Planning.

Target audience.
In terms of audiences, magazines tend to have a main target audience. My main target audience is going to be 16-19 year old females who have a general interest in music. The musical genres i will be covering are rock, pop, jazz, drum and bass, blues and folk. The publications included in my magazine will be information about:
New bands, gigs and festivals
Music based competitions
Interveiws with current musicians and new musicians
It will act as a way of advertising new bands as freebie demo tracks can be given away with the magazine.

It will appeal to this perticular target audience: Female 16-19 beauce I have analysed and compleated a questionnaire on what they would want from a music magazine. My results showed that:
Female models on front cover are prefered.
From this I can get an idea of where I would advertise my magazine. My research shows that most females aged 16-19 spend their time:
At college
At the cinema

At a friends house
Shopping

From these ideas I can choose where would be a suitable advertising point. At college and shopping centers seem to be the best places to advertise as they hold large groups of people at a time.
Now I know my conventions I can use them to start drafting my own magazine. I will start by mind mapping my ideas for a name for my magazine.

From my ideas I have chosen Venus as my name for my magazine. This relates to my genre as there is a saying 'Women are from Venus' and my magazine is aimed and designed specifically for women. This can also give me an oppotunity in the future if i want to expand to a male audience i can call it Mars, because 'Men are from Mars'. Also to make my masthead even better I am going to add Music From - in front of the work Venus. Music From Venus.

Research continued/ Questionnaire/ Conventions

After analysing both magazines of the same genre and other general music magazines I can now make some connections between conventions of music magazines.
Front pages of music magazines have:
catchy mastheads which are music related e.g Music-zine.
a photo/image related to music in some way e.g. band photo.
plugs which draw the readers in by giving away information from within the magazine.
headlines explain what the main story is about and relate to the main photo.
subheadings describe what else is in the magazine.
Contents pages of music magazines have:
an image(s) of bands or other features who appear as stories in the magazine.
a letter from the editor.

"ONE WAY".

One way music magazine is a source for adult eclectic music from Rock, Jazz, Singer-Songwriter, World, Blues, to Folk, Roots, and Ambient. Also find music gear, musical instruments, recording gear, music software, audio equipment, books, music accessories and more. ONE WAY has everything for the music enthusiast.

There are only a few musical genres that arent represented including Metal, R'n'B, Pop and classical. If the magazine represented all genres it would hava too much to cover.

"Music-Zine"

Music-Zine, represents a wide variety of music genres, therefore reaching out to a wider target audience.

I know that the conventions of a font page of a music magazine are the masthead, photo;s of musicians/bands, headings, sub headings and plugs. This can be backed up by this magazine music-zine. The masthead on evey music-zine mag is in the same position using the same font but in a different colour, in this occasion. The colour red is then reflected in the plug, win stuff!

The other colous used on this page are red, black, and yellow. Red and black are contrasting colours and we accociate them with rock music as black represents darkness, death etc. Red represents blood, love etc. The other colour yellow adds a contrast and balances out the page.

It will be important to choose the correct colours for my front cover.

My Magazine.

I am now ready to create my own magazine. I will decide on the genre and target audience.
From my research I have found that all front covers of magazines have the same conventions: masthead, striking photograph/s, plugs and sub headings. Therefore I will include these in my magazine.

I have also discovered that all magazines have ideological colours and images that run throughout the magazine. This helps support the genre and allows the genre to run througout the magazine.
For example.
The image to the right is a snippet taken from music magazine "Metal Hammer". The specialise in reveiwing the latest metal muisc, hense the name Metal Hammer. Their colour scheme is black and white, with a splash of a different dark colour, usually red, purple, blue or green. Another element that runs throughout it is the sarcastic quotes (that some poeple may find funny) like "Goth, shadow sandwitches?" Comments like these are also used throughout and have beacome a sub convention of this specific magazine.

My chosen music genre will be current contemporay music, including rock, jazz, drum and bass, blues, pop and folk.But I will be focusing on new bands that want to make a name for themselves. Each new musician can bring something different to the music industry, but only a few have the chance to become famous and well knwon worldwide. The aim of my magazine will be to give new musicians a voice so they can show their talents and love of music to people it will appeal too. But my target audience will be females, as I belive males still dominate the music industry and its about time women had a fair share. There are currently magazines on the market that are similar to the one I want to create, Neu! Magazine, ONE WAY and Music-Zine. I am now going to analyse two of these magazines, One way and Music-Zine, so i can understand their house-styles, genre, media language, representation, ideology audience and institution.

"Gramaphone magazine"

Fig2. Gramophone - established in 1923 and has grown up alongside the classical music industry. Known as the greatest classical music magazine worldwide.
Genre: The musical genre's represented in this magazine are classical. The stylistic features help us identify the genre.These are the masthead, the colours used and the type of photograph used. Like in this example all the colour are complimentary. The golden/green colour of the ladys dress is reflected in the masthead and the plugs. The typical content of the magazine, written in formal language, is interveiws with famous musicians...
Target audience is middle aged to older people, as they are stereotypically the type of people who would listen to classical music. Also this magazine will be aimed at middle/ upper class, the type of people who attend the theatre/opera. The rich golden colours used on this front page give it an upper class look along with the way the classy looking woman is positioned on the fancy staircase.

I also have a double page spread from this magazine. This page consists of one large photo, and two smaller ones. The text is in 4 colums around the images. This is layed out so the audience can read it easily. I like the pale blue background, it is better then just haveing a plain white background as it makes the text stand out more and fits with the colour scheme.

Research.

To start with, I am going to list the music I like to listen to. This will give me an idea of the type of magazine I will be most comfortable making.
Music/ bands I like...
Santagold, Micheal Jackson, Evanescence, Kings Of Leon, Theory Of A Dead Man, Powerman 5000, Tenacious D, Puddle Of Mudd, House Of Pain, Eminem, Red Hot Chilli Pepers, In Flames, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, No Doubt/ Gwen Stefani, Pink, Missy Elliot, Riannah, Beyonce, Outkast, Kelis.

LIIAR
Language.
The language in a magazine is represented through; photos, text, use of font, plugs, type fonts and the masthead.
Institute.
The institute is the publisher who makes the magazine, they are often referred to as the 'House Style'. Some leading publishers are:

• E-map - a media group that focuses on five main areas: construction, retail, media, automotive and public sector. One of their newspapers includes the Guardian.
• IBC - leading international forum for the electronic media industry, attracting visitors from more that 130 countries. Work with state of the art media technologies, from radio and television broadcasting to digital signage and 3D cinema.
• Future - a special- interest media business, with leading brands in many sectors.They produce 72 magazines each month. These include: Total film, Classic Rock, T3 and official PlayStation Magazine.

Ideology
The ideology is the ideas behind the magazine. Why is it produce, who for? Whats its purpose?
Audience.
Nowadays there are music magazines to suit almost everyone, from very young to old. The target audience can be identified through the use of colour, images and language used. For example, 'Smash Hits' is clearly produced for a younger audience aged 8-12 because of the layout, colours and information presented through the language used. Where as 'Mojo' on the other hand is aimed mostly at middle aged men. This is shown through the language used and people/bands that are represented.
Representationn.

Different magazines represent different social groups. 'The process whereby the media constructs versions of people, places and events in images, words or sounds through media texts to an audience.'

I am now going to do some primary research by asking a range of females aged 16 - 19 a variety of questions which will help with the planning of my magazine.

Next I am going to collect and analyse a wide range of magazines that are already in the market. This will give me idea of what people already like or dislike so I create something different to whats already out there.

Genre: Fig1. Mojo Music Magazine established 1993, know as 'The music magazine you go to when you've grown out of all the others' . (Quote taken from the Mojo website.) This gives the impression that their target audience is middle aged people who still appreciate knowlage good music from the past and the present. It for fills their needs on music l as they probably have families, jobs and busy lives so they no longer go to gigs but still follow their favorite bands. The genre's of music that are represented are classic rock and a bit of modern rock. But nothing too heavy. This is one of the main features of the magazine, as they only cover big, well known bands, whereas magazines such as NME will cover new bands. Typical content of this magazine will include album reviews, interviews with big names and bands and competitions. The title MOJO extends to other medias as it is now a radio station and music channel.
Media language: On this particular front page there are only two different types of font used. Bold serif font is the dominant style used, this is because it is clear and easy to read. There is also some scrawly handwriting used in the background written across the title. The sizes of the fonts vary. But as with most magazines, the masthead and the sub heading are the two biggest so they stand out to the reader. The rest of the plugs which are less important are smaller. The colours used are contrasting colours, white on black. Grey on blue. These colours are also typical of the genre. People who listen to rock are know to wear black clothing. The band on the front are wearing greys and blacks, this links them to the text. The photograph is a medium close up, to show the guys facial expressions. The band The Beatles are known worldwide therefore they want to be represented in their typical chilled out way, with sunglasses on and suits. As the band is ageing they may still want to show a specific attitude to their audience and fans. They are looking chilled and "cool" because of the shades, suits and cigarette's. As it is an all male front cover with dark colours, this will probably stand out to men more than women.
Media language - layout: The four main elements (photo, masthead, sub heading and plugs) on the page are lay ed out so they are aesthetically pleasing to look at.There appears to to two photo's. One is a background image and has been stretched open, then everything else has been layered on top of it. It looks really neat. Everything is set out carefully in its place.
Media language - title: The word MOJO is described as a magical charm or spell, a amulet worn by adherents of voodoo. The magazine isn't about voodoo or magic, but the title can denotate that this magazine will be special, give the audience the best information.