Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products? 

The current market of music magazines is very competitive and it is becoming increasingly difficult for music magazines to become and remain successful.

At the beginning of 2011 the circulation figures for a sample of music magazines was:

• Mojo ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 87,555 ; -7.5%
• Q ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 77,522 ; -12.1%
• Classic Rock ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 62,354 ; -7.9%
• Uncut ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 62,305 ; -14.2%
• Kerrang! ( Bauer Consumer Media ) : 42,077 ; -2.1%
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) : 35,259 ; -15.7%
• New Musical Express ( IPC Media Ltd ) : 27,650 ; -14.0%

As you can see there is a lot of competition and each magazine's circulation has decreased, most noticably, Metal Hammer which has decreased by 15.7%.

On the front cover of my magazine, the union jack design element shows the audience that that particular story in the magazine will be based in Britain, it also shows that this story is important  in the magazine and that is why it is standing out on the page. This design element also adds a professional look to the magazine and grabs the readers eye immediately, this is a convention of music magazines and has before been featured on the cover of Q which shows that it is a legitimate convention.

The title of my magazine on  the front cover is similar to the colour of the background, this challenges the conventionality as most magazine covers have their title a very different colour to their background so that it stands out. However, my title still stands out equally, if not more then these magazine because the title has an outline which compliments the "Nova Solid" font and distinguishes is clearly from the background.

The picture that I used for my front cover is conventional for a music magazine; the guitar shows the audience clearly that the genre of the magazine is music and the fact that it has a woman on the front cover appeals to the target audience (indie males between 16-30), my model is looking down and smiling which looks coy and a bit shy but the fact that her legs are bare is common for magazines because it adds insentive for males to buy the magazine.

I chose this model for my magazine because she is an indie person naturally, she suits the clothes and her hair is a similar golden colour to the guitar so it meant that I could use the eyedropper tool and apply this colour to some of the fonts. The clothes that she is wearing are associated with the indie culture, the typical 'grandad cardigan' and band t-shirt shows the audience what the genre of the music that will be featured in the magazine is.

Most music magazines consist of three columns, although they are sometimes uneven, for example sometimes it will appear that there are only two columns when in fact there are still three but a picture or paragraph of writing takes up two columns with one third pf the page left and consisting of more writing. On my contents page I have created three columns but the picture in the bottom hand corner goes across two of the columns. This breaks up the writing and allows visual aids for the reader so that they dont get bored or skip the writing all together because it could appear overwhelming.

  

 My target audience will understand what genre of music is featured in my magazine because of the stories that are featured on the coverlines. Bands such as Vampire Weekend, Foo Fighters and General Fiasco are featured which shows the indie rock genre and appeals to the target audience.