Organisation

Here is a selection of photographs I have took of my model striking the same pose of the cover star to the re-model I am making. Though the stance of the 'star' is similar throughout all imagery, which I decided to do to sustain the similar style yet unique re-model on the billboard magazine I have used a variety of angles, camera shots and different facial expressions to try and create the perfect display of billboards style and ethos, through the model looking moody, happy, sensual or angry any of these could reflect the mood and overall ethos to the magazine

After completing research, I decided to have my model pose with a slightly emotionless facial expression to create a sense of ambiguity to the cover star and additionally add to the cool/laid back style of magazine. To the left are only a selection of the the many images I took with showing contrast to the images where I  used mid-close ups or in certain times using extreme close ups, though after the experience I recognised that the more effective camera shot would be a mid-close up to reinforce the cool and laid back ethos of the magazine as the audience can see the cover stars facial expression less so, adding to the curiosity of the target demographic.

Furthermore, I decided that the angle to which best suited the photography I wanted to achieve would be a low angle shot with the cover star holding their head quite high to make the cover star the dominating character between her and the audience.

Finally, I decided immediately that the model would star directly into the camera as the use of direct address formulates a relationship between the target demographic and the cover star, alluring them to buy the product. I learnt that this would be a beneficial technique towards my re-model magazine from the previous posts (http://scarlettasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/research-into-similar-products_8.html).

Research into similar products

 Here, I have researched into contents pages used for popular and well established magazines such as Vibe and Rock sound. I have decided to look into both of these magazines contents pages as I will be able to recognise what key elements music magazines use to create an effective page, in comparison to other popular magazines and how they adapt their pages to suit their ethos and different music genre. 

The two contents pages were extremely different is some elements such as photography. However, there were features both magazines used that benefited the overall professionalism of the magazine while still consisting to the magazines own style/ethos, such as both using a similar layout to ensure both target demographics immediately were focused on the artist and the main feature, which both magazines hope will entice their audiences which obviously do since they are both so popular.

From this comparison I have recognised that certain features and conventions to a magazine can benefit the successfulness of a music magazine no matter what genre it is based around and so will use this by selecting the most effective conventions that contents page have to include into mine.

Research into similar products

Here, I have looked into the type of photography that Billboard use which is usually a mid-close up to keep the audience drawn to her face and so are aware that the main focus of the magazine is on the cover star, which is relevant for the first billboard cover with the cover star being Ariana Grande as she is a solo artist and so the camera shot gives insight into how the magazine should solely focus on her.

However, there are certain times where the magazine uses a full length shot so that  the audience too see the surroundings of the cover star as well as the mise-en-scene included such as the Selena Gomez Billboard issue, which uses a full length shot to allow the audience to see the exotic and unusual setting which may imply how unusual and stunning the cover star is as exotic areas are associated with beauty and for not being too explored.

Additionally, the use of mise-en-scene within the first issue of Billboard is slightly effective as the use of a spotty helmet gives the impression of how outstanding and uncommon a star like Ariana Grande comes along, since the helmet is similar to a space helmet which could imply that the artist is 'out of this world'.

More so, the second billboard issue uses mise-en-scene by conveying the ethos of the magazine itself since the artist is wearing quite formal clothing (a white and black suit) but in a stylish way it implies that though she is a trendy and fashionable music artist she still takes her work seriously and in a professional manner and also reflects the ethos of billboard magazine being 'cool yet professional

From the research I have completed I now know that the clothing the cover star wears is quite relevant to represent the artist and the magazine itself while additionally, the camera work and angles have a range of different purposes depending on what I want to convey to my target demographic.'.

Research into similar products

Here, I have completed research into the music magazine 'Billboard' as I am planning to create a front cover in the style of a popular 'Billboard' magazine cover featuring cover star Beyonce. I have chosen to do research into the Billboard magazine as it has an edgy yet stylised ethos associated with it.

From the research I have collected on this magazine front cover I can recognise that the magazine does not stick to one house style, but for each magazine changes the colour scheme to reflect the artist and what they stand for. An example of this is Bruno Mars Billboard magazine front cover since the colour scheme of this cover consists of blue with hints of yellow. This reflects the artist as blue connotes to being very laid back and cool, which Bruno Mars presents within his image since even his music discusses being laid back such as a song he wrote called 'The lazy song'.

However, though the house style of the magazine changes the alternative and edgy ethos is consistent with each magazine. The ethos of the magazine is sustained through the use of alternate artists who are up and coming stars at the time, such as Florence and the machines which is a successful way not only to sustain the ethos of the music but also attracts the magazine's target demographic who will both be fans of the cover stars on the front of the magazine and slowly become fans of this style of magazine as they will build a reputation of having a well stylised, edgy yet professional magazine, which Billboard want.

When I come to recreate this magazine I will hopefully incorporate the key features of billboard magazine to therefore successfully convey the style and ethos Billboard magazine is known for.

Page Plus Layout exercise

Target audience

 As I have researched into the pop genre I have decided to look into the target demographic of popular music magazines. The 'welovepop' music magazine in my opinion has a target demographic of females of a younger age around 8-16. The use of the colours pink as the main colour within the house style implies the magazine's audience is mainly females since the colour pink is associated with girls. Additionally, the use of the colour pink implies a sense of love and coolness which relates to the title of the magazine as well as the girly and cool ethos of the magazine.

Additionally, the magazine oozes this sense of playfulness and fun from the stance and smile both the cover stars have, this will attract the target demographic as they will feel as if they are getting to read large amount of contents about their favourite artists and bands while the content is discussing fun and exciting topics appropriate to them.

Additionally, the bold and bright coloured fonts used grab the target demographics attention immediately as the large font will catch their attention before anything else. More so the use of the cover stars such as Rihanna and One direction reinforce this idea that the target demographic is tweens since the artists are young singers or bands writing music that applies to the younger generations as well as there target audience being younger people.

More so, having other topics discussed rather than just music such as fashion tips with images of female clothing supports that the magazine is for younger females who would want a magazine that discusses a variety of issues within their lives rather than having a magazine cover a wide range of content on one topic, and so therefore appeals to younger girls.

Having the skyline within the second issue of 'welovepop' magazine be purple ensures that the topic within the skyline is noticed straight away by their target audience and so having 'Justin Bieber' a world wide famous artist within the Skyline will attract younger people especially girls to buy the issue as Bieber's fan base mainly consists of younger females of the same age as the magazines target demographic.

Organisation

 One location I have research into for my organisation for my photo shoot of my music magazine was Digbeth, a city centre area within Birmingham known for it's artistic and urban feel because of it's unusual and funky graffiti overcoming the area. In my opinion, this would be an ideal location for my photoshoot as my magazine hopefully will have an ethos of being urban yet stylish. This means that it will therefore reinforce that indie and urban style that I want my magazine to reveal.

I have considered this location since the use of graffiti within this location can reveal the rebelliousness and disobedience that I want my magazine to illustrate since graffiti is a crime. More so, the urbanness of the area can imply a cool and laid back feel to my magazine which I am looking to suggest through my photography. The use of this style of graffiti overcoming the area is a benefit to my photograph as the graffiti within Digbeth has a message behind the imagery and also has an alternative way to deliver a piece of art to the world which relates to the ethos of my magazine since I hope my magazine will reflect an alternative yet urban style for a magazine, which this location will enhance.

This location could be effective if my photography is done in a successful way. However, issues I may face with this location is that the area is extremely popular and so it would be difficult to have my model stand within the middle of the street with a large amount of people walking by. I could overcome this issue by having my front cover images took at a time when less people would be there, which would be at night though this could lead to it being difficult to see my artist as well as his surroundings if it is too dark to see, meaning I would have a low quality photograph.

Research into similar products

 Here, I have researched into other styles of magazines for ideas/inspiration for my music magazine. The 'Fault' magazine uses extremely bright and slightly gaudy colours to immediately grab their audience's attention since the bold and arguably over bearing house style contrast with other magazines which use quite simply and slightly plain colour schemes to keep the focus on the artist or cover star whereas this magazine uses their house style to stand out from other magazines and so their target demographic would be more likely to notice this magazine. Additionally, the magazine's masthead is quite funky and original to ensure audiences can recognise the magazine just from the left third of the magazine.

However, the word 'fault' uses edgy and alternative typography's to allure audience's' curiosity but the word 'less' is much more simple and uses a straightforward typography to imply the variety of topics discussed within the magazine through the variety of typography and colours the magazine uses which will attract audiences as they will feel as if they will receive a large amount of contents from the magazine that will more likely interest them as they have a range of topics within the issue.

The funky and alternative texts and colours used are enhanced by the quite edgy and unusual photography of the cover stars since one cover includes a women wearing abnormal clothing and arguably over excessive makeup whereas the other magazine is of a male artist pulling a very stern and serious facial expression. Both covers use of photography are effective as both would appeal to the magazine's target audience as they would be curious to why the cover star is acting the way they are, though the two magazine front covers photography is extremely different and controversial to the normal use of photography.
The first 'fault' magazine uses other cover stars to ensure that the target demographic would be enticed into buying the issue whether or not they are intrigued by the cover star. However, the second issue of 'fault' lacks in other cover lines to ensure the audience's focus is on the artist though this can be an unsuccessful tactic for a magazine as the magazine is solely relying on the magazine sales through the artist and the target audience being interested within him.

Research into similar products

Here, I have researched into the music genre 'pop' to get an insight into a music genre that is arguably the most popular genre within the industry of music since it implements elements of music from all genres within the industry whether it is rap, hip hop, dance or R&B. The pop genre has a variety of world renown artists including Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Miley Cyrus and One direction. These artists as well as others are some of the most recognizable names within the music industry since they successfully were able to change/adapt to the current trends and needs of modern audiences.

The artists within the genre of pop music create a brand image that is now associated with pop music through their image and how they are perceived by their audiences. The pop genre is associated with clothing that is extremely fashionable and on trend and actually start many of the fashion trends that are known, showing the influence these stars have on younger generations. Having pop artists wear very stylish clothing makes many younger fans want to emulate said artist since the clothing and overall image they have is attractive to them. However, some pop artists will use their clothing as a way to stand out against the 'norm' and gain more attention through their clothing and abnormal image they stand for, Nicki Minaj is an example of this as she would wear very bright and slightly gaudy clothing which gained her masses amounts of attention from the paparazzi and all areas of the media and therefore created her an image which her fans were attracted to as she stood against what the pop genre stood for.

The artists within the pop genre additionally have a particular image they set out to show their audience, which can be rebelliousness or sexuality. Examples of this are artists Justin Bieber and One direction. One direction have recently tried to change their young and innocent reputation to a much more bold and daring one through the different messages they aim to get across to their fans through their videos, their look and their overall image. They have done this by displaying their tattoos more often and by having a very 'I don't care' look about them. However, artist Justin Bieber has also changed his image from a young boy who sang about falling in love to a young adult who oozes sexuality, which is an obvious attraction to his fan base who are mainly teenage girls. This is shown through his music videos which are much more focused around promiscuous women such as 'What do you mean?'. This new image that Bieber can be appealing to new fans as he has a much more rebellious and attractive look. 

Research into similar products

After researching into the pop genre I decided to analyse a front cover and contents page of a billboard magazine which is a magazine that solely focuses on the pop genre within music, who for this particular issue have their cover star as Taylor Swift. The front cover of the magazine is quite effective as the lack of other cover lines and other conventions such as puffs, pugs or a skyline means that the audience’s attention will immediately be drawn to the artist.  Also, it means that the artist's recognition is the only way the magazine will receive sales from audiences of their target demographic which can be a risky and sometimes unsuccessful move. The colour scheme is successfully used within the front cover as the colours emulate the ethos of the magazine through implying sophistication and successfulness over other music magazines since the house style includes colours such as gold and blue.

However, the cover stars article spread is slightly unsuccessful as the colours used within the page aren’t as complementary as the house style colours used earlier since colours such as yellow, red, black and white are used which neither are associated with the billboard magazine or the artist, and so the small use of yellow is arguably unnecessary. However, the photography is a strong point of the spread as the image is quite laid back and simplicity both reflecting Taylor as she doesn’t try too hard to please everyone which is reinforced by the large quote in the top left hand corner ‘living life on my own terms’. 

Research into similar products

Here, I have looked into artists that cross over into other genres than the one associated with said artist. An example of this is Miley Cyrus who is an American singer, songwriter, and actress who made her debut into the film and music industry when landing the role of Miley Stewart in Hannah Montana back in 2006.

The artist began in the industry as a country artist due to the country roots implemented within her family since her father, Billy Ray Cyrus was known for the song 'achy breaky heart' and had a country legend for a godmother (Dolly Parton). Though as time progressed Cyrus adapted to the demands of modern teens and decided to write music with both country and pop with in them such as 'boom clap' and 'if we were a movie'. Now Miley Cyrus is an icon within music and the culture associated with it as she has now incorporated a vast amount of genres such as rock, pop and country.  

Miley Cyrus is debatebly one of the most famous music icons in history for her dramatic and sudden change from her 'sweet' style of music and look to her more provocative and gaudy appearance and overall ethos to her. This undeniable fame that Miley has came into recently reveals how genre crossover cannot only work for artists but actually make them more successful because of it when properly marketed to suit the audiences that the artist wishes to appeal to but genre crossover can be a risky choice within the music industry as if an artist tries to appeal to too many audiences it would be difficult to incorporate everything an audience expects from artists within that specific genre and even more difficult to target a specific demographic. 

Working with layout and conventions

From my peer assessment feedback on my five magazine front covers where we explored with different layouts (http://scarlettasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/research-into-similar-products_28.html) I have learnt that I gave a clear and detailed analysis of each magazine while justifying the decisions I had made while deciding on things such as font, colour and layout.

A class member informed me that she found that the use of the puff 'exclusive' was effective on my sound magazine. She continued by saying that my choice of band name 'sunny side up' was suitable for the genre of music and ethos of the magazine I wanted to convey. To add to this, My M magazine with the cover star as Drake used suitable fonts to show how Drake dominants the rap industry. My peer believed that my pitch magazine was effective through the use of secondary images to highlight the variety of bands that will be mentioned within the magazine and so seems like the audiences are receiving more content within their magazine, which will attract them. Furthermore, she ended her positive feedback by saying that all magazine front covers refer to other bands or artists within the certain genre the magazine represented which demonstrates an understating of the different musical genres and what specifically attracts audiences of that genre.

However, my peer then discussed that if she were to make improvements to my magazine front covers she would have used a variety of colours for my Music_x magazine since it could look slightly dull if all the cover lines are white but the cover lines chosen were snappy and would intrigue the audience. Additionally, she said that for my pitch magazine I could have used a different colour font to yellow since it is slightly to bright and clashes with the ethos of the magazine.

After this, I self assessed my own magazine front covers and decided that I have justified my decision to use certain colours and fonts for my cover lines but I could have enhanced my blogs by justifying why I decided to do certain layouts for each magazine cover. I plan to use these magazine covers in the future for my drafting/planning area of the course since I was able to experiment with different layouts which will benefit me when I begin to make my magazine and will refer to these to decide which layout would be effective for my magazine.

Research into similar products

Another music genre I have researched into is contemporary R&B which I believe is a music genre that is not only very prominent in today's market but has been a well established genre for many years, which has been and is still a major element is the development of other genres of music and the music industry as a whole. The reason I particularly am interested with this genre is because it is one of if not the only genre of music that I believe that has held the test of time and shows how this certain type of music is enjoyed by a variety of generations and so therefore the artists and bands within this genre have a classic yet slightly urban feel since the artists still keep in trend with modern society with the proper R&B style.

There a range of very successful artists within the contemporary R&B genre such as Rihanna, Adele and The Weekend. For the majority of  artists within the contemporary R&B genre there are some elements of  jazz, soul, blues and more recently pop or hip hop incorporated to make new and up-to-date sounds which attract new audiences whereas some artists such as Adele stick to the classic and very recognisable soulful sound that she is known for. Having two types of artists within the genre is beneficial since audiences who prefer the original sound of R&B can expect it still while others can have a range within their music, which I found intriguing and quite effective.

The artists within the genre are mainly from the UK or USA though there is no particular origin known with R&B which can be appealing to all races. Additionally, R&B is associated with songs of love which can attract audiences as love is a common issue people deal with and so whether the songs are about heart break or first love a wide range of audiences will be able to relate to it. The frequent discussion of love within R&B creates a romantic and relaxing overall ethos to the genre which is reinforced by the light, airy and soft music R&B is.

Research into similar products

Here, I have researched into potential colour schemes for my magazine. I have looked into music magazine covers that feature artists from the rock genre to gain some insight into what colour schemes or house styles are used to reflect the genre and what the artists are trying to convey to their audience. However, I have also looked into artists of other genres to see what artists within other genres such as hip hop are reflected through the colour scheme of the magazine and why. The house style of the magazines include red, white and black. The use of the colour red for the NME magazine suggests anger since the colour red connotes to danger and rage. This is reflected through the facial expressions made by the cover star within the main image. Furthermore, the frequent use of the colour red is significant as it could indicate danger and so implying a rebellious and unpredictable ethos to the magazine as well as the artists and therefore may attract audiences as the magazine is more unconventional than others within the market. The use of the colour black and is arguably the dominant colour within the front cover implies a sense of darkness since black has negative connotations with evilness and immorality, this could reinforce the idea that the artist on the NME magazine lacks a sense of immorality to which could appeal certain audiences since he rebels against the common expectations of the music industry. However, the Vibe magazine uses the same colours but imply different things such as the dominant colour being white with in the cover implies the artist may hold his morality close to him and is quite an innocent artist since the colour white suggests innocence and purity. However, the small use of the colour red could imply how passionate the artist is about his craft and how he strives to be the best at what he does since the colour red connotes to passion.