Research: Music Magazines
The NME was first published in 1949 as a British music journalism newspaper (image on the left) but then started transitioning to a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. NME was revolutionary as it was the first paper to include a singles chart (1052), was the first magazine to create an online version (1996) and also became the best-selling music newspaper in the 1970s. Nowadays, NME is largely associated with rock, alternative and indie music.
Q is a mainstream British music magazine published monthly which was first released in October of 1986. This magazine covers pop/rock music, mostly from the present with a few features of older artists.
This magazine cover is representative of the pop/rock genre as the central image is a close-up of Liam Gallagher who was in a popular band called Oasis who were formed in 1991. As well as this popular names of bands and solo artists are surrounding the cover to reinforce what type of music Q specialises in.
Revolver is a heavy metal and rock magazine that is issued twice every month, published by NewBay Media.
Marilyn Manson, a well-known metal figure, is featured as the prominent image on the front cover of Revolver; this emphasises the fact that the magazine mainly features heavy metal. Manson's mise-en-scene highlights stereotypical aspects of metal such as a black leather outfit, black hair and violence which is associated with the long sword in his hands. Moreover, he has thick, black eyeliner on, has smeared lipstick across his face as well as bearing a tattoo sleeve.
Kerrang is a British magazine devoted to pop punk and rock music which was first released in June of 1981 as a one off in the Sounds newspaper. From here on, it has become one of the most popular music magazines for teenagers.
- Clearly aimed at teenagers due to the poster give-a-way seen in the bottom left corner.
Mixmag focuses solely on electronic dance and clubbing music. A year after electronic dance music was introduced, Mixmag began publishing magazines (1982) in order to cover dance events, review music as well as club nights.
Metal Hammer is a heavy metal music magazine produced monthly by TeamRock in the UK - it is also available in several other countries by a variety of different publishers. Metal Hammer cover the whole spectrum of heavy metal, differing from mainstream bands to more unknown acts.
Maverick is a leading country music magazine.
Uncut was first launched in 1997 as "a monthly magazine aimed at 25-45 year old men that focuses on music and movies. In 2006, Uncut went through a redesign, resulting int eh magazine no longer mentioning books as well as reducing its film content - this meant that it was able to cater more for music. Uncut is known for featuring popular, classic artists, for example, David Bowie (a revolutionary musician) is seen on the front cover to the left.
Which music magazine do you think your artist's album would be most likely to be advertised in and why?
I think that my artist, EDEN, will be best suited to NME as it features established and up and coming artists. Moreover, NME is associated with the indie genre, the same genre of music that EDEN creates.
In addition to the previous task, I also made a list of conventions that I found on a variety of digipacks in order to see which conventions were more common. The three most common conventions were the artists/bands name, the album name and the artists website.
The magazine advertisements that I looked at were all for indie artists. This ensures that my magazine advertisement will also have the same conventions as others in the genre. Here are a couple of examples:
The thematic style of the advert consists of anachronistic, gray-scale hues. Within the direct centre of the image is Alex Turner, the bands lead singer, of him performing live with thousands of cheering fans visible in the background. The scene resembles a music festival due to the event clearly taking place outside. Due to this, it reinforces how the Arctic Monkeys heavily relies on performance mainly because of them being in a band.
The logo of the band, which is also their name, is slotted in behind Alex Turner becoming part of the mid-ground. It is made of a large,bold font which, in comparison to the shadowed tones, stands out meaning it would easily catch the readers attention. It is located in the top third of the advertisement, ensuring that it is the first thing to be seen. As well as this, the supporting artists name is in a bright, white shade however it is much smaller than the main bands name and is positioned directly under the bands name to the right. Additionally, within the bottom third, the tour dates and contact information is listed in the same white colour but this time a different font which is clear and easy to read. By having all of the words in the same colour, it creates flow and continuity within the advert therefore making it aesthetically pleasing towards the audience.
Conventions: Artists name, image, tour dates, ticket information and contact details.
INSPIRATION
Learning About Photography
When I photograph my images for the magazine advertisement, I want to be fully informed on the various elements and parts of a camera so I am able to use the settings to achieve there full affects.
ISO: This refers to the light sensitivity of the camera's sensor. By lowering the ISO settings the picture will have less noise however it will need more light and a longer exposure time. On the other hand, by increasing these settings, it will make the sensor amplify the light, allowing shots to be taken in darker conditions. Unfortunately this affects the quality of the image as it produces more noise leading to the picture being grainy.
Shutter Speed
Aperture
http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/lighting-for-photography/
Lighting
By completing a lighting task on my main page, I have realised that for my magazine advertisement I want to:
- Use artificial light as this enables me to have full control of the quality of my photos.
- Explore coloured lighting, perhaps tones similar to what I will use in my music video.
- Experiment with low key lighting to make the advertisement look bold and dramatic in order to obtain the viewers attention.
- Although soft lighting is easier to achieve, I believe that hard lighting will help increase the aesthetics within the advertisement.
A problem that I encountered during the photoshoot, was the blue smoke bomb appearing to be white. This affected my shoot as I wanted a blue shade, for continuity reasons, and the white smoke wasn't distinctive. I decided to carry on with the shoot, as I could change and manipulate the colour of the smoke during post production, on Photoshop.
For my magazine advertisement, I have decided to use smoke bombs as this is a visual tie in to the title of my song 'Fumes'. As well as this, it also represents the overwhelming nature regarding sensitive subjects that are addressed throughout the album.
I have purchased smoke bombs of pink and blue shades in order to provide continuity across all of my products; they all include pink and blue colours.
Shooting For Magazine Advertisement
Due to the fact that we couldn't perform the photoshoot inside, because of smoke sensors, I set up a makeshift set outside. To diffuse the natural light to create a softer image, I chose to do the photoshoot within a forest - some of the light got blocked by trees.
To create the set up I required four assistants, two to hold the backdrop and two others to hold the smoke bombs. Here is a picture of this:
Here are the photographs from the shoot:
Post Production
This was my initial design I created for my music magazine advertisement. Here is a transcript of a discussion I had with my target audience group regarding the design:
Refining Idea
