Magazine History Research

NME Magazine began in the late 50s and contained information on rock and roll music and famous stars such as Elvis Presley. In the 60s when The Beatles became famous, the NME was a huge and successful market. However by the early 70s NME started to loose readers as a new genre of punk music was coming into fashion. The music scene had changed but NME had not adapted with it and was starting to fall behind. A new editor and new writers were hired and it soon became successful again, as they were now adapting with the changing music scene. Into the 80s, electro and new romantic music such as Duran Duran, The Human League and Elton John became introduced to the music industry and became more popular than punk. Once again NME adapted to this and was able to sustain their readership. As the popular genre has changed over the years, NME have now kept up and change with the music scene to keep up with the current generation. It is constantly adapting and this is why it is the oldest music magazine that is still hugely successful today.


During the 70s, other music magazines around only talked about single and album reviews. NME went behind the scenes to offer something different to the reader and had interviews with popular stars, backstage information, albums and singles, new music and interesting articles. This magazine was offering so much more than any other magazine for sale and so it reeled in readers. In the 80s, NME had decided to go one step further and start producing articles based on serious issues such as politics. One issue included the topic of 'Youth Suicide'. The final straw came during a political election however when the magazine went too far with a front cover and ended up having 2 writers sacked. After this NME had a new editor and became all about the music again.  In the late 70s/ early 80s, it used famous star Morrissey from 'The Smiths' on many of their magazine covers, who was a really popular artist and fan of the magazine himself. On one occasion, Morrissey fell out with NME and did not speak to them for 12 years. After some time NME was losing readership again and Morrissey needed a career boost, and so they invited him back for another cover. This proved really successful and soon NME had a huge circulation again.


In the 70s, the writers were very bold and to the point. They made fun of artists, calling them names and being 100% honest and not being afraid to tell the truth and say if a gig was bad. They wrote about serious issues in the 80s, involving suicide and politics to make the NME be more than just a music magazine and stand out from the rest. Instead of just being about album reviews and upcoming concerts, they talked about life in their articles and related to their audience through them. Any of the articles from the 70s especially would not pbe published today in the magazine.

Music Magazine Evaluation

My Music Magazine

This is my final music magazine. It includes a front cover, contents page and double page spread. I tried to include as many magazine conventions in my magazine as possible. For example, the front cover masthead, contents 'regulars' and 'features' section and the quote boxes on the double page. I kept to one house style throughout also, using yellow, black and white and keeping to 3 different fonts. I used digital cameras and filter son the lights to make sure i took some professional looking photos and also learnt how to use photoshop so that i could make the most of the different techniques that were available on there.

Flat Plan Designs

Here are the basic flat plans that i designed for my music magazine. I tried to include all of the necessary conventions that are included in other music magazines, for example, headlines, anchorage and slogans. I kept to my house style theme of black, white and yellow and tried to keep to one style font also. When I come to make my final magazine, I will most likely change some of these plans and edit them. This is just a basic outline and gives me an idea of how I want my magazine to turn out.

Music Magazine Cover Annotations

These two covers are from kerrang! magazine and both highlight all of the main features in music magazines that i will have to use in mine.

Behind the scenes

In these photos you can see how our studio was set up and how the lights were positioned. In the photos, you can see how we also used blue and red filters over the lights, and the effect they had. These photos just show what was happening on the scene of our photoshoot.  

Photoshoot Photos

These photos are my favourites from the photoshoot we did. We took several serious photos and a few accidental photos, which turned out to be the best ones. For the first photo, we decided that we should position ourselves so that we arent all just stood together in a line. And so we had people at different heights and different positions next to eachother. We also had it so that each one of us was looking at a different place in the photo. Two of us looked at the camera, one of us looked at the floor and one looked at the ceiling too. The second photo was took on the spur of the moment, but it turned out to be one of our best photos. In magazines, when you have interviews with bands, there are usually serious photos then at least one showing the band "messing around". I think the second photo would be a good one to use for this.

 We also took some smaller group shots using the redhead lights and put a red and green filter on them. This gave us a pink background but a green shadow on our models. We also used different props to make our photos more interesting. for example, in these photos we used a big hairband, hats and oversised glasses. We also used different compositions when taking the photos. For example, we had two models looking down at a camera in this first shot and in the second, one looking at the camera and one looking away.

Health and Safety During the Photoshoot

1. The redheads are fragile. When transporting them use the bag and padding. Dont knock them and 2 people must carry them.
2. They are hot! Take extreme care when handling lights.
3. Dont cover them with anything.
4. Dont look directly at them.
5. Switch off when not in use.
6. Bulbs are expensive and break easily so take extreme care.
7. Tape down all wires and cables.

Music Magazine House Style Ideas & Questionnaire

This is a sample of different colours and fonts i will experiment with for my house style for my music magazine. My favourite fonts are the second and third ones. For my masthead, i will most likely use the third font as it is more detailed and bolder. The second font would be used as subheadings and i would use the last font as text within the magazine.



Music Magazine Questionnaire

Male or female:
Age:

1.    What genre of music do you feel is your favourite (tick all that apply)?
Indie/Alternative

Rock  

House
Rap
Metal
Soul

Other (please state) _____________________________________________

2.    What (if any) of these music magazines do you read?
Q Magazine
NME
Kerrang!
Mojo                           
Rolling Stone
Other (please state) ____________________________________________

3.   What kind of features do you expect to see in music magazines?

4.   What price would you pay for a music magazine?

5.   Would you expect freebies with a music magazine?


6.   Are there any artists you admire that influence your lifestyle? (E.g.- clothing)

7.    Who is your favourite singer/band?

8.   Do you go to watch and support local bands?

9.   What social group do you feel you fit into most?
       Emo, Chav, Indie, Clubber, Goth, Pop Prince(ess), Skater, Other


10. Circle your favourite artists from this list:

      Paramore, Madness, Katy Perry, Fall out Boy, The Cure, Bruno Mars, None, JayZ, Metallica, LL cool J

RESULTS
The age range of these questionnaire results is 16-17 and the main gender is female. 3 males and 7 females took this questionnaire.
1. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 6 said Indie/Alternative, 2 said Rap,1 said House and 1 said Rock2. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 5 said Kerrang, 2 said NME and 3 said none
3. The main features people wanted to see in music magazines included: Competitions, exclusive interviews, posters and top bands of the month.

4. The price people would pay for a music magazine ranged from £1-£5.00, I would settle in the middle for £2.50-£3.00.

5. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 8 said they would expect freebies and 2 said they wouldn't.

6. Some of the artists named that influenced lifestyle included, Hayley Williams of Paramore, Matt Bellamy of Muse, rapper Jayz and Lady Gaga.
7. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 2 people said Enter Shikari, 1 said Jay Z, 3 said Paramore, 1 said Fall Out Boy, 2 said Lady Gaga, and 1 said Katy Perry.

8. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire, 6 said they DO go to support local bands and 4 said they DONT go and support local bands.

9. Out of 10 people that took this questionnaire 1 person circled Emo, 1 person circled Chav, 4 people circled Indie, 2 circled Pop Prince(ess) and 2 circled other.

10. Paramore were circled 4 times, Madness were circled once, Katy Perry was circled 4 times, Fall out Boy were circled 3 times, The Cure were circled twice, Bruno Mars was circled 3 times, None was circled once, Jay Z was circled twice, Metallica was circled once and LL Cool J was circled once.

The majority of these answers reveal that these readers are mainly Indie/Alternative that read magazines like Kerrang or NME. Most of the features people like to see are Posters, Competitions, Bands of the Month and exclusive interviews. The acceptable price range would be between £2 and £3. Most of these people would expect some sort of freebie from a magazine.
Popular people are Lady Gaga, Hayley Williams, Jay Z and Matt Bellamy. The most popular favourite bands/singers were Lady Gaga, Paramore and Enter Shikari. Most of these readers DO go to support local bands. Fall out boy, Katy Perry and  Paramore were the most popular artists and most people consider themselves in the indie category.

Final College Magazine

This is the cover of my college magazine and contents page.

For my front cover i used the main colours of black and yellow. I used two different fonts, "label" and "poplar". The main font is "label" and used the yellow theme because it reminded me of the label tape that was used in the 70's. This also links into my music magazine that i will create as Indie/rock music is associated with 70's style clothing. Both photos on the contents and cover are in the same kind of environment, surrounded by trees and quite shaded. This reflects the fact that the first issue is being issued in autumn.

I put the more important words in the bold white writing so that they stand out and draw people's attention to the headings. My target demographic for this magazine is students aged 16-19. It is aimed at a male and female audience as the colours are quite neutral and the articles on the front cover and in the contents are mixed. For example i have included sport news, which is stereotypically male news, and Hair the college musical, which is stereotypically more female news inside. It also contains articles based on college life such as Enrichment, trips, Prior's got Talent and Children in Need week. It also includes a questionnaire to find out what students like and dislike about college life.

I used a variety of conventions in my magazine. The masthead is big and is the main focus of the front cover. It takes up the majority of the top of the page and, besides the picture is the biggest feature on there. The barcode at the bottom also contains the issue number. The captions on my cover such as "who won what?" are smaller than their headings and in one font rather than varying.