Music Magazine Evaluation

I would say that my music magazine challenges the forms and conventions of the music magazine industry today because rather than just looking at a particular genre (kerrang) or just looking at whats new (NME) I am looking at the whole picture and that includes old classic artists and music from generations ago, I also felt that it would to a wider audience this way, in fact it's meant to apeal to pretty much everyone because it looks at all different kinds of music. to look at these different genre I have different sections to my magazine such as the oldies section which looks at old music in particular, I have a top ten artists section which changes each issue because a different genre is looked at for example one issue it might be indie rock and thenext it might be pop .

Like NME I wanted to look at what was new in the music industry accept less tabloidy and more to do with the music because whilst I was in my reasearch stage of the project I realised that over the years NME's music content had declined and it became more tabloidy which is somthing that I don't like to see in music magazines, I want to read about music.

After the research I had done and generally having read different music magazines over the years I realized that there was'nt anything like what I have come up with, I also wanted to bring together the different music I love in my magazine and because the range of music I like is so wide I came up with this idea for a magazine. I also think that even though the younger generation will want to know what new sounds are out there that they are apreciating classics more and more.

Because my magazine looks at different music genres I had to kind of steryotype the different generations for example for the older generations, I have put a section on Jimi Hendrix in my oldies section because he is a music icon of the seventies (and just in the history of music) and for todays generation I have put added a section on Muse because they are very big right now and alot of todays youth really like them, I also added a section on the very popular metal band Slipknot because during my reasearch I read a couple of metal magazines (Kerrang, Metal Hammer) I saw thay they both had sections on their tenth anniversary so I thought that if I wanted my magazine to be one that kept with the times like NME does then I should include this so I did.

When looking into different magazines I realized that a good publisher for my magazine would be the same one that publishes The NME who are called Jellyfish. First of all because my m,agazine is similar to The NME in that it releases new information on current bands and artists but because this company specialises in publishing magaszines and has also published BBC Magazines and Which (more info on http://www.nme-magazine.com/company/publishers).

As I mentioned before one of my main inspirations for my magazines was to create a music magazine for everyone because it hadn't been done before so in terms of target audience I am not aiming this magazine at a specific age group or gender I wanted to create somehting that would essentialy satisfy everyone. I supose I had to come to one decision I would be that this magazine is aimed at music fanatics who are into all kinds of music and are not fixated on one specific genre which many are and that brings me back to my first point about universal apeal.

When it came to designing my magazine's look and layout I knew this would be I high point in my project because I am very creative and pationet for design and ilistration so I came up which a whole bunch of visual easter eegs to put in my magazine and I took alot of photographs which you will see in earlier blog posts, I am also skilled in the use of photoshop and publisher both of which I used to create and put together my final product. I found many interesting and cool fonts on the websit www.dafont.com which I used to add proffesionalism and an overall nice finish on my final product which I am quite satisfied with.

The images that I used in my magazine are very eyecatching and interesting for example my photos of the band I did my double page spread on are humerous and cool and I created some cool imagery using some sketches I scanned and coloured in on photoshop (see.

As I mentioned in the previous paragraph I used photoshop and publisher to put together my music magazine. Photoshop is something I have been using for a while now because I did many subjects that I could encorparate it with in GCSE such art art, graphics and media studies all of which I have continued in to A-level, I also used it in my work expirience during GCSE, I worked in a design company called 'Crumpled Dog Design' (http://www.crumpled-dog.com/). Not only is is a very useful program but I enjoy using it alot and I loved designing on photoshop for this project. Publisher is something that I have also been using for a while now and it has served me well, I have used it alot in this project, especially in the making of my magazine as it is a very sraight forward and effective program. using a blog to do all my coursework is actually new to me, in fact I had never created a blog before this project and I was quite worried when I was told this was how I had to hand in all my work but I have grow to like it alot, it is very easy to use and whenever I had some ideas or some research I could post it on the blog whenever which is a very convinient tool. The preliminary task was quite useful because it helped me to get to grips with using the blog and it prepared me for the task of creating my music magazine. it allowed me refresh my skills in both photoshop and publisher and I precticed researching which was good preperation for the main project.

Double page spread-page2

This is the second page to my double page spread and the last page of my magazine!

Lkike the previous page I used a couple of full body shots accept they are of the other members of the band. I got some fonts from www.dafont.com and I put this page together with publisher.

This page features an interview with the band and an advertisment on the bottom banner. I also put a little box which has information about gigs and an upcoming tour.

Double page spread-page1

This is my first page of my double page spread. I used full body shots of two of the band members and the little shark image I created on photoshop. It includes a little add on the bottom and a little text about the band which I wrote.

I pieced this together on publisher and I got some of the fonts from www.dafont.com


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Intro to double page spread-page2

Here is the second page to my intro which has the other two members of the band and their little picture quotes.

It also features a little bit of text titled 'Who the Hell are these Guys?' which just gives a little backround on them. again I pieced this together on publisher as I did with the previous page and I used fonts from, www.dafont.com.

Intro to double page spread-page1

As well as doing a double page spread I did a couple of pages to introduce it as many magazine have this for their main article. I used downloaded fonts from http://www.dafont.com/ and added some pictures I previously took.

I added some text showing what the story is behind this band and how they have grabbed the world's attention and generally looking at their amazing success!

I decided to add little quotes from each band member in the framed picturs of them.

Final Contents Page

This is my final contents page which includes fonts that I downloaded off of www.dafont.com and some of my own images being the two images of the band members and the picture of Jimi Hendrix which I drew and scanned in to my computer and tweeked on Photoshop.

I have also included a little editor's note because I wanted to make this as professional looking as possible. I decided to add a little t-shirt advert as well because virtually every magazine regardless of genre have advertismets in them.

I pieced the magazine together on publisher because on this program it is very easy to manipulate images and text

My Final Magazine Cover!

Finally here it is, my final music magazine front cover!



My final product shows poictures of each band member in a different pose, it includes the shark image I created on photoshop as well as some fonts that I downloaded off the internet from the website: www.dafont.com and an image of a barcode which I found off of Google images.

I did the backround (the title, the shark, the grey box and the grey textured base) on photoshop and added the images og the band and the cover text on publisher because not only did they show up better but they were also easier to manipulate.

I am quite happy with my final product and I feel I have delivered a successful front covewr however I feel I could have made it look better; I think that the main improvement I coulde have made would be to present the images and text more professionally.