Music Magazine

1. Music Magazine Zoe Nightingale

2. Planning

3. Proposal • My magazine will be about music, focused on the type of people who like specifically heavy metal music. The cover will be in a sort of mythical Cradle of Filth or gothic Lolita style. My target audience is people from ages of around 16 – 30 who are into heavy metal music and the gothic scene. • It would be distributed at some larger bookshop chains, and around places like Camden, where the people it’s aimed at are likely to gather, and at music shops. It would also be given out at concerts of specific genres of music.

4. Encoding

5. Draft Layouts

6. Revised Spread Dimensional Scream

7. Front Cover

8. Front Cover Revised

9. Contents

10. Contents Revised

11. Draft Fonts I need a Serif font for a more professional look to the interview. I chose Times New Roman. (The red one.) I think it’s the most commonly used one. It looks quite common and easy to read. Dimensional Scream Dimensional Scream Dimensional Scream Dimensional Scream Dimensional Scream Dimensional Scream

12. Photos

13. Stages of Manipulation

14. ‘LHOOQ’ is a reference to Duchamp, a French artist. He recreated the Mona Lisa but wrote ‘LHOOQ’. If read in French it means ‘she has a hot ass’ or ‘there is fire down below’. Here it represents ever-present sexual urges, prominent in metal music, and the idea of making a mockery of a work of art.

21. Similar Bands Rammstein Arch Enemy Lamb of God Cradle of Filth

22. Target Audience • My target audience would be the people who read metal magazines, attend heavy metal concerts and visit specialist shops that would be likely to sell specialist metal magazines. • They would be around the age of 16 – 30. The people featured inside the magazine and on the front cover would be of a similar age. There is no specific target gender.

23. Desired Look/Style • I want my magazine to be representative of non-conformity, and yet still conform to the heavy metal magazine conventions like an overwhelmingly dark layout and unimpressed expressions. • To be non-conformist I will include a misspelling in the title ‘Skream’, and also have gritty, unhappy models. This goes against normal lifestyle and women’s magazine conventions. • However, to submit to a metal stereotype, I have included aggressive and apathetic poses, black clothes and heavy makeup (on the boys as well), and the ordinary conventions of colour and layout.

24. Other Magazines

25. Actual Magazine

26. Front cover

27. Contents

28. Double page spread

29. Evaluation

30. The Artists and the Audience • I was successful in my attempt to connect with my audience through my pictures because I transformed a perfectly respectable young lady into a guitar hero in a death metal band. As metal is mainly a teenage sub-culture type of music, I have used white teenagers. My audience would be around the ages of 14-21, probably mostly male. Demographically they are not that diverse. • Except the pictures I took turned out to be less ‘heavy metal’ than I had hoped. This was fixed as I manipulated the images to be more contrasting, dark and brooding. I think the outcome was good.

31. This pose is typical of a metal magazine. Her head is tilted at an angle that seems a little arrogant and even slightly aggressive. Her hands are in her pockets which signifies that she is casual and yet this also comes across as a little bit obnoxious. It seems especially teen-like.

32. Conventions • My magazine title is unconventional as it is spelt wrong. • This unconventional misspelling will serve the purpose of making people wonder why I have used a K instead of a C. It is also rule-breaking. • Also, the name of my band includes the word ‘scream’, and I wanted to avoid repetition without having to change too much of my planning. • Goes with convention of heavy metal as they are largely associated with screaming. I think I was successful in connecting with my audience through the title.

33. Tagline Voice of the Masses • I chose this because it goes with the title ‘skream’ in that they are both to do with voices. The title along with the slogan makes the magazine seem like the voice of the people who read it, giving the magazine a more overall interactivity and making it more relatable to the audience. It also goes with the convention of heavy metal, as they are associated with screaming, and it gives the impression that if they wanted to say something, they would scream it. • Unlike codes, however, is the word ‘masses’, which could be seen as a negative view of its own audience.

34. Dimensional Scream gets personal • The ‘gets personal’ makes it seem to the audience more like they will get a chance to get to know the band personally inside the magazine. It also entices potential readers as they will want to know the band’s secrets. • The name of the band in big red letters on the front cover makes it seem urgent and important. Red also connotes an order to stop, or that there is danger nearby.

35. Contents • I have used this pose because it’s casual, uncaring and indifferent while still maintaining a ‘cool’ look. The hood being up could show a merge of conventions, as teenagers with hoods up are associated with violence. There is an editorial included in my contents page. This serves to connect more with the audience as it gives it some first person pronouns and opinion. “I know I am,” while also giving information about the rest of the magazine.

36. Spread • The colour scheme of my double page spread is different shades of grey, which connotes depression, another aspect of metal music. This, however, contrasts with the essentially upbeat content. • This photo’s pose is again casual and ordinary, but the facial expression is sad and unkempt. The mouth is turned down and the eyes are darkened and look like they are half-shut. This again relates back to the heavy metal connotations of depression and anguish.

37. I chose this quotation to draw attention to because it’s unusual for a band to say this about their own song. They are essentially insulting their fans. This is working against the conventions of a magazine and of a band. • I thought that if a reader were to glance at the page, this quotation would draw their attention so that they read the rest of the text.

38. I chose this photo because I like the way the girl in the middle takes up as much space as she can, despite being smaller than the boys. It shows that she is tough enough to deal with being in a heavy metal band, which can be seen as a profession for men, and a place for misogyny. • I manipulated it so that the background is blurred and grey, because it goes with the spread scheme and it also takes the attention away from the leaves and bright green grass. I think I was fairly successful through my chosen photos in sticking to a traditional metal theme. Here I tried to make my models come across as trapped, except it seems that they are trapped outside in a grey, boring world. One of the things metal represents is breaking free of norms. I believe I got this message across well through my use of images.