My questionnaire for the research of my music magazine

Please tick no more than two boxes on each question.

1. What is your favourite type of music?
(a) R’n’B (b) Rock (c) Rave (d) Urban (e) Dance (f) Pop

2. What colours would you like to see on the magazine?
(a) Red (b) Blue (c) Purple (d) Pink (e) Green (f) White (g) Black

3. What would you pay for a magazine?
(a) £1.00 (b) £1.25 (c) £1.50 (d) £1.75 (e)£2.00 or more

4. Which colour title would you prefer?
(a) Purple (b) Green (c) Yellow (d) Orange (e)Black (f) Pink (g)Red

5. What would you like to see in a music magazine?
· Up and coming artists
· New bands
· Club scene

Here are the results of my questionnaire:
The results of my questionnaire showed that people prefered rock and pop music to any of the other choices. Peoples' favourite colours were purple and blue. It also showed that people would be willing to pay £2.oo or more for the magazine. The colour of of the title they most wanted to see was red and they would like to see new bands advertised within the magazine.

Other research I had to conduct was into the features already in magazines. For my magazine I studied pages form Q magazine and NME.

Questionnaire
For the Q magazine I studied the cover with Madonna on the front. It has atypical colour scheme of black, red and white. She is posing in a mysterious way as she has a hood partially covering her face and isn’t looking directly in the camera. The use of an ‘A-list’ celebrity appeals to a younger audience aged around 15-25. Her response to a question asked is sassy giving the audience the idea that the interview is entertaining. She is a major part of the music industry, which is unusual as the magazine tends to be dominated by males. The conventions of it are she is looking at the audience and she is an attractive woman, there are typical bands Q uses to broaden their audience, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin are featured in the magazine but Arctic Monkeys are also in it to appeal to the younger audience. There is a barcode; date and a limited number of fonts probably three at the most these are all typical conventions of music magazines.


NME uses an unusual colour scheme of red, yellow, white and black. On the front cover there is big central image, which isn’t as uniform as Q although the hooks are often justified with other images around it making it dynamic and upbeat. NME’s target audience is people with a taste in indie music. It uses bands such as Babyshambles, The Automatic, The Wombats but also other more established artists. NME’s contents page uses its basic colour scheme of red, yellow, black and red to attract the reader’s attention. The index is in alphabetical order, which is unconventional of music magazines. The use of ‘gig’ is colloquial language used to appeal to the audience they are targeting. The subscription being advertised on the contents page also breaks conventions, as they are normally found further on in the magazine. Their article uses stereotypically male colours being that of blue, black and white. It has a big bold title automatically drawing your attention to it, the article situated at the left and the pictures separate at the right side of the article, due to this format it breaks the conventions of most music magazines.
I annotated some extracts from both NME and Q to see what their style was but also to help me see what I'd need to include in my magazine to make it look realistic.

The NME contents page:
The NME contents page I annotated was from 18 October 2008. The things I chose to annotate were. The names of all the artists featured in the magazine, go by alphabetical order which is unusual for this type of magazine. The subscription box is usually further on in the magazine than the contents page. The typical colour scheme of red, yellow, white and black.

The Jarman man article:
The annotations I made on this were: There are stereotypically male colours being blue and yellow. The format is unusual as it has the article on the left and the pictures on the right whereas most articles combine the two.

My first media cover for music piece

For my music cover I took pictures of a female model breaking the conventions as generally on music magazines the model is male. I chose to base part of my cover on Q and part on NME. The things I chose to incorporate were the big, bold title and the two colours used in it. The model is in an invitational pose as she is looking into the camera and it is focusing on her eyes.


I have decided to change the picture on my front cover now as part of the models hat is cut off and it lacked effect as the hat no longer made a statement.

My new front cover has been bettered by changing the font colours on the insight information parts around the new picture of the model. The new pose has sexual or romantic connotations as the model isn't smiling and therefore she is giving the male audience the message that she is available. My magazine is quite feminine but the pose is sexual and the hooks which appear inside the magazine appeal to both sexes.

The writing on the front cover is bolder and the tag line above the title allows the reader to know the music genre that the magazine talks about. The fact that there are bands on the front cover which people can relate to makes the target audience wider.

Love, live, music was inspired by the slogan I saw on the front cover of Q magazine but I changed it so it reflected my opinion on music and allowed the audience to feel they could relate to the magazine through the thing they liked most.

I chose to add a block coloured bar as it is a convention of music magazines and it adds extra information. I named my magazine Raw as it reflects what music can be. The model is standing in front of the title of my magazine as it is a common convention of music magazines. If people don't know the name of the magazine because of it being a new issue they will often buy it because the model appeals to the reader.


The parts of Q magazine I based mine on was the bold title, the sub-title, the model on the right and the coloured bar line across the bottom of it. I changed my title to purple so it appealed mainly to a feminine audience breaking the conventions of music magazines. I chose to add a sub-title to provide extra information about the magazine. The model is placed in the middle as the writing is constructed around her as is Noel Gallagher on this issue of Q. I have also placed the barcode in the left hand corner so it doesn't interfere with the picture of the model. The picture of my model is also placed over the top of the sub-title as the model on the cover of Q.



The idea of my title came from using NME as my style model. The title is bold and draws attention straight to the name of the magazine advertising it so people who buy magazines for the brand will buy it. My title is similar as it has a main colour and a second colour around it.