Magazine Update: Contents Page

This is what my contents page looks like so far. All of these pictures were taken by me, at various gigs (Muse at Emirates Stadium, London, Paramore and 30 Seconds to Mars at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena). I  have used the same fonts as I have for the front cover, and used the same colour palette. I added all the cover stories to the contents page.

Magazine Update: Front Cover

Magazine So Far on PhotoPeach

Alternative Rock Music Moodboard

For my Alternative Rock music research, I have created a tumblr account which consists of pictures, gifs, videos and examples of alternative rock music. It is basically a moodboard with its contents representing my genre. 

http://helenbargmann.tumblr.com/

Update: Front Cover

This is my current front cover. I've changed the fonts as well as the colours, masthead and sub-titles, and added in a bar-code and a Reading and Leeds special. 

Contents Page

I want my contents page to look like this NME contents page, as the spacing and images makes it look both professional with some kind of rebellious rocky-nature. The fonts are clean-cut and readable, not over the top but not too boring. The bold numbers make the contents page easy to read and easy to navigate to the specific pages. It is clear which topics are the most important by the sizing of the images. The article with Murph from the Wombats is quite obviously the main article due to its sizing compared to the other, smaller images. 

I also like the idea of the red box in the bottom right hand corner being there to attract the reader's attention towards spending money on the magazine. I might do something similar to this on my contents page, but maybe promoting tickets to a gig or festival competition. 

Double Page Spread research

For my double page spread, I want to do something along the lines of this:

There would be the generic article underneath, as well as a tagline from the interview. As well as this there will also be snapshots of pictures of the band, either live on stage or in the studio, depending on what I write my article on (could be live shows or an upcoming album). 

The Road So Far...

I have begun to design my front cover.

I used a photo of a full band, but instead cropped out the other models so that it would be similar to magazines such as NME, who use frontmen as their main photo occasionally. 

So far, it has been enjoyable trying to create my magazine. I found that the fonts definitely need to be changed into something more interesting, so for that reason I will look through dafont.com to find more appropriate fonts. The generic photoshopped fonts looks really bland, so I will try to find a more exciting font to make my magazine stand out.

I have also changed the name of my magazine. It was originally going to be called 'AMPLIFY', but using inspiration from NME (New Musical Express) I have decided to cut the name so that it looks more professional. The name AMP still relates to the Alternative Rock genre, but I want my magazine to be both connote Alternative Rock but have a professional, NME style to it. NME manage to create a Rock music magazine using very professional fonts, and I really want my magazine to be similar to it. 

I haven't yet added the subtitles, but this will be the next thing I am planning on doing. I am really looking forward to creating my Alternative yet professional rock music magazine.

Photoshoot and New Ideas

After completing another photoshoot, I have decided to re-do my main idea of the general conventional ideas of Alternative Rock magazines. 

Instead of taking photos like Alternative Press does, for example here...

...I have decided to take more photos like Q and NME do, like so...

...with just the individual frontman shot, rather than the whole band.

I'm doing this because I found that with my photos, I was struggling to find a plain background. I tried to find a white wall but the lighting was wrong, and it just made the wall look dull. Here, for example...

Also, the girl on the left stands out too much because she's wearing blue and holding an orange guitar. 
There is also too much shadow, in my opinion, on the wall behind them. So for my next photoshoot I'll make sure the colours are darkened and that the wall behind the model is quite distinctive in showing the contrast between the model and the background, like they have on Q magazine with David Bowie; the pink behind him really helps to bring his features out. 

So, based on this, I will instead take a photo of an individual rather than an entire band. Hopefully this will still show the effect of alternative rock like NME and Q have done.

Alternative Rock Feedback Video

I decided to make a video in iMovie, asking questions based on Alternative Rock for some audience research. These questions included, 'What do you think of when you think of Alternative Rock?', 'What colours do you associate with Alternative Rock?', 'What do you expect to see in an Alternative Rock magazine?', 'What are the stereotypes?' and 'What fashion is associated with Alternative Rock?'.

This is only feedback from females, however I think that the length and detail of their answers were quite helpful towards the female audience. 

Audience Profiles

30 Seconds to Mars - Live Gig Photos!

Recently I saw the band 30 Seconds to Mars live at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff. This will be helpful to my magazine, as I can use some of the photos for a possible fan section, or as a poster on the contents page.
(Press the speaker icon on the top left for an example of 30 Seconds to Mars' music!)

Magazine Deconstructions

Example of Alternative Rock music

I decided to film myself playing a song by one of my favourite bands to give an idea of the genre of Alternative Rock. The song is 'Supermassive Black Hole' by the bombastic, crazy Alternative rock band, Muse. 

Photoshoot and Risk Assessment

Photoshoot on PhotoPeach

Examples of Alternative Rock music

Alternative Rock examples from helenbargmann on 8tracks Radio.

Music Magazine publishers

The two most popular music magazines I found as part of my research were:

IPC Media - publishes magazines such as NME (New Musical Express) and Uncut. 

Bauer Media - Kerrang!, Mojo, Planet Rock, Q

I think I will use Bauer Media as my publisher, because they publish very established rock music magazines such as Q and Kerrang!, which would relate more to my magazine of Alternative rock. IPC Media does do NME, but that is more of an indie style magazine rather than alternative rock. 

Magazine Flat Plans

Front cover:

Using the information I gathered from music magazines and their codes and conventions, I have come up with a front cover. From the feedback of my survey, I will include the colours red, white, black and blue. I might also include grey as this was highly suggested in the 'please specify' option of my survey. I may also use a brighter colour for buzz words and puffs. 

The main photo will have the band standing next to each other, presenting equality and representing the codes and conventions of Alternative rock bands, as seen on my moodboard.

I decided I would put a quote on top of the picture, because this is what many big-name magazines do such as Q to bring across a powerful topic, or to give an introduction as to what the interviews will be about.  

Contents page

My contents page will have 'contents' written in the same font I will use for the masthead on the front cover, and use the same house style to show the reader that this is what the magazine will look like, and so it'll be easier to recognize. 

I will present different topics within my magazine, those being News, Live and Reviews. There will be a picture of a live action shot, as well as a picture for the cover story to entice the reader. The colour palette will stay the same continuously, of red, black and white, with dashes of blue and yellow.

Double page spread

My double page spread will consist of information about the band's upcoming new album and tour, as well as background information on the band's lives and what kind of things they've experienced. From reading various magazines, this is what a lot of them do including Q, NME and Kerrang!. 

It will also have a picture of the band on the left striking some sort of pose, as well as a quote from one of the band members which is witty or outrageous to intrigue the reader in what the article is about. The colour palette and house style will stay the same. 

Album cover mise-en-scene

In this album cover for Muse's iconic album 'Absolution', it connotes the name of the album within the artwork, made by Storm Thorgerson (who has made other notable album covers, such as Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Muse's Origin of Symmetry, The Resistance, Black Holes and Revelations, Biffy Clyro's Puzzle's and Opposite). The idea of absolution (formal release from guilt, obligation or punishment) is represented with the man standing on the ground, looking out at the sky (towards God), and asking why he is not being freed from his guilt. It is quite a striking album cover, as it doesn't have one possible conclusion. Whilst the other souls are being rescued, he is left behind, and is left with the question of 'why?' as we can see from his facial expression.
The gas mask in his hand could connote himself being freed from the repression of politics, how he thinks he is free, but is never free, even when released of intoxication.

The grey and white colour palette could also represent the colours associated with Alternative rock, as seen by my audience research and survey. Many people suggested that grey was a colour they associated with Alternative rock magazines.
This album cover works well with Muse, who are a well known Alternative rock band who mostly write about politics and religion. 

A letter from the editor

Moodboard

My moodboard was based on Alternative rock. 

I made the paper ripped on the sides to portray the grittiness of rock n' roll, the element of rock that is still captured within Alternative rock. It connotes the distortion of guitars, the 'outcast' kind of feeling towards rock music. This is especially relevant as rock lyrics are related to being outcasts, being put down by people or the government. In this way it represents rebellion.

I put pictures of various Alternative rock bands, those including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paramore, Muse, Kings of Leon and the Killers. This is to give the audience an idea as to what kind of bands have this alternative rock style.
You can also see in the pictures a sense of equality. Most of the bands have them lined up next to each other, whereas within indie rock they may have the singer in the foreground. For example, Arctic Monkeys at the bottom right of the picture are both Indie and Alternative rock, and the frontman Alex Turner is in the foreground. 

I also put some lyrics around the moodboard to capture the idea of Alternative rock. They are generally very deep, insightful lyrics, those being 'And I've had recurring nightmares, that I was loved for who I am...', 'I would dig a thousand holes to lie next to you...', 'Drill holes in themselves, and  live for their secrets...' and 'Spirits in the night, motion in the deep, waters running high, calling out to me'. This shows that alternative rock music is not just a sub-genre of classic rock n' roll, but it also has its own idea of its genre. That it's deep and really touches the listener. 

I have decided to name my magazine Amplify. Although I didn't include this on my audience research, I think that Asylum (the top voted choice) was to subverted a genre from metal to Alternative rock. Amplify seems like a reasonable name as it relates to Alternative rock and the guitars and amps that are used in them. 

I have done some research on fonts, not that I will definitely use them. 

Results from my survey

The results from my survey show that most people would like 'Asylum' as a name for my Alternative Rock magazine. However, I'm not sure it is an appropriate name for my genre, it would probably fit more into Metal. 'Revolution' is taken by someone else, so I will decide between Asylum, Age of Alt and Avant-Garde. 

As for my audience research, I asked questions on various social networking sites via my survey. It showed that most people who listen to Alternative rock music are between the ages of 16-17, followed by 18-19 year olds. 

Out of the 26 people who answered my survey, 2 of them said that they didn't listen to Alternative rock. This was useful to me, as I asked on the websites Twitter and Facebook through different people. This helped me to get a more accurate view on what people who listen to different genres think of in terms of Alternative rock music magazines. 

Out of the 26 people, the majority thought that black, red and blue were the most common colours reflected by Alternative rock. I found blue quite surprising, but this shows that most people see Alternative rock as something more upbeat and less heavy than general rock or metal. 

However, I made another box called 'Other [please specify]', and received some interesting results. Grey was common, with some others such as purple and orange being lesser associated with alternative rock. I was surprised by orange.

For my magazine, I will base it on my survey's results. For example, I will make sure it consists of a black, red, blue and white colour palette, with yellow puffs and buzz words. 

I will also market it more towards the teenage audience of 16-17 year olds and above. 

My Survey

I have made a survey for my magazine, which asks questions about my audience as well as which name I should have for my magazine.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Alternative Rock Magazine names

These are some of the names I have come up with for my music magazine. I looked in dictionaries and thesauruses to find names that are innovative, or ones that have double meanings, without being too difficult to understand. My current favourites are 'Avant-Garde', 'Asylum', 'Age of Alt', and 'ESCAPE'. 

Pop Music deconstruction

Music Genre research

This is a mindmap I made of various different genres of rock, those including sub-genres of rock, 'Classic', 'Alternative' and 'Indie', as well as acoustic music. 

The genre I have chosen is Alternative rock. I have chosen this particular genre because it is the genre that I enjoy the most, and the genre I know the most about. I have collected many alternative rock magazines over the years as I have always liked this genre, as well as reading about alternative rock bands.

Alternative Rock bands on PhotoPeach

It is generally either clear who the frontman is, or it is a form of equality within the band photo, for example the first photo of Biffy Clyro. The main singer is in fact the person standing on the left hand side, although he is holding his arm up which connotes that he is slightly different than the other members. 

In the other photos, it is relatively clear to see who are the frontmen of the band, Kasabian and The Strokes, as they are in the front.

Alternative rock fashion on PhotoPeach

Alternative Rock magazines:

The most popular alternative rock magazine is Q, closely followed by NME and Alternative Press. All three of these magazines are primarily based on rock and alternative rock, and are interested in the promotion of new alternative rock bands.