More Information On My Music Magazine

What is the USP?

I believe the unique selling point for my magazine is the layout and colours that is used. I believe that the magazines emphasize sophistication and elegance in the way that the straplines go along the outside of the front cover. There is a very consistent use of colours with it changing from black to red and back to black. The colours compliment each other very well and are pleasant to look at. There isn't over the top amount of colours, neither are there too little amount of colours.

Is the front cover fighting OR reinforcing stereotypes?
My front cover is unintentionally reinforcing stereotypes, and that stereotype is that all youths are delinquents. This can be gathered from the censored bar around my mouth, indicating that I am swearing (when in actual fact it is a bait for people to buy the magazine). A lot of people associate youths as thugs, especially if they are in possession of a hooded jumper, and mindless people who have no discipline. This can also be picked up from the black and white picture which resembles a lot like a mugshot of a prisoner.

Front Cover Photo

The shot I used for my front cover of my magazine, is a medium shot. The reason for this being is that the main attraction of this magazine is the model (me), so that is why I had to dominate the front cover with a picture of myself. The picture covers the whole of the magazine from one corner to the other and is the only picture on the cover, except for the small one in the bottom left hand corner (which is of the same person).

The model on the front cover is looking away from the camera, a guilty or culpable look, which may indicate secrecy that can only be unveiled inside the magazine, therefore compelling the audience to buy the magazine. Also the censored bar across the models face reinforces that idea.

As a whole, I believe my photo to be a very engaging one, one that tells a lot of story, and that is what R&B, Hip-Hop and Pop is all about, getting everyone involved. It also reinforces the idea that the stars of the aforementioned genres tend to be the most foul mouthed and “divaesque”.

The costume in this picture was very important because it was a plain polo t-shirt and therefore I was able to write cover lines on it. If it was a heavily pictured t-shirt then it would have brought attention away from the main title. The lighting wasn't as important as the costume, because after I edited the picture so that it was black and white. Nevertheless if the lighting wasn't good then the features of the models face would not come up.

The background is plain, white and empty. The reason why it is important for the background to be plain, is because the main thing we are trying to sell is the artist. If there was something in the background then that could possibly divert the audiences attention away from the artist, who would be the main attraction for that issue.

Plain t-shirt. The

“Ralph Lauren Polo”
logo is covered up
in the actual magazine,

as it would be copyright.

The background
is plain so that I
can write cover
lines around it.

Deciding the name

After looking at a lot of music magazines, I realised that the best selling magazines had a very short title e.g. VIBE, NME, Q etc. That is why I decide that my title would be in initials with the full title being explained underneath. The title I chose was “FHN”, Fresh Hot News, because it had a great ring to it and is an easy name to remember and makes it more likely to be a household name.

The “ews” goes underneath the “N”.

Font

The font for my title is “Chonker”. The reason for using this font is because it is colloquial and suits my target audience. I believe it fits my music genre perfectly, which is R&B, Hip-Hop and Pop. It isn't too posh or hard to read.

Colour

My magazine only used three main colours. They are white, red and black. I think all these colours compliment each other. I got this influence from an edition of VIBE magazine.

How Do Colours Tie In With The Type Of Genre?
One of the main colours for my front cover is red. Red is associated with hot, eroticism and fire, and this is straight away linked with R&B and Hip-Hop stars (mainly Rihanna). This is because these stars tend to have more provocative styles in the music industry. Black would be very suggestive of the metal/rock genre, but because I have white along with black, which is used in a lot of pop music videos nowadays (example being Jay Z ft Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind”) gives it that R&B/Hip-Hop/Pop feeling. The black and white of the colour would suggest that everything about the music artist would be revealed in the magazine, by following the saying of “here is the truth in black and white”.

The three colours that I used for my magazine.

Who is the traget audience and how is this achieved?
The target audience for my magazine, as I said it in my previous posts, is the younger generation and specifically the age group of 16-35. This can be seen through the colours I use, for example I have used the colour red, which can connote youth and exuberance. But I have also used the colours black and white, which can in some aspects be in reference to emos and goths who are most likely to be in the young generation. Another piece of evidence to back up my target audience is the price. The price on the magazine is £1.50, or rather 150 pennies. This shows that the magazine is at a low price because the younger generation are most likely to be unemployed and buying this magazine will not send them into financial debts. There are succinct bits of writing on the front cover which would appeal to the adolescent age group, as they most likely would not want to read chunks of words.