Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing music magazines?

Within all magazines you expect to see all typical music magazine conventions and that is no different in my magazine. In order to keep within my ‘genre’ and target audience I have chosen key conventions in which all magazines should include and expanded more on the points as to whether I have challenged them or not.

The title of my magazine I believe could have been greatly improved as since my main competitors were of an indie/rock genre they had a more creative name: i.e. Q! and Kerrang whereas although the title of my magazine ‘indierocks’ was different, I think it was too common and unoriginal as appose to other existing music magazines on the market. Especially since my title was chosen purely because it included that sort of genre music. Yet, if I explain this contextually I believe the title of my magazine informs you what will be included in my magazine unlike Q! and Kerrang where there articles are similar to mine but the title is broader suggesting that there may be some confusion between readers. As you can see I have placed my masthead at the top of the page and behind my model and kept it capitalised and bolded. I believe this has a huge impact on my readers as it attracts their attention more. The colour of my masthead also plays a vital part as to why I’ve chosen red as with the many connotations regarding red, I believe it symbolises power and passion something which my magazine includes. 

One thing which will always be the biggest selling point for a magazine is the main image, and

that is no exception in my magazine. By studying other music magazines and looking at competitors one thing that really stood out was sex. This is having sex as a symbol which is represented on a musician or in their gestures. This is exactly what I did for my main image on my magazine; I had my model topless with only a jacket covering her naked chest. By dressing my model in all black I believe it helped me to show a sexier, seductive side which hopefully increases sales in my magazine. I believe by challenging my competitors instead of an extreme close up like most magazines and using a long shot we see the model’s figure, facial expression and body language something which will appeal to many people.  The impact of the model’s hand gesture shows us her ‘naughtiness’ and suggests that my magazine will be something different than those on the market already. 

My contents page also plays a huge part by challenging competitors. It uses many conventions like similar magazines, yet I believe it challenges existing magazines by the complexity of my layout. Although it has a 'flow' you very rarely see a layout like my own. Once again I have used red as a main colour scheme due to the many connotations of the colour. I believe my edited images play a vital part to my magazine, as since I have greyscaled images number 36, 32 and 60 we are focused more onto the main 'article' of my magazine - Holly and once again her sexiness. However one thing I believe could be improved would be the 'contents' I believe it's a bit too boring and I could have inserted the name of my magazine, like most magazines do. 

My double page spread is something that definitely develops on conventions within a typical magazine. I once again have used the same colour scheme: red and black yet slightly changed the background colour in order to match the drop down in the photography studie. Especially to keep it looking sleek and eye catching I have my main image on one page and the article on the adjacent side. I believe the impact of my quoted heading is a great use of challenging other magazines as it's something different, and something I have hardly seen in other magazines. One thing readers will notice is the bottom of my magazine on the contents page and double page spread, I have used a red 'line' with the date and page number included on, this is so readers can navigate a lot easier and I believe the 'line' gives my magazine more of a flow and adds a finishing touch. Something which I also haven't seen very often in magazines.