AS Music Magazine Proposal Table - Second Draft

With the majority of my ideas surrounding my music magazine now being set in stone and with some form of understanding over what I aimed to create for my task, I drew up a final proposal table which I could easily compose all of the suggestions I had mind mapped of which I wished to include. Below you will find a brief overview of method, conventions and themes I intend to implicate in my publication as well as a summary of my target audience and highlighting moreover the potential problems I expect to incur during the developmental stages.

Proposal Form

Describe your idea for the brief: My idea and whole focus of the work I will produce will solely be based around creating my own personal music magazine, which will generally target the indie/alternative rock music scene, following major music artists in that industry (for example The Arctic Monkeys, Muse) whilst also posting information about new and upcoming artists to this huge sub genre of music. I intend to include more dated musicians as well (these can range from The Eurthymics and The Police), this is due to a minority of my audience members being brought up in the era when these bands were still fairly popular, understandably they may have been exposed to them at a young age and as a consequence brought up with this category of music. It would be in my best interests to feature some content on them as this could aid me in attracting a larger audience gathering rather then if I was generating focus upon a select few.This product will direct its attention entirely around the artists compositions, back stories, studio work and where they hope to advance to next. It will not follow gossip on those who have appeared on reality shows/contests as this is hypocritical of the message my magazine will put across to readers – that only those who have worked hard to achieve there positions in life will be featured.

Genre/ sub genre: list similar texts which have inspired your thoughts The genre I have chosen to base my magazine off is the music industry. I want my product to target audiences who listen to indie/alternative rock as it is a poorly misunderstood concept of music that is ignored by so much of the population at the expense of more popular categories (generally pop artists like Rihanna + Olly Murs etc are highly indulged in) are what the music magazine industry focus on repeatedly and do not feature other less known sub genres of music, which I believe to be disappointing. I’d like my magazine to display to audiences a unique, different side to music and allow them to read about such inspirational artists they have never heard of. Instead of featuring those who have succeeded in this industry because of talent shows, I want my production to emphasise to the readers those who have strove incredibly hard to get their places in the charts through, determination, courage and thorough work rather then being catapulted to fame through a TV show. Ultimately I'd like these artists to inspire my audiences, highlighting to them significantly that dreams can come true if you are truly determined to achieve them. As my products are complying towards a more niche genre of music I am gaining some insight into how to present the magazine by looking at mainstream publications that are already distributed to gain an understanding of how to organise my layout, conventions and content. Some of the popular magazines I have chosen to base my ideas on are Kerrang, NME and most essentially Q which is where I am replicating the majority of my flatplans from.

Target audience: gender/ age/ characteristics/ behaviour My magazine will target both genders aged from 15 years old above. Indie/alternative music is generally associated with more mature age groups, due to the intensity of their music and mature themed song writing which has more depth and understanding then what you’d expect to listen to with another genre (largely pop) whose lyrics are mostly wrote by producers and not the artists themselves therefore conveying little personality or meaning. Featured will be a large scale of artists- mainstream ones who are well known in my genre of music and are extremely successful to those upcoming who are still unsteady on their feet and need there work promoting to the country for audience support.

Major conventions I will include the masthead of my magazine at the top of the page, preferably in the left hand corner so I can space out my sub articles throughout the cover so they wont be cluttered and messy looking. The masthead will be displayed in fairly large letters to attract the audience’s attention so they will not bypass it on a retail market shelf and it will be repeated throughout the magazine on the contents page (next to the title) and the bottom right hand corner on every other page. The images printed in the magazine will be done professionally with high tech equipment so they are not produced naively or photo shopped but glossy and attractive on the page. Each image will relate to the article it is accompanying.  Drop capitals will be incorporated at the beginning of a new paragraph or separate body of text to link the article and displaying to the reader where it begins. The colour palette will be limited as too many clashing colours may give a tacky effect to my work which is not what I desire, too many colours may also confuse the audience as they might not know where to look and focus on. A maximum of three individual columns will occupy the left side of the page relating to an article on a double page spread with the remaining right hand page featuring pull quotes to draw the reader in, a dominant central image and maybe a strap line. All the text will be in the same font/colour style to keep in regularity and rhythm with one another and to show the reader the article is consistent within itself. The front cover will include one central image as too many may overcrowd the page and be distracting.

Conventions I may subvert/ change/ not use I am not intending to include a variety of different colour schemes or overload on font styles for my text for the finished product, instead I will be conforming to three particular shades - red, black and white as my main palette of choice. My choice reflects the publication I have been inspired by (Q magazine) and I aim to replicate it as thoroughly as I possibly can, due to it being my desired  as this can generate a cheap, tacky feel to the product (as if you are trying to impress the audience too much) and may deem it very unprofessional in presentation. Too a wide variety of images may be off-putting to the reader as they would be looking at conflicting information and may have trouble distinguishing which are the main articles of interest etc and may seem too much trouble worth reading to them. If all the images on the covers referenced to a majority of the articles inside the magazine then the audience may think they’ve seen enough of what’s involved in that issue and may not actually bother buying the magazine to finish off the articles as they have already had too much of a large preview as what’s to come.

Original images: what/ where/ what For the front cover of my product I will only feature one enlarged, central image that will revolve around the main feature of that particular issue, it will take up a majority of the page with attention to detail solely on the artists face or entire body, emphasising to the audience who exactly they will be reading about. I’d like the image to be a full body image, with everything but the face slightly faded out to focus interest on the main characteristics of the artist. Or I could orientate the remaining sell lines away from them, so they would be surrounding the image of the model instead - these two techniques could aid in highlighting the significant importance of this particular musician on show to the audience, indicating that really no other story is relevant as what they are. The shot will be of a female/ male singer- this relates to both genders, I'd thoroughly like my product to be orientated towards to two genders, rather then exclusively one. This will allow me to appeal to a much larger variety of audience members I wouldn't normally anticipate then if I was to focus upon one gender specifically (an example of this can be seen in fashion magazines such as 'Glamour' where women are the desired target audience, the topic itself excludes men as its an interest they stereotypically wouldn't adhere to or express interest towards) . On the contents page will be a large image of a band or artists (that is not of the one featured on the front cover) that will be the centrefold of the contents, using a different musician to the one seen previously aids to develop a sense of variety within my product as if it relied massively on one individual in general to appeal to the readers,it would. A short paragraph will accompany this image, with reference to the article and page number. I will include several other photographs (these again will revolve around another unique artists, possibly one with focus upon the main sell line displayed on the cover), this will act as a technique reinforcing to the reader this issue will be revolving around a lot of the qualities and work of this specific individual. There will be a professional gloss/finish to each of the images to make them look less like the work of an amateur, in this case I will need to conduct the vast majority of my photo shoots in a authentic environment, such as a studio.

Potential difficulties/ Plan B: A major set back with the creation of my magazine will focus largely on getting the images to perceive at a highly professional standard; I don’t desire them to adhere to the famous photo-shopped appearance, as at that expense the professionalism of the photographs is undermined significantly. Photoshop difficulties revolve around saturation and hue inconsistencies, rough cuttings via the magic wand tool and incorrectly altered positioning of the model on the frame. To overcome these errors I will have to ensure the photographs I take are of the highest quality before they are uploaded to this software, this will save me editing them to these extremeties and will enable them to retain a sleek, finished look. Recruiting models willing to be featured in the product can also be highlighted as a problematic area, along with matching the right characteristics of each person to the genre of music I’m focusing on. I need the images to match the text style and font without looking largely out of place, so the artists will have to conform to the category of music appearance wise - for my indie/alternative rock choice they will need to regulate to the desired standard of; having vintage styled clothes, pale face makeup with emphasis on the eyes, and messy styled hair. Obtaining members of the public like this would normally be a challenging feat yet I already have several friends in mind who fit this match up perfectly so I doubt this will become an underlying issue. The colour palette is critical to the overall success of my magazine, the wrong choice of colours can defer away from what music I’m publishing about to the audience., moreover the scheme must reflect the intentions and perceptions of the artists on the cover and the music they produce (for example if I was producing a heavy metal themed publication then a dark black and white palette would be most effective in relating to the dismal and grimy nature of the music being featured) Ultimately I regard my most major concern would me being unable to successfully book the studio at my local campus to capture my images at as this would allow me to develop a high quality, authentic looking magazine photograph without difficulties. Should this issue arise and I'm unable to fill in a slot then I will have no other alternative but to look further afield and browse other studio locations where I could base my shoots at. If however I was still unsuccessful then my final protocol would be to arrange a location shoot which may mean I will have to alter the entire layout and theme of my product.