Original Photos

Music Genre Research

This video features albums that have been popular in the charts over the years, for example, Ed Sheeran's '+' album was in the Top 10 for over a year. Pop music became popular in the 1950's and derived from rock and roll. This type of music can in include any style from rock to rap, however, there are some defining features of pop music - short to medium length songs, a repeated chorus and written in the 'verse-chorus' structure. The genre aims to have mass appeal, as shown by the word pop originating from the word popular , showing how it aims for mass popularity and chart success rather than artistic credibility.

Artists that have influenced pop throughout the years have been ABBA, The Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Moreover, technology helped to influence pop music over the years through the microphone allowing more intimacy whilst singing, and the mass use of television ensuring that pop stars had to have a 'visual presence' meaning music became less focused on credibility and more on an artists presence on the television. This helped to channel the popularity of Madonna and Michael Jackson, legendary pop singers, through allowing them to express their music also through their fashion choices, developing pop musics' influence in dress.

Currently, pop music is still extremely popular and dominates the charts continually, through artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna and Ellie Goulding. It's mass market appeal is ideal for today's society where many individuals such as , 'Townies', are conformist and mainly listen to the biggest-selling tracks of that week.

Target Audience Research

I made an outfit on ASOS Fashion Finder. This meant I could create a stereotypical outfit for a 'Townie' showing how a member of the 'mainstream' crowd would usually dress. In the outfit I chose to put New Balance Trainers, these are a type of shoe that are in fashion and worn a lot by males and females in this tribe.The rest of the outfit are plain jeans and a white crop top, this displays the often simple, comfortable style worn by this group. I tried to highlight how this group often buy things from the high street by only featuring high street makeup from Benefit, Bare Minerals and an Essie nail polish. These are all highly popular brands and are often worn by this tribe. Overall, the outfit is simple and shows their style well through not featuring anything too 'out there' and showing clothes often worn or bought on the high street.

Pricing Research

Front Page First Draft

I like this, however, I feel there is too much bare space making it look amateur. Moreover, I feel it could be more professional through further editing on the photograph and more text. I do like the photograph as I feel the model is suitable for the magazine and target audience as her face is easily identifiable, whilst her outfit is young and modern, reflecting what my target audience would wear. I think it has improved from when I started as I have developed a stronger house style compared to my preliminary task, whilst the fonts compliment each other and draw attention to the model. I feel one of the better things about this piece is the text across this middle, which draws attention towards her and makes the page pivot around her.

Type Of Shot Used

Front and Contents Page Draft

Font/Masthead - Typography Analysis

The definition of typography is : ' the style and appearance of printed matter'. I will be analysing this, and how magazines use different types of fonts or mastheads to implement their particular style or genre to the consumer.

Kerrang!:

'Kerrang!' have an eye-catching masthead that would stand out to their target market of young, rock -influenced individuals. This is due to the sans-serif font having a distressed effect on it , making the text stand out more and fit into the 'cool' image. The font is not always one colour and varies mainly between white, red and black to fit with the background. The font size of the magazine is always the biggest writing on the page meaning the customer will clearly aware  of the magazine, it is usually size 36 and covers the entire top of the cover. The exclamation mark at the end of the masthead makes the title stand out more and reflects the in-your-face music genre the magazine features.

The contents page for 'Kerrang!' always has a similar layout, for example the main text such as , 'Contents' and 'This Week' are always yellow; this helps to exhibit a house style in the magazine. As the yellow font is on a dark background it makes the text stand out more. However, the layout of the contents page is not always the same and varies depending on which type of picture they use - this helps to make each issue more interesting and diverse.

NME:

Similarly, 'NME' used a sans serif font, giving the magazine a younger, more modern feel to it. However, unlike 'Kerrang!' the text colour is always the same - red with a white border. The contrast of colours makes the text stand out more, meaning it is more eye catching to a potential customer. The text is always in capitals and very large on the page, making it more noticeable.

The layout of NME always similar in each issue. The content page is often simple with the same sans serif font and layout. The same red colour is used for some of the text for page numbers and the side menu, meaning a house style is established and it increases the fluidity of the magazine.

VIBE:
The masthead for 'Vibe' magazine is also red and in a sans serif font, making it appear modern and simplistic. However, it does not have a specific background or border but still continues to stand out on each issue due to its colour.

The contents page is often focused on a picture covering on the whole page, however, a continuous style for the magazine is established through a simplistic style being maintained. This is achieved by using sans serif font again

Double Page Spread Article First Draft

The Naked Truth

Just over four years ago Summer Boland became an overnight superstar thanks to her Youtube videos. That young girl was struggling to get by, clasping at every chance of superstardom, now she rules the world with her chart-topping pop songs whilst her accolade of music award (including 3 Grammys) help to show how she is the new-found ‘Queen of Pop’. After the phenomenal success of her last album ‘Summer Moments’ she comes back this year with an even catchier, raunchier debacle in the form of her latest mix tape ‘Summer Breeze’, which has set the charts alight. Now ‘The Buzz’ aims to get the truth about the reality of her instant success and what is really going on with on-again off-again rock star boyfriend Rhys Brown…

So how do you feel about the new mix tape?

I feel very positive about my new work; the mix tape leads to a new direction for me musically. Me adding in more duets and features within ‘Summer Breeze’ lets me have more freedom with the music I make and to get ideas from other artists.

Which duet are you most excited about?

Definitely my duet with Eminem- he was a big inspiration for me growing up as we had similar backgrounds and EVERYONE used to listen and sing along to him in the playground. Also, he really helped to hone my producing skills with that specific track as before it was more people telling me what to do with each different song, however, he made me have a say in how I wanted the finished product to sound. It was refreshing to have another artist that could actually teach me something about the industry I'm in.

How comes you decided to make a mix tape this time and not a whole new album?

I just felt that some of the tracks from ‘Summer Moments’ hadn’t reached their full potential so the mix tape allowed me to change the production and add other artists into some of the songs , meaning the fans would be happier as now they have two different versions of the same song! But, to be honest, it was mainly because I don’t have the time right now to make a completely new album. ‘Summer Breeze’ gave me the opportunity to put out a few new songs without having to go through all the stress and promo of putting out a lot of completely new music. It just helped to develop as an artist.

Why do all your albums start with your name?

The reason my albums start with my name is…well, it wasn’t exactly planned like that but it was so effective in the marketing of the first album that we though we may as well turn it into a trademark.

What do you hope your fans will think of your new work?

I hope they’ll be pleased with it, as at the end of the day it all depends on how well they receive it and whether it sells well. I hope they’ll appreciate I’m trying to grow as an artists and this mix tape gave me a real opportunity to do that.

So… we have to ask, what is going on with Rhys Brown?

At the moment I am single and just focusing on my music and my fans, to be honest, I don’t really have time for a relationship right now. I'm enjoying having time to myself as I felt the relationship meant I couldn't focus wholly on the music i was making.

What about all those rumours of him cheating on you?
Rhys and I are the only ones who know fully what's gone on between us and I'm trying to keep it like that really - there's no need for the whole world to know our business.

Has the breakup influenced any of the songs on the mix tape?
Yes, most definitely, 

QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS

Favourite colour? Purple

Celebrity Crush? Ryan Gosling

Song you wish you’d written? Any song sung by Beyonce

Favourite Song ever? Anything by Drake

Person you’d love to collaborate with? If I could go back in time I wish I’d have collaborated with Amy Winehouse, her voice is amazing.

Photoshoot 1

Further Contents Page Research

Although this contents page does not fit in with my music genre I felt it was important to research many different types of contents pages to get a better feel for how to present mine and for more ideas. On this contents page I like how well it fits within the rock genre which 'Kerrang!' specialises in due to its dark colours and bold text. I hope to make my contents page fit well with my music genre also through the use of colour and font. I plan to do this by only using sans-serif font meaning the modern font reflects the modern chart music I will feature. Additionally, my colour scheme of red, white and black, will fit in well with my music genre through being bright though the red but also modern through the contrasting black and white. This correlates with my music magazine as chart music is often happy and bright but also current. Moreover, on the 'Kerrang!' contents page the picture of Slash at the top is well-taken, however I do not feel it fits well with the page due to being too big compared to the text. The columns on this piece are something I particularly like due to it making the page appear organised and easier to read. I hope to use this in my own contents page to make it easier for the reader to read the page and to give me a strong layout.

I like this contents page due to its brights colours the the attention-grabbing picture. The picture is well taken and reflects the youthful, fun vibe of the magazine. Moreover, the prop of the guitar makes it clear that the magazine is based on music and is a fun prop for the magazine. Despite liking the picture I do not think a picture like this would fit well with my work due to not being modern or sleek enough. However, I will take important aspects away from this such as the importance of colour and lighting in contents page photographs. As the pink colour of the guitar helps the picture stand out more, whilst the lighting on her face means the photograph looks more professional. However, one aspect of this contents page I do not like is there only being one column to display the features of the magazine. This is due to it looking crowded on one side and not being as well balanced due to the picture taking such precedence over the page. I would not just include only one column on my contents page as I want the text to be well spread out and include nearly all articles on my magazine, not just the features. Another thing I will take away from this contents page is how I want nearly all of my colours to match as on this page there is a great mix of colours that do not necessarily go together such as, pink and red. In my contents page I plan to only use a very limited number of colours to make it appear more neat and modern. I also feel I put too many colours in my preliminary task so would want to avoid this in the future.

I like this contents page a lot mainly due to the use of red. 'Q' magazine use the red only in places where they want to highlight important things such as the page numbers, important featured and the issue number. This is something I would want to use in my own contents page as I feel it is very good at bringing attention to certain areas of the page, whilst the bright colour makes it appear more modern. However, again I do not like the use of just one column as I feel it makes the page look cramped as all the text is fitted into only one place, meaning everything featured cannot be viewed from the reader.  Moreover, I do not particularly like the photographs used as I , personally, prefer all photographs to match and compliment each other. However, in this many different colours and types of photography have been used meaning the pictures clash but ,on one hand, this does make the page stand out more. A particular feature I enjoy is the title and text below as I feel it continues a good house style through mentioning the magazine name again and keeping with the same colour scheme; the house style makes the magazine easily identifiable. I would like to include design elements such as this in my own contents page as I feel it would make it look more professional through implementing a house style further. Furthermore, another aspect of this contents page I like is the mode of address such as, '140 song to download now!' which entices the reader in through being direct but also the use of punctuation like the exclamation mark makes the text stand out more and the readers attention is more likely to be grabbed. 

Overall, I feel I have learnt a great deal from researching further. This is due to it allowing me a greater insight into things I want to include such as, text in three columns and a direct mode of address. 

Contents Page First Draft

I like the continued colour scheme in this piece, however I feel it needs improvement. This is due to there being too much white space, whilst the pictures are not big enough. To solve this I will add more text or underline the title to fill in the white space. Moreover,  I will make the borders thicker on the pictures and enlarge them to fill up white space. However, I do like the chart table as I feel it emerses my magazine in its genre and establishes how my magazine front cover is based on chart music. Another detail I quite like is including the front cover and issue number on the upper right hand corner as I feel it makes the page look more professional and interesting, but there is still white space around this area which I need to fill.