Analysis of existing music magazine

Picture
The picture is a long shot photo, the photo is of Nicki Minaj and Shannel, although their names are not featured on the contents page, this means that the reader needs to carry on reading further on into the magazine to find out more information about these artists and who they are.The producer of the contents page has only used one image, where as for my magazine I am planning on using more and go for the box technique rather than the picture dominated style that this magazine has gone for. The representation of the women on the contents page have been portrayed in a negative way because of the revealing clothes that they are wearing. The background of the contents page is grey and very plain this will draw attention to the images and the text. 

Masthead
The way in which the word 'contents' is written is in a recognisable way for the audience, as vibe magazine has this type of house style through the magazine and tries to keep it the same throughout as it suits the magazine, this is also shown through the colour of text and back grounds that they use as they try to keep it the same throughout the magazine but then in a different magazine they try to change the colours but still keep the same house style. The masthead is in a large, bold text, which you would expect. The masthead goes over three lines which allows the image to take up more of the room on the page as the style of this contents page is picture dominated. 

Other key conventions of a contents page that have been used
Subtitle - the subtitle way again has been written in a way which is recognisable to the reader and fits in with the house style of the magazine and what they are trying to do with the magazine. 
Features - Underneath the subtitle features have been used, again these link in with the house style of the magazine. It is also a clear font which allows the reader to read it more easily.
Colours - The magazine has used very dull and plain colours, this has been used because they would want the picture to stand out more, and match the outfits what the people on the front cover are wearing.

Conventions of a contents page for music magazine

The contents page can be either one or two pages, if you use two pages then you can use more of the conventions of the contents page. 
Pictures – You would use pictures to make the page stand out more, the pictures could also have page references on which could link you to the article of which the picture relates to. There are many different styles of how you could use pictures to make a contents page more appealing and useful. You can use from a minimum of one picture to about ten; this is because if you have more the page will start to look too crowded and unattractive. 

Title – The title of a contents page is usually ‘contents’ this is usually situated at the top of the page where it can be seen. It is usually in a clear font so that it can be easily read. The title would be the main colour of the page, this would lead to the rest of the page text being that colour which links in with the house style that my magazine will have.

Columns – the columns are used in the contents page because it will make the page easier to read, it also makes the page more organised and makes it look more professional. This will also help with the visual syntax for the reader.

Banners – The banners on a page would make the page look more attractive and formal. It would add colour and importance. The banners will also make it look more effective.

Page numbers – The page numbers will guide you to the page that you want. On the contents page you would not need to put the words ‘page’ or ‘pg’ before the number. The number is usually large which allows the reader to find the page they want easily.

Information – the information that will be in the blog is usually a blurb, the blurb usually gives a quick summary of what is in the magazine. The information would also include headlines and features.

Headline and features - The headline and features will include the information that the page will have, it can have many things in it for example quotes and other informational text. The headline would be a larger text and the features would be smaller underneath the headline.

Issue dates – these are dates that will be shown of what issue the magazine is so they usually say ‘February 2014’, this will benefit people in whom collect the magazine on a regular basis. This would also allow the reader to know that they have got a more up to date magazine.

Structures layout – the structured layout will allow an easy read for the reader via visual syntax. The layout also makes it more professional and if it isn't layed out correctly then it can easily not look professional. 

Colours – the use of colour will attract people and make the page more attractive. The colours link in with the house style of my magazine, the page will have the same colour scheme.

Final Front cover

For my final front cover, I have changed the layout to make it look more professional and eye catching for the audience.  I have included a Masthead, headline, pull quotes, barcodes, pugs and a picture, I have also tried to use different sized fonts to add affect and the house style for my magazine is that the colours all co ordinate with each other to make it look more professional and eyecatching for the audience to see. The colours which I have used makes it stand out more.

I have added many different conventions that you would have on a front cover. I have included a Masthead, headline, pull quotes, barcodes, pugs and a picture, I have also tried to use different sized fonts to add affect and the house style for my magazine is that the colours all co ordinate with each other to make it look more professional.

mock up 3 improvements

On this version I have changed the pug, I have made more use of the space that is available on it, used more of the white space.

Mock up idea 3

The house style of this magazine is that the colours all match, the masthead is blue so i have made everything else blue, although some of it is quite difficult to read on the background picture. Again I have gone against the key concepts of a front cover by the model not looking directly at the camera, this means that they aren't connecting with the audience.

Music magazine mock idea 2

I have worked upon the previous mock up idea that I made, I have added in extra text to make it look more like a music magazine instead of a poster, I have also added things like a pug and pull quotes so that it meets more of the conventions that are used on a front cover.

Front cover mock idea 1

This music magazine mock up idea goes against the conventions of a normal magazine front cover this is because the model is not looking directly at the camera, meaning that he is not engaging much with the audience. The picture is at a high quality so this is why I have used as little text as possible. The magazine front cover does not look like a front cover as much at the moment due to minimum amount of text that has been used on it.

double page spread text

ATP are a young, asian music artists, they are new and upcoming, they produce music with both English and Punjabi music involved but is mostly from the Bhangra genre music. We managed to spend fifteen minutes with them to catch up on their lives and to give us some information about their music careers and how they got to where they are today.

Who are you

We are ATP, we are 22 year old boys who cousins from England that are interested in making bhangra style music. We started off making youtube videos which the escalated into making in mainstream in the bhangra industry. We both live normal lives, went to school then college then both went off to university and got degrees. Now that we have been recognised we don’t really act any different, we act like the same guys we always have been and we don’t like to get treated any differently.

What made you interested in music?

Isn’t everyone interested in some type of music? We are interested in many different types of music not just bhangra, this allows us to elaborate on our music making it better and mixing it up making a new style of music which fits a gap in the market. We became interested in music from a young age, we then started making music as a hobby alongside the work that we did at school and college, we got a few chances to djs as our friends were djs and we put on a few shows at parties this then escalated to youtube videos and then we got recognised by moviebox the bhangra producers.

How did it all start?

From a young age we have always been interested in this type of music, especially when we went to weddings, being cousins allowed us to share our passion for bhangra music together as we grew up together listening to the music. We then started singing and learning how to play bhangra style instruments such as the vaja and the dhol this then gave us a starting point for where we could start our music career off. After that we gathered some of our friends who were also interested in the genre of music and started to make youtube videos, this then got recognised and this is how we manage to get to where we are today.

What can we expect from you this year?

We are doing many collaborations with many people large in the music industry some from the bhangra music industry and even some from the hip hop industry, we do not want to give too much away as we want it to be a surprise, but we have managed to get the right balance without making the song sound bad. We wanted to do something like when Akon sang that hindi song but we aren't going to copy and we have made it totally original.

Any messages that you would like to say to your fans?

You can achieve anything that you want if you put your mind to it and you keep carrying on, don’t give up. Thank you for all the support that you have given us and we won't let you down when making our music in the future.

editing photos

To edit my photos I used a photo editing software called photo monkey, this is one of the images that I edited on the website, this is so that it makes the image stand out more and makes it more effective if I choose to use it in my magazine.