Artist Profile

Visual Magazine Profile

I used animoto to present my visual magazine profile, All the words and pictures show the direction that I want to go in for my music magazine. The words that I used in the animoto were 'fresh' 'edgy' 'urban' 'bold' 'cool' and 'funky'. These are the words that I want people to see as soon as they see my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I feel those words link in well with the Hip-Hop genre and make the genre stand out. The images that I have used are what i'm going off of for my music magazine cover. They all have certain elements that I would like to incorporate on my front cover such as the masthead colour and size and the layout and shot type.

Hip-Hop Magazine Deconstruction

In this prezi, I have highlighted the genre that I will be doing for my music magazine which is Hip-Hop. The front cover, contents page and double page spread that is displayed in this prezi are representing some of the things I want to incorporate in my music magazine. For example you will be able to see that the colour scheme used in Vibe magazine are the colours that I will be using for my music magazine as I have collected results which suggests those colours would appeal most to my readers. On my front cover I will have a medium close up shot for my artist as this will show who they are, this is what Vibe magazine did too. The layouts of the front cover, contents page and double page spread are what I want to be doing for my music magazine, its simple and easy to read for the readers. I want to make my music magazine seem like it's from the Hip-Hop genre, so just like Vibe magazine, I will use edgy fonts that link with the genre and have my artist portray the typical conventions of a Hip-Hop artist such as wear gold jewelery and have them doing direct gaze to show power and to draw the reader in.

Hip-Hop Genre

I used glogster to create a moodboard of the different types of Hip-Hop/Rap magazines there are and show how I have gotten some of my ideas from how the front covers of XXL or Vibe magazines have looked. I also took in mind what my audience research results were and compared them to the magazines I have looked at and I have also shown how the results link with the hip-hop genre. The moodboard of magazines shows how I want my layout and colour scheme to be. My analysis of why i'm putting certain things on my front cover are explained in this glogster.

Reader Profile

Hello, my name is Summer Sanchez, I am 17 years old and I am currently taking A-Levels. I live in Croydon and I go to school close to where I live. I am currently taking 4 A-levels which are media, art, music and drama. I have picked subjects in which I feel i can express myself in, especially music. In a normal day i go to school then come home and listen to music all night. I love Drake, J.Cole, Wale, Big Sean, T.I, French Montana, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Jhene Aiko and Keri Hilson. I try to go to as many concerts as possible, I enjoy listening to music live as you can see the artists natural talent. I have been to a Drake concert and J.Cole's and I also attend festivals such as Wireless as it has such different varieties of artists to hear. I enjoy listening to Hip-Hop which is my favourite genre but I tend to listen to other genres too. In my free time I go to the gym, have singing lessons and learn how to play instruments. The instruments i'm interested in playing are the drums and guitar. The music I listen to mainly have beats created by drums and sometimes have the guitar in them so I thought it would be good to learn them.

Market Research Response Analysis

In this prezi, it will show the results of my market research answers of the questions I asked to my target audience. I will be able to create a music magazine based on these results. The outcome is that my music magazine genre will be Hip-Hop, the main focus on my front cover will be the artist, the colours and the layout of the magazine. The layout will be very simple with little images and more text, the text will be on the sides of the magazine. The colours of my front cover will be a black or white background depending on my main image for the front cover and the other colours on the front cover will be green and blue, I will superimpose my artist over the masthead and i will make the cost of the magazine between £0-2. It will end up being £1.50 as its not too cheap but not too pricy either.

Focus Group Interview

I have conducted an interview for my focus group. I asked them several questions in relation to my music magazine to gain some knowledge on what my colour scheme should be and the layout. I asked questions to 16-18 year olds as I can make a magazine which would be relatable for teenagers which are my target audience. From this interview I have gained the information I need to make my music magazine, double page spread and contents page. The two people that I have interviewed have led me to make a clear decision on what things are to be involved with my magazine. I have decided that my magazine is going to be Hip-Hop genre, the main image is going to stand out as they were drawn most to the aritst on the front cover, i'm going to have one main artist on the front instead of a group as I feel it will look better that way and not distract away from the text. The masthead will be stretched across the top of the magazine and the layout will be simple with a font that is easy to understand. I will take inspiration from the XXL magazine on how the double page spread and contents page will look as the layout was affective to my target audience in the focus group.

Questions For Market Research

My first question is 'Do you read music magazines?'. It's important that they do so its easier for them to answer the rest of the questions. All the people in my focus group have stated that they read music magazines so this makes it easier for me to interview them as the questions are more relatable. My second question asks 'how often do you read music magazines?',  I gave 5 different possible options which could tell me if they buy music magazines regularly, if they did this would be beneficial for the rest of my questions as I would find out why they buy them from my other questions that I have asked.

My third question was 'what is your favourite genre of music?', I gave 5 options again and offered an other option where they could specify, this could easily give me an indication of what genre they would most likely buy, it's beneficial that the people in my focus group choose Hip-Hop/Rap or pop as i'm basing my music magazine around those 2 genres as I may incorporate the two to make a Hip-Pop magazine as so many different artists mix genres and I feel as though there is not a magazine around that incorporates the two together. My fourth question is 'what would most attract you to a music magazine cover?', this question was beneficial to me as I would know what my main focus for the front cover would be, if someone chose the colour scheme, I would make sure the colour scheme worked around the answers of the questionnaire and I would try my best to match it. If any of the other options were chosen as well I would make sure to focus on those specific areas so my music magazine would appeal to my target audience.

My fifth question is 'what colours do you like on a magazine front cover?', I have made sure to give several different colours where they can choose 3 colours so I can see what colour scheme best fits in with my genre and what would look the best. It's beneficial that I know what colour scheme my target audience would like because colours are effective in appealing and drawing readers in to read a magazine.My final question is 'what is the highest amount of money you would spend on a music magazine of the genre you liked?', I asked this question so that I could see what a reasonable price is. If the price was too high for a teenager to buy it, it may explain why some teenagers don't read music magazines in general.

Research Rationale

The target group I have access to are teenagers and young adults. My magazine is mainly based around the genre hip-hop, R&B or rap and mainly teenagers listen to those types of music. The resources I will need are a camera so that I can film the interview I will take of the people I’m asking questions to. I will be filming my focus group which will consist of around 2 people, I will ask them a good sum questions that I have thought of so I can gain an understanding into whether teenagers read magazines, I’m asking 5 people so that I have a variety of different answers. I will conduct a questionnaire so that I can gain information on what people’s favourite genre of music is and other topics they are interested in. I feel a questionnaire is more honest and I can get direct feedback from my target audience.

Once I have collected all my research, I will have a clear idea of what to incorporate in my music magazine. My target audience ranges from 16-18 years old, being a teenager myself it will help me understand why certain genres would be people’s favourites and why they may read certain magazines. For conducting my research, I will create some questions that will not allow someone to give me a ‘yes or ‘no’ answer unless those are the only options that I need to have. The questions I have in mind are some open questions and some closed questions such as: What is your favourite genre(s) of music, how often do you read music magazines?, what would most attract you to a music magazine cover, what content do you look for mainly in music magazines?, do you read music magazines?, What is the highest amount of money you would spend on a music magazine of the genre you like? and what colours do you like on a magazine front cover? 

Deconstruction Of Magazines

These are my deconstructions of two different magazines from different genres. I have noticed that with Billboard which for this edition mainly focused on pop, used more feminine colours to highlight the genre and it was a very simple layout with little writing compared to Vibe magazine where nearly the whole front cover was taken up by writing. The colour schemes are very different and they use different shot types for the main image. In Vibe magazine Mary J Blige is in a long shot, this gives more emphasis to her and may appeal to the target audience of that magazine. For Billboard magazine, Katy Perry is in a medium close up shot, shes using direct adress to engage with her readers and the closeness of the shot draws you to her face, giving indication that she may be involved in one of the articles of the magazine. I used Vibe magazine as the genre is of hip-hop and R&B and i want that to be my main focus and inspiration for creating my music magazine. Both magazines have special editions, for Vibe it was saying the 150 essential vibe albums and with Bilboard it was representing women and focusing on women in the music. Vibe has several male names on the front cover but the main image is still focusing on women. In Vibe magazine they have made sure to put Mary's name in red so that you are instantly drawn to her whereas in Billboard magazine, Katy Perry's name doesnt stand out at all, its in black font so it blends in with the rest of the writing and is in small font.

The Brief

For my Media AS course, I will be focusing on making a music magazine. I will produce a front cover, contents page and double page spread, concentrating on a music genre of my choice. Since the start of this media course I have been deconstructing different genres of music magazine covers and comparing them. I have started my market research. I read and brainstormed a music magazine then I deconstructed two more from different genres. I will be focusing mainly on a hip-hop, R&B or rap magazine as I listen mainly to those genres of music but I also like pop music so I may incorporate the two to make a hip-pop magazine for the final magazine cover. Having done media for GCSE I have a bit of experience working with photoshop and other programs, I may experience using photoshop to make my contents page, magazine cover and the double page spread.