Front Covers Idea & Magazine Genre

Magazine Genre

After looking at different magazines genres, the way that they are set out as well as common colour themes that are used. I have finally decided that I will be producing an indie-pop music magazine. I got this overall idea from the fashion magazine called 'Indie' which included a lot of retro sort of fashion and photos. Within this genre, these types of music magazines are very rare to find therefore I will be aiming to combine the indie type of theme of a hipster look and feel within a pop magazine. By doing this, I will be creating a unique music magazine for a specific genre that is not widely publicised in the world today. This is so then I can attempt to try and engage the general pop magazine lovers as well as the group of which who are interested in retro/indie styles. By attempting to reach an audience which hasn't been entirely targeted before is a massive risk for producers of a magazine that needs to be sold, but by targeting potentially 2 different groups can create a larger target audience who may want to buy my magazine. 

Front Cover Idea

This magazine which is called 'Indie' isn't actually related to music in any way. They represent a different type of layouts compared to the typical front cover of a normal magazine. This really caught my eye because the lack of detail on these magazines has never been introduced to the music magazine industry. I would like to use this sort of natural/non posed photo for my front cover of my magazine. This is because I feel that the use of the natural posed photos, is really striking as its completely different to the normal setup of music magazines, this is because majority of the photos used are very posed and forced. I only got examples of females featuring on the front cover, this is due to the fact that I will be taking photos of a female model for my magazine photos. 

Taking photos in a natural set up for my front cover is my main aim. This is because I don't want my magazine spread to look like a forced typical front cover. My background of my 1st set of practise photos is going to be colourless wall, this is so then I can attempt to use a solid colour like this yellow for my front cover. I want to attempt to try and use this sort of simplistic layout within my work so then my magazine will stand out and look really unique.

The Indie magazine to your right is also another example of a very simplisic layout. Although there is a lot more text included on this issue than the one above, I feel like this is just because it is a celebration of '10 Years of Indie Magazine'. The use of the colour theme just being a block colour like the light blue black ground with black and white text on top is seen to be really boring and simple, but the text actually stands out a lot more due to the fact that the magazine doesnt include a lot of different photos, articles and and overload of different texts/fonts. 

The same sort of photo is also included on this 'Indie' issue which is front on. Even though this model is looking straight at the camera and has her tongue sticking out, the overall look is still sort of natural. Another aspect that is continued throughout every issue is the same placement of the header and the location of the barcode along with the price. This continuity is good because it allows the target audience to easily recognize this magazine.

Billboard Analysis

Analysis of Billboard Magazine's Front Cover




This Billboard magazine has a colour theme of different colour blues and also white. The small amount of writing used on the front cover gives a small amount of information which is included in the issue. The repetitive use of the red, blue and yellow in the master head of Billboard on every issue cover. The picture of Beyoncé is bought in front of the master head to show that this issue is mainly focused on something involving her inside the magazine. 

This issue is very different to normal issues, this is due to the use of patterns surrounding Adele on the front cover. The colours used in the patterns are also the same colours which feature in the main master head of Billboard. These patterns used are surrounding the sub headings linking to Adele in smaller and different fonts which compliment each other well for the front cover.

 

 This Drake issue of Billboard is very different to others, this is because the use of the colour scheme of grey is used all over the front cover. In the master head, the use of the normal yellow, blue and red isn't used in this issue, but the use of small detail of information that is included in the issue is still visible just like the other two above.





Overall, I feel like the continued lack of music aspects on Billboards front page could cause a decrease in buyers due to it not clearly showing that it is a music magazine. I want my magazine to clearly show that it is a music magazine so then I don't loose out on buyers.

Effects Models for Music Magazines & Social Identity Theory

Prefered reading-  This is the thing that you strive for.
Oppositional reading- Not desired of music magazines! & don't alienate your audience.
Negotiated reading- Parts of the message that is accepted and other parts of the message are rejected.
Aberrant reading- Is a concept used in fields such as communication and media studies, semiotics, and journalism about how messages can be interpreted differently from what was intended by their sender.

Effects Models

The Hypodermic Needle Model:
This is a model that is an intended message which is directly received  and wholly accepted by the reader/receiver. This is an outdated view of media effects where every view is absorbed to the brain as if it has been injected in.

Two-Step Flow:
This is the people with most access to the media, the highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is the modern version of the Hypodermic Needle Model. This is the effect of which notices how 'cool' people will be the opinion leaders and the 'uncool' people who are the opinion followers of the 'cool' people.

Uses & Gratifications:
People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratification which is known as the dominant model.

Reception Theory:
The meaning of 'text' is not fully inherent within a piece of text itself, but relies on the readers cultural competence and media literacy. Also fits with 'Death of the Author' and also the Post-Modern Theory.

Obstinate Audience Theory:
The complication of relationship between the producer and the audience. The audience actively can select what messages to pay most attention to. The media respond to the audience by seeing what they like, and then give them what they 'want'. What ever the audience wants, the audience will give them through media.

Social Identity Theory

Proposed by - Henri Tajfel (1979)

He felt that groups that people belonged to were part of individuals important source of pride and self esteem. Different groups give us a sense of social identity- a way of being engaged/involved in the overall social world.

       

A Music example of social identity was 'Skin Heads'

Skin Heads was known to be a member of a subculture originating amongst the working class youths in London. This then spread to parts of the UK in the 1960's as well as a second working class skinhead movement spreading in the US as well as worldwide in the 1980's. This movement began in the late 1960's and then reached its peak during the early 1980's revival.

Skins were defined by their very close-cropped or completely shaven heads, as well as the typical working class clothing such as big black boots, braces, bleached/ripped jeans along with a smart/casual shirt/top/.

This subculture of skinheads was originally associated with the black genre of music (soul & early reggae). This link between the skinheads and the Jamaican Music then led to the UK popularity groups such as 'The Pioneers'

David Carson

Davis is a well-known American graphic designer, art director and surfer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography

After researching and analysing the work of graphic designer, David Carson. His work is not like any others, the use of creativity & originality behind his artwork. This is due to him having a very creative edge to his work as his pieces are so original & unique. The way that on every single design of his magazine front covers are all individually different, the way that he incorporates text in his designs makes you think whether his work is intentional or even accidental. This is due to the layout and also the use of text and fonts which are combined for the finishing result of the magazine front cover.

 Throughout Carson's designing history, he basically shows his views that designs don't need to be spelt out word by word/ letter by letter.

This magazine front cover to my left is not like any other, the use of the black and white colour scheme is used throughout majority of his work- as you can see above in one of the other examples of his work. You can still identify that the cover on the left is a magazine as it includes a barcode in the bottom right corner. It also includes what will be in the magazine at the bottom, but it is rotated instead which is very different to any other magazine front cover. I like that he doesn't abide by the typical layout of a normal magazine front cover. He uses his own imagination to create a different and very distinctive piece of art.