Planning - Contents Page

 This is the initial layout of my contents page. There are still things that need to be added and changed and moved around. I closely copied the contents page from the old edition of NME, before it rebranded and became more modern, as the category of music and the genre is similar to my style. Also having read a lot of NME I am familiar with the design layout.

Research - Double Page Spread

 This is my Double Page Spread for my music magazine. The masthead is a pun because the album for the artist is called "Across the Sands" so the sand sounds like the word sound. There is a pull quote to break up the text. The picture takes up half of the double page spread so there is not too much writing in one place. At the moment I am struggling with the proportions of the text as there is some that is not visible as it is underneath the picture.

Planning - Magazine Copy

HOW DO YOU MAKE THE BEST ALBUM OF 2015? Astrix knows how. “Across The Sands” is the album that everyone should own. It has everything from the acoustic “Artistic Angel” to the loud,bold and heavy “Give It Up”. These are just two of the eleven beautiful songs on the album. We caught up with Astrix to chat about the new album and also an exclusive announcement of her 2016 UK tour “Too Fast for Love”.

“Across The Sands” is one of the biggest albums in 2015, if not the biggest. What were your inspirations to create this fantastic album?

“Where do I start? I just thought one day ‘I want to write an album’. So I did just that. A lot of my inspiration came from when I was younger. As a pretty reckless child I used my experiences with drugs and drink to write. I remember a time when I was about 16 and I went to see The Wombats right after “A guide to Love, Loss and Desperation” was released, me and my friends got stupidly drunk before the gig. It was one of the sweatiest gigs I’d been to. There was beer and piss being lobbed everywhere and so many people crowd surfing and from that moment on I knew that I wanted to write music and perform.

In terms of bands and artists who are your biggest influences?

I listen to so many different bands and artists it’s impossible to pick. I grew up with The Smiths and The Cure because my dad used to be obsessed with them so they are really important in my life. The Smiths really give my inspiration for my writing because Morrissey used to write brilliant lyrics and he is just such a key musician in my life. When writing this album I’ve been listening to a lot of Royal Blood, Peace, Slaves and Mac Demarco. They are all bloody fantastic and I just really love what they do. They are all so unique and different and it’s wonderful to know that they do what they love.

Any festivals lined up for this year?

Well, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say but yes, yes I do. A couple actually. Obviously not headlining because I’m not that good but yeah got a couple.

Speaking of festivals, have you been to any?

Have I been to festivals? Of course I’ve been to festivals. Reading 2007. Red Hot Chili Peppers, who I’ve heard are headlining again next year. I’m quite excited actually. We went to Leeds in 2009 which was just the best thing ever. I remember being at the barrier for the Arctic Monkeys which was insane! And Ian Brown who is just a rock legend so that was pretty spectacular too. I went to Latitude a couple of times which was cool. They are completely different festivals so Latitude is a lot more chill then Reading and Leeds.

With the release of the new album is there going to be a tour?

That’s like asking, will the plant grow without water. Yes there will be a tour. I haven’t toured on my own before, only ever with other bands so I’m very excited to be touring solo.

Can you tell us who your support act will be?

If I told you I’d have to kill you. No I can’t tell you. Only because I don’t know who will support.

Where are you playing when you tour?

The usual for musicians to be honest. Manchester, London, Birmingham and that. Dates and exact locations will be released January 2016 some time but I don’t know what date.

What do you do in your down time?

Erm, I don’t have a lot of time to myself actually but when I do I usually go out and drink with my old friends. I also like to listen to my records when I go home which is extremely rare so yeah.

Thank you for coming in to talk to me. Good luck on the tour next year.

Thank you. Bye.

Planning - Current Stage of Front Cover

Current Stage of Front Cover

Progress has been made from the last time I updated the blog. There has been more pugs added and there have been other colours added.

Planning - Current Stage of my Front Cover

Current Stage of Front Cover

This is my front cover at this stage in the process. There is still a lot more to add as there is not enough plugs so far. There is only the exclusive interview and also the name of the artist who is featured on the front cover. Also the name and the barcode.

Generic Research - Q Magazine Reader Profile

InDesign Trial

InDesign First Trial

This is my first attempt at using InDesign. As you can see I have inserted different columns for text to go. There is a box where my masthead would go. Also I wrapped the text around the photo so that there was no words behind the picture and the picture was integrated into the text. I think I shall enjoy using the software.

Planning - Audience Feedback from Pitch

Audience Feedback from Pitch

The audience that I pitched too seemed to be really for my name, cover line and article. They correctly identified which genre this magazine is and what the demographic that I targeted it towards was which shows that it is clear from my flat plan and ideas the direction I want this to take. They did suggest, however, having an in-house colour such as red or yellow as this will make it easily recognisable as a magazine. 

Planning - Brief Pitch for My Idea

Brief Pitch for My Idea

I have decided to call my music magazine "The Verge" because it is an indie magazine and to be on the verge means to be on the edge and this magazine is not too mainstream, it is meant to be indie. Also it is a play on the name of indie rock band The Verve, which will attract indie music fans.

My target audience is younger people in the age demographic from around 16-24 as right now they are the most interested in music (especially indie). Indie teenagers are most into music and are most interested in reading about it and I thought that it would be great to target teens as they are in the know about what is cool in the indie world.

My front cover is a picture of a made up female artist named Astrid. The coverline will be simply "An Interview with Astrid" as the double page spread is ,literally, an interview with the featured artist.

Planning - Lexicon of Words

Lexicon of Words

I chose to do a wordle to present my words as it is a unique way of showing different words that are related to the indie genre. I chose these words as they would be featured a lot when talking about different gigs and bands, hence why some of these words are on here. They are all suitable for the indie category. 

Planning - Contact Sheet of Images

Contact Sheet of Images

This is my contact sheet of different images that I took for my music magazine. There are different shots at different locations. This is to show diversity. Also there are different shot types, so close ups, medium shots and long shots. As seen there are some photos that are not brilliant quality so will not be featured but I have picked several that will feature as they are all suitable for the indie genre and fit well with my whole idea.

Planning - Flatplan

Flatplan

This is my flatplan for my music magazine. I thought to do a simple front cover plan as people would remember it as it is simple yet effective. Also because it is an indie music magazine the simplicity and minimalistic style will appeal to my target audience.

Generic Research - Music Magazine Analysis 3 - DIY

Diy magazine from joereeves1999

Generic Research - Slaves NME Music Magazine Analysis

Generic Research - Kerrang Music Magazine Analysis

Kerrang magazine analysis from joereeves1999

Generic Research - Farewell to Smash Hits and NME

Farewell to Smash Hits by Alexis Petridis Interesting Points:

1. Smash Hits magazine essentially started out as an indie music magazine as they had interviews with The Clash, the Sex Pistols and Ian Dury.
2. It became a British Pop magazine through and through with there being no more indie music left in the magazine and only pop artists.
3. They used to make fun of indie musicians such as Paul Weller by using his famous quote "It's like punk never 'appened." 
4. They used to essentially go against every musician possible. They would be rude to musicians and it would be funny to the readers but could be extremely offensive to the artists.
5. It died out because the stars who appeared on the magazine would usually end the interview quickly as it was ridiculous and offensive.

Click Here for an article on why NME is in demand by Sarah Carter.

Product - Sixth Form Magazine

• 
  

Generic Research - Youth Subcultures

Youth Subcultures: What are they now?

Youth Subcultures have changed dramatically in the past two or three decades. In the mid-80's and the 90's youth subcultures were completely different to what they are now. People used to dress based on the music that they chose to listen to, for example there were the punks who clearly listened to punk music such as the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Punks used to have brightly coloured mohicans and wore leather jackets with their own customised studs all over the jacket. There were also metallers who listened to heavy metal music. They would stereotypically wear all black with baggy trousers with silver chains on them. There was a clear link to the youth subcultures and music in the 1980's. Nowadays it is clear that this has changed. There are a few reasons why this may be. One reason could be that the youngsters of today are too concerned about their futures in the current financial climate to be creative. Another reason may be because teens are so satisfied by the plethora of entertainment on offer that they don't need to rebel in the way that they dress.

Article 2 

British youth subcultures were first recognised by an American sociologist named Talcott Parsons who came up with the idea of "youth culture".  Many sociologists worked on subcultures but there was one that really defined Britain. This was Hoggart and Hall who researched different cultures such as Hippies and Skinheads (who are a main part of subcultures in Britain). The Beatles are one of the biggest bands ever from the United Kingdom and they had a huge following. Their crowd were seen as quite outrageous as after one concert they found urine staines on the seats. This shows that the Beatles' fans were quite outgoing and didn't really care what they did and who it affected. Many people thought this was ridiculous but only because they didn't understand the trend of the 60's.

NME and the Death of the Music Press

Music magazines today are now nowhere near as big as they were in the nineties. Q magazine used to be selling three times what it is now. They used to sell around 200,000 copies a month which has now dropped to around 50,000 which is a big loss of customers. NME is the same, selling only 20,000 copies in one week. NME has rebranded completely in the past few months. In August NME sold it's last copy ever. It rebranded and is now a free music magazine as they weren't making enough money to survive. The first copy of the free edition had Rihanna on the front cover who is a pop musician. NME is traditionally and indie rock magazine with Noel Gallagher having been the person on the front cover the most. This is suggesting that NME has tried to appeal to a completely different genre of music by having Rihanna and Taylor Swift on the front cover. The change has completely ruined the experience that the indie, alternative youth subculture used to have before it became free. My genre (indie,alternative rock) now have to suffer as we do not get the pleasure of seeing our favourite bands or rock musicians on the front.

Planning - Sixth Form Magazine Editing

When looking through the pictures I took for my sixth form magazine I realised that there were too many light patches on the faces as the natural sunlight was too bright and we were using the trees as a natural frame and a sun block. This was a big struggle when picking a photo for the cover page.

Generic Research - Flatplan Research

This is a flatplan from the internet. This is for a front cover of a magazine. A flatplan is a rough sketch or design for a print artifact, flatplans are used so everyone involved knows what is going on and what they are expected to do on the day of the shoot.

Generic Research - Questions on Sixth Form Magazines

1. On two of the magazines that I came across they both had a similar theme. They both featured a student on the front cover. One of them however was different as they chose to have a much more simple front cover. Another thing that seemed to crop up in all of them was they all had similar sorts of articles in them. Two of them featured music and band reviews which shows that the students were into music.
2. In all three of the magazines that I analysed they all seemed to portray the students as fun and energetic. One of the magazines wrote a whole article on one of the students and what she was doing to help the community.
3. The audience for all of these magazines is clearly the sixth form students, however the Purple magazine looks as though it was aimed more towards the students who were interested in music as the main article was all music related.

Generic Research - Sixth Form Magazine PowerPoints

Sixth from magazine 3 from joereeves1999

Sixth form magazines from joereeves1999

Planning - About Me

As can be seen by the collage I have created my genre is quite alternative. This can be seen by the older music and the choice of clothes. The Dr. Martens are unique and stand out from other shoes which makes my style alternative.

Planning - Editing Photos

This photograph is the original photo. As you can tell I took the picture and I chose to focus the sun dial and the rock which is in the background. I took the picture behind a tree and decided to blur out the branch in the foreground because I wanted the attention to be on the background objects. I also took the picture at a slight angle.

As can be seen above this photo has been edited slightly. I cropped the picture slightly to remove the small building slightly to take the attention away from that and to the objects in the background. I wanted a slightly winter edit so I chose to darken the colours slightly but also made it a lot brighter.