Mock ups

I chose to draw my mock up covers rather than do them digitally. I decided to do this because it allowed me to change my ideas easily and enabled me to accumulate a wide range of ideas within a small space of time.

Front cover 

Contents 

Double page spread 

Intertextuality

What is it?
"Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. Intertextual figures include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody."
Intertextuality can take 3 forms;
Explicit - this is when the intertextuality is obvious. It is often a homage to a character, actor, or another text. 
Implicit - this is when it is subtle. It has the ability to be missed but is normally picked up by regular fans. It often makes the audience feel 'superior' if they spot the intertextuality. 
Accidental - sometimes intertextuality is by accident, this can often be pointed out afterwards and the creators can either choose to acknowledge it or ignore it. 


This can be explicitly seen in the Simpsons. The Simpsons, and similar programs such as Family Guy, use intertextuality throughout each episode to create humour in a recognisable way.


Intertextuality can often make the audience feel clever if they pick up the reference. This creates a feeling of achievement and makes the audience more interested in the text.

 

I have made a conscious decision to not use intertextuality in my magazine. This is because, although intertextuality is important, my young demographic may not understand some references; for example, generally a young audience would not understand the Abbey Road (Beatles) reference used in the Simpsons, therefore the intertextuality would be lost. Additionally, I feel that using intertextuality in everything leads it to become ineffective and mundane.

Publishers

In order for magazines to be on our shelves they need to be published. Some magazines are published by large publishing companies such as 'Bauer' and 'Time Ink UK' (previously known as 'ICP Media'),
while others are independently published.

Institutions(Large groups)

 Bauer

Bauer is one of the largest publishers in Europe. It originated in Hamburg, Germany in 1875. It manages over 600 magazines, 400 digital products and 50 radio and TV stations around the world, including Kerrang!, Q and Mojo. Bauer refers to the 'brands' it has, this is because many of its publications are on multiple forms of media. Kerrang, for example, is a magazine, a radio channel and a music channel.



Time Ink UK

Time Ink UK, formally the 'international publishing corporation (IPC)'  is a magazine and digital publisher in the UK, selling over 320 million copies each year. NME and Uncut are just two of the  magazines that are published by Time Ink UK.

Independent

Shindig

Shindig is a magazine that is independently publish by Volcano Publishing.  Shindig, much like Kaleidoscope, is a magazine that focuses on a niche audience. Shindig focus on 60's/70's music, as well as art, fashion, film and architecture.   82% of Shindig's readers are in the ABC1 category, 83% of these are male while the remaining 17% are women.  Worldwide it achieves a circulation of 26,000.

For my magazine

Typically, independently published magazines are targeted towards niche audiences and so have a lower total readership when compared with institutionally published magazines. Therefore, since my magazine is of a popular, charts based genre, it would benefit more from being published by a large publication company, such as 'Bauer'. This will allow my magazine to be successfully sold to my target audience of aspirers and therefore will (hopefully) allow my magazine to generate a reasonable profit.

USP

Figure 1

Every magazine needs a USP (unique selling point). This makes the magazine worth buying.
For example, Kerrang's USP is that it has posters in every issue, interviews with bands and features artists that are not typically seen in music magazines. By targeting a niche audience and providing free posters, Kerrang's USP allows them to sell copies to regular readers each week and therefore remain successful.

Figure 2 

My magazine is different to Kerrang's as I do not target a niche audience but instead target a large majority of people. My USP is that my magazine doesn't have a specific genre but will change as music does. For example, today the most popular music is pop music, with mainstream hiphop becoming increasingly popular ( as shown in figure 2 with Drake and Fatty Wap within the top 5 most played). However, this is completely different to the 80's where dance and new wave music was the most popular. Therefore in the 80's my magazine would have featured dance music artists, whereas now, my magazine is more likely to feature pop and mainstream hiphop artists.

Therefore my USP is that my magazine changes with the trends. Additionally my magazine will feature a range of music that is popular at the time and so can appeal to everyones individual taste.

What do existing magzine titles connote?

Magazine Logo	Connotations of the Logo and its appearance
	This is the sound an electric guitar makes when it is strung whilst plugged into an amp. This therefore connotes that the magazine is about rock or heavy metal music.     The word itself sounds loud and bash and so connotes that the content of the magazine is aggressive and ‘in your face’. This is supported by the exclamation mark; this connotes the volume of sound and is often associated with shouting.   The logo itself looks smashed. This connotes aggression and implies that the magazine wants to rebel against society.
	Mojo is a word associated with music and dance culture and so clearly indicates that this is a music magazine.   Additionally, mojo is a term often associated with an ‘older’ person gaining their ‘cool’ back. This therefore connotes that this classic rock magazine would make the read feel as if they had their mojo back.
	‘Pop’ is a word associated with sweet things, such as fizzy drinks.  Therefore this connotes that the magazine and its genre is sweet and therefore appeals to younger audiences (especially females)   The word pop derives from the word popular and so clearly shows the type of music featured in the magazine.   The logo itself connotes an informal tone that appeals to young children. The love heart in place of the word ‘love’ creates a modern feel as it imitates ‘text speak’.
	A billboard is a large display. This connotes that the magazine displays the artist and their music in a big and outgoing way.   Billboards usually advertise current brands. This indicates that billboard magazine publicises current trends and artist.     The variety of colours connotes the variety of musical artist featured in the magazine; it also shows how the trends of music are always changing and that there is no set trend.
	Vibe refers to the atmosphere and ambience. This links the title to music and connotes that the hip-hop music featured in the magazine creates a certain atmosphere or vibe.   The word vibe is now the slang word for atmosphere. This connotes that the genre has an informal attitude. Slang is also associated with the ‘streets’ which is where R&B and hip-hop originates from.

 

Title of my magazine

While researching existing magazine I noticed that all of their names are words associated with music. For example, Q (or cue) represents the action used to place a needle onto the record and 'KERNING!' represents the sound of an electric guitar. 

When considering ideas I found that it was difficult to think of original and catchy titles that were associated with music and also gave an indication to the the genre of my music magazine. Therefore I decided to focus more on titles that connoted the genre of my music magazine rather than deriving from musical dialect.  Taking this into account I have formulated some ideas for the name of my own magazine. 

Praised - derives from the word popular; this is therefore relevant to my magazine as it is a popular and in trend music magazine. It is also used to describe one's respect and gratitude towards something, especially in song, this therefore shows that my magazine not only focuses of the gossip of artists but also the quality of the music itself. 

Craze - "an enthusiasm for a particular activity to object which appears suddenly and archives widespread but short-lived popularity" As my magazine is about trends, which can also be referred to as a craze, it clearly describes my magazine. It also creates a sense of excitement and so encourages the readers to buy the magazines to keep up with the 'craze'.  

Mania - "an excessive enthusiasm or desire; an obsession."  This also does not refer to music, although it does describes the feeling that my magazine would give you. It represents the obsession that society has with modern, chart music and how we can become so involved in it, just like my magazine.    

Fix - this suggests addiction. It implies that my magazine will be the 'fix' to people's music addiction. 

Air - Charts music is around us everyday, even if we don't consciously seek it out. Popular music plays in shops and on the radio all the time. Therefore Air suggests that my magazine focuses on the music that is everywhere (just like air) and evokes the idea that it is an essential part of your life. 

Novelty - 'the quality of being new, original, or unusual'. For this I decided to focus on the 'new' definition of the word. Chart music is always changing. What is popular depends of the social attitudes at the time. Therefore Novelty connotes that my magazine focuses on what's new, and suggest that it is essential if you want to keep up with the current trends. 

Questionnaire #2

Once I had established the preferences of a wide variety of people, I decided to ask further questions to my focused target audience.

I composed a questionnaire and distributed it around the school (through a notice box) to students between the ages of 14 and 17.


My results were as follows:

On average people who listened to chart music preferred an uncluttered cover.

People tended not to like having bold ways of drawing attention to information on the cover. However it is likely that I will include subtle ways of doing so as this is a successful music magazine convention.

Most people liked bold colours for a magazine cover, these include; black and white, red, yellow and orange. This range of colours gives me room to experiment and establish what looks best while still giving me the advantage of appealing to my target audience.

As for fonts, people preferred sans serif style fonts. This also connotes to me that people prefer more modern and crisp styles, therefore giving me a further indication of how to set out my magazine. Additionally, this crisp style is supported by a preference of an uncluttered cover.

Finally I gave the students different title ideas. This was very useful as it allowed me to judge which would be the best for my magazine. Out of all of the titles I gave, the most popular were; Craze, Novelty, Praised and Fix.



My questionnaire gave me results that I can use when composing my magazine, however, by distributing them through a notice box I found that not all questionnaires were completed. This indicates to me that for any further research I should adopt a different method. For example, I could go and ask in person, gather a focus group or send out an email to a larger number of people to ensure that even if not every person completes the questionnaire I will still be able to collect a substantial amount of results.

Another issue with my method of collecting research is that I only used school students. This meant that I was only able to collect data from females and so my results do not give an accurate representation of my complete target audience. On the other hand, this allows me to focus my target audience onto girls between the ages of 14 and 17 which will allow my magazine to appeal directly to this group.

Carson, the new convention?

Figure 1

David Carson, an American graphic designers, is best known, as the art director of 'Ray Gun' magazine, for his unique and innovative magazine covers.  He challenged the conventions of magazine layouts and designs, even if sometimes he wasn't so successful.

Every single cover of Ray Gun was extremely different. The house style was never the same, neither was the logo or even the positioning of the bar code.

Although David Carson's covers are now collectable items, at the time his covers only appealed to a niche audience. This is because people like familiarity. By experimenting with conventions Carson's non-conformist approach made it difficult for audience to easily understand the cover or grasp Carson's concepts and was therefore not always successfully popular. 

Figure 2

It is undeniable that every cover is interesting and unusual. However, not all of his covers are eligible. For example, figure 3 uses a font that makes the artists featured in the magazine extremely hard to read. It was Ray Gun's unique and bizarre style which was not only its greatest strength but also its largest weakness. 

For me, some Ray Gun issues are very attractive and are defiantly appealing, whereas other issues do not attract me at all and would possibly deter me from purchasing the magazine. My personal opinion is likely to also be that of others. 

Figure 3

  The lack of convention make most covers appear more like posters than     magazines; this therefore indicates how essential conventions are.

By attempting to break convention Ray Gun became a relatively short loved magazine, releasing only 74 unique covers.  By using conventions, a magazine creates a sense of familiarity; this is important as audience need to be able to astatine the desired information is a short space of time. A magazine that uses a consistent logo is easier to spot on a cluttered newsstand than a magazine that is different every issue. The average population don't like change, therefore experimenting with any product risks loosing your target audience. 

The '50 quid bloke' and the survival of music magazines...

The 50 quid bloke is a term coined by David Hempworth in 2003. It is used to describe a certain group of music consumers.

"This is the guy we've all seen in the record stores on a Friday afternoon, possibly after a drink or two, tie slightly undone, buying two CDs, a DVD and maybe a book - fifty quid's worth - and frantically computing how he's going to convince his partner that this is a really, really worthwhile investment. He is likely to be a big user of the web and probably owns an iPod and is an avid radio listener." 

Accordning to data from the BPI, 40-49 year olds now purchase a higher percentage of albums than 12- 19 year olds.

This group of people can be explained due to their ages. When the '50 quid bloke' was in his youth, music was a central part of life. Now, he attempts to maintain his cool status and keep track with current trends by purchasing albums, records and music magazines.

The '50 quid bloke' is, now, more likely to be targeted by record companies because they are easy to appeal to. Company members are able to target the '50 quid bloke' as they see themselves as similar. Additionally, the '50 quid bloke' provides reliable sales that record companies thrive for.

The question now asked is; are music magazines dying out? Are the younger generations being sucked into newer and faster music through the internet? Is the only targetable audience now the '50 quid bloke'?

Is this the end?

Personally, I agree that music has developed. Magazines are dying out. The younger generations, who tend to be more interested in music, are moving on from magazines and CD to newer methods such as internet streaming.

Patterns of music consumption have changed. People no longer purchase CD's but instead stream music through the internet using iTunes, Spotify and Youtube. Steaming has become so 'normal' that in 2013 HMV (one of the UK's most popular music stores) closed 37 stores and was at risk of bankruptcy.

This change in youth culture has lead to questions about how we, as a population, now access music. While magazines and CDs still exist their popularity has dramatically decreased. As a consequence this change has effected the industry significantly. In 2013, the closure of 37 HMV stores lead to the unemployment of almost 500 people. This only intensifies the new methods of accessing music; why pay, when you can stream it for free? 

While living in this futuristic society can music magazines survive?

Perhaps the fact of the matter is that music magazines have reached the end of their popularity, only to preserved by the '50 quid bloke'.

Target Audience Profile.

When creating a product the target audience must be taken into account. This is very important as the product must appeal to an audience in order to be successful.

When deciding on a target audience different things have to be taken into consideration;
- genre
- content
- psychographics
- images/ colour
- layout


I have decided that my target audience will be young people between the age of 15 and 18. This is because this age group are, on average, more interested in current music and social ideas as well as more likely to have a disposable income to buy my magazine. Additionally the NRS results show that 164,000 ABC1 between the age of 15 and 34 purchased Q magazine - a magazine that features current music and trends- this therefore suggests to me that my magazine idea is desirable to my target audience and successful.

I will attempt to use colours appeal to both males and females as this will ensure that my magazine has a larger audience, however, due to there being a female artist on my cover I expect my audience to be primarily female and will therefore consider this when finalising my cover and the rest of my magazine.

I have also considered the lifestyle of my audience. My target audience will be educated young people - and therefore more likely to have a job. This will allow them to purchase my magazine and will dictate what content I can include. My target audience will be ASPIRERS who follow current trends and fashions and so I will feature popular topics in my magazine. By following current trends I will be able to appeal to a wide range of people at any given time.

Because my target audience are aspires I plan to include interviews and information about current trends in my magazine. This will interest this group of people as it allows them to aspire to be more like the artist features and gives them an indication of trends that they might be interested in.

In addition to my content, I will make my magazine uncluttered and crisp as aspirers typically like attractive packaging. This will allow my magazine to initially catch my target audiences attention when on the stands. To add to an uncluttered and attractive cover, I will attempt to recreate high key lighting as this gives the impression of high quality and therefore appeals to aspirers materialistic interests. I may also attempt to use backlighting to create an interesting and artists feel to my magazine.