Evaluation so far

My music magazine 'Rapmeister ' uses the obvious conventions that any other music magazine will use for their front cover. These conventions include the Strap line, Masthead, Lure, Cover lines, date, time & bar code and lastly the Mode of address. Before I could start constructing my own music magazine, I had to carry out a lot of research on existing music magazines in order to find out which features they included, so that I could more or less do the same. The research stage of my music magazine consisted of de-constructing all the features which make up a music magazine. After de-constructing theses features, it was easier for me to analyse them in more detail. One of the main features in a music magazine cover is the Masthead. My masthead is mainly used to advertise the name of my magazine (stating the obvious) however it is also used as an objective for what I want to aim in the long-term from my magazine. This is the same for all music magazines. Carrying out secondary research helped the production of my music magazine very much as it all helped form my music magazine. It also gave me an insight on how other music magazines looked and what they featured. This was helpful as it allowed me to make my music magazine look different and unique in order for it to qualify as a competitor in the huge music magazine industry. 

My music magazine includes all the generic music convention codes. All the features of my music magazine stand for something and suggest a link with the target audience. The use of new releases and new artists that will be upcoming. Interviews with the bands about their past and stories , updates and interviews is a strategic method used to get the audience interested as well as having something they can compare their problems, dilemmas and even everyday life with. The layout and design of my music magazine is used to attract a specific target audience. The main image is a mid-shot attracting the main subject of 'these weeks' magazine. The framing used for the artist on the front cover is symmetrical as he is posing in a standing position however she is looking away from the camera. The laid back artists sitting down with his hat on gives a hood vibe and gives off the idea that she has been 'caught slipping' which is a common phrase used by teenagers who are a percentage of my target audience. The mood the artists create is a street look, especially by the clothes she is wearing. The crazy handwriting suggests that the magazine is street/graffiti and cool and aimed at teenagers but the use of dark and bold colours suggests the target audience are slightly older. This is because my target audience are 16-24 years old.

The layout and design of my contents page stays consistent with the music magazine. This tends to be the same with most real music magazines. The content page also includes the name of my magazine; 'Rapmeister', and lastly the date, which for this addition was; 'November 2010'. The font style and font colour also stays consistent. The only thing that differs on the page is obviously all the things that a contents page would consist of that the masthead wouldn't, for example, a title saying 'contents' which remains in the same font style and colour as well as all the pages and page numbers. My main aim was to make sure my magazine related to my target audience as the main way in which magazines are produced and distributed depends on the audience’s life style and spending pattern.

Q. How does your music magazine represent particular social groups? 

Rapmeister represents the social group of young adults aged 16-21 who are interested in rap/pop and hood. My music magazine does this effectively through the mise-un-scene as I have dressed my featured artists in clothes that represent the genre of music which relate to my target audience. By my featured artist wearing baggy clothes and hoodys clothing style represents that this social group have a trendy, funky and retro mode of address which relate to my target audience (16-21). For example the image taken of my featured artist shows that my intended target audience do not care about all the bad press which criticism their style. As you can see from my artist, he is very confident in what he is wearing and how he looks.

The different font styles and colours used for the font gives my music magazine front cover an artistic, unique look that relates to bad youths and dangerous young adults. On my contents page I have picture of my artist on the background which represents my page and keeps the style consistent. In my double page spread, the featured artist is showing his angry and hood side in many of the pictures with the way he is posing and her appearance. There is one picture on my double page spread where facing the camera with his chain and has confidence, this hugely represents youths today as they are all about having fun and enjoying themselves with all these crazy poses. The colours used on the page are all the colours from the background images I have used on featured b boyz artists. This represents the genre of my music magazine. 

Q. What Kind of institution might distribute your music magazine and why?

The main institutions that may sell my music magazine would be local newsagents and HMV. I think areas like Central London, Camden Town and West London will find my magazine most appealing which is why I think newsagents in these areas might distribute my magazine. As for HMV, my music magazine might be sold by all their stores throughout London. Other shops which sell magazines such as Borders may also be a good place to distribute my music magazine. This would be a huge advantage for my music magazine as it will be selling with other well known magazines which aren't only sold around the UK but world-wide. This will also be beneficial for my music magazine as I can publish news and artists/bands which aren't just from the UK but all around the world such as America. Having a link with world known magazines like in America could help the success of my music magazine because my audience will see that my magazine doesn't just consist of news and artists based in the UK. This would work extremely well because magazines like 'Vibe' (which is an American magazine) has worked its way to selling successfully in the UK in many sole-traders like newsagents, corner shops etc. The reason for this is because the magazines understand the concept of psycho-graphics and demographics of their target audience.

As for train stations, I don't think my magazine should be distributed there. This is simply because kiosks at train stations mainly distribute free magazines and newspapers which feature reviews about music. So, I don't think my target audience will spend money on a music magazine when they can just find out all the latest reviews in the free magazines/newspapers. 

Q. Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

The main audience of my music magazine will be a youthful and mainly male audience. The reason I say this is because mostly boys like rap and grim music, this is because mostly boys like to idea of hood music so they can show off what they think of other people around the area. It is very rare to find girls that like rap music and would spend money on buying a music magazine about rap. I have also chosen a youthful audience because Rap music is mostly listened to by young people. Mainly from the age of 12-25, this is because older audience tends to listen to more constructive music rather than rap.  By aiming it at this audience I will have played against my strong points. This should make my music magazine very popular amongst my targeted audience. From what information I have gathered I have picked the right audience to be targeting because that where i will make most of my profit from. This will guarantee me my full profit.

Q. How did you attract/ address the audience for your music publication?

My music magazine attracts and address’s my targeted audience in a number of ways. The front page of my music magazine is very modern and stylish which appeals to young people as soon as they see it. I also have a picture of a young youth, representing the idea of my magazine by having him on the front so that the audience can see it. This gets them interested into the magazine; it also shows what my magazine will be about because the picture I have used on my magazine is a young person with jewelry and dark clothes with a hat on which is how hood and rap artists wear. And my strap lines and images are also very interesting from a youthful audience. This is because I have many interviews with young people’s role models and the latest and greatest rap artists.

Q. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have learnt many things while using the different types of technology to create this magazine. On the software’s I have used is Photoshop, this is a very complex and professional piece of software which professional use. At first I found it hard to work with it but after a while I got the hang of it. I have learnt how to use Photoshop to edit, create and maneuver images. I also have learnt many ways to make text and images more successful and attractive to the human eye. I have also learnt how to present information in different ways by using the internet. Before I started to the creation of the magazine I knew very little about Photoshop, this has helped me gain more skills for future references.   

 

Q. Looking back at your preliminary task, of designing the front page of a school magazine, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I first practiced into making a magazine was with the school magazine which we had to produce a magazine on the school. At first I didn’t know how to make the magazine very effective and professional looking because I was not aware the type of software I had in front of me, I also did not know how to use Photoshop very effectively which made it less of a chance to make the magazine look professional.  After we was allowed to play around with every software to see how they work and how we can use them to make are magazine look even better, this helped me a lot because I became familiar with each type of software, which became very useful to me when it came down to creating the real magazine. When I first started to create the magazine on Photoshop I was still unsure about how to use it properly, but after a while with working with it I got the hang of other features like having my front picture glow so it makes it stand out more and grabs the audience’s attention. 

Audience Feedback

2 page spread

What's the most important thing to you when writing music?

I think that as long as the lyrics mean something to us, then everyone else will appreciate it.  Our lyrics are all about our past and how the streets are today. We try and tell our audience how it feels not to have money and try and survive, and what extreme measure you have to go to.

What are your plans for the future? 

I'm hoping that out music gets heard by famous rappers and record labels, so that we can get signed and make more tracks for the rest of the world to here our story’s. 

What does it feel like being recognised on the street? 

I’m very alert, this is because I’m not used to people looking at me when were walking around my area. We always think that somebody is about to attack us and we have a fear inside                                                          me that somebody hates me. 

Do you think that you will venture into any other genres of music? 

Ermm... we dunno were not sure really, we mostly like rap and grime and some of R&B and pop, these are the only other genres that we will end up making tracks but for anything else I’m confidently sure that we will not. 

Who do you wanna work with in the future?

Wow my list is long we would love to work with a lot of artist like professor green, tinie tempah, wretch 32, giggs k koke and other grim artists that have made a lot of tracks in the last 2 to 3 years, they have made an impact on us to be rapping and other people nation wide. 

Can we expect any collaborationist in the future?

yh i actually have a few tracks with some new up and coming artist we don't really wanna tell but one of them is sam dinner a new producer. 

What advice would you give to someone considering becoming a musician?

Erm, we would just say to them be yourself really. there's no point trying to be someone else that's not going to get you any where.

Is there anyone you think that we should look out for in the future?

Yh defiantly there is an artist called Krept, just pushed a mixtape out, also     K Koke is saying a lot but you probably know that lol, 

Where do you get the inspiration to for writing music?

Life really, we believe that the streets in one of the most dangerous places around, if you are not careful then it could eat you alive. 

How do you separate yourself from other artist? 

we don't compare myself to other artists therefore we don't fee like we need to separate myself. Were just two guys who like rapping and want other people to listen to our story’s.

How did you get started writing music? 

We  started writing from when we was about 12 in secondary school just as a hobby, all of the boys in the school used to go to the back of the playground form a circle and play beats, then everybody would join in and start spitting as we like to call it, this inspired us a lot and all of the history that we have in our passed from being in gangs and fights and other stuff really gave us a good idea to start rapping. 

Do you think it is important to stay down to earth when your becoming a new artist?

yeah defiantly lol we dont feel like we’ve got big headed, we’ve changed were not gonna lie but you have to change to some extent. You have to become more wise and more safe but being big headed is a completely different thing. We think that we should appriciate what has happened to us and how our lives used to be this is why we think you should never become big headed . 

How is it being and artist and living in a main city like London?

It's great, really because I like London a lot we think that it’s a multi cultural place with different people and different back grounds, this lets everybody express them seleves just in the way we do with our music. 

What's the weirdest thing that's happen to you so far?

ermm one day after show us and the studio boys, went to an after party and trust me you don’t wanna know the rest that all you’ll get from me safeeeeee

Article about the Rapmesiter

Rapmeister 

The Rapmeisters are a small band with 2 members; the names are Anton Taylor and Wayne Marshal. Two boys from completely different backgrounds, the boys become close friends in recent years by living close to each other and producing tracks which they liked from one and another. They soon meet to produce hood videos in their local areas.

History of Anton Taylor 

Anoton was born Hampstead Royal free in London, and grew up in Kentish Town, Kentish Town primarily school Crip gang neighbourhood known as Santana Blocc, although he grew up to become a member of the Bloods. In an October 2003 interview with SBTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, Game described his family as "dysfunctional" and claimed that his father molested one of his sisters. After graduating from Acland Burghley High School in 2002, Anton Taylor attended Westminster University on a basketball scholarship before being suspended in his first semester because of drug allegations. However, the university's athletic department refutes these claims. It was then that he started fully embracing street life and turned towards selling drugs and running with gangs. At the age of 18, he began to follow his older half brother, George Taylor III, known as Big Fase 100, who was the leader of the Cedar Block Pirus. After that Anton Taylor had conflict with the law and soon found out that selling drugs was not what he wanted but to be a rapper with his fellow companion Wayne Marshal.

History Of Wayne Marshal 

Wayne Marchal birth name is Patrick Analwart. He is of Nigerian heritage. He was raised in South London Peackem. He was one of the major gang member hood leader even though he attended St. Paul's R.C. Secondary School in Plumstead, London (now known as St. Paul's Academy) and left with 10 GCSEs. He then attended Saint Francis Xavier Sixth Form College in South London, leaving with 3 A-levels. Wayne Marshal then went on making more tracks in his own small studio which was the basement of his house. He then started to work a part time job in Mcdonalds in Oxford street, In 1997 he lost his brother due to conflict between gangs, his brother was killed outside his own house. After that Wayne Marshal to show his love for his brother and started to write songs describing the hatred he has for gangs and how he lost one of his closest people in his life, this soon attracted a lot of labels and Anton Taylor which made them become friends and produce hood videos together. 

Anton Taylor and Wayne Marshal 

The two young rapper then made 3 hood videos with their gangs in areas like Archway and Kentish town; they became huge hits in websites called YouTube. They had 15,000 views on there first 2 videos, and 30,000 in their recent one including an official video they made. These songs have been played in local clubs around the area which helped them advertise them even more without paying a lot of money for it. After that SBTV and Channel U wanted to them to show off their songs and their passion for rapping, after that MTV was interested in the two young rappers to see what they can show to the nation. 

I firstly took a couple pictures of college students, which I would like to use in my magazine, these images had to be mid-shots. I uploaded these from a digital camera onto the computer, into Iphoto, I then used photo shop to edit these pictures to make the picture on my front cover, I set these picture as the background so I could use fonts, backgrounds, text and other features required in a magazine.

I titled my magazine "ABS Sports" as I thought it relates well with the main images I have got which is a teach bouncing a football in a PE lesson. I have chosen this specific Picture and title because I think one of the most critical subjects in a secondary school or college should be PE this is because It helps keep fitness and healthiness.

Overall I think my magazine looks unprofessional, however considering this was my first time producing a magazine I believe the preliminary task helped me to gain a lot of skills and helped me to learn more about Photo shop. It also enabled me to realise I need to add a lot more professional features to my final magazine like the barcode. The barcode makes the magazine look more professional and realistic because it shows that it has been bought from a shop.

The task helped me to get better understanding of the media industry and how a lot of time and effort needs to go into making the magazine to perfection. It also prepared me for the real deal because I now know what kind of features, text pictures, use of colour etc, I need to include in my coursework to make it seem more realistic and more professional looking.

The sell lines within the pliminary task were good for the magazine, but not a school magazine as the sell lines need to be better the lines I have used are "New head of sports development" and "New head of sports and development interview exclusive" these lines are not very good and effective if you want to attract the readers attention, if I wanted more people to look at the magazine I will need to add better text to my fron cover page so that it stands out and grabs the readers attention.

Most magazines use the colour scheme of black&white as it gives the magazine a mature and professional look, so this was good to have within my preliminary magazine and something I will consider to use in my final magazine. But I did not use black and white colours because I thought that young adults prefers to have a more colourful magazine. If you give a black and white magazine to a young adult they might not like the idea and might find it boring but it makes it seem more professional and better looking.

Comparing music magazine from covers

In this Task I will use my textual analysis skills to compare two distinct music magazine front page. below I have compare two examples of front cover magazines.

Language

Firstly, some of the text is in Gold which emphasises the rich and famous lifestyle with the money and the jewellery. Also, gold is known all over the world as rare and precious, and with Akon wearing a considerable amount, this tells the reader that he can almost anything he wants. The word 'Akon' is in such large lettering, stating that he is the main subject of this certain issue. Also, there is some text in pink which also implies that people, such as Akon, can get get all the girls. Furthermore, pink text shows that the magazine is largely aimed at females and so with Akon being seen as a sex object on the front cover, it is hard to see this magazine not being bought.


Institution

Firstly, the institution of Vibe magazine is to commercially make money. This can clearly be seen as the bar code and price are clearly displayed. Also, the have a website (http://www.vibe.com/) which is again, clearly stated on the front of each edition of Vibe magazine.



Ideology

The ideology of Vibe magazine is to promote R'n'b and Rap music and give this genre a good reputation. The message Vibe magazine tries to bring across is that rap and r'n'b music is the way forward and not all people into this music are involved in things such as drugs, crime etc. This can be shown through coverlines such as 'R'n'B' and 'Hitmaker'.

Audience
The audience for Vibe magazine are roughly between 16-28 as rap and r'n'b music is usually listened to by people of a similar age to this.

Representation
Here, Akon is represented to be a so called gangster by his hand jesture in the shape of a gun, the way he has no top on, and he is wearing bling to emphasise his 'bad boy' image. This appeals to younger males who read this magazine as they will want to be like this

This is the from a well known magazine called NME.  It is very hard for music magazine to attract a larg number of customers, this is because not everybody has the same taste in music. This means that the magazine should only aim for a specific target audience so that they can attract the most customers. This means that this magazine should talk about what is going to be included in the magazine so that the audience can look at it and see if it’s the right magazine for it. The magazine does show this and also shows the type of band that going to be included in the magazine as well.  From this we can learn a lot about the magazine such as the type of mysic, the bands interviewed festiavls and the latest news in the music industry.

The main picture used on the magazine shows us the member of the enemy signing and playing live at a recent festival.  The magazine has edited this picture to make look more affective and pleasing to the audience, they have edited around the singer and given him a glow to make him stand out more.  This attracts the the customer more because it makes the singer stand out and look better.

The colour on the magazine has been used well as they have onlye used a small amount of colours in the magazine. This may infer that its target audience are not young children but a much more older targeted audience.  The way they have used the colours is very effective because they have made the name of the band in yellow which makes the name stand out more then everything in the front cover. 

Analysis of preliminary

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Research into music press

I have researched different types of music press,  to help me create my music magazine. I found that there was no british branded magazine for the type of publication I would like to create. One of the main magazines I looked at is Top of the pops  this will help me design my magazine this is because I would get a overview on how a professional magazine would look like and create one of my own. 
the different types of music magazines I have been looking at include the following: 

• R&B
• Rock
• Pop
• Rap

I firstly took a couple pictures of college students, which I would like to use in my magazine, these images had to be mid-shots. I uploaded these from a digital camera onto the computer, into Iphoto, I then used photo shop to edit these pictures to make the picture on my front cover, I set these picture as the background so I could use fonts, backgrounds, text and other features required in a magazine.

I titled my magazine "ABS Sports" as I thought it relates well with the main images I have got which is a teach bouncing a football in a PE lesson. I have chosen this specific Picture and title because I think one of the most critical subjects in a secondary school or college should be PE this is because It helps keep fitness and healthiness.

Overall I think my magazine looks unprofessional, however considering this was my first time producing a magazine I believe the preliminary task helped me to gain a lot of skills and helped me to learn more about Photo shop. It also enabled me to realise I need to add a lot more professional features to my final magazine like the barcode. The barcode makes the magazine look more professional and realistic because it shows that it has been bought from a shop.

The task helped me to get better understanding of the media industry and how a lot of time and effort needs to go into making the magazine to perfection. It also prepared me for the real deal because I now know what kind of features, text pictures, use of colour etc, I need to include in my coursework to make it seem more realistic and more professional looking.

The sell lines within the pliminary task were good for the magazine, but not a school magazine as the sell lines need to be better the lines I have used are "New head of sports development" and "New head of sports and development interview exclusive" these lines are not very good and effective if you want to attract the readers attention, if I wanted more people to look at the magazine I will need to add better text to my fron cover page so that it stands out and grabs the readers attention.

Most magazines use the colour scheme of black&white as it gives the magazine a mature and professional look, so this was good to have within my preliminary magazine and something I will consider to use in my final magazine. But I did not use black and white colours because I thought that young adults prefers to have a more colourful magazine. If you give a black and white magazine to a young adult they might not like the idea and might find it boring but it makes it seem more professional and better looking.

Learning in class

Over the last few lesson in media. We have been looking at Target audience, and how the media use people to attract more customer into buying their products.  We have also been looking at how the media uses different types of techniques on making their customer read their magazine.

Specifically I have been looking at NME magazine and i have analyse every aspect of it, here is a picture of their masthead.

It is clear from the mast head that it is aimed at a older target audience. I would think that this is aimed from the age of 17-22. I can tell that this isnt aimed at small children because the colors that is being used are not very colurful and attractive, this would make it boring for young children because they would think its not fun. But on the other hand young adults would think this is a normal.

The NME magazine is mostly about music, it has articles and pictures of bands and other singers throughout the magazine.  The magazine is very stylish and well produced it uses very stereotypical male colors, which tells us that this magazine is mostly aimed at men rather then women. This also infers that when NME are producing the magazine they would make it in a way that the male audience. (Demographics)  to understand how to attract a certain type of person so that they can make the most money.

All about the Bizzle

My name is Orgest Rama, I am currently studying Business Applied and Media studies A level. I am Interested in a range of different music, to which I will be creating a music magazine on music as part of my media coursework. The reason i have decided to create a blog because i need to provide an electronic evaluation of my coursework.