Magazine Title Fonts

Textual Analysis of the 'NME'



Better known as the NME, the “New Musical Express, is produced by IPC Media. It is published weekly for a price around £2.20. After looking at this particular front cover I would say the NME is aimed at older rock fans, mainly males, but other editions would show the targeted age group is around 20 – 35 year olds. In 2005 the magazine had a redesign in order to attract older readers. They may also look to attract younger indie fans (15 – 20), but I would say this is not their intened target audience.

The NME’s first issue was in March 1952 and int hat year it also set trends by becoming the first paper magazine to include a singles chart. During 1972 and 1976 NME was particularly associated with gonzo journalism, it then became closely associated with punk rock. NME also covers other genres including indie and mainstream rock.

Even though NME remains to be a market leader since 2003 where its circulation figures were high they have declined ever since.  This is not just evident with the NME solely but also with the rest of the magazine industry and its close challengers like Kerrang. In 2003  NME’s circulation was 72,442 but in the first half of 2010 circulation figures was at 33,875, this shows a 53% decline in circulation figures since 2003. Despite this NME have tried to retain some fans with ever growing new media, this has been achieved by convergence with internet presence and creating a website.

The colours used ont he front cover are red, black and white, this may suggest that these are the house colours. You also have light blue and bits of yellow that blend in. The masthead is outlined in the three house style colours against the light ice blue background, making it stand out and more prominent. While the magazine’s main colour is red, they don’t over do the use of the red, this wise use of the red enables the magazine to maintain the mature rock status that it intends to appeal to.

The NME is laid out in a conventional way keeping to the traditional codes and conventions.  The magazine has a strap line that says “BIG GIG SPECIAL ISSUE” this lets the audience know that something big is happening in this issue. It also contains the more traditional codes and conventions like sell lines, slugs, barcode, price and date. In addition to that, in modern times since convergence is occuring more and more, including the website address is now seen as something that just happens now. However, while the magazine has sell lines and promotes them using ‘special guests’ instead of having a striking phrase near them it just uses the logo’s of the band.

The band on the front cover is ‘Manic street preachers’, they was popular in the 80’s suggesting that the target audience os for older generations. From the main picture all 3 members of the group look directly at the camera, this gives us a direct mode of address. While it giuves the direct mode of address, it also portrays enigma. All the memebrs of the group are dressed with a shade of black. The member in the middle has a Welsh flag on his cheek which implies that he his Welsh and possibly the band is Welsh too. To add to the mystery of the band there is a gap on the right side of the page, while the other 3 members are close together. The story behind this is that one of the members from the group went missing, the positioning of the members re-enforces that. In addition to that the guy in the middle has 3 heart badges, but no fourth, this may show they felt abandonded by the fourth member.  The mise en scene of the picture differs, two of the members are wearing military jackets while the one on the right is wearing a causal jean jacket.  This makes the band look mature and serious while also keeping up with modern times. This emphaisies the fact that the band was from the 80’s. While also creating a look of enigma the lighting in the photo shows another side to the band. The icey blue lighting behind their heads shows that the band isn’t full of mystery and enigma, but it also holds quality and truthfulness to them.

 

Textual Analysis of 'Q' Magazine

Q magazine is a market leader in the music magazine industry and is considered as a mainstream magazine. It is published monthly by Bauer Media Group for a cost of £3.99. Personally i feel the target audience is broad as there is no indication of which sex it is specifically aimed at, but i would say it is for the ages of 21 and 35.

In recent years the circulation of magazines has slowly been falling mainly due to the emergence of new media technology.   Just like the rest of the industry Q has seen a fall in circulation figures in the past couple of years, in the first half of 2009 Q was the UK’s best selling music magazine with figures of 100,172 but during the second half of the year Q had been over taken by Mojo as the leading music magazine, from the first half circulation figures had fallen by 5.4% and by 8% on year on year. In the second half of 2010 circulation figures had fallen significantly to 89,450 with a 6.0% fall. Despite these falls in circulation figures Q magazine has shown signs of convergence by developing their own TV and radio stations as well as having some internet presence.

The masthead Q runs tight to the top left hand corner of the cover. The title is in a white with a red background behind, this makes it look striking and easy to catch the audiences attention. The placing of the tittle in the top left corner enables it to be seen as on magzine shelves the top right corner is covered. The main colours Q use, red and blue, contrast and complement eachother. It also has bits of brown and green, all the colours stand out, are easily able to attratc the readers attention and also show the magazine is trendy and lively.  Q maintains its house colours by using them in the slug and sell lines.

On the main cover you have a collage of cartooned, graphic and photographic images. The group pictured on the front is ‘The Gorillaz’ who happens to be a cartoon band.  It shows the band memeber attacking the the masthead with a harpoon gun, it shows the band’s child-like behaviour.  The wave they are riding is quite high, this may symbolize the fact that they are at the peak of their career as well as tying in with the sell line, “A star studded crew set sail again”. In addition to that the wave creates intertextuality. The attacking of the title with the harpoon gun shows the mode of address, by doing this it creates a mischevious but also fun and entertaining look, this links to the child like manner of not only the Gorillaz but also of the magazine. The wave has pictures of all the artists that featured on the Gorillaz new album ‘Plastic Beach’, this from of representing the other members shows intertextuality of a concept created by Katsushika Hokusai. Also the work of the sailor underneath the wave can be interprutted in two different ways, firstly it can be seen as a thought bubble leading from the sailor to the wave or smoke rising from his smopking pipe to the wave.

While Q magazine have not followed all of the general codes and conventions of magazine by challenging them they have tried to add a unique look to their magazine. Even though the magazine has a strap line – “The UK’s biggest music magazine” -, it’s placed right at the top of the page and above the mast head, where as it usually placed directly under the mast head. It also follows the codes and conventions by having sell lines, puff, barcode date and price however, it slightly challenges the conventions in various ways as the barcode, date and price are placed are placed above the sell lines. Also the sell lines are right at the bottom of the page and they look to converge other topics into this one music magazine (i.e. football and confessions)

Questionnaire Analysis

For this question I intended to find out how often people read a magazine. This would benefit me as i would find out how best often it would be for me to realise my magazine. From feedback no one read a daily magazine, this was partly due to the fact t he more and more people have access to the internet but also magazines are rarely published daily. I found that the highest category was monthly and this is how often my magazine, Urban Underground, will be published. The next highest group with 9 people was weekly while 7 people never picked up a magazine.

This question was key to my pricing strategy of the magazine. When I looked at the prices for modern day magazines there was general price level and the prices for magazines varied dependent on the name, content and issue. Therefore it was appropriate to ask the audience what they felt a reasonable price was. The highest percentage group was for a price £2-£2.99, this was considered reasonable as it wasn't too costly and would most likely represent value for money.  The second highest group was £1-£1.99, on the other end you had £4+, this was deemed too expensive. 

With this question I was basically re-confirming the interest of the magazine, if there was no interest in the magazine then it would be pointless producing it. Clearly from the graph you can tell that the demand for a magazine from the grime genre is evident, and it justifies the production of the magazine. 70% said that they would be interested if the magazine was to be made, while 30% would hold no interest. 

For this question I'm trying to find out what readers would consider a decent length magazine. While all the set answers got a response many opted for the larger magazines. Readers would most prefer that the magazine was for longer then 60+, this would be a could size magazine especially considering all of the advertisement that is going to be the magazine too. 9 people suggested that the magazine was between 40 and 60 pages, 7 said it would be good between 20 and 40 pages, while 0 to 20 pages got the smallest response of 3 people. 

Sketch of Double Page Spread

This is the sketch of my double page spread. I designed this so I can get an idea of how I wish to plan it out and hopefully this will provide to be helpful for when I get to this task as it is already pre planned.
To get the sketch on to the computer I had to scan it in, however I had to go over the markings in a black felt tip pen to ensure it was dark enough to see once scanned.

Background of Grime Music

Grime is a genre of urban music that first emerged in Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop.Grime is typified by complex 2-step breakbeats, generally around 140 beats per minute and constructed from "different" sounds. Stylistically, grime takes from many genres including UK Garage, dancehall and hip hop. The lyrics and music combine futuristic electronic elements and dark, guttural bass lines.

According to Sasha Frere-Jones, writer for The New Yorker, grime has developed a fierce sound by "distilling" rhythms to a minimal style resulting in a choppy, off-centre sound. Whereas hip hop is inherently dance music, the writer argues that "grime sounds as if it had been made for a boxing gym, one where the fighters have a lot of punching to do but not much room to move." Frere-Jones also states that grime has maintained a style distinct from American hip hop, with clear Jamaican and Caribbean influences. Writer Hattie Collins supports Frere-Jones' analysis by asserting that grime is "an amalgamation of UK Garage with a bit of drum'n'bass, a splash of punk and a touch of hip-hop thrown in for good measure."

Grime emerged from Bow, East London. The emergence of grime is intrinsically connected to its origins on UK pirate radio, with many performers honing their skills and achieving underground success before approaching the mainstream. Like other Garage variants or mutations, pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM and Freeze 92.7 and MajorFm.com were essential to the evolution of the genre. MajorFm.com was the first online station to support Grime music & gave Grime its first recognition to the international market. Grime was still at this point known as a number of other terms, the original artists involved in the scene initially resisted attempts to be classified as "Grime" artists, as a derogatory term created by the media and not the producers or artists who created the scence. Grime was eventually accepted and now alongside dubstep, represents innovative sound coming from the streets of London and the UK.

Grime, however, is a cross-pollinated genre, taking influence from a variety of different cultural styles as well as musical ones, and is therefore still in many respects considered to be underground music, even after mainstream exposure. It exists in a largely informal economy in which most artists make their debuts on independently-produced battle DVDs that, like mixtapes are sold out of barbershops and make their way around the city.

Dizzee Rascal is regarded as the first grime artist to gain international acclaim after winning the Mercury Music Prize, for his debut, Boy in da Corner. It was not until the release of his third album, 2007's Maths + English, that Dizzee experienced the same kind of international acclaim. Dizzee was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize again, and despite the fact that the album was not released in the United States in 2007, it received high praise from international music critics, magazines, websites, and blogs, By 2009, he had achieved three Number Ones in a row.


The international growth of the UK grime scene has also been evident in recent years with many of the popular grime artists playing on the Urban music stages of the big summer festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park. For example Dizzee Rascal played at all these events in the summer of 2008 and other important grime figures such as Roll Deep, Boy Better Know, N-Dubz, Wiley, Kano, Skepta, JME, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Giggs, Professor Green, Devlin, Example, Lethal Bizzle, Bashy, Ghetts, Ironik, Wretch 32 and Scorcher. Grime music continues to grow exponentially and is helped by the coverage the genre gets in the media, from sources like Channel AKA, BBC Radio1, Kiss's Logan Sama and dlmagazine.co.uk

Questionairre

Questionnaire

Q1. How often do you read magazines?
            A) Daily          B) Weekly       C) Monthly     D) Never

Q2. What type of magazines do you read?
            A) Film/TV     B) Music         C) Gossip        D) Other..............

 Q3. What would you consider a good price for a monthly released magazine?
            A) £0-99p        B) £1-£1.99     C) £2-£2.99     D) £3-£3.99     E) £4+

Q4. What is your favourite music genre?
            A) Grime         B) Rap             C) R’n’B         D) Rock          E) Other............

Q5. If a grime magazine was produced, would you be interested in buying it?
            A) Yes                         B) No

Q6. What things would attract you in to purchasing a magazine?
            A) Free gifts                B) Colours       C) Cover Stories         D) Cover artist                        E)Other........

Q7. What music magazines do you currently read, if any?
            A) RWD         B) NME          C) Q    D) Mojo          E) Other.........

Q8. Do you like to listen to new, up and coming artists?
            A) Yes             B) No

Q9. What would you consider to be a reasonable length for a music magazine?
            A) 0-20 Pages             B) 20-40 Pages            C) 40-60 Pages            D) 60+ Pages

Thank you for taking time to complete this questionnaire.

Introduction & Proposal

My aim for this project is to create an appealing grime music magazine. It will be aimed at ages 13 – 19, mainly because grime is a relatively new music genre. In addition to that, it will obviously be aimed at people who like grime, however it is not specifically aimed at a particular gender as the music is appealing to both sexes, although it is preferred by males.
The name of my magazine is “Urban Underground”. This is because grime is very much seen as an underground music genre and its audience isn’t as big as other mainstream music genre’s. The first part of the magazine is named “Urban” because, it will be aimed at teenagers in urban. It will also look to address urban areas of towns and cities which tend to all contain similar urban issues and problems as well as similar fashion tastes and trends.

The term and title “Urban Underground” not only gives the magazine a title but also has a much deeper meaning. The word urban is generally used to inner-city areas and in these areas is where grime is mostly listened too. In addition to that “underground” represents the fact that the music genre of grime is not completely mainstream even though it may have felt some exposure to the mainstream from artists such as Chipmunk, Tinchey Stryder, Wiley or Tinie Tempah it still predominately remains as an underground music genre.

I plan to do two different photo shoots with the first coming in early March and the other in mid-March; this is because the first photos I take in early March will be used for my front cover. During the time of my first and second photo shoot I will be able to prepare ideas for my second photo shoot as well as working on my front cover. I will have two different artists for my photo shoot, but they will both have an urban look to them. I will try to take my photos in urban areas, so it relates to the magazine title and main audience target. For my second photo shoot I will try to find an area with graffiti, or park as it will look unusual for a grime artist, it will attract people to look at it and buy it. In addition to that there is a considerably strong link between grime and graffiti. While I accept that finding a decent area with good graffiti as well as lighting conditions, I believe it is not out of reach to obtain. In the unfortunate event that I am unable to find a suitable place to take pictures with graffiti behind my photo shoot will be changed.

For my front cover I aim to follow the main conventions of a music magazine by having a title, strap, picture of artist etc.... I have decided to stick to the main conventions of a music magazine because it I challenged them to much it would be hard to identify by potential customers. I will try to use contrasting colours, but I will be using the two neutral colours as well as two others as the fonts, this is because if I use too many colours it will look unprofessional and jumbled up. In addition to that I will use eye-catching words the will catch the audiences eye, I will be putting them in capital letters and bold to ensure that they do catch the potential buyers eye.

For my contents page I will be basing it on an idea that I have already seen. I will take a vertical full-length shot of my artist against a white background; this will be the artist on the double page spread, there will be a gap underneath him, this will tell the readers what page his interview is on. To the right of him it will be the main contents where it will be telling the readers where other main articles are within the magazine. If there is space under the contents there may be a short note from the writer as it is the first edition.

My double page spread will have the main conventions of a double page spread. One of the pages will be covered by a picture, however unusually it will have two pull quotes. On the other page I will include a little introduction of the artist, with an interview below it. I will have another main pull quote in the in the middle of the middle column too. The main idea of having the interview is to attract new customers as well to attract established fans.

Preliminary Contents Page

This is the mock up of my contents page. I created this using Adobe Photoshop Elements, due to the fact that I wanted to see what different effects it had to offer for both text and pictures. Before i uploaded this picture it had to be exported as a jpeg, where as in InDesign you can just save it as a jpeg.

 

Preliminary Cover

This is my preliminary task of my front cover. The main point of this task was to get a feel for the different photo editing software’s available. These two photo editing software’s are "Adobe InDesign" and "Adobe Photoshop Elements". After messing around with the different types of software I found that "Adobe Photoshop Elements" is easier to use on a personal point of view.

After analyzing the mock up of my magazine cover I found that cutting out images is not only long but it does also make the magazine look a bit more unprofessional and less serious. On the other hand though, the slant of the text just above the title, and the change in shape of the title is good as it is different to what you would normally expect to see.