Evaluation

My magazine represents stereotypes and age groups because of the many conventional features I have included in it. It was very helpful that I analysed existing magazines before I made my own as I was able to see what things worked best but also which things didn’t work so well, and this made me make decisions of what, and what not, to include in my magazine. My magazine includes many conventions that are very conventional for a music magazine and I did this so it looks professional and so it can compete with existing magazines in the shops. It includes many features that are stereotypical of a music magazine because of the contentions I have include, for example on the front cover I have a masthead, cover lines, a main image, bar code, a conventional layout, bar code etc, this in effect made it look like a stereotypical music magazine. In relation to content I again included most conventional features in my front cover, contents and double page spread that a music magazine should have, but I chose to include an include some extras to give my magazine an edge on other magazines like the smart phone scanner and my extra image in the left third of the contents page etc, but my choice to use mostly conventional features was because I wanted it to look professional.

Researching demographics has really helped me come to certain decisions when coming to designing my magazine. In particular it’s made me think about what gender, age group and social class I am aiming my magazine at. In regards to gender I have thought carefully about the colours, images, cover lines in my magazine. I’ve used a house style of the colours of red, white and black. I could have chosen to use colours which are more strongly associated with a particular gender such as pink and blue, but however I feel the colours I have chosen appeal to both male and female genders and this is effective as it allows my magazine to have a bigger target audience. When taking my photographs I was also thinking about how it is going to appeal to my audience. I chose to use a girl as my model as I felt this would appeal to more people as I thought females could relate to her, and males may want to know more about her and possibly find her attractive. I dressed my model in clothes that any girl might wear and did her makeup in a way which was unique but that girls can create their self, because of this I feel the female audience purchasing the magazine can look up to my model and inspire to be like her making it appeal to them. I also chose a young model to use on my front cover as my new and upcoming artist to suggest to the audience that you can get success at a young age, also the pose my model is doing is showing open body language showing that she is confident, giving out a positive message to the female readers. On the other hand I feel my female model could appeal to males as they may buy the magazine as they simply find her attractive, or again because they want to find out more about her. When designing the cover lines for my magazines front cover and contents page I had to carefully think about what gender the stories are aiming at. I chose ones which included successful and famous artists as the majority of music fans (of the R&B genre) will want to know about these. The giveaway I have included it also related to both males and females, as the product of ‘Dr. Dre Beats’ is a unisex product and can be used by both genders helping all aspects of my magazine appeal to both genders. In regards to aiming my product at a particular age group and social class, one of the most important features is the price. I’m aiming my magazine at people with a social status and grade of D and E on the demographics table and because of this my main target audience I've aimed at is between 12-17 and possibly 18-24. This is because the audience in these age groups may not have much, if any, disposable income, so I had to think carefully about how I have priced my magazine. I chose to make it a monthly issue and this was one of the main reasons for that. It means my customers don’t have to pay for my magazine weekly, only monthly which may give them time to save a little each week to buy the product, which brings me onto the price. I had to think about how much money people would be willing to pay for a music magazine. After my research about how much existing magazines are being sold for, I chose to choose a price at the lower end. My magazine is priced at £3.40 and $4, I felt this was a really reasonable price for a magazine, and I believe this is a cheap price for a monthly magazine which many customers will be able to afford.

The artists featured on my front cover are all of a R&B genre, however on the contents I have included a ‘GIG REVIEW’ column which includes bands of different genres, mostly indie. This could be seen as unconventional as all of the mise en scene I have chosen to include makes the magazine look like its only of an R&B genre. However I thought by including these bands it would again help increase my customer base as customers that prefer a different genre of music may chose to buy this magazine to read the gig reviews about the band.