supports. The magazine looks asif it is aimed more so at teenagers interested in the "indie" scene. I think this as the boys in the band featured "The Automatic" are quite young, (early 20's) this is the sort of age range the magazine will be aimed at, but also a slightly younger audience who would look up to them.

The front cover always has a solo artist or a band on it. The picture always has a feature interview which follows this, and this will be the main article within the issue. This is often done when a band are starting to get big, or realeasing a new album and deals are often made with record companies to do this as a way of promotion. This way it attracts fans of the coverstar or stars but could also give them a new fanbase by appealing to the sterotype that have bought other issues of the magazine. The picture of the band or artist in a way depicts their style and gives the reader an insight to personality. The bands name is edited so it is in front of the band in big bold letters so it is readable. The colour yellow is also a strong colour, giving the magazine quite a male vibe, but could easily be read by women. Another feature that brings me to this sterotype is the fact that the band featured are all male.

Around the edge of the page, other bands are mentioned. This is also a selling point to the magazine as people will see the featured artists and want to read about them. But as the font is smaller, this surrgests that the articles wont be as large as the main one. The magazine is evidently a music magazine as the main focus is on bands.



This is the front cover of quite a recent "Q" magazine. It is different from the NME cover as before. This cover seems more grown up in the fact that there is less going on and its seems to be a little simpler, as the one before seemed pretty loud. This looks like it is aimed at an older audience as the bands featured are "older" sort of bands, such as U2, which would probably be aimed at 20-30 year olds. The front cover also surrgests that it is aimed at a male audience as the colour scheme is mainly masculine colours, for example strong colours like red,blue and grey. Another element that leads me to believed this is aimed at men is that the cover star (Lily Allen) is pictured topless surrounded by two panthers. Her name is featured across the centre of the page and above it it states, "sexy beast". The genre of music it is promoting will be very well known bands that have possibly been around for a good few years, for example the ones featured are Oasis, U2 and The Stone Roses, which are all well known bands from the genre of "Rock". However the cover star (Lily Allen) is still quite young at the age of 22, and fits more into the "Pop" genre. The layout of the magazine is well known, with the trademark "Q" in the red box in the top left hand corner.

I know that I wanted to create a magazine based on Indie Music, but slanted towards the genre of "Electro Pop" which is quite new on the music scene. It comes from the genre of Electronica, and originates from New wave, Synth pop, pop music, disco,new rave, Kautrock and post punk. There are many new musicians that come under this catorgory, they include La Roux, Ladytron, Lady Hawke, Hot Chip, The Ting Tings, Little Boots, New Young Pony Club, Frankmusik and many more. Below are some pictures of these artists, to brainstorm their styles;