AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

In order to judge the quality of my magazine and find out how well I satisfied the intentions and purposes that I laid out at the beginning of the project, I must not only look at it myself and make my personal opinions clear, but I also need to find out how well my target audience think I did, as their opinion is the most important one as they would be the ones who would potentially buy my magazine.
I have given my production work our to a few people who I would consider to be my 'target audience' and asked them to write a couple of sentences each outlining what they thought was good and bad about my production work.

Sonny: "I thought the the magazine as a whole looked professional and it gave off quite a cool vibe. If i saw this in a newsagents I would probably buy it because it's not to expensive and I would definitely recommend it to my mates."

Pheobe: "The front cover of the magazine was the best page, but they were all good. I liked the colour scheme and how he used the splashes because it made it look quite edgy and cool. But I think that he should of looked at a few new, up-an-coming artists instead of allready established artists"

Thomas: "I thought that the photos he took were really good, in most magazines the pictures look really fake but these ones were authentic, they look as if some one had just took a picture of their mate when they were hanging out. I think he could of improved the contents page as it wasn't that clear about pages and stuff because the text was quite bunched up"

EVALUATION OF FINAL PRODUCT

-In what way does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?
From my research of other hip hop music magazines such as XXL, they all seem to approach the reader in the same way, in your face and sometimes hostile, with dark, sinister colour schemes and dominant, menacing images that visually threaten the reader to a degree, and aggressive feature titles on the front page that use minor curse words and slanted text. They also seem to share the same values: success, money, power, as their front covers are more often than not centered around a stern looking, dominant male figure covered in expensive clothing and gold jeweler and accessories, or “bling”. These returning features of hip hop music publications cement the already dominant negative stereotype of hip hop listeners and artists, when in fact most people interested in and who follow hip hop are nothing like the cultural preconception of ‘hip hoppers’, and in fact the opposite can be said about a lot of the people I will be trying to reach with Sample. So In this way, I think my magazine will destroy the common negative stereotype of people who listen to hip hop.
I also think that the fact that my magazine focuses on the UK hip hop scene as a whole, I separates itself from most, if not all other music magazines, as it is the only publication I know to look at and include articles about aspects of the scene in which the genre is based apart from the just the music.

-How does your music magazine represent your chosen target audience?
My magazine represents the UK hip-hop social group as it adopts a mature approach, which a lot of my target audience can relate to, however, my readers also like to relax as I have learnt from studying them first hand, so I have tried to give off a relaxed vibe with my magazine.
From my questionnaire, I learnt that a majority of my target audience enjoy and are interested in other aspects of the UK hip hop scene, therefore I made sure my magazine also looked at different aspects of UK hip hop, thereby satisfying all my readers needs in a magazine.


-What kind of institution might distribute you magazine?
I think my magazine could possibly be sold at newsagents and other publication distributers, as my target audience regularly visit off licenses and newsagents in their daily lives. I think it would compete well against other magazines in shops as I designed it to stand out with the bold lettering and “warning” colours(black and yellow).
However I think my product would sell best in hip hop gigs and open-mic nights across the UK, as the people who would buy tickets to and attend these sorts of events are exactly the same people who I would expect to buy my magazine. In the same thought process, I think my magazine would sell well at shops like charhart, Fenchurch and hip hop record stores as the customers they get are the same customers I expect to purchase my product.

-Who do you think your audience would be for your music magazine?
I think that my magazine would be aimed at 16-23 year olds as it is relaxed but it still takes itself seriously, and that is the general age of the people I have met who are into this type of music. My audience will be mainly male as the UK hip hop scene is a very masculine one possibly due to the lack of women mc’s and graffers. My audience will mainly live in culturally rich cities as it is a community based genre, centered around hip hop nights and graffiti jams etc. however for those that live in more “out of the way” cities, I believe that my magazine could bring the culture to them.

-How did you attract/address the audience for your music magazine?
I would attract my potential readers to buy my magazine by advertising in a variety of ways. One way would be to link up with gig promoters and event organizers and get my logo on flyers and advertise the availability of purchase at these events on the flyers. I could also organize my own nights, and name them after the magazine and again, have my magazine on sale at these events. Another way of promoting my publication is to create a graffiti team who could paint various murals based around my masthead in different legal spots around the UK. All of these ideas would be perfect ways of promoting my magazine as they specifically target my audience.
-What did you learn about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
As I have completed a GCSE in Media and infrequently use photoshop for various homeworks and projects, so I was already fairly confident with the software when it came to creating my product. Before starting the front cover, contents page and feature, I already had a grasp on the tools that were necessary for different tasks and I knew how to confidently use them to my advantage, however I had not used the program for an inordinate amount of time so my photoshop skills were rusty to say the least. While creating my product, I got a firm grasp of the various shortcuts that the program has to offer which greatly speeded up the process of design, I also gained confidence in using layer styles to add shadow, glows and highlights to a layer, the magic wand and lassos to cut and crop certain sections of an image out whilst leaving other sections in, and many other useful tools and techniques that helped me confidently create a well-designed, high quality magazine.
-Looking back on the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progession ion the progression from it to the final product?
I learnt from my preliminarily that composing a magazine page takes time and requires alot of patients. I also become more confiedent with the program photoshop than before, and felt confident when approaching that final task that I could produce a quality magazine with the program as I was more knowledgeable about the tools and techniques nescessary for composing a good front page, contents page and two page feature. I also employed alot of the features that I used in my preliminary task and incorperate them into my music magazine, for example, the paint splashes were a good way to add substance and flavour to an otherwise lifeless and lacking front page, and I used them to good effect in my music magazine.

FINAL PRODUCTION

FRONT PAGE

FLATPLANS

Before I start working on my magazine on the computer, I have to sketch up my design so I know what goes where and I will know before it's too late weather the composition works. However I had some problems with the scanner at my house and the ones at school and as a result I was unable to put up an image of them.

PRELIMINARY TASK

Before I design my Music magazine, I will create a front page and contents page for a school arts magazine. This will get me associated with the program photoshop, its tools, shortcuts and the various different techniques that are key to becoming confident with the program and producing a quality magazine page. The preliminary task will also give me practice in everything that goes into making a good magazine, ie. taking photos, composing a page and magazine style writing.
Before I design it on photoshop, I have to sketch it out so when I come to doing it on the computer i know what goes where.

I have learn from my preliminarily task to start work on my magazine sooner rather than later as composing a magazine page takes time and requires alot of patients. I have also become confiedent with the program photoshop, and feel that I can produce a quality magazine with the program as I am knowledgeable about the tools and techniques nescessary for composing a good front page, contents page and two page feature. I will also employ alot of the features that I used in my preliminary task and incorperate them into my music magazine, for example, the paint splashes are a good way to add substance and flavour to an otherwise lifeless and lacking front page, and I will definately be using them for my music magazine.

COMPARING LANGUAGE USED IN MUSIC MAGAZINES

In NME, the writers use a jokey, laid back style of writing that uses various literary techniques like puns, alliteration and humour to make the readers feel relaxed while reading the articles and features, however I think that at times, this comical style can be seen as tacky and when reading it myself I felt that the magazine should be taking me, the reader, and their artists more seriously as I expect their target audience to be around my age (16).
Black Beat is a magazine that whilst focusing on the artists of popular black culture, adopts a style is common in magazines like Heat, OK and Star, they seem to talk a lot about the gossip involved in the music industry and less on the actual music being produced by the artists. It is written in a very laid back and light-hearted way but at times the writing style and its content can come off as trashy. This magazine is obviously not aimed at anyone above 17 and due to it focus on gossip, I can imagine a lot of male readers not being particularly interested in Black Beat.
Q takes a much more serious approach when writing its articles and reviews. The magazine is aimed at 20-40 year olds as it uses mature language and intelligent word choice and syntax. However at times when reading Q I felt I couldn’t relax, and I think that a lot of readers could feel un-settled while reading Q due to it highly intellectual method of approach.
For ‘Sample’ I hope to combine Q’s style of writing with NME’s. A mature and intellectual style so that readers feel I am taking them and the music seriously, but I also want to created a relaxed environment where readers can feel at ease, almost as if they’re just hanging out with friends, as my magazine is very focused on sociality and community.

WRITING OF ARTICLE

As part of the project, we have to produce a two page feature on a made up artist, and obviously, to create a feature on a musician you need an article. I will write up a two page article on my featured artist Loop, a hip hop artist releasing his new album: Back to Business.

The most important part of writing a good, in depth interview that relates and appeals to all aspects of our readers interests. The following are questions I will be using:

1.So before we go into you current career, lets start from the beginning, how did you first get into the UK hip hop scene?
-This question was used to satisfy readers who are interested in perusing a career in UK hip hop, as "Loop" will give advice about how to enter the scene to aspiring artists.

2.You say you used to be into graffiti when you were younger? Are you still into that scene? How has graffiti affected your life? What do you think about its connection to UK hip hop?
-This Question was for the readers who are interested in Graffiti as they can learn about how graffiti artists can become successful rappers, and also so that they feel they have gained a deeper relation to Loop.

3.So, Loop, when you first released “Back to Business” did you have any idea of the success it was going to bring and if you had to what was you say was the main factor?
-These next 3-4 questions are included in order for the readers to learn what "Loop" has been doing since they last heard him, as being knowledgeable of what artists are doing and therefore feeling involved in the scene which is key to the magazine.
4.So I can’t imagine it was easy deal with the sudden success of the album, how did you cope?
5.Do you feel you have changed much as an artist since you dropped “back to business”, in terms of how your sound has progressed?
6.Do you feel you have changed much as an artist since you dropped “back to business”, in terms of how your sound has progressed?

7.And how about from what you’ve learnt about the industry? We always hear about how much of a struggle it is, do you feel you’re in a better position now to “play the game”, or is it still a real battle to get things done your way?
-This question was included to give readers an insight into the music industry for readers who are interested in perusing a music career.

8.You have featured on a lot of mix tapes and albums also, how did you personally get those link ups?
-This question was included to give readers who are interested in pursuing a music career advice on how to get onto other artists tracks, a brilliant way to get yourself known in the music scene.

9.What do you feel about the prejudices against hip-hop? The way people associ-
ate it with anger and call it gangster rap etc? Do you feel that sometimes you’re fighting a losing battle?
-This was a question that relates to all readers as the state of the hip-hop scene and societies views on it are important to anyone who listens to UK hip-hop.

10.It’s hard to get yourself a name in music today, what would you advise to people who are just starting up?
-This question is for readers who are interested in pursuing a music career as the answer will give readers advice onto how to start a successful future in music.

11.So lastly, what do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t doing music?
-This question was intended to show readers the importance of music an/or a passion in young peoples lives to give them direction.

I will also write the answers in order to ensure that the article contains quality answers that appeal to my readers.