Music Magazine research- Q

Q magazine focuses on popular music. Unlike other music magazines, it has a variety of acts on the front cover, not just focusing on a particular genre. This is the ideology of Q because both old and new is important as well as all genres. The audience expects to see a variety of artists on the front cover, from rock to pop to indie.

It is a quality magazine as it is produced monthly and has a higher standard of photography and printing. This is to set it apart from all of the other music magazines as it shows the quality. Q also heavily relies on reviews for the content of its magazine. It reviews music as well as films, TV and live concert reviews. It also focuses on interviews with artists in depth.

When newer artists are on the cover, it tends to be just the lead singer of the band as they are the one in the band with an instantly recognisable face such as this Kasabian cover. They released their debut album in 2004 so are considered to be a newer name. The two members on the front cover are Tom Meighan and Sergio Pizzorno who are the lead singer and guitarist/ backing vocalist respectively. Only die-hard fans would know the names of the other members of the band as these are the two who tend to do all of the promotion for the band. When older bands are on the cover, it tends to be all members as they have already established themselves within the music world.

The main image is of Tom and Serge. The readers eyes are immediately drawn to the guitar on fire. This could either be an influence of the coverline “the 101 hottest things in music now” or the main coverline “Kasabian: they’re on fire” which is a play on their latest single, Fire; this is for readers to decide. Going against the conventions of a music magazine, the shot is a long shot. This is to show the full effect of the guitar as well as the band members. They have full eye contact with the reader. However, Tom (on the left) is staring directly at the reader as if he has something serious to say and wants to seem powerful whereas Serge (on the right) is pulling a “serious rock face”. This fits in with the ideology of the magazine as readers believe that Q is traditionally about influential music and are always on the look-out for new and upcoming artists to listen to. Also, they tend to like classic guitar music which Kasabian fit in with.

Unlike some other music magazines, they tend to have more than one image on the front cover. This could be to show that their focus is not just of the main image; there are other important features within the magazine.

Q are well known for their lists such as 50 bands to see before you die and the 100 greatest albums. However, they have been criticised for compiling too many of said lists as it is considered lazy journalism. However, these lists are often compiled by readers participating in polls on their website.

The masthead, Q, is instantly recognisable on shop shelves because of its red background with a white Q on top of it. However it hasn’t always looked like this. Only since June 1992 has it been this way. Previously it had been the white Q on a blue, red or yellow background. When it was first published, it was supposed to be called Cue but this was scrapped so it wouldn’t be mistaken for a snooker magazine. It was changed to just the single letter Q as this would look more prominent on newsstands. Also, it is the most successful music magazine so the public

know about it so it can be covered because it has already been established.

The sell line at the top of the magazine is not a typical sell line. Normally, it is a feature in the magazine but this time is just the statement “the UK’s biggest music magazine”. This could be because the main feature of the magazine is the 101 hottest acts so this will take up a big chunk of the magazine.

The dateline, price, barcode and issue number are all in the bottom left hand corner. This is because the makers of the magazine know that if the reader has looked at the magazine and likes the look of the main image and coverlines, they will not be bothered about the price and just buy it anyways.

The institution of Q is Q which also has its own radio and TV channel as well as its Q Awards ceremony and website. However it is published by Bauer Media Group. Their purpose is to make money as it is commercial. This means that it contains adverts and the content is mostly music.

Q magazine targets the music and lifestyle audience. However it doesn’t have a target audience as such because it just targets music lovers.

Conventions of a Magazine

On any magazine, you would find:

• masthead- this is the name of the magazine, usually displayed across the top of the front cover or in the top left hand corner. The masthead has a unique font so that it is instantly recognisable.
• dateline- this is the month and year of the magazine as well as the price and often the issue number.
• main image- this is representaive of the audience and of the magazine's ideology. It is always a single image and is always a medium close-up shot so that the model has the full cover and can make full eye-contact with the reader.
• model credit- this is the coverline, usually to go with the main image. It sometimes includes a quote from the article to grab the reader's attention.
• coverlines- there are usually several coverlines on the front cover, referring to other articles within the magazine but they cannot be too distracting as this will take away the effect of the main image.

In music magazines, the conventions are:

• the main image is always a band or an artist, relating to the target audience and the ideology of the magazine. As well as this, they always have full eye-contact with the reader to portray confidence and often intimidating.
• there are usually several quotes used as coverlines which refer to articles inside.
• there are usually lists of artists featured in the magazine on the front cover as coverlines
• nowadays, they usually give away a free gift such as a CD.
• the masthead is instantly recognisable. Fans of music magazines will be able to recognise them, such as Q magazine uses a white Q on a red background and has done since it was first published.

LIIAR

In order to have a successful media production portfolio, I need to follow the 5 key concepts which are:
Language- Specific terminology for media texts.
Institution- An organisation, anything that produces a media text.
Ideology- System of beliefs we all share and media texts deliver their messages.
Audience- Consumers of media. How the audience consumes it and the target market.
Representation- Represent society back to us and its values.

Main Task- The Brief

Main task- the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you- minimum of four images.

Evaluation

For the preliminary task, the brief was to produce the front cover and a mock-up of the contents page for a college magazine.

To start with, I decided to research existing college magazines to see which key ingredients of a normal magazine were included. As a result, I found that all of the college magazines I researched all had similar features, such as a masthead, a strong central image and various sell lines.

After this, I made a plan of the features on a magazine front cover and then added details of my own, such as how I wanted the image to look and the sell lines to go on the front cover.

Next, I did an IT draft to see how the layout of the front cover would look.

Then I did a hand drawn draft so that I could add details such as the masthead and the issue of the magazine.

After this, instead of constructing the front cover, I decided to research the contents pages of popular magazines. Of the three I researched (Total Film, Vogue and MOJO), two of them had a contents page that went over two pages. All three had the contents listings as well as images relating to various stories on them.

Next, I produced a mock-up of the contents page on Publisher. On this, I decided to have two images as well as the details of the next issue, the contents listings and an image of the front cover. I thought this would be the most suitable for a magazine as there was a balance between images and words.

Following this, I organised the shoot for my cover photos. I wanted a blank background and for my model to be holding textbooks and folders as this is what a typical student would be carrying.

After taking the photos, I started to compile the front cover of my college magazine. I added most of the key ingredients such as the masthead, date, website address and the main image. I chose the colour scheme as purple and white are unisex colours and enhance the Wyke theme. I also incorporated the Wyke slogan ‘Freedom to achieve’ in as a cover line. Also, the two other cover lines about the fresher party and NUS extra cards as I thought these would be relevant to Wyke students and would draw their attention.

I think that the planning went well as I made sure I did a lot of research before starting the task to get a better understanding of magazine front covers, especially those for college students.

However, I could have managed my time better by starting the project earlier rather than leaving it to do at a later date.

To improve for the music magazine task, I will makes sure that I plan my time better to enable me to have enough time to produce the articles but I will spend a bit more time planning as this will help me to produce a better piece.

I think my front cover does cater for my target audience of college students as they will be able to relate to the main image and cover lines.

Unused Photos

Front Cover