Music magazine analysis Top of the Pops

'Top of the pops' magazine is my chosen magazine that I am using as a guide to create 'teenhits'. The target audience for 'top of the Pops' is girls aged 11-14 years. This is because of the bright colours used like on the front they use primary colours like yellow and white and girly colours like pink. This magazine wouldn't appeal to boys because it uses girly colours and most of the articles are about teenage girls. There are some articles about boys but they are more about gossip and boys from the disney who girls are interested in.

NME crystal castle, music magazine, house style

NME is a rebellious music magazine because the masthead sounds like enemy even though it stands for Newe musical express. The main image is also rebellious because she is smoking which makes it seem subversive. The misen-en-scene on the magazine is rock and roll, rebellious because she is wearing leather which suggests rock and roll and the clothes are very dark and black which is good to waer on the street at night because they are not seen as well so they could easily do a crime. The woman also has a tatoo which also suggest rebellion and she her skin showing and they are lying down which implies to sex. The magazine is not only about music it is about sex, murder, drugs, love and rebellion. The camera angle is a high angle shot, this normally makes the person look vunerable but they don't look vunerable. The magazine is also provocative because man has his hand on the woman's skin and he is draped over her. She is also the focus of the magazine which suggests she is the dominant person, she is probably the head of the band or the lead singer. The magazine also has an exclusive about the Nirvana, the rock and roll ban and the magazine spoke to someone who knew Kirt Bain. The straplines 'murder, drugs and twisted love' this strap line doesn't judge these words and there are no negative comments about them so some music magazines are describes as encouraging people to take drugs and murder people. Whereas magazines like heat or gossip magazines normally judge these situations negatively. One of the home albums has a swear word in 'F***ED' which is subversive and rebellious. The woman has her hand around the masthead which suggests she relies on NME or enemy to be cool but she doesn't make that obvious. Also the crystal castle kicker and the strapline 'murder, drugs and twisted love anchors the main image.
The typography used is dark, black, rebellious and it uses simple informal language. When you look at the typography many questions come into to the readers head like who is taking drugs, who is the murderer and who has a messed up relationship. All the questions makes the audience want to read the magazine even more.

NME music magazine analysis

The genre of NME is indie and rock and roll, the target audience is men or woman age 14 to 24 because it is a music magazine that is based on music and doesn't suggest it is for men or woman because it is just about the music which men or woman could be interested in.

The main image used is a rock star from the muse gig. The image relates to the music genre because the man on the front cover has his guitar in the air with suggests he is playing rock music because he wouldn't have his guitar in the air near his face if he was playing a pop song.The image is framed around the strap lines, the kicker and the other images of the Muse gig below. There are no effects on the image, the magazine front cover includes the masthead, the strap lines, the kicker, the main image, the bar code, the sky line and extra images of the muse gig. There is not much left out apart from the full image of the artist, the price and the issue number. The mise-en-scene in the magazine front cover is in the main image the man has a guitar which suggests it is rock music, his hair is messy and spiky like a rock stars hair, the hair is also dyed black which is also a sign of rock star, punk look and he is wearing everyday clothes which most rock stars do. Most of the other images suggest they are also indie or rock stars because one rock star is wearing a hoodie with a bone structure which suggest the spooky side, death and skulls which rock stars like to suggest that they are not innocent they mean business. The colour that have been used is red, white and yellow for the text. These colours are very bright which captures the audiences' attention. They also contrast with the very dark clothes all the people and rock stars are wearing because they are all wearing dark colours, there is no bright colours apart from on the text. The mood of the image is very dull and dark which makes it feel like scary or night colours which gives a scary, dark atmosphere which the target audience are likely to like the bright colours are like the lights shone on the rock stars. The image relates to the target audience because he is a rock star and he dresses a similar style to the fans and also most of the people like the fans on the front cover have black dyed hair.

The magazine is called NME which stands for new musical express, this title is like a newspaper title (daily express) so the magazine is educating the reader about rock music. Also the magazine seems really good and reliable source but for rock stars especially or people who like that kind of music. This reflects the target audience because they want to know about rock music and they like to have an update about the gigs going on. Also the title is NME which is very short and snappy so the reader feels like there is not much for them to read and they don't have to say the whole title. The typography used is very small amount of words which makes it simple for the reader to read. The words are very simple because people who are interested in rock music don't want to read masses of words.

Music magazine analysis Blender

The genre of this magazine is pop music but the magazine is targeted at men age 16 to 36 in a sexual way. There are 6 layers in this magazine which overlap each other. The first layer is the white quilt, the next layer is the masthead, then the next layer is the main image of Britney spears, the next layer is the strap lines on the right, the layer after that is the strap lines on the left and finally the last layer is the skyline. The rule of thirds is included in this magazine because the image isn't in the centre because the head is at the top of the magazine.

The conventions of the music magazine is the image is in front of the masthead because the masthead is known, all the strap lines are at the side around the image. There is also the main features of a magazine like the skylines, the strap lines, the bar code and the masthead. There are also a lot of layers which most magazines include but the magazine doesn't look over crowded which men don't like because they don't like hearing about the gossip as much as women.

The typography is a thin simple style, the only colours of the text is black and orange because the orange is bright and eye catching and the black is clear, normal and a good man colour. The masthead is orange and it has a slit in it which represents rebellion and to let the reader know this is not an innocent magazine like how Britney is usually suggested to be.

The colours used is only orange and black for the typography and the white background and white clothes and bed linen. The colours black and white are very simple and easy to see. Orange is a brighter colour and it is there to attract the audience. The colour white is also a very innocent colour which is what Britney is wearing but she doesn't look innocent, she looks sexy, attractive and she is showing a lot of skin to attract men. Also she is on the bed which suggests she wants to have sex. The language of the strap lines used is very simple, the words are straight to the point and a lot of information is on there to attract men to read it. For example "Britney Spears loses her underwear", this strap lines suggests she wants sex and men are most likely to be attracted to this. There are some strap lines that sound like they are aimed at woman for example "Amy Winehouse's hair", men don't want to know about Amy Winehouses hair and the straplines also contain information about the Jonas brothers which is not a band men would want to hear about because it is aimed at girls.

The mise-en-scene used in the magazine is Britney is making eye contact with the target audience like she is asking them to have sex because she is only wearing little clothes. Also there is a Mickey mouse hat on the floor with cigarettes in it. This is because she is made out to be part of the mickey mouse group but she isn't that inncent. Also there is cigarettes in the hat which suggests she isn't really innocent and the mickey mouse group isn't what she is really is and the cigarettes are quite bad to have. Also there is a can of red bull which makes you go hyper so she drinks this drink to go wild and this does not show how innocent she is. Britney Spears is also posing for the camera in a sexual way. She contradicts herself because she is wearing white clothes and is in the mickey mouse group which shows innocence but then she isn't what you think because she is smoking, sexual and drinking red bull.

Evaluation for pre-production task

The school media magazine differs to normal magazines because I have used an indenting effect on the images which makes some parts of the the images indented and others 3D or higher than the indented areas and I made the image black and white which isn't normal in a magazine because they normally use a normal picture with no effects. Although this isn't like a normal magazine it still fits in with conventions of magazines because it is still a photograph of a person who represents the target audience. My strap lines and kicker were based on the media of the school instead of about celebrities and general information that is not school based.

The media school magazine represents a particular social group by having an image of a student on the front cover to represent the students in the school, the image is of a girl which is better than having an image of a boy because it is a girls school so the magazine has to appeal to girls. The student looks hard working and interested in media and photography because she is looking into a camera. This helps to appeal to the audience because whoever reads the magazine must be interested in media or photography.

The media institution that would distribute my media product would be the school which will distribute the magazine to everyone in the school who is interested in media and arts. The school can also distribute the school magazine to visitors who are thinking of coming to the school and want to do a levels. This is because it is a school magazine so the only people who would be interested is people in Lordswood Girls' and visitors of the school. Someone from a different school who wasn't thinking about coming to Lordswood Girls' or wouldn't be interested in media wouldn't need this magazine. Also adults wouldn't find their magazine interesting unless their daughter went to the school. The magazine would only appeal to students though.

The audience for my product is students in the lower school in year 7 to year 11 and sixth formers who are all interested in media and photography. The magazine would not appeal to the boys in the sixth form as the main audience because it is a girls school and mostly girls will be reading the magazine. The colours on the magazine front cover like purple is a colour that would mostly interest girls as it is stereotypically a girls colour.

I attracted the audience by having a big bold title 'Macro' with a clear font style, Verdana and a clear, bold colour, purple. The strap lines are purple and white which stands out to the audience, they are all short and snappy so the audience don't have to read as much text. There is a clear photograph which shows clearly what the magazine is about. Also there is the school name and it says 'Lordswoods's media magazine'.

The technologies I have learnt about while constructing the product is the different things you can do on Photoshop for example having effect to make the image look like it is painted, contrasting the image to make dark areas darker and light areas lighter, how to change the hue and saturation to make it brighter or black and white. Also I learnt how to take the different camera shots and what a medium closeup is.

I feel I have learnt in the progression to the full product how celebrity or school magazines look and i learnt about their conventions. Also I know all the features in a magazine front cover like the masthead, kicker, strap lines, image, price and barcode.

Overall I think my school magazine went well because I included all the conventions of a magazine front cover, the font style, colour and size go well together and the image looks really good quality and I like the indented effect on it and the black and white effect used with the hue and saturation.

Pre-production task

Pre-production task

The pre-production task will be a magazine front cover for the whole of Lordswood Girls' School. This will include the media and photography side of the school because it is a media arts school. A photograph of a student with a medium closeup will be included. The picture I am going to use is of a student taking a picture from a side view angle. The image would look really good black and white, the other effects on the photograph would be a indented effect which make some of the picture come out and other indented in to give a 3D effect. The magazine will be called 'Macro' because on a camera there is a macro setting and the magazine will look at the closeups of the school and the media in the school. The colours I will use in the magazine is blue, white and purple because blue is the school colour and white and purple will appeal to the girls because purple is stereotypically a girl colour. The font style used would be Verdana and Arial because they are simple but elegant fonts.

The magazine front cover will look like this, the masthead will be at the top (Macro), underneath the masthead is the school, then there are 3 strap lines. The strap lines are'22 Photography images for a level media and photography,' 'Fund raising for new computers in the media suite' and 'How much do you know about Photoshop Take the quiz inside!' The strap lines is what is going to be in the magazine. There is a big kicker at the bottom of the magazine. The magazine has three layers, the first layer is the image, the next layer is the straplines and the kicker and the last layer is the masthead.

The contents page follows on from the magazine front cover, it uses a similar style. The font colour, purple, and style, Verdana, for the title is the same as the title on the magazine front cover. The page numbers are bold, same font colour as the blue part of the kicker and verdana style. The page title are the same blue as the magazine colour with the Verdana style. The image is of the same student by a computer which also shows the media side of the school. The image is in black and white like the image on the front cover and the photograph has no effects.

Keira Knightly magazine front cover

The magazine front cover is there is a masthead,the price, the skyline, the straplines and a barcode. There is only a small amount of fonts used they are elephant and verdana. There is also little colour used in the magazine the colour used is hot pink, grey and white. The target audience for this magazine is sophisticated young woman at the age of 20-30. This is because the hot pink colour make it suitable for young woman who are older, the pink is not a pastel or baby pink which may appear on younger woman magazine it is a bold, bright pink that make Keira knightly look older. There is a effect on the image which makes her face look lighter like sepia which gives the magazine an antique and vintage look to appeal to the audience. The layout is unusual because all the straplines and text are on the left because the image is on the right. I think this works quite well.