Music Magazine- We Love Pop.

Music Magazine.

We Love Pop.

I have decided to research the new music magazine out called We Love Pop. The magazine will target a core audience of 13-15 year olds with in-depth interviews with pop stars, behind-the-scenes exclusives, photos and a "high-end cover gift" designed to appeal to a savvy teen audience.

Egmont saw a gap in the market after another pop music magazine “Smash Hits” ended in 2006. Smash Hits had a similar target audience to the audience of We Love Pop so therefore when Smash Hit’s was closed, there was a gap to fill for the good of this age group. We Love Pop has circulation figures of around 115,000 and it is becoming popular with teenagers. Whether or not the circulation figures are going to rise or fall we don't know, but with the figures being at such a high rate it gives the impression that they will rise.

The typical content of We Love Pop are articles on bands and artists, interviews, features on film, technology, film and beauty.

‘We Love Pop’ is edited by Malcolm Mackenzie, the former music editor of News International’s defunct free newspaper thelondonpaper, and will launch with a print run of 200,000.

The marketing campaign will include point-of-sale activity with retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and WH Smith Travel, advertising on London buses and digital activity on Stardoll, Sugarscape and Vevo.com.

The digital campaign was devised by digital agency Hello World and the outdoor ads were created and bought in house.

The accompanying website (www.welovepopmag.co.uk) will include a rolling news blog, Twitter and Facebook integration and dedicated YouTube channel featuring clips, behind-the-scenes footage, pictures, competitions and downloads.

Advertisers that feature in the first issue of the 68-page magazine include musical label Universal, for its new girl band Wonderland, and online clothing site BooHooSister.com, while boyband The Wanted are advertising on the website.

Mackenzie said: "Pop music and following the antics of pop stars has always been a fundamental part of growing up, but it has seen a real resurgence in the past couple of years.

"With pop domination of the charts, and a host of TV shows like Glee and X Factor feeding the buzz, we believe the time is right to bring the pop world to life for a new generation of teens."

We Love Pop is published by Egmont Publishing. This publishing company publishes children's magazines and children’s books.

On the magazine cover we see colour, happy faces and simple text. There is more images than there is text on the cover, because it is directed at quite a young audience, it is more easy on the eyes. The use of bright colours will attract people to buy this magazine, and the images of happy, smiling celebrities will also intrigue a buyer. The lack of capital letters in cover lines looks relaxed and informal and makes the magazine seem a lot more welcoming. Supplementary images of star, beauty and fashion lure the audience in and pull quotes add a personal feel and an exclusivity as the audience get to know things about their idols. 

We Love Pop aims itself more at a young female audience, with it’s use of girly pictures, stories and free gifts. It appeals to a young female audience by using content such as boyband pull out posters, free girly gifts with the magazine, and bright colours on the front cover. 

The simple, bright cover attracts a young audience because it looks interesting and fun. This is an important element for a successful magazine. 

Their visual style is very bright and colourful, with pictures of celebrities, bubble writing headlines, and bright colours to draw the readers attention in. We Love Pop, have taken into consideration that because it is aimed at such a young audience, the reader; take for example a twelve year old girl; will automatically look at the bold colours, and the main picture on the front. It is vital to include strong imagery and key words because this is what the buyer will see first. From what I know about the media, I know that all of these key elements have been used to connect to the audience. 

Musical interests and favorites include people such as One Direction, Cher Lloyd, Tulisa from N-Dubz and Rihanna. It is important who is placed on the front cover, as they will be a major influence for the reader. So for example, if a celebrity that was always getting into trouble was on the front that wouldn’t set a good example for the young audience reading the magazine. 

The launch price of the magazine was only £1 which for the young target audience with pocket money is inviting and very cheap. However, now the price is at what it was meant to be which is £2.99 which is still manageable for this age group.

There are a lot of females of similar and just older ages used on the covers which can support that the audience is female as the music stars are there to be admired and used for aspiration from the young girls. The celebrities on the front cover will have to be credible

The magazine comes within a plastic packaging, due to the fact that you win something free every  time you buy a magazine. This is another way the publishers of We Love Pop have decided to market their magazine into getting readership, and attracting the audience. 

Egmont Publishing are the publishers for We Love Pop. Egmont Magazines is the UK's second largest children's magazine publisher. They are passionate about children, and are a leading publisher of children’s magazines so they pay particular attention to their readers, whether they’re three-year-olds learning to enjoy their first magazine, or trend-conscious 12-year-olds. 

Egmont was started more than 130 years ago, on 15th May 1878 in Copenhagen. Egmont had developed into the media house it is today and a leading provider of entertainment in Scandinavia with operations in over 21 countries. 

They regularly test their magazines in research sessions with children and their parents, to make sure that their magazines are the best and most engaging titles in the industry. And they firmly believe that by enjoying their magazines, children of all ages are developing vital life skills – in reading, puzzle-solving, and interacting with others.

Many of their magazines star famous brands such as Disney characters, Barbie, and Thomas The Tank Engine and Dora the Explorer. They also publish their own titles for older children, Toxic and Go Girl. They are part of the Egmont Group, a publishing and media organization with activities in 30 countries worldwide.

The children’s magazine market is the 3rd biggest magazine category in the UK by volume, behind women’s weeklies and TV listing magazines. They sell over 12 million magazines every year, and publish over a dozen market leading magazines for children 3-12, both under licence and their own brand. Egmont publishing work with some of the biggest brands in the world including Disney Princess, Barbie and Power Rangers. They dominate the primary girls’ magazine market with over 30% share of the market. They are an online publisher now too with the launch of two websites for kids- www.toxicmag.co.uk for boys 7-12 and www.gogirlmag.co.uk for girls 7-11. 

Last year alone, Egmont Publishing commissioned over 20 research projects and spent time with over 550 children. They spoke first hand to 200 parents and had 5,500 responses to readers survey’s. This shows that they spend a lot of time and money on research in schools, focus groups and reader surveys. It also highlights how they strive for “Unrivalled Consumer Knowledge” and greater insights into their users and choosers. 

We Love Pop isn’t a children’s magazine however, it is aimed at a young teen audience so I found it suprising to find out that it’s publisher specilises with children’s magazines.  

This double page spread from We Love Pop shows a large picture of Cher Lloyd, big enough to cut out which is also indicated by the scissor lines going down the side of the page. She is showing excitement and fun, to make the reader feel happy to be reading this article. She is also looking directly at the reader to make them feel connected and close to the celebrity. The pull quote is eye catching and show’s sarcasm and indicated that the article is going to be funny. It could also show the stars feelings about being made to feel like a bad person, which goes deeper into the article and allows us as an audience to relate to her, so therefore it is an engaging article. This is used because it is supposed to make the readers want to read on and find out what the article is about and the use of bright pink shows how the article is going to be quirky and funny. 

 Music Magazine.

KERRANG!

One music magazine I have decided to research is Kerrang! Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music, published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper. Named after the onomatopoeic word that derives from the sound made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar. Kerrang! was initially devoted to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the rise of hard rock acts. In the early 2000’s it became the best-selling British music newspaper.

Kerrang! is aimed at a niche audience that listen to the music and bands that are shown in the magazine, which are mainly rock/metal. This is also shown by the images and fonts used that seem more violent and aggressive, this is the kind of image that is associated with that genre of music. 

Kerrang!'s popularity rose again with the hiring of editor Paul Rees circa 2000 when the nu metal genre, featuring bands like Limp Bizkit and Slipknot were becoming more popular. Rees went on to edit Q magazine and Ashley Bird took over as editor from 2003 to 2005. However the magazine's sales went quickly into decline in 2003 and Paul Brannigan took over as editor in May 2005.

With the emergence of emo and metalcore, Kerrang! began to heavily feature this musical trend. However, the revamp was not welcomed by all readers and many complaints were received about Kerrang!'s sudden emphasis on emo and metalcore music. Brannigan took the magazine into its most commercially successful period with a record ever ABC for the title of 80,186 copies. It's circulation figure is 43,033. These figures are rising due to the popularity of Kerrang. Another reason for the current rise in circulation is due to the loyalty from readers. 

Kerrang! aims itself more at a male audience and appeals to them by using content such as hard rock and metal iconic male bands on the front cover pulling angry faces or violent expressions. Female readers are targeted by the use of male bands on free pull out posters and feature interviews. 


The edgy, underground and individualstic style appears to rock readers and draws them in, this is a crucial element of any successful magazine.


It is also essential to include key words on the front cover that will attract a greater audience; three words in particular are believed to have the greatest effect- free, win and sex. If all of these words appear on the cover of any magazine it is more likely to increase sales. Kerrang! uses at least two of these words on every issue. 

Their visual style is very black and dark, along with the occasional colour to draw the audience’s attention. Which again highlights what kind of magazine they are and what music they promote. When attracting audiences, it is vital to include lots of strong imagery and key words on the front cover of the magazine as this is what any buyer will see first. Kerrang! uses a significant colour pallet, the main colours are white, black, yellow, red and green. These enable the magazine to be eye-catching and it allows certain cover lines to stand out. These basic colours are continued throughout the 70 pages creating a dark and moody ambiance. From the information I have gathered about the media I am aware that the publishers of Kerrang make sure all of these elements are involved when designing the front cover because it allows connection to the audience. 

Kerrang! pride themselves as the UK’s premier multi-platform music destination ‘bringing the best in rock online, on the radio, on TV and in print’ and it is clear that they use many successful methods in order to attract their key demographic audiences. If they are to sustain their title as the worlds biggest selling weekly rock magazine they will  need to continue developing their publication. With technology, society and the music industry constantly changing it is vital to keep improving. 

Strategies such as the use of graphics, colours, font sizes, anchorage text, advertisements and imagery can prove successful in capturing these fresh ideas. If the magazine allows itself to become monotonous or out of touch with it’s target audience it poses the rick of losing readership and more importantly revenue. 

This is a double page spread from Kerrang! and as you can see it portrays colours such as black, white and red, which helps to highlight a gothic theme. Another reason these colours might have been used is because they are the colours assosicated with Rock and Roll. This is more likely to attract males rather than females due to the emotion and expression on the pictures, and because of the dark colours. The background of this double spread looks dull, but it is this was purposly so it blends in with the rest of the theme. The red highlights specific things that Kerrang! want the audience to notice first, whilst the white is used to make the text clear against the black background. 

The design on the magazine is mainly images of the band, as they are the main feature. The text only takes up the top half of one of the pages. The images look as though they have been taken at a live gig which intwines with the theme of the rock genre, and it makes the page a lot more exciting and interesting for the reader to see. 

The double page spread talks about a common rock band called My Chemical Romance, often known as MCR. We can see visually the easiest thing to notice is the image of Gerrard Way, because he takes up the whole left hand side of the article. There isn’t a lot of text with this article, which gives us the idea it is more of a visual piece. As we can see, Gerrard Way is the background, and because he takes up most of the page we automatically assume the article is based around him. 

The images of the band members with their eyeliner, long hair and messy clothes indicate what sort of music it is going to be about. All of these things are the kind of image people would link with a typical rock magazine. 

There are many links that exist between music magazines and other media. For example, with any magazine it is important that the style is eye-catching and the theme runs throughout. This affects what happens in a magazine because it suddenly becomes competitive as no magazine wants to be the same as another. 

Another link is the link between what goes into the magazine, and what has been said in the media. For example, with a music magazine there might be an interview with a famous singer or band, but if a similar interview with the same singer or band had already been done on TV or radio, again it becomes competitive because no form of media wants to be the same as another. 

The Process I Went Through To Complete A Front Cover.

At the beginning we were set a brief which said we had to produce a new school/college magazine featuring a photograph of a student in medium close up plus some appropriately laid out text and masthead.  I also had to produce a mock up of the contents page. We began by creating an account on "blogger" where we would post all of out ideas, research and drafts. 


I began to research different college and school magazines. I realised that college magazines have got to look happy and positive, with the picture of the front representing this.Then, with some inspiration I began to have some ideas of my own. I photographed some of my friends, and did some headshots of my friend Zoey. I uploaded some of these pictures onto my blog and decided on the one I wanted to use.


Once I had finished doing my research I began making my own drafts. Whilst creating the front cover for my college magazine I knew what I wanted to be done I just had to work out how I would be able to achieve this. I started with a flat plan design of the layout I wanted, however this quickly changed when I started fiddling around with colours and shapes.

We were told to use the software "InDesign" which I had never used before. Whilst using this I came across some difficulties such as how to send the photo to the back of the page, how to make sure the photo isn't blurry and how to make the title stand out more than anything on the page. All of these issues I had may seem simple to someone else but I had never done something like this before.

However, after working out how to use things in the correct way, I found I began to enjoy the process of making my magazine cover. I researched different magazine's and looked at their covers for inspiration and realised it's a difficult task trying to pick the few but vital things to place on your front cover. You have to take many things into consideration such as, trying to make sure your cover isn't too busy, making sure the colours you have chosen compliment the photo background and the other things you have put on and the size of your font. All of these things are important to making sure your cover is at a high standard and looks professional.

One of the pictures I was going to use was of my friend Sam doing a ballet pose. I wanted to use this picture because I was going to link it with with a cover story, and also because it represented a course at the college. However, due to how I took the photograph there was far too much going on in the background, so I asked Dick if there was any way of getting around this and he explained to me that I could cut out the background of the image and have it as white. I experimented with photoshop, and tried this process. Unfortunately, because of the awkward angle of the photo, this proved far too difficult and I didn't have the time. Eventually I had completed my first cover for my magazine, but I wasn't happy with the final outcome as it wasn't to a high enough standard. I then re-drafted this and ended up with something I was very proud of and thought it was too a high standard and looked professional. 


With my second draft I decided to change the photo, and use one I had taken of Zoey. It was a medium close up, with her looking extremely happy and smiling. When I placed this photo onto my design I realised it worked a lot better than my previous photo. It gave off a positive vibe and feel to my magazine, and showed happiness at college which is the way the college magazines I researched appeared to seem. 

Completed Front Cover.

This is the first completed draft of my front cover. As you can see a lot has been changed from my flat pan design. Whilst experimenting with the software and different things I could do with my front page, I changed a lot and tried out new things. I enjoyed doing this, as it helped with me understanding how to work the software, and taught me how to carry on until you are successful and happy with your final outcome. I am happy with my final piece as I think it has good contrasting colours, a bold title, and an eye-catching photo for the background. I don't think it is too overloaded and it is attractive as well as subtle. 

I really enjoyed doing this work as I found it educational as well as enjoyable, and I'm thrilled with how my first completed draft has turned out.

Draft 1 For Front Cover.

This is my first completed draft for the design of my front cover. This took a lot of time because I had never worked in this way before, and I had to figure out how to put everything on to one page, fonts, and shapes around it. As you can see it would not be my final completed front cover, but it shows experimentation. After looking at this in detail I am not happy to submit this for my final design as I think there is more that can be done so I will draft it again.

Proposal.

PROPOSAL.

·      Who you are aiming your magazine at specifically? (there needs to be a clear sense that you are targeting a specific audience)

-A young audience aged between 16 – 20 years old. The reason I have chose a young audience is because of what I would place in the magazine.

·      What will your magazine be about? (what might the typical content be?)

-It would show the latest things about college, student stories and some fashions. It’s typical content would be anything that would appeal to young students.  For example; information about university, jobs, agony aunt pages and also the latest about celebrities to give a sense of entertainment.

·      What are your ideas for cover lines?

-My ideas for cover lines are:

1.   -I’VE GOT A DEGREE BUT THEY DON’T SEE.

2.   -HOW I FOUND MYSELF IN COLLEGE (STUDENT     STORY)

3.   -101 LATEST FASHION MUST HAVES.

4.   -IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR YOUNG STUDENTS GETTING A JOB?

·      What title have you decided on and why? (you could also include examples of titles you have rejected and explain why)

I have decided on “HOW I FOUND MYSELF IN COLLEGE (STUDENT STORY)” because it would be entertaining to read in a magazine, as it would be like a true life story, but at the same time it would be educational because it would include morals and lessons within the story, that would create a good impact on the young readers.

I rejected “101 LATEST FASHION MUST HAVES” because it felt as though that would be aimed more towards the female audience, and I want both female and male to read the magazine and be able to relate to it.

·      What fonts do you want to use? (you could include examples and if you have got as far as thinking of ideas for the design of the masthead you could include these too)

-For the Mast Head and the Tag Line I am going to use “handfont” because I like the way it looks like handwriting.

-On the contents page I am going to use the same font.

·      What are your ideas for taglines (if you want to use one)?

-For all students who have a dream.

-For all students that will push through.

-To be something.

·      When in the year will it be published? (cover can reflect seasonal changes or events, consider the academic year)

-It will be published just after the summer break, because the magazine will include new things, and things that have changed around the college by the time the students have returned from the summer.

·      What kind of image do you expect to put on the front cover and how will you go about getting this image?

-The kind of image I want is of a group of students in the café at college. I want a naturel photo. I would ask a group of people if I could take a photo of them.

·      How frequently would it be published?

-It would be a monthly magazine.

·      What are the dimensions of the cover (magazines are now available in different size formats)?

·      What images/colour would you use on the contents page?

-I would want to match the contents page to how I would want the rest of the magazine to flow.

Photographs.

These are the photo's I have taken to be placed in my magazine. As I have decided to put a cover story of a girl who dances on my front cover, I had to take some dance shots. I think these will be successful because it relates the the topic of my magazine. The other shots are of students working which ties in with the college magazine theme as well. 

Flat Pan Designs For Magazine.

These two images show the flat pan designs for my Front page and Contents page for my college magazine I am making. As you can see the front page is very basic so far, as it is only an outline of what is to be placed onto it. I did this by drawing my design onto a piece of paper and then scanning it on to the computer. 

Magazine Design Ideas.

Had trouble uploading my flat plans will do it as soon as I can.

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

Magazines such as "MORE", "BLISS" and "GLAMOUR" should be held responsible for what they put across to teenagers because young people are very easily influenced., especially with something that is worldwide as it appears to be true. The media talk through the magazines, saying things such as "Get the look of this model". I don't think this is a good influence for young teenagers because it can make them want to be or  look the same as someone else, and some young teenagers go to extremes to achieve this.

"MORE" magazine represents fashion, beauty, gossip, true life stories and celebrities. The cover of the magazine shows a picture of a famous celebrity who is supposed to be influential and a cover story about them. It also consists of a lot of fashion and a lot of beauty tips. In the eye of a teenager, things like this are extremely important and the magazine should take this into consideration. The more beauty and fashion they display, the more obsessed teenagers become with looking "perfect". The magazine does pages and pages of the top looks, and where to find them. This isn't such a bad idea, because every teenage girl wants to be able to look nice and follow the fashion, but when it is a constant repetition, it can become a ritual for some girls to have nothing but the latest and greatest clothes, bags and accessories.

However, "MORE" magazine does offer real life stories, which help the readers relate to certain issues. These stories are from real people, not celebrities and it is a healthy change from the many similar stories talking about "How I got my skinny beach body". The magazine also offers an advice column which helps the teenagers that read the magazine.

"BLISS" magazine offers real life stories, posters and a magazine full of celebrity boys. This magazine is based at young teenagers and doesn't stress the importance of beauty as much, it's  focus is entertaining young teenagers with things such as boys, real stories and horoscopes.

However "BLISS" magazine does talk about celebrities and it mentions a little bit of beauty. But although it does this, it isn't to the extent where it is majorly influential. So therefore I think that Bliss magazine shouldn't be held that responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer because there isn't that much of it.

In comparison to "BLISS", "GLAMOUR" magazine does quite the opposite. Even though personally it is one of my favorite magazines, it's main aspect is fashion, beauty and celebrities so I think that they should be held responsible for the impact they have on the social viewing. The cover of the magazine is the same as the others, the main picture  is a celebrity and it catches the eye of the viewer, the story is normally something big that is happening in the celebrities life, or something that will boost their career. "GLAMOUR" magazine also offers advice about money, family, relationships and jobs which is a positive thing because it is supporting the viewers.

"VOGUE" magazine should be held responsible for the social ramification of what they represent because it is highly popular, well known fashion magazine. It's main priority is expensive fashion. It is sold all over the world and is an upper class magazine. It is an American magazine and picture's models on the cover who represent extremely small body size. For this reason, they should be held responsible for the picture they are representing to the public because it is seen as "beautiful". "VOGUE" has fashion columns, the hottest looks, and celebrities. They write stories such as "How to be a recessionista" which is a positive and negative thing. The positive being it helps women budget their money, and the negative being they are showing it as important to spend money.

In conclusion, I think magazine covers aimed at teenage girls should have more advice columns, and stories insinuating that models and celebrities aren't always the only role models needed to be a fashionable person. I think the current obsession with size 0, and the constant overflowing pages of beauty and fashion should be put to a minimal. They shouldn't cut it out all together because that is what makes the magazine interesting for young teenagers, but it should be at a quantity that isn't going to make young teenagers, girls and boys, feel as though they should be the way that the media represents.

All of the magazines I have mentioned above show fashion, beauty and celebrities. They are all sold for the same base reason and all have at least one influence un common. If i was to create my own magazine I would include the main things that make it sell, them being beauty, fashion and celebrity gossip. However, saying that I would also make a main bulk of my magazine representing young people, and influencing them in a good and positive way. It would have advice columns, real life stories, and pages upon pages of things that young teenagers can relate to.

How a blogger will be helpful in my coursework.

How a blogger will be helpful in my coursework...

1. I  think a blogger will be helpful in my coursework because it is available to me at college and at home at all times which means whenever I have an idea I can log on and save it.
2. I also think a blogger will be helpful because it will help me get used to working with a mac computer, as well as working with a media based website. 
3. I will be able to upload photo's write essays and change to format and layout of my blog, this will then teach me and allow me to practice using ICT in my work, which will be needed for my final outcome of the Music Magazine. 
4. It will help me keep up to date on my coursework because I am always on the computer at home, so I will log on all the time.

Things you can do with Blogger.

Things you can do with a blogger...

1. With a blogger you can record research, show thought processes, evaluations and show how you have created and edited your ideas.
2. Bloggers give you the ability to share your thoughts.
3. They let you make a professional looking portfolio of ideas.
4. Bloggers are an easy, accessible and modern way of saving all your thoughts. 
5. Bloggers also help to develop ICT and Literacy skills.