Music Magazine: Start!
After practicing with the students' magazine (although it is not finished), I have started planning my next project- the music magazine.
In order to help myself I have made some posters in which I describe what inspires me, put down some ideas and examples of how I would like my magazine to look, analysed some covers and explained why I have chosen what I have chosen.
My chosen genre is Metal & Punk, I have done a brief plan but I still have a lot of work to do.
So the thing that I have started with is the double spread page, because I find it most difficult.
Since it is a music magazine, I thought that it would drag more of the audience's attention if the main article is about a famous band: It is easier to write and it's eye catching.
The group I chose as an example is one of my personal favourite: Bullet For My Valentine.
They are very famous and I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy reading about them as much as I do.
THE DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD:
This DPS grabbed me, because of the layout. It represents caos, motivation and inspiration, which reflects on the image of the band and their way of living. For this analysis, i'll start with the photos. As they are a magority compared to the text itself, the DPS looks more, like a poster, than a sourse of information. The colours are dull: black and white. However, considering the ganre of music they are representing (Metal) they give a quite strong dramatic effect, whic makes the photos come to live. This akes the adience feel clouser to the band (as they were at the concert as well) but at the same time so distanced, because of the angles used(low angles) and the lack of direct eye contact, which make the band seem unreachable, almost as some higher creatures. The majority of photos show the members of the band in a gloomy light, presnting their music, image and what they are doing in general as something that shouldn't ba taken lightly. Some look very serious, almost as they are saying ''Yeah, this is the real deal. We made it'', whereas the ones to the left show them backstage, where they are shown loughing and making jokes,which helps the audience relate to them and see them as normal people, not only as a famous band. Continuing with the photos, in the upper right corner, there is a couple of them giving an insight of the reaction of fans during a consert, which encourarget audience to buy tickets to se them live and ensures them they won't regret it...all this without saying a word.
Their desire to attract audience appears again in the upper left angle of the page, where the sign saying ''ACCESS ALL AREAS SPECIAL'' and is the only thing besides the heading(the band's name) that is written in capital white letters, which makes a contrast with the blurry grey background also making it stand out and grab attention. Considering this DPS is about the band's concert, there are plenty of reviews in the right side of the page and a bit more content in the article.
When it comes to well-known bands, there is no need of many words to sell the magazine. Here is a perfect example, there is a very small amount of content for a DPS, but that is compensated by the heading(name of the band) and the picture, taking the whole background.
Starting with the heading. The color is very bright and easily attracts attention. It is rotated in such way that it looks like one of the members of the band is supporting it with his head and shoulders, or even trying to avoid it, which could be understood by the audience as a reference to the band, how famous they are, you just can't miss them (avoid them). The font used reminds of the stripes of a tiger, which indicates adventure, danger and excitement, very useful qualities for a rock band.
Moving on to the photo itself it is taken with a low angled shot, which is very frequently observed in magazines, because makes the people look more respectful, and indicates they are more than ordinary people, so they can look upon the others (looking form above). The choice of colours is very interesting, the background is dull and grey, including the majority of the band members. Only the vocalist (the heart of the band) is colorful. Firstly they match the heading, then the yellow and orange make her glow, which gives the connotation of her being represented as the light in a gloomy day, which is reasonable because not many rock bands have a female vocalist and this photo almost represents their respect for women and are showing the way they should be treated, like the sun. This usage of colours also puts the other members of the band way behind her, blending with the rest of the dull background. Talking about the background, on one hand it shows a contrast between them and the boring life everyone else lives, but on the other hand the fact that they are surrounded by these tall blocks and sitting on the stairs like high school kids, gives people the impression that they are part of this dull and boring life as well and although they are famous they have been people living a completely normal life once. Going back to their image, the direct eye contact they have all made with the audience through this photo helps them connect with their fans. The positive thing about this is that they look as if they actually see you as an individual , not as part of the crowd and want to tell you something personally, which looks motivating and inspiring.
I have chosen this DSP for my third textual analysis, because it is a perfect example of the most frequent layout: a picture on one side and the article on the other. Green Day are a very popular punk band, nevertheless they have more content in their article than the previous two bands analyzed.
Starting with the image, Green Day has their own stile: dead from heartbreak. The choice of colours is interesting, the black=death; red=romance, danger; white=pureness, innocence. The background is white, which makes them stand out. The three of the band members have different body positions and facial expressions. This image could be related to Freud's theory of the EGO, SUPEREGO and ID. The person in the middle id the EGO, which is the person itself. Then the one to the right is the SUPEREGO, which is the part of a person that is limited by society's rules and hides all it's desires and emotions, because they are not appropriate (as society would suggest). The one on the left is the ID, which can be described as the animal part of us, driven by instinct and desires, knows it can receive everything it wants, not following any rules, just emotions. Their poses can also be interpret as a person (in the middle) and the devil and angel by his side.
Moving to the right side of the DSP, the colors used are much more cheerful and positive, the thing that grabs most attention is the cover of their album. The usage of bright colours in a ,pleasing to the eye, combination and the big heading, containing the word ''kinky'', are all things that attract audience, even if they are not fans of the band (Green Day). This DSP contains not only casual information about the subjects, but also advertises their new album, presenting the cover at the top and suggesting ''3 killer songs'' in an arrow at the bottom, which contrasts with the rest of the colours, therefore becomes easy the spot. These songs are also recommended in the article, encouraging the audience to listen to the, download them and even buy the album.
