Question 7: Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When looking back at what I did for my preliminary coursework, I think there is a noticeable change in what I did. For instance, when I first started the process of my preliminary magazine, I didn't know how to use Photoshop, Quark Express or any other programme like that. I can see that I have created a less messier look to my final product, and that I can confidently say that my final product looks alot more like a magazine than my preliminary one did. I planned a lot better in the final production, in my preliminary task I didn't really take it seriously, and was unaware of how much I really needed to do in order to get a good magazine. In my main task though, I planned each step carefully, as I knew that it was important for my product. Both magazines are very different though, so its hard to base a difference on them as they are generally going to be very different anyway. The photography in the magazines are very different. My prelim magazine was rushed photography, taken in an hour and rushed to be put on my magazine. But my main task, I spent a good five hours taking and experimenting with my pictures, and I took a good amount of time editing all of them, seeing which ones worked best for the magazine. I think I did alot better in the main task, rather than in the preliminary one.

Question 6:What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Photoshop:
Photoshop was a very new programme to me when i first started media studies. I had obviously heard of it but never used it, and didnt know all the advantages it had. But after using it for art and photography purposes, and then the preliminary task we did for media, i became very cmfortable with my skills in it. It became a very big part of my media product, and without it I think it wouldnt of been as succesful it has been. It helped me to edit, refine, transform and compliment photos that needed it, and this in turn made everything I did look that little bit better. I found photoshop alot easier to use than Quark Express, and this in turn made it my main programme whilst making my magazine. There is a wider variety in everything on photoshop, down the the text, the colours and the image manipulation. I learnt alot about the layering system whilst doing this project, something which I hadnt taken much notice of before now.

Quark Express:

I used Quark Express for my contents page, as it let me easily do what I needed to do and create two pages next to each other. This was a tool Id never learnt about before, and so after using it I became a bit more comfortable with Quark Express. Its not something I find very enjoyable to use, as I do with Photoshop, but it is a very useful tool, one which I did need to complete my magazine.


Blogger

Blogger has been the main log, and online record system when showing all of my media projects, preliminary to coursework. This has been an essential piece of technology that I couldnt of done my work without. I have blogged my research and planning, production and finally my evaluation. You are able to add pictures, videos and edit them on blogger, and it gives you a variety of layouts.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product? and Question 5 - How did you attract and adress your audience?

My media product was a magazine of rock magazine, fitting in with the genres of magazines like Kerrang! and Rocksound. I researched into my audience, and into the genre of music i wanted my magazine to be about.
My target audience are both male and female of around 15 to 25. I did however realise some people may be in some rare cases younger, or even older than 25. For instance, people in bands may reach the mature age of 60 but still read the magazine to see what the competition is. I said that the audience would be probably students, and in a stage of their life where they have a lot to say but not much idea as to where they want to be in life. On the jicnar scale they would be around the C's with a few D's in the audience. They would take a great time investing on their social life, but still spend time with their family. I think they have a sense of individuality, but still be quite mainstream in the sense that most of the music they listen to, so does everybody else, so it cant be that different to everyone.

I think that this is a stereotypical image of the perfect person of my target audience. He's trendy, he wears expensive clothing and he spends alot of time going out to gigs and social events. But he goes to college full time and is enrolling to university, and has good GCSE's. He loves music, and loves unknown bands and most mainstream bands. He reads magazines like Kerrang! and Rocksound and has a job.







In attracting my audience, I firstly had to make sure everything visual was fitting in terms of my audience. For instance, I couldn't put in lots of pink and glittery images if my audience was for males aswell. I made sure everything fitted, and looked like belonged to a rock magazine. To guide me I used the magazines Rocksound and Kerrang! They really provided me with a good layout template and a good idea as to what I needed to do.




In these two covers, you can see the similaritys and the differences clearly. Looking at my front cover firstly, we can see that I used a sans serif font all te way through my magazine. This was to suit my audience, and it connotated friendliness, and casuality. I also used a simple font colour, keeping them all complimentary and stylish. I chose light brown for my main font colour because it was a colour rarely shown on magazines, and I thought it looked good with the background of the main image. Everything I wrote was in a casual, yet grammically correct way. I did this because the people reading my magazine wouldnt be too worried about the formality, but I was very conscience of the fact that the text was the main thing people brought the magazine for, as it provided the information they craved. So i made sure everything was spelt right, and that is was all easy to read. The photograph I used as my background was one I had taken of my friends Kiall and Emily. I used my own SLR camera, and I took around a 100 photographs to get this main one. I also feature these in the contents page, and on my double page spread. I think that the picture looks very typical of a rock magazine, as it doesnt portray very much emotion, and they are stood next to each other in a powerful sort of way. I feel like it appeals very much to the audience, as they look like teenagers, but that means they could be inspirational to everyone, as they have made onto the front cover of a magazine. I also had pictures Ive taken of bands before, the first one being a picture from the band LOSTPROPHETS signing. I took it on my friends digital camera, and at the time I was just taking it because I wanted to. But as i took on this project, I realised it was something I could use to fit in with my theme. The other picture was taken at a gig of the band The Blackout. It was also another unintentional photograph but i realised I could use.




My contents page had to be kept inline with my theme and style with my front cover. I couldnt change the colours or the font as it would make it seem odd and would really make the audience become confused and unattracting to my magazine. I looked at the contents pages of Kerrang! to see if they kept the same styling too. I found out that all the colours are the same, and pictures relate onto the contents page too. Everything fits in and keeps the magazine flowing. I took this upon myself to keep everything the same as my contents page, and i think that i did acheive this. I kept the colours the same, the font the same, the photographs similiar and I made sure that it would be visually exciting. I made some of the titles and subtitles slightly larger that other writing as it would become eye catching, and my audience would be intrigued. The connotations I got from Kerrangs! contents page is that it was simple, exciting and intriguing. The main thing about Kerrang! is that its almost like a small community, and everyone feels welcome. So i wanted to maintain that in my contents page. I used a very clean layout style, using no messy boxes to outline anything, just keeping everything in an order and simple.


My double page spread held not alot of text. I did this because whilst researching into my different magazines I found out that Kerrang! used a double page spread to introduce each feature they do on a band, and I thought to make my magazine as real as possible I would try and do this. It gives a dramatic enterance for tha band, and it does look very stylish. I think Ive managed to create a good double page spread, in line with everything Ive just said. I edited the pictures in photoshop to give them the right look, and to make sure that they fitted well with the pictures from the front cover and contents page. I then put the pictures onto my pages using Quark Express. I used the layout that Kerrang! used for the double page spread I looked into. It was stylish, yet very appealing to the target audience. I made sure the text I used was relevant for the band, and it put through the right kind of attitude i wanted my readers to feel when they read about the band.

Question 3:What kind of media product institution might distribute your media product and why?

My magazine is one where it is going to be distributed in most major newsagents, like WHSmith and supermarkets like Tesco. It wouldnt be hard to find, although it may be easy to run out quickly so therefore hard to find it that sense.
Distribution was a major thing that we looked at in media, the major distributors and the independant distributors and the strategies they use. I think that after looking at all of the distributors, the one I would use is Bauer Media Group.


They are a German based publishing company in Hamburg. They operate 15 countries worldwide, and they publish magazines like Kerrang! and Q.
I think these would be very appropriate for me to use, as they obviously know where to put my magazine and how to get it noticed, after following Kerrangs! success. I can build the sort of brand where its noticed my magazine features alot of unknown music, but features the new mainstream stuff that everyone likes. Brands build a connection between you and the audience: if they dont like the brand, they wont like you.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Alternative Representations:
My representation of my audience is one very different to the stereotype 'teenagers' have nowadays. For instance, most people would claim that my audience are drunken, unruly and violent, whereas I am portraying them as young, trendy and senstive to feelings and other people. Although rock music itself is not always the music of 'clever' people, it presents the idea that my audience are caring when it comes to music, and devote more of their time into listening and socialising with music rather than spending their time getting drunk and listening to the same generic music they are presented with.


I represent them as clever, talented students who take time when it comes to music, going to small gigs and trying out wierd and unusual music, just to gain a better knowledge. I represent them with feelings, people who belive its impartant to be yourself and take whatever stick you get for it. I do represent them as 'normal' teenagers though, getting drunk and going out is apart of their social life. But not the drunken vandals that most people would claim teengers are.



There are many other types of teenagers that I could of tried to appeal to, some 'stereotypical' ones being :

Chavs: The type of teengers that spend their time getting drunk, causing trouble and have no care for researching into the unknown. They take everything at face value and have no intention of looking deeper than what they get given. For example, they don't go to gigs,bcause they don't care enough, they don't invest in educations, because they are happy doing nothing all day.

Emo's : These are the type of individual who are very emotional, take everything to heart and try to be as different as they possibly can. They like to wear bright colours, and a lot of black, and most will wear make up, including the boys. They care about their music alot, but to the point of obsession. They will give everything up for music, and usually take alot of time going to gigs.

Punks: These are a very, very different type of individual. They wear anything and everything and the same with their music, they listen to anything with a statement, and nothing which has too much indepth meaning in its lyrics. The musics usually loud and fast paced. They like piercings, tattoos and all things which stand out.

Ermegent ideology.

The dominant ideology of teenagers today, and has been for a very long time now, is that they are always up to no good, always the bearer of trouble and don't care for anyone but themselves. They don't respect anyone, they drink too much and are ridiculously lazy. But recently, it is becoming ermegent ideology that teenagers aren't all as bad as they are being made out to be. They do have respect and manners, and not all of them cause more trouble than they are worth.

Question 1:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine shows similaritys to most music magazines, but yet at the same time it does show difference in the use of conventions, parts and context and also in the use of design, layout and overall appereance.

The magazine my own production shows the most similarity too would probably be Kerrang!

There are obvious similaritys, one being that both mine, and professional magazines have a masthead, straplines, use of mise-en-scene to fit target audiences, fonts, editing, style, colour choices, layout, use of image, use of text etc. Looking at the differences, you can see that mine is still slightly undermined by Kerrangs! status in the magazine world: mine still looks slightly amatuer, whereas Kerrang! looks like a succesful magazine.

For example, Kerrangs! masthead is hidden behind the characters in the photograph, whereas mine is in the top left hand corner, hidden by nothing and standingout. This is because Kerrang! has such a recognisable face that it doesn't need the masthead to stand out too much, and mine would be new on the market, so therefore would rely on the masthead to be the thing people noticed.

Both have the same features and conventions of a magazine, but both are styled different to fit the needs and wants of the target audience. They both use different research methods to gain the knowldge they need, and in return, while very similiar, this is why the magazines are different. The two magazines would never be in the same class though, as i didnt devote as much time and money as they have done to create theirs, as they have to in order to survive.

My Main Production: The Final Magazine

Contents
Double Page Spread
This is finished

Idea's.

This is a rough idea of what i want my magazine to look like which i created on photoshop. I think i will call my magazine 'Outcry' because it reflects what i want my magazine to be used for, and that is crying out about new and exciting music. I used light colours for the background, as i didnt want it to look too unprofessional, and i wanted to focus all the attention on the colours of the photographs. The simple masthead 'Outcry' was in black with a light green shadowing because it is simple, yet appealing. This magazine is being aimed at an audience just slightly older than a magazine like Kerrang!, so things like the masthead do not have to be very visually appealing. I put three features underneath the main sell because it was a different layout to most magazines, and although it looks simple, i think it will appeal to people due to the fact it is different, and its easily noticable. I put three lines of band names underneath that because this will tell the reader what to expect and who to expect from my magazine. I havent yet put any finer detail on the magazine, like date, price and any writing about the features. But i have put the barcode at the top right hand corner, as i thought it looked better than putting in anywhere else.

I chose to put the contents page in similar colours to the front page, as i think it makes it look alot cleaner, and more proffesional. I havent overloaded the page with pictures, as i think it doesnt need to be. I put the front cover on the contents page, so that i could write about where the features would be.

Photoshoot

This is a select few of the photographs I took for my magazine. As you can see I experimented with them being serious, and also playing around, to portray them as serious teenagers, and fun teenagers. I went with ones that were serious as when I looked into other magazines, the majority of the time they were portrayed as serious musicians. So in order for my magazine to look like that, that is what I did.

Audience Profile

My Audience Profile:
Age Range:
They would be aged 15 to around 25
Sex:
They would be both male and female, but the magazine would be slightly more aimed at men.
Dress sense:
They would wear designer brands such as Fred Perry and DKNY and wear clothes from Topman, Topshop, H&M, Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Blue Banana. They would take care in their appearence but be more interested in having fun. The jeans would be low waist skinny/baggy. The shoes would be converses/DC's/Vans/Uggs/Babysham, the jackets would be leather and/or fitted/hoodys, the shirts would be T-shirts/shirts/vest-tops.
Job:
Most likely a full or part time student, but also, as referred on the Jicnars scale:
my audience would be at D, C2, C1 and BD = Semi and unskilled manual workers - eg, bank clerk
C2 = Skilled manual workers - eg, plumber
C1 = Supervisory, clerical, junior administrative or professional - eg, labourer
B = Intermediate managerial or professional - eg, middle manager
Therefore, the target audience would be for:
Middle class
Skilled working class
Working class
Lower middle class
Social Values:
Post-modernists, which is 'to have, to be, to play'
Music Preferences:
You Me At Six, Blink 182, Bring Me The Horizon, New Found Glory, Atreyu, Lostprophets, Fall Out Boy, System of a Down, Coldplay, Paramore, Kids in Glass Houses, The Blackout, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Aiden, Alexisonfire, Emarosa, The Spill Canvas, Alien Ant Farm, Armour For Sleep, Attack!Attack!, Blue October, Brand New, The Architects, Faith No More, Fightstar, Flood of Red, FlyLeaf, From First To Last, Funeral For a Friend, Asking Alexandra.....
Film Preferences:
The Hangover, The yes man, Hancock, I am Ledgend, superbad, Knocked up, Never been kissed, American Pie, Saw, The grudge.
T.V Programmes:
Family guy, Lost, Scrubs, Miami Ink, American Chopper, My name is Earl, South Park, Ghost Whisperer, Celebrity Big Brother, Friends, Skins.
Radio and Music Channel Preferences:
Kerrang! TV and Radio, NME TV, Scuzz TV, Radio 1, Wyvern FM, Rock FM, MTV.
Internet:
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace.

They would be involved in the Reading and Leeds, Download and Glastonbury festivals
They would prefer small, close contact gigs rather than big arena shows ,
They would mostly be interested in a career in music, either being a photographer, journalist, musician or a roadie
They would drink alchohol on the weekends, and most would probably smoke.

Summary of Research

• The main content of both magazines i looked at were; gig reviews, album reviews, biographical stories on the best band at the time, free posters reaching to about four or five at most, and news on the old and new bands around that time.
• The photograph they use for the main sell band are all very, very similar with the main singer in the middle, usually somehow enhanced more than the rest of the band, with the photograph dominating the page.
• They both used simple, yet effective and complimenting colours, for example light green and blue, and black and red.
• On the front cover, they both had a list of bands that they would be writing about.
• Both mast heads were hidden slightly by the picture of the main band, as their names are very well known and it did not need to be very eye catching.
• There is always a key colour on each double page spread which the whole page is consequently based around.
• The language in columns and on the cover is informal.

For my magazine to work, i will need to use similar features to these, whilst trying to create an original look. I like how the magazines were presented and layed out, but they were very boring. So for my own production i want to try and excite the pages up more than K! and Rocksound did.

Main production planning: initial ideas

Facebook Responses:
I put my mood board on face book, and asked a few questions about what people thought about it. These were the only responses that I got, and they weren't very helpful.

Mood Board

This is a mood board which shows the type of thing my audience can relate to in their every day life. I chose things which i knew were popular to them, and to myself aswell, as i would class myself as apart of this audience profile.

Magazine research and planning 2

Kerrang magazine

Audience
This magazine has an audience of people aged around 13 +. I wouldnt say any younger because most children under that would not be interested in music as a hobby, and so wouldnt actualy buy a magazine. But 13 year olds would just be developing an interest in things, and so would probably like to buy the magazine to gain knowledge about music they do and dont like.

The sexes would be both male and female, as music is ever really aimed at one or the other. So the magazine would be aimed at both aswell.

They would be around a D and a C on the Jicnar scale. They would enjoy things like socialising at places like gigs, and parties. They would be at the point in their life where they are finding out who they are musically, what they like and what they dont like.

Genre

This magazine has a genre of rock and mainly 'emo' music. Although sometimes other kinds of music is profiled in the magazine, it is usually of those two genres. 'Emo' music is formally known as emotionally expressed music, and it is the type of music where every lyric holds a sort of message, or take on the world. So the magazine caters for the audience of the music by making sure that they have interviews, and pages on where some of the artists explain their music and tell us what inspired them.

Title

The title of the magazine is the masthead, and it says 'Kerrang!' which is the magazine name. It is of a sans serif font and is behind the bands head. This is because Kerrang! is a very well known magazine and the layout and colouring makes it automatically recognised, so the masthead has no reason to stand out completely and hiding it a bit wouldnt be a risk on the magazines behalf. The colour is black, which yet again doesnt exactly make it stand out but it is unnecessary to do so. The colour black is classed as quite a smart colour, so although the magazine is not about making itself look pretty, it is about being organised and appealing to the audience, the colour black is just an easy colour to use. It makes the magazine look less amateurish and it automatically goes with everything else on the page.

Style

The layout of the page is fairly simple, and organised. They have managed to keep everything chronological yet still make it appeal to the audience. They places three bands name at the top of the magazines front cover. These bands include Enter shikari, and Funeral for a Friend. These two bands are very famous in the rock world, and would automatically let the potential reader know what this weeks issue will involve, and with these two bands being advertised Kerrang! would be certain of a sure sale. Also in the cover featured, it also has 'Travis Barker update' in with the two bands name. Travis barker is in a band called Blink 182 and he was recently involved in a terrific plane crash where it was feared he may never walk again. So putting the word 'update' next to his name readers will be instantly compelled to buy it as Travis Barker is a drumming ledgend. Then underneath that it has the masthead. Then it has the picture of the main featured band for this weeks magazine. This picture is usually quite large and covers over half of the magazine cover. Then it has two other features advertised, one being posters and the other being an interview. Then underneath that it mentions more names of bands in this weeks issue. The way everything is ordered has obviously been made to be less difficult as the audience suggests that they would not like to be bombarded with mounds of information. Also the use of pictures is balanced with the use of words, as the reader would like to have the pictures explained, like for example they may be confused if there was a picture on the cover, but no text explaining what it means or why it is there.

Content

The features in this magazine are generally the same every week, they have interviews, news, reviews, gig reports, new band information, posters and a main biography or interview with the biggest bands. The ones featured on my front cover example are news on Travis Barkers accident, a main sell of You Me At Six which combined a biographical text with an interview, it had posters for Madina Lake, Trivium and The Gaslight Anthem and there is an interview with the singer fron disturbed. Kerrang! rarely change the feature scheme, although on christmas they do a wish list from several famous singers or members of bands, and before the new year they put in peoples new years resolutions.

Photographs

The main photograph on the front cover of this is of the band You Me At Six. They are in a very typical, unoriginal stance, with them all slightly behind each other with the singer in the middle at the front, pulling a strange face. Music photography has become very limited now with very many bands trying to come in and create new styles, so Kerrang! have not tried to over complicate the picture, which is good as it then lets the potential buyers know exactly who there main sell is. You Me At Six are being represented as a fun, young band with a lot to say.

RockSound Magazine

Audience
The audience of this magazine is similar to the audience of most rock/punk/emo music magazines. The age would range from about 15+. I dont think it would be younger as this magazine prides itself on being 'more underground than commercial'. For this reason i dont think younger people than 15 would know a great deal about non commercial music, and so they would be more tempted to go on to magazines like Kerrang! where they are very commercial. They would be radicals and hedonist, post materialist and a B on the Jicnar Scale. They would the type of people who have a small weekend job, and save a small amount to go to festivals such as reading and leeds or download. They would go out socialising most nights, either drinking and partying or going to events such as a concert or the cinama. They would be 'fashionably' dressed wearing very abstract clothes, such as skinny jeans and leather jackets.
Genre
The Genre of this magazine is more indie/rock than Kerrang! was. It is very noncommercial, so will have alot of new and alternative bands featured in it, bands who may not be able to commit to a label of a genre. While its non commercial it still manages to cover the best and most famous rock bands, such as Paramore, Lostprophets and Trivium.
Style
The colours of this magazine are very plain and simple, using mainly light blues or green as the background. The masthead is of a bright green colour which makes it fit in well with the rest of the colour scheme, and making it slightly stand out. Having matching colours or colours which compliment themselves will make the magazine look very proffesional, and more appealing to any buyer. Again the masthead is very similar to Kerrangs! in the sense that the editors have slightly hidden it by putting it behind the band. RockSound, although not as popular as K!, is a well known rock magazine, and simply the layout and colouring of the magazine will make it automatically recgonisable, so the masthead is not really needed to jump out at us. Underneath the masthead we have a picture of the mainsell band, and then we have a freebie on the left hand side of the picture. Having a picture of the mainsell band undernead the masthead is a very common thing, as it is the first thing people tend to look at first. Then having the freebie information next to that is very clever, as it makes it very noticable and it will entice the reader furthurmore. Then on the bottom left hand side we have the list of all the more famous and recognisable bands that the magazine will be writing about in that weeks issue. Then on the right hand side there are three reverse lines, one includes an interview, another includes a chart to the top 20 thrash albums of all time, and the last involves a story on the band Megadeath. These are all things the editor thought would be good to advertise on the front page to the potential buyer, as they are all things people in the rock scene would like to know about.
Content
The features in this magazine are generally the same every week, they have interviews, news, reviews, gig reports, new band information, posters and a main biography or interview with the biggest bands. The ones featured on my front cover example is a story on Muse, an interview with Megadeath, there are posters, and there will be album, single, video and gig reviews for all the bands listed. RockSound rarely change the feature scheme, and the things they include in their magazine are very unoriginal and all very cloned. But it works well and they are a very popular magazine.
Photographs
The photographs in the magazine are usually taken by photographers payed by Rocksound, including all gig reviews and posters they may include. The main picture is of a band called Muse and again, as kerrang! did they have the band standing side by side, with the singer in the middle. It doesnt really portray any personality of the band, or what their music is about, it just shows them, which is all they want, because it is enough to entice anyone to buy it who are fans of that particular band.

Initial Research Magazines (Any Genre)

The main task that I have been given is to create a music magazine of a particular genre, consisting of a front cover, contents page and double page spread.
In order to to do this i will need to complete three things:

1: Research and Planning
2: Production
3: Evaluation

Rock Sound Magazine
Front Page
This magazines genre is rock/indie/pop-punk. It profiles a different variety of new and old bands, and tries to advertise to both mainstream and independant music audiences. Both male and female people will buy this magazine, and both of them will read it. They would be underacheivers and radicals, hedonists and be around an E and a C2 on the Jicnar Scale. The black and grey colouring of the magazines look very stylish, and indicate that this magazine is aiming out to an older teenage audience, so about 16+ whereas other magazines, like Kerrang! aim at a lower age.

Content
Rocksound uses a large image to cover two pages with a smaller article. The effect of using this large image is so that the reader gains instant interest by being able to directly focus on a large image. This is therefore more successful than using smaller images and as the article continues onto another page, the reader will be more likely to continue reading. For the image, the individuals are all wearing similar colour clothing which identifies them as a group. The magazine then uses yellow title boxes in the corners as to make them stand out as the section within the magazine on band 'exposure', this stands out to the reader and draws them even further into looking at the page and reading the article. The image also presents the main/lead person in the band to be percieved as the person in the centre as he is the person with the most animated expression, while the others look closer to being contempt. This ensures that the reader is focusing more upon one individual that the article may focus on.

Mix Mag

Front Cover
Mix Mag is a specifically designed magazine for dance music. It is aimed at students, who obviously like to get out and have a good time. Both male and female would buy this, although it does look slightly girly. It features things like Ibiza trips and free CDs to entice the audience further.
Content
This is an example of the kind of pages MixMag has in its content. This is titled 'This months must-have tunes!' Having that kind of title automaticaly entices the reader, especially as it would of been why they would of brought the magazine in the first place. This kind of title is good for an audience who has maybe just brought a new music player, or phone and would like to know what good, dance music there is for him/her purchase. The rest of the page shows example of a top ten chart, having the songs put down in chronological order, putting a small review of each tune underneath a picture of the artist who created the song. It then has a small section dedicated to one of the dance music industrys top artists, writing for MixMag exclusively. By that he has divised his own chart list. This is a very good feature as people will obviously be interested to read this anyway, as it features a good artist, but to know what music he finds good lets the audience feel closer to him, and it also ensures the reader will carry on reading it.

Q Magazine

Front Cover
Q magazine has a very, very varied take on music. Featuring Lily Allen to U2 it covers all sorts of music. The front cover is very simple, but it makes it stylish and appeal to the audience. It would appeal to both male and females, and it would aim at people around 17+. I dont think it appeals to a younger audience as it looks simple, and not very creative, and young people like there magazines to be filled with imagination.

Content

This is a double page spread featuring the band The Gaslight Anthem'. The way they are stood in the picture suggests they are very carefree, and happy to stand up to what they belive in, which is probably one of the themes of the piece about them anyway. I dont think that teenagers aged around 13+ would read this, unless they know of the band and are real fans of them. I think this because the page isnt very exciting, and magazines like Kerrang! have set a high bar for pages to be exciting and appealing to age groups like that. I think that the obvious older audience wouldnt be interested in what the page looks like in general, just aslong as it is simple and easy to read, which this double page spread is. It has simple, yet complimenting colours and how the picture is placed next to the text is very unoriginal, and chronological, so therefore easy to read.

Kerrang! Magazine

Front Cover
This magazine has a genre of rock and mainly 'emo' music. Although sometimes other kinds of music is profiled in the magazine, it is usually of those two genres. It is aimed at both male and female people, aged around 13 to 25, depending on what the magazine is covering. They would be underacheivers and radicals, hedonists and be around an E and a C2 on the Jicnar Scale. I think that this cover appeals to the audience because it has a sans serif font, which doesnt imply style and class, and makes it less intimidating for the readers. The main sell is the band LOSTPROPHETS, and the picture for them is large and takes up most of the cover, this entices fans of the band and it makes it more appealing, as it indicates there will not be alot of writing to read, and that is good for the audience of this magazine.

Content

This is an example of the content Kerrang magazine have in their magazine. It is of an album review of the band 'Five Finger Death Punch'. Prior to that it also has small album reviews on less well known bands on the side. On the review for FFDP it has a small interview from someone in the band. I think this is a good page as it lets the audience know which albums they think are good and not good, and as the reader will probably trust kerrang! they will go by what they say, and therefore create a sense of loyalty to the magazine. So if that reader needs to know about an album in the future, or about a band, then they will look to kerrang for the answers they give. It is a very simply laid out page, and it looks very neat. Although it wont exactly entice the reader, it gives them a chance to focus on the text, as there is alot to read.