Initial Ideas

There are may different features I must consider to create my music magazine, these features include; images, colours, contents, name of the magazine, main features and coverlines. These are all things I need to construct my magazine and by looking at a variation of different options I will be able to choose the best option to fit the genre and target audience of my magazines.

I have looked at a range of names for my music magazine, the choices of names I made were; Bass, Mute, Voice, Vibe, Unplugged and Rock!t. All of these names could work well as they have connotations of music and are related to music in someway i.e. Bass is a pitch of music and unplugged reminds me of how headphones can be unplugged to play music outloud or a guitar can be unplugged from an amp. Out of all my choices I chose Unplugged and Mute for my two favourite music magazine names. I chose Unplugged because it rolls of the tongue and also has can be related to Rock, which is the genre of my magazine, as they use electric guitars in their music and these could be unplugged from an amp. Also it has connotations of being released so the audience could relate this concept with new news being released in the magazine. I also chose Mute because I liked the irony of how music, especially rock music, has connotations of being loud and played publically, however mute reminds us of silence. Also Mute is monosylabolic therefore again rolls of the tongue well and is easy to remember.

I have looked at the connotations of many different colours, i.e the girllike connotations of the colour pink and fresh connotations of green. I looked at the colours Black, Purple, Pink, White, Red, Green and Orange and have narrowed down that Pink, Orange and Green have very softer connotations are are less harsh than the others. I do not think this fits the genre of rock my magazine has as Rock has connotations of harshness and boldness and these colours do not match this. However, Red, Black, White and Purple do as they are all rich bold colours. I looked at the connotations of Red and Purple. Red has connotations of an older audience as it is considered contempary. It is also unisex therefore wuld fit an audience of both male and female. I also looked at the connotations of purple and deciphered that it has connotations of being loud, rich and expensive this would allow me to attract the audience as it looks good quality. It also reminds people of Cadbury chocolate and although this is not relevant to music magazines it reminds an audience of good quality therefore they may have a built trust in it. Also, recently, it has become more contempary and unisex, this means I could use it for an audience of both male and female and it would attract a younger audience than the colour red, and a younger audience is what I am targetting. I will use the shades black and white as base colours for my magazine, as these also create a contempary look and are bold an simplistic.

I also need to consider how images will be used the whole way through the magazine. The first area I considered is the front cover as this is the area, I believe, that needs to be focused on the most, as it is what the reader initially see's and what could potentially allow them to decide whether or not they buy the magazine. The participants of my questionnaire chose that an image on a front cover is the most influential part of it that catches their eye to buy the magazine. There are many angles I could take my picture at for example I could use a long shot or a close up or a medium close up. I have chosen I am going to use a medium close up as I would like to use an image that attracts both men or women. I think the easiest way to attract men is to use an image that has sexual connotations therefore am going to use a woman artist. This could also help attract a female as if I use a medium shot they will be able to see a whole woman and I could use a low angle to make the artist seem like they have power and this could attract a womans attention as they will see them as a role model. This image will take up the whole of my magazines front cover as it must be prominant if it is going to attract the audience's attention and I wil wrap the text around this so it is foregrounded. I am going to use smaller close up images of artists to go on the front cover aswell as to introduce the contents clearly.

I must also consider what images I will use on the contents page. I will probably have mostly text however with the main features I will include images to attract the readers attention and allow them to build confidence that the contents will be interesting and will also keep their attention. I will use smaller images and unlike the front cover will not use any props and will have the picture solely on their faces as a close up or something else that signifies the band. Therefore the audience can relate to it straight away.

I am also going to c onsider what images I use on the double page spread. I am going to make sure I use the same artist on the front cover as I do the double page spread as it will be the main feature. So the woman is going to be a solo artist. Because I am doing a medium close up on the front cover I am going to use a different camera angle on the double page spread for example I can use a close up or a long shot.