Masthead Research

I did some research on current mastheads on current music magazines just to represent current conventions and to compare my own masthead to those of professional magazines i feel that i have followed current conventions as my masthead is white and 4 major music magazines have white mastheads.

Official magazine name and masthead

When creating the name for my indie magazine 'INDIGO' was the first name that popped up in my head straight away and i have used it since. I feel that it's quite a funky name for a teenager's magazine and the play on words works really well;

INDIE >>>>>>>>name of music genre

GO >>>>>>>>could mean to go and listen to music or can symbolise movement e.g. dancing

INDIGO>>>>>>>>a colour, mostly stereotyped as a girls colour (my target audience)

I do not feel that i need to find another name for my magazine, but this may or may not cause me a few problems further on in the process of creating my magazine etc.

When finding the font for my masthead i tried to find a font that stand out from other competing magazines and also has a link to the genre of my magazine. The one that i have found which is called "Reboard" on http://www.dafont.com/ i feel suits my music genre as it looks quite 'clubby' or which you can possibly see on leaflets for clubs or gigs. I also like the way that some of the letters merge together and there are no gaps i.e in the 'O'. I have decided to follow some conventions and use white as the colour of my masthead.

Iconography of my music genre-album covers

These are some recent and past album covers by the artists i have forementioned. I have noticed that all the male artist groups do not actually have images of themselves on their artwork, whereas the female artists all do. Maybe this is because they feel that they need to be recognised as a person/celebrity and not by their music? There is no consistent colour scheme for all the album covers and they all differenciate from eachother, mainly because they want to be easily identified amonst other artists from their genre. There are alot of bright colours though, which supports my choices of colour on my colour palette. All of these album covers help to represent the iconism of indie music and this can help me furthermore revise the mise-en-scene and style of this music genre.

Defining my music genre and relevent artists that may be featured in my magazine

This is a moodboard of a selection of artists that may be featured in my magazine (e.g. in my contents page and front cover). These are mainly male indie/rock artists. I have recognised the mise-en-scene in these photographs are very similar which defines what indie rock artists look like etc. I have also noticed that they are mainly black and white or sepia photographs. Also looking at the facial expressions of these artists they all look quite serious and slightly intimidating. These artists include: THE KILLERS, KINGS OF LEON, OASIS, SNOW PATROL, OWL CITY, THE FRAY, THE ARCTIC MONKEYS, MCR and COLDPLAY.

These are some indie girl artists/bands that will be seen more popular amungst my target audience which are girls. Even though the boys will also attract many of the girls due to attraction etc. I feel that they are more likely to listen to female artists. I can see that the mise-en-scene and style of the photographs are completely different to those of the boys. These artists may also be included in my front cover or contents pages. These artists include: KE$HA (who is a mix of indie rock/techno), LADY GAGA (who can be seen as a pop artist but i am planning to include her in my magazine by having her co-orporate with a indie artist or band), THE TING TINGS, PIXIE LOTT, KATE NASH, LITTLE BOOTS, ELLIE GOULDING and ALPHABEAT.

Copy of my interview material

As RhiRhi enters our studio, she looks calm and cool in tight jeans, and a chequered top. For her first photo shoot she seems to be quite a natural at taking great shots, She jokes around with our make-up artist and seems right at home. For someone with such a mighty voice, she’s pretty titchy regardless of her heels! We can’t wait to see what she has to say to us about her up coming album ‘Reincarnation’, pepperaimi’s and PAT the dog:

Hey it’s a real pleasure to have you here, how are you coping with your new found fame?
Cool thanks! I’ve been pretty busy producing my first album, it’s a lot of hard work and keeping up with my new popularity has been one I’ve had a hard time getting used to, but i'm loving it!

Yeah, we heard about your up and coming album release, are their any nerves kicking in as it’s your first time?
You know I just go with the flow, there are a few nerves but once i’m in the studio you forget about all that, you see its all just to do with the music and if i’m happy with it, nothing else will put me down, if people love my music that amazing but if they don’t, there’s no biggie.

Ok, we can’t keep this in any longer; we’ve sneakily had a pre-release listen to your album at HQ, and were really impressed. Was this all your own work is there someone behind the scenes helping you out, and are you inspired by any current artists?
(laughs) you sneaky little...(laughs) wow thanks guys, erm yeah well you know most of its all from the heart, past experiences you know and all that jazz, they’re key to my music and emotion is what I try to pass on to my fans, so they feel connected to me, you get me? You know behind all the bass and guitar and what people have referred to me as ‘drunken music’, there is actually meanings behind all of my songs. But i’m not gonna lie, I’ve got my inspirations.

Who?
You no, my mum, dad, friends, I’ve lived through life seeing so many things happening, good and bad. I try not to follow other celebrities, I like to be individual.

Yeah, that’s all good we like that. So what are your plans for the next couple of months? Are you considering going on tour after your album release?
I got a couple of photo shoots and interviews coming up, finalising the album, just preparing for my release really and well see what goes on from there, if people like my album then yeah, touring sounds great, I’d love to get in touch with my fans.

Ok, just some random questions now, c’mon its standard procedure, what did you last text say and who was it from?
(laughs) from my brother saying he wants his clothes back.

Ha-ha, yeah we can understand that, what’s always in your fridge?
Pepperamis and Dr.Pepper, I cannot survive without them their my daily fixes, c’mon I’m a teenager? Healthy food doesn’t exist in my world.

Yeah tell me about it, do you have any pets?
I have a fish named COD and a dog named PAT.

HAHA I get it, that’s pretty awesome, well its been great talking to you Rhi, good luck with your new album!
(laughs) yeah thanks guys! Bye!


Note: this is my first draft of my interview, so on my actual final double page you may notice some differences.

Interview Page

This is my first draft for my interview page of my main featured artist RHIRHI. She a artist of my own creation, and i have tried to follow as many conventions and templates of current interview articles and pages i have studied (E.g. Kate Nash interview analysis). I noticed that many interview pages of current music magazines included a stand-first, so i have followed this influence and created my own, including things such as an introduction of the artist, what they are wearing and a slight insight into what the interview contains.

I also saw that many magazines included pull quotes, which are little quotes from the interview which are normally embedded into the actual interview, so i added my own drop quotes such as "PEPPERAMIS AND DOCTOR PEPPER...HEALTHY FOOD DOESN'T EXIST IN MY WORLD."; this is quite a comical quote so i felt that it would pull the reader in to read the rest of the interview because it sounds interesting.

I have used a few colours from my colour palette (pink, black and white) as i feel that using all the colours would not have benefited the professionalism of my interview page and could have made it look a bit messy. I may carry on to experiment with colour when i develop to create my final magazine pieces to see the variations that could potentially work with my target audience.

I feel that the images i have chosen from my photo shoot portray the personality of my artist as a result of her facial expression and posture. Having two photographs can help the reader to see my artist on two different levels; (one quite happy, with a relaxed posture representing the artist out of the spotlight, and one with her instrument showing her more professional side). Also, i have focused on the mise-en-scene of the photo shoot to represent indie music; e.g. checkered shirt, lots of jewellery, nerd glasses and a guitar. I had noticed that a lot of music magazines (i.e.NME) use black and white or sepia effect photographs in their interview pages:

<< As you can see NME have used a black and white/sepia effect photograph as their main feature on the page, embedded in the interview. They have also added a pull quote. Something else that i have realised is that they have added random information at the bottom of the page within the "did you know?" header, this may also be another idea that i might experiment with when i produce my final product.

I have decided to use black and white images in my interview double page to follow conventions. I have also added my own personal flair to the photograph by colouring the shirt in one of the pictures. I have done this to attract my younger audiences as i feel that a black and white page with little colour can seem quite boring to the younger generation of readers.

I have also added the Facebook link to my featured artist's page so that the audience can get on a more personal level with the artist and they can get to know her a bit better.

Colour Palette

These are the colours that i am going to be using throughout my magazine, i feel that it is quite conventional to have black and white in a music magazine, as from the ones that i have observed (NME, MOJO, ROLLING STONE), they had all contained these colours. I have descided to use the colours green, pink and yellow as i feel that it suits my target audience (12-19 year old girls), furthermore; i think that these bright, 'acidic' colours are quite fashionable at the moment and it can also represent the music genre of my magazine, which in music terms, is quite bright and bold in itself.