Photoshoot etc.

My photo shoot will take place on Monday 13th of December when Charlie, Jack and Tom will be in the studio. I will take some close up direct pictures of them there and go to their band practice on Tuesday the 14th to take some photos of them playing.

Front Cover Draft

I've made a draft for the front cover of my magazine. The first thing i'd change on my final piece is the centre image, I want an image of the band looking directly at the audience. My taglines of 'Paul Weller' 'Alex Turner' and 'Carl Barat' will also be different and I will make them look alot more professional when I make my final design. I think my main title stands out well and my headline of 'Bangladeshi' also is very eye catching. My font from dafont.com also fits well with my genre of magazine. On my final design I will include a date, advertisements and other details that I haven't put in this idea.

Teacher Comments

Some good work so far. Remeber to discuss and analyse anything you put on your blog.

We are now half way and you should be on with your planning. There are ten days left to take all your images and begin to construct your pages.

Mr B

Article Draft

An Interview With Bangladeshi Fight Club.

BFC are a modern day indie band from Lancashire currently making headlines in the music world for their soothing, brilliant, easy listening acoustic tracks. 

The band consists of 3 members, Charlie Hitchen, Jack Anwyll and lead singer Tom Randall. Success came after 3 covers hit the internet and views soared. They covered Kings of Leon's 'Use Somebody', Two Door Cinema Club's 'Undercover Martyn' and The Smiths masterpiece 'There is a Light That Never Goes Out'.

They then went on to write various other tracks such as 'Manchester to Exeter' and 'Take Me Home', thus gaining attention from Bombay Bicycle Club a similar sounding band who liked what they heard. They toured with BBC on their acoustic tour of England playing in Churches and other un likely venues along the way. 

After a very successful year Bangladeshi Fight Club are touted to be the next support band for Mumford and Sons UK and worldwide festival tour.

Due to this success we want to be the first to publish the story of this wonderful acoustic trio and here is the first ever interview in Start! magazine.

Start! - So then boys, how did you feel when you got the call off Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club asking you to tour with them?

Charlie - Well I was the fortunate one to get the call off Jack, and to be totally honest I didn't believe it was him, all he said was "I like your acoustic stuff, do you want to come on tour with us?" 

He was really cool and once I got over the shock I just casually rung the boys, like you do when Jack Steadman makes that kind of offer you just can't refuse!

Tom - Yeah, when Charlie rung, I didn't really know what to say, it was a bit of a pinch yourself type of moment, didn't really think it was real

Jack - Funny thing is, when Charlie found out he tried to ring me but I was writing a new song with my dad, so I didn't remember to ring him back and only found out a week later at band practice. I basically just slapped him round the face and said stop bullshitting to me, he wasn't impressed and tried to hit me with his guitar. 

Plan

My magazine will be called Start! - This is The Modern Waste

I will be using photographs taken by myself of a band using a digital camera.

My font will be used from dafont.com and my target audience will be 16-30 year olds, particuarly males.

Possible Fonts

These are a range of possible fonts for my magazine and you can even mix a few together like this ;

Article Analysis

This is a small article about the Arctic Monkeys second album Favourite Worst Nightmare from NME. The layout has a large picture of the band in question at the top to show readers who its about. Then the headline is a rough guide to the article's content. This article is in a question/interview format with a question, then answer straight away. 

The content itself is very informal and colloquial terms are used such as slang and words the target audience of NME would most certainly recognise.  

Moodboard

Development Questionnaire

1) What Type Of Music Do You Listen To?

a) Indie
b) Pop
c) Dance
d) Hip-Hop/RnB

2) What Would You Expect To See In a Music Magazine?

a) Band Interviews
b) Promotional Offers
c) Gig Details
d) Posters

3) How Often Do You Buy Magazines?


a) Once A Week
b) Once A Month
c) Rarely
d) Never

4) How Much Do You Pay For Magazines?

a) £1.00
b) £2.00
c) £3.00
d) £4.00

5) Are You Male or Female?


a) Male
b) Female

6) How Old Are You?


a) 13-16
b) 17-19
c) 20+

I will hand these questionnaire's out to 20 people in college 10 male and 10 female and find my results...

My Results

1) What Type Of Music Do You Listen To?

a) Indie - 14

b) Pop - 2

c) Dance - 3

d) Hip-Hop/RnB - 1

As you can see, more people who I asked preferred indie music, luckily that is my target audience,

2) What Would You Expect To See In a Music Magazine?

a) Band Interviews - 12

b) Promotional Offers - 8

c) Gig Details - 5

d) Posters - 6

This was a multiple choice question and more people wanted band interviews, so this is what I will include in my magazine, people also seemed to want promotional offers and posters.

3) How Often Do You Buy Magazines?

a) Once A Week - 8

b) Once A Month - 5

c) Rarely - 6

d) Never - 1

People buy magazines once a work in particular and my magazine will be a weekly magazine so that is fine.

4) How Much Do You Pay For Magazines?

a) £1.00 - 2

b) £2.00 - 8

c) £3.00 - 9

d) £4.00 - 1

People tend to pay £2-3.00 for magazines therefore I will probably pay £2.50 for mine.

5) Are You Male or Female?

a) Male - 10

b) Female - 10

Evidence that I asked a fair amount of girls and boys.

6) How Old Are You?

a) 13-16 - 7

b) 17-19 - 13

c) 20+ - 0

More people I asked were my age and my age group which is my target audience.

Circulation figures

Classic Rock 70,323 (Dec 2009: 71,242, Jul 2009: 70,310) 12 month change +0.0%

Kerrang! 44,013 (Dec 2009: 41,125, Jul 2009: 43,253) 12 month change +1.8%

Metal Hammer 44,034 (Dec 2009: 41,777, Jul 2009: 46,004) 12 month change -4.3%

Mojo 91,678 (Dec 2009: 98,484, Jul 2009: 97,722) 12 month change -6.2%

NME 33,875 (Dec 2009: 38,846, Jul 2009: 40,984) 12 month change -17.3%

Q 89,450 (Dec 2009: 94,811, Jul 2009: 100,172) 12 month change -10.7%

Uncut 74,067 (Dec 2009: 75,518, Jul 2009: 76,526) 12 month change -3.2%

USP - Unique Selling Point

My target audience for my magazine is indie/punk/rock music fans aged from 14-24 male and females. 
Circulation figures would be around 100,000 copies per week at £2.00 a copy.

I have come up with a different variety of names for my magazine as follows;

• This is The Modern Waste - Famous Punk/Mod song by The Jam
• Heaven Knows I'm Musical Now - Song from The Smiths
• Swarfiga - Song from Kasabian's album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
• Start! - Song by The Jam
• 505 - Famous short and snappy tune by The Arctic Monkeys

For my magazine I would be using Indesign and Photoshop.

I will also take long consideration into my fonts and use websites such as dafont.com for my title.
I have also researched IPC circulation figures and have discovered that NME the indie/pop/punk music magazine is popular with circulation figures of around 33,333 per week.
The indie music market is 77,888 figures, and the monthly rock music market is 325,518, showing that therefore the rock magazines are more popular than the indie magazines.

Popular Bands In My Genre

These are some examples of the bands who are in my genre of music, Indie.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an English indie rock band. Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), Matt Helders(drums, backing vocals) and John Ashton as a touring member (keyboard, guitar, backing vocals). Former members include Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Glyn Jones (lead vocals, guitar).

Their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, released in early 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Kula Shaker's K and remains the fastest-selling debut album for a band in the UK. Since then the band have released two more albums: Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007) and Humbug (2009). The band is currently in the studio, recording their fourth album, expected to be released in 2011.

Arctic Monkeys are heralded as one of the first acts to come to the public attention via the Internet (fan-based sites rather than from the band), with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed.

The Libertines

The Libertines are an English indie band, formed in London in 1997, by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/lead guitar) and Pete Doherty(vocals/rhythm guitar). The band, centred on the song-writing partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) andGary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band were part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK.

The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limited, their profile soon grew, culminating in a #2 single and #1 album in the UK Charts. In December 2004, their self-titled second album was voted the second best album of the year by NME magazine. Both of their full-length LPs were produced by Mick Jones, of the British punk band The Clash.

In spite of their critical success, the band's music was often eclipsed by its internal conflicts, stemming from Doherty's addictions to crack cocaine and heroin, which eventually led to the breakup of the band. Doherty has since stated that the breakup of the band was due to relationship difficulties between Barât and himself that were not related to his drug addictions.The members of The Libertines went on to form new bands with varying degrees of commercial and critical success.

In August 2010, the four members of The Libertines reunited to play a series of shows, including slots at the 2010 Reading and Leeds Festivals. The reunion shows received a highly positive response from the press and fans.

Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club are an indie rock band from Crouch End, London. The band comprises: Jack Steadman (lead vocals,guitar, xylophone, banjo, triangle), Jamie MacColl (lead guitar, backing vocals, banjo, theramin), Ed Nash (bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, mandolin) and Suren de Saram (drums, guitar, backing vocals).

The band were asked to play the opening performance of 2006's V Festival after winning Channel 4's "Road to V" competition. Following the release of two EPs and their debut single "Evening/Morning", the band recorded their debut album, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose. The album was released on 6 July 2009.

The Courteeners

The Courteeners are an indie rock band formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester, England in 2006 by Liam Fray (guitar/vocals), Michael Campbell (drums/backing vocals), Daniel Conan Moores (Guitar), Mark Cuppello (bass)

All four band members hail from the Middleton area of Greater Manchester.

The band members have known each other since they were ten years old. Liam and Conan attended Cardinal Langley RC High School in Middleton, Mark Cuppello attended St Monica's RC High School in nearby Prestwich, and Michael Campbell attended St Cuthberts RC High school (Rochdale).

While at the University of Salford (studying Creative Writing), Liam Fray started to perform acoustic sets as a singer-songwriter around bars and at open-mic nights in Manchester. After getting positive reactions from the crowd, Fray decided to leave University and form a band. Liam first recruited long time friend Michael Campbell, who at the time had never played the drums before in his life. They continued to play under the name 'Liam Fray' until Conan Moores (Guitar) and Mark Cuppello (Bass) joined to form the entire band.

They had their first gig at the Manchester Roadhouse in October 2006, and quickly went from strength to strength within Manchester, largely through a word of mouth following brought on by extensive gigging and television publicity. The Courteeners released their debut single "Cavorting" on 6 August 2007 by Loog Records. A second single, "Acrylic" was released on 22 October 2007 reaching number 44 in the UK Chart.

courtesy of wikipedia.

As you can see, all of the bands have things in common, most met at school or grew up with their band mates, all came from common cities and towns around England and all struggle to make the top 40 UK due to pop music taking over the charts. This is why my magazine is specifically aimed towards my target audience of indie music fans.

Indie Music In The Charts

My genre of music is Indie music. Unfortunately in the top 40 UK indie music doesn't do as well as typical mainstream pop music but here is the current top 40.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles

not one song in the top 40 is indie music.

These are previous Indie songs that have done well in the charts -

Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down

As you can see my magazine having an Indie genre and style will only be partially appealing to my certain specific target audience. This is bad because it won't appeal to absolutely everyone although I know my audience and I know what they want to see.

St Marys Magazine

I have chosen to use this image, as it is a college magazine and the target audience is college students and the person on the front is recognisable to people at college. The subject of the photo is the college student doing something not known until you read the article, drawing the reader in. It helps suggest the genre of the magazine and people should know its student based. Also, the image is anchored by the cover story 'Big Tolly Lad In Action'. 'Tolly lad' being the subject picture. I chose to call the magazine 'St Mary's Magazine' as it is a college magazine for St. Mary's College. I have chosen a blue and yellow theme as they are the St Mary's college colours. is therefore representative of the college and helps signify which college magazine it is. The image I have used uses a direct mode of address whereby the subjects are looking towards the audience. I used this as it is a generic convention of magazine covers, and it helps create a link to the audience as it is as if they are looking at them, in order to make the magazine appealing to its audience, I have used bright lighting in the imagery, and bright, clear text / text boxes so that everything is visible and easy to see.  I have kept this magazine very simple and only included a barcode and a logo. If I did this again i'd include things such as slogans and websites etc.

Contents

I have designed a contents page for my preliminary task for St Mary's College Magazine.
I have used a NME style contents with pictures at each side and a larger one in the middle as pictures are more appealing to my target audience than just writing. But I have included what will be on each page down the middle so its obvious to the reader what is on each page.

Magazine Training

Made in Adobe InDesign CS3

Analysis of Magazines

Front Cover

This is a typical music magazine based in the UK, it is the New Musical Express (NME). This edition has Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys on the front, straight away this is a technique used by magazines to attract the target audience. In this case by putting on a picture of a famous Indie music musician. Underneath the main article titled 'Arctic Monkeys' the tagline expresses the fact they are a very famous band in this scene and says they are 'The biggest band in Britain'. This is another technique used as the NME want readers to think they have an article on the biggest band in Britain, who wouldn't want to read that? 

The colour scheme of NME is red, white and black and has been the theme for 40 years+ it is very simple and straightforward. The mode of address for this magazine is indirect, as Alex Turner is looking away from the camera leaving the reader wondering. NME also always includes the main concepts of a magazine such as; Title/Header, One main model/star, Leading Caption, Subheadings and Strap lines.

Contents

This is a contents page from an edition of NME magazine. Contents pages need to be bright, colourful and encouraging for the reader to read on. Just like all magazines the images dominate the text and often show a picture like above with a page number next to it. Also the title/header usually appears on every page. On this contents on the right it has a list of News, Radar, Reviews, Live! and Features.

Feature Article

This is a feature article for NME, this edition and report is on the band Pulled Apart By Horses. It has all the key concepts such as, Headlines and Subheading, in this case 'Tats Entertainment' a bit of wordplay/pun indicating this band has tattoos and there is a story in this article about them, also conjoined with the famous song 'Thats Entertainment' by The Jam. Also any article with a picture of a band means they have something to sell, so this will be mentioned various times in the article. 

Just like contents and front cover, images still must dominate most likely one large image and various smaller ones, just as above. White space is also used, to spread the writing and images about, to frame it. In this article it is very direct towards the target audience, in this case indie fans. The headlines often include rudeness or swearing, again depending on the target audience. 

Initial Ideas.

I have decided to make a music magazine based on the Indie genre. This includes famous bands such as Arctic Monkeys and The Rifles. It will consist of a front page, contents and a double page article. I will interview an up and coming band and take pictures of them and others to be included in my magazine. My target audience is both genders aged from 16-30 who are into the indie music scene.