Analyzing band images/posters/CD covers for my typical target audience

As my magazine is based on a female artist i have chosen girly and colorful CD covers to help back-up my ideas


CD Covers


1st cover

2nd cover

Circulation Figures for music magazines

Classic Rock     70,323 (Dec 2009: 71,242, Jul 2009: 70,310) 12 month change +0.0%

Kerrang!     44,013 (Dec 2009: 41,125, Jul 2009: 43,253) 12 month change +1.8%

Metal Hammer    44,034 (Dec 2009: 41,777, Jul 2009: 46,004) 12 month change -4.3%

Mojo      91,678 (Dec 2009: 98,484, Jul 2009: 97,722) 12 month change -6.2%

NME      33,875 (Dec 2009: 38,846, Jul 2009: 40,984) 12 month change -17.3%

Q     89,450 (Dec 2009: 94,811, Jul 2009: 100,172) 12 month change -10.7%

Uncut     74,067 (Dec 2009: 75,518, Jul 2009: 76,526) 12 month change -3.2%


These circulation figures show the difference between real music magazines on sale and on shop shelves today, my circulation figures come from the period of 2009, where i saw a substantial difference between each magazine's seling figures. Looking at the figures, it clearly shows us the success or failiures of the magazines during the course of the year. As we can see, only 'Kerrang!' can be seen to have risen in sales rates over 12 months, with 'Classic Rock' magazine staying at a steady level of 0% and with 'NME' magazine appearing the worst at a drastic -17.3% change in circulation over the year. This dismal display of results shows just how competitive magazines have to be within the industry to become succesful, music magazines must stand out and make a statement, a lesson that i will carry with my during the course of producing my front cover, contents page and 2 page article.

Analyzing Journalistic Style and Structure

'Pregnancy shock'
Journalists aim is not just to inform and advise the readers of a certain topic/issue but to attract and hook the readers by using clever techniques.
Firstly in this article the writer has used a surprising and alarming title to interest the rader into finding out what it's all about. The word: 'Shock' is sudden and unexpected.
The writer has used a strong, bold opening paragraph to seduce the reader into reading on:'she's pregnant and scared' immediately reveals what the whole article is about. 
The blocked column structure allows for more writing on the page and as the lines are short, the readers eyes follow each line till the end. 
The first letter is shown in a larger proportion to the text which encouragers the readers to start reading the whole piece.
Within the text the writer has included conversations from an interview with: Lynn Spears' which creates a personal feel to the reader as they feel they're getting an insight into the actresses life making the text seem more interesting and believable.
The use of red color against a white background makes important facts clear. It is used to show questions asked to 'Jamie' and in the title.
The writer has used the 'cliffhanger' :'Turn for Jamie's mums reaction' which makes the reader want to carry on reading the next page as their curiosity pushes them to want to know more about the issue.

St.mary's College Magazine Task

I decided from the beginning that my student magazine would have the theme of 'Healthy eating issues' as this is a common concern. I began firstly by taking a picture of an image relating to food: A vending machine with a student posing as an everyday 'junk eater'. I used a bold title to emphasise the name of the magazine to make it the most dominant feature on the page. I chose the text: Infinite Justice as i thought big, bold, chunky, cut-off text would appeal to teenagers: my target audience.


As all magazines have a barcode and date and price, i decided to add the same to make the magazine seem professional and life-like. I used a 'create your own barcode' website to create my mae-up 'SMC' barcode. The background of the magazine contains dominant colours such as the red vending machine and the different colour packets of sweets an crisps so it was hard to jut have simple black text, therefore I made the background of the date and price box black as to steer the readers away form the background and onto the magazine information which i made pink.


The colour scheme of the green and pink i thought works well together as they are both primary colours and will appeal to both a male and female audience. Next, I drew 3 similar sized boxes to contain my sub-headings. These sub-headings are vital to the front page, as they inform the readers about what's included in the magazine, therefore I used a green, 100% opacity background behind bold: Silom pink text. To emphasise further I bordered the text with the colour black. I have chosen to show three main sub-headings as not to confuse the page and to look professional as if the front page contains a lot of writing, my target audience: teenagers will be put-off into buying the magazine. I used the rhetorical question: What's new this week? To interest the reader (enigma) and make them hungry to find out what's in the magazine which is a technique used by many journalists and writers.


I made sure the girl in the picture was looking directly at the camera so that when the magazine is picked up, the reader can see her looking directly at him/her to encourage him/her to buy the product as there's more direct attention.


If i was to do this task again, i would probably have used photoshop to cut out the girl or vending machine as to draw more enigma to the page, also i would have changed the over-all theme of the magazine as 'healthy eating' isn't really an interesting subject to most average teenagers.

Research and planning:The conventions of music magazines

Changed Idea

My idea has changed slightly from before, instead of focusing the magazine on a girl band i have chosen to focus on one member who has 'fallen out with the band' and who wants to go solo. Focusing on one person rather than a group is much easier and allows for all attention to be on the single person.

Front Cover

I've chosen this particular front cover as it's colourful and vibrant to the eye and portrays a different look than other magazines which are the characteristics i want to be apparent on my magazine, however i won't be using childish animation of flowers e.c.t. as i would like the style of my magazine to be more mature.
The font of this magazine is bold and appears both behind and in front of the images/background. This is used to catch the readers eye and the extra emphasised 'Vibe' title of the magazine also jumps out and tries to compete with the other magazines in hooking in the reader.
The singer 'Nicki Minaj' is shown standing in front of the Bold title as the makers of the magazine wanted to make her the focus-point of the magazine. I however, am choosing to have my female artist appearing from behind the text as to promote the name of the magazine.
The text structure is alike what can be seen in newspapers, appearing in long columns as to provide space for images and text. I will be doing the same in my magazine, however in my magazine, there will be less focus on text and more focus on colour and image.

Contents page

This contents page is striking, colorful, yet sophisticated in style which is what at I'm wanting to portray in my magazine. The bold black background against white writing makes the page look sleek and simple. The use of the vibrant colour of the graphics either-side of the page spread makes the page look interesting and quirky which is exactly the style that i wish to convey to my readers.
However, the pictures shown on the page appear to have no pattern are randomly placed and vary in size. My contents page will have pictures which are similar in size and will look neat and formatted as i feel this will make for easy reading.
The layout of the pages is clear, precise and headings are underlined with page numbers bold. This technique will draw in the readers and is one in which i will be using but i would like my text to be a little more edgy to cater for my young (16-20) audience. I will add colour to the text so to separate the page numbers so that the reader does not get confused and un-interested.
As my magazine will have a 'punky' theme therefore attention to pictures and color will be paramount to my font cover and contents page to attract the readers.

I have chosen this particular feature article because it focuses on the theme of 'punk music' which will be the theme i will be focusing my magazine on. The pink paint effect seen behind the title would go perfectly with my initial idea of having the singer photographed on the front cover covered in paint, however this seems to be the only thing that attracts the page, as there're no pictures just text, however in my magazine i will be using pictures to illustrate my feature article to please the eye.
I will be keeping my text within this column structure as it gives-off that professional newspaper effect and allows for more pictures to be laid out on the page however i will show more emphasis to the main 'gossip' within the singers interview as although this feature article shows the sentence: "We set out to make an album to surprise ourselves" this doesn't seem like a striking enough statement to have made bigger and bolded as i will to hook readers onto every paragraph.
I like the way the title has been made the focus point of the article as readers are made aware of the subject of the whole text, this has been done by placing it in the middle of the article. I will be making the title the focus of my page also, however it will probably be placed at the top as to allow me to include my pictures.

Pictures inside of magazine

The singer will be shown in an interesting way.I have thought to use either paint or obscure camera effects to make an impact on the way the readers think about the style of the magazine and of the music artist. I will be using heavy make-up on the singer and colored balloons in my pictures to infuse the idea of 'fun' and to add a 'quirky' 'girly' touch in order to please my target audience. 

1st picture idea

2nd picture idea

Front cover picture Idea

I have chosen this front-cover picture as it appears in front if the title and is seen as the most dominant feature on the cover. The cover shows 'Miley Cyrus' looking edgy, dressed in black and holding up an unusual metal letter: M. I am aiming to achieve this edgy look and making my picture look unique and different to any other magazine. My initial idea was to place my singer on a chair in a field to introduce a natural and peaceful setting. This will hopefully draw-in my buyers and they will be interested as to what other strange surprises might be inside.

My front cover layout idea

Re: First Post

I have decided to create a music magazine for my Media coursework. I have some ideas that I'm not to sure of but may act as an outline/guideline for the magazine:

• Target Audience: Girl group. Female song lovers between ages of 15-30
• Colour theme background: Pink and black
• Genre of music: yet to be decided
• Article issue: Girl band have released a new album - behind crystal lies and will be touring the UK in January.

I have decided against the choice of creating a film as i feel working on my own will allow myself to be credited on my ability and effort and not of others, also i have big interest in magazines as when i'm older i am very enthusiatic to become a journalist, creating a magazine will hopefully offer me an insight into how media cleverly appeals to it's audience.