Final Front Cover

This is my final magazine cover. I feel that it has improved since the first draft. It adopts conventions of the music magazines I have been looking at, and looks more professional and simpler than the first.

I used the title HAMMETT as a legendary band in this music genre is Metallica, and their guitairist Kirk Hammett will be known and respected by people who enjoy this kind of music. The auience will only know what it means if they know this kind of music. Then they may feel like this magazine is for them because they know.
The photograph shows, from a first glance, moody teenagers. Teenagers will relate to these people hopefully, and the older readers will be attracted to the names of older bands such as Metallica and Them Crooked Vultures, a band which features the bassist of Led Zepellin, John Paul Jones.

This is my second draft for my front cover. I feel it has improved, but I am hoping to make it look more professional. This is my aim for the final piece. I may take the colour pink from the cover as it does not fit in with the general conventions of rock magazines. However, I will transfer the pink to the "Dead Embers" double page spread.

This is my first draft for my front cover. I used the name Hammet for my magazine after doing research and finding that the it's lead singer and guitarist's last name in Metallica who are highly respected and influential in the rock genre.

Main Task Plan

I formed a plan of action which I am in the middle of completing in terms of creating my Main Piece of coursework for AS Media.

1. Look at different magazines and compare layouts, photography and how they represent the genre of music the magazine is about.
2. Analyse double page spreads, contents pages and front covers.
3. Decide what genre I think will be best for my magazine.
4. Do a contents page mock up, play around with different styles and layouts of the double page spread and front cover.
5. Finally, create my magazine, using influences I have come across while doing research and overally producing a authentic looking, qualitative piece of work.
   

Bauer Media Group

I have recently been reading about Media Institutions, and found Bauer Media Group to be successful with music related media in particular. BMG are an international institution, and I want my magazine to be available in other places than just Britain, so I feel I would use a company like this for my magazine if it were to be published. They own Kerrang and Q (Two well known music magazines), and Kerrang has influenced my ideas for my magazine the most, so I feel they will represent my magazine well. Also, even though it is a Rock magazine like Kerrang, it will be more female-orientated, and therefore Kerrang won't be a rival. BMG began in 1875, and originated in Germany. It has been privately owned by the Bauer family for four generations. They recently took over the magazine and radio divisions of the company EMAP, proving they invest well and have a lot of experience and knowledge. They also sell around 38 million magazines weekly worldwide. Although rock bands don't tend to be mainstream, they have a strong fanbase, and I feel a lot of those are girls, and there are no magazines that cater to only females that enjoy this kind of music. I would like it to be an international selling magazine as the fanbase for this genre of music seems to be bigger in America and other places aorund the world. The issue I am creating is about a band from Liverpool, and many British artists tend to be doing well in America in these past few years, also Liverpool is a well known city for music around the world. This media group has offices from Hungary to China to Austria and Romania.

Overall, Bauer Media Group is a well respected, experienced institution that knows a lot about how to distribute and advertise music related media. Therefore, I feel they would be the best choice to publish my magazine.

Ideas for my front cover!

While looking at all different kinds of music magazines, I decided to make mine a Rock magazine, much like Kerrang. The layout of my double-page spread is going to be quite messy, rebellious...and my band are going to go against the usual conventions of a rock band by being all female. At the moment, an all girl band with music of a rock genre is non-existent in the mainstream media. I've done a mock-up of my interview, which features a lot of sarcasm, swear words and jokes. I planned on giving them a nature much like a male-orientated rock band would have.

Feminist Issues and Kerrang's cover of Paramore.

Paramore graced the cover of Kerrang earlier this year. The style of their music is Punk-rock, and they are one of the only, if not the only mainstream Punk band that feature a female in this day and age. Hayley Williams is without a doubt the most famous member of the band; she appeals to both males and females. Males find her attractive and a lot of young girls see her as a strong role model. This particular Kerrang cover is the only one I have seen that features a headline like "Secret Conflict Revealed!" It is not a gossip magazine but a music magazine, but this may be a featured part of the article inside because this particular magazine will appeal more than it usually does to females purely because of Hayley Williams. When it is a band with only males in featured on the front, it tends to be all about the music. What is suprising is that the female member is far more dominant in the picture. Her brightly coloured hair, her clothes and stature stand out on the page, giving the impression that she is the dominant, outrageous character in the band. The men are clearly not the attraction on this cover. It also appears she has made an effort while the others have not, indicating she herself is trying to appeal to men in other ways than just the music. The headline saying "Paramore!" also seperates her from the rest of the band, giving the audience the idea that the conflict is between her on her own and the rest of them together.

The article about the band that featured in this magazine caused a lot of controversy. The journalist supposedly created rumours and suggested many things that were not true. It seems likely that this would never happen with a band that only contained male members. The journalist suggested that Hayley controlled the group, and bossed them around. This implies that in order to be a female in a punk-rock band you have to have an attitude, when in fact this is not true. Rumours have also surrounded the band involving romantic relationships between her and the other members, which again are false. It is implying that females cannot just be about the music, there has to be some kind of drama surrounding them. However, it seems she is not the conventional girl we generally find in the media. She tends to have very artificial, crazy hair colours that she changes regularly, her dress sense is very modest and it is clear she does not try to appeal to men in that way, yet for acting like this, she only appeals to them more. It is apparent she is subject to the male gaze, despite her being different from what is generally seen as beautiful. (Tanned skin, curvy figure, lots of make-up) It seems the music comes after the gossip for this band, purely because a female fronts it.