How do magazines indicate genre?

By looking at this magazine I get the impression that is represents rock/metal music. This is because of reasons such as mise en scene in which the people in the main image are all wearing dark coloured clothing and sunglasses and the man at the front is holding a chained weapon. Another reason I get the impression that it is a rock/metal magazine is because of the masthead. The font they have chosen is a black, thick and cracked which gives an aggressive feel which is a stereotype that rock/metal carries. Another way I can tell the genre is because of what the actual masthead is. Kerrang is a noise that a guitar makes and a guitar is an instrument heavily associated with rock/metal. Also, there is an exclamation mark which indicates that it is a loud noise, loud noises are also associated with rock/metal.

By looking at this magazine I get the impression that it is a club/dance genre. This is because of the colour scheme of bright colours, yellows, blues etc that are generally colours that indicate happiness and activeness, the font (similar to fonts used by other dance/club music albums, nightclubs etc) and of course the main image that is a woman in a bikini posing very strongly. She is wearing jewellery and make up that implies she is ready to go out to a nightclub/party. Another way I can tell what genre this is is because of the name of the magazine. 'Mix' is a word that is widely used in the dance/club world and is not used in the same context in any other genre.

This magazine gives me a strong impression that it is a classical music magazine. The most obvious and strong hint is that the woman on the front is holding a violin that is an instrument heavily associated with classical music. Another reason is that the font that is used is calm and smooth (unlike Kerrang!). The colour scheme is made up of dull, serious colours that without being stereotypical, apply to the audience of this genre as they are usually older people such as males/females aged 45 + that the majority of won't want a magazine with bright, vibrant colours on. The masthead does not really indicate genre on this magazine as 'music' could mean any genre.

Photos I Took On My Shoot

These are some photos I took on my shoot to get images for my magazine.

Evaluation Of My Images

The images I ended up with from my shoot are a range of what I want and images that did not turn out so well. For instance, some of them are blurry, have other unrelated things in the background that make them look messy and unprofessional. I think this happened as because I took these at school there were a limited of places to do it so we had to just work with what we could get. 

For instance, the image directly above this text has a number of things wrong with it such as too much in the background that you wouldn't see on professional images/magazine front covers. You can't see the persons face and guitar players will notice that he is not even playing the guitar properly. This is in comparison to the image I chose to use on my front cover as my main image which has nothing but a white wall as the background, you can see his face and he is looking directly at the camera. I chose to make it black and white as it just neutralised the colour tone more as before there was a number of different colours in the image that were not stereotypical to images used in the rock genre. 

I also took a couple of images of instruments that are typical to rock music such as drums and guitars. 

These images represent the needs of my target audience as it uses and displays common factors of conventions that they like. For example, it shows images of guitars which if you are reading a rock magazine stereotypically you must also be into guitars so therefore like seeing images of them and people playing them. This is the same reason that I featured a picture of a drum kit. It may also help with advertising a certain instrument if my target audience were thinking about taking up playing the guitar or drums, they could look at this magazine and see which ones their favourite musicians are playing and then go out and buy them for themselves. My model is only smiling in one of these images and even then he is facing down to the ground with his eyes shut. This symbolises the emotions that readers of this magazine are most likely facing. Stereotypically, listeners of rock music are more likely to have more quiet, depressed-like personalities (this is portrayed the most in the sub-genre and stereotype, emo). This reassures my target audience that they are not the only ones feeling like this and it is particularly reassuring that artists that they look up to are also feeling like this, also making their idols seen like normal human beings, just like my target audience are. There are no bright colours in these images, the brightest being reds and blues, colours that are also linked with emotions of sadness etc. 

Shooting Photos For Music Magazines - Types Of Shots

In this post I am going to talk about the common conventions that are needed to create a good and effective photoshoot for a music magazine in particular, types of shots/angles.

The most common type of shot used in a magazine is the Eye Level angle. This is where the subject of the image is looking directly at the camera.

This type of shot can also be a head and shoulders shot or a medium shot (however it is less effective when used in a medium shot). The reason it is a popular angle for magazines is because it gives the impression that the subject is looking into the audiences eyes which gives it a more personal feel and as if the subject is luring the audience into buying the magazine







Medium Shot

This angle is where it shows the waist and above of the model in the image. This is the second most popular angle used in magazines and is usually used if the model is holding an object in their hands/arms or if there is a slogan or image on the models top that is relevant to the magazine or if they are wearing an outfit that the target audience would be interested in etc (this applies mainly to fashion magazines). This is used a lot if their is a band featured in the cover of a magazine as it is a good way of showing all their faces/bodies





Close Up/Extreme Close Up

A close up shot is where the image just shows a persons face and sometimes neck. An extreme close up is where it shows just the face and sometimes even just the eyes etc. This is used less frequently on magazine front covers as the images aren't really the right size for a regular portrait a4 magazine.




Low Angle

This angle is used to make the subject of the image look intimidating and taller/bigger. This is sometimes used on music (particularly rock etc) magazines if the model is holding a guitar that is standing up on the ground by their feet etc but is not used regularly as it is difficult to attract an audience when on the shelf and also because it looks slightly unprofessional as their is a lot of background.






The type of shot I am most likely to use when shooting images for my magazine is the medium shot as because I want my model to be holding a guitar, I feel this is a good angle to make sure the guitar is definitely in the shot but also that the pose, clothing, facial expression etc is clear in the image also.

Music Photographers

The photographer I have chosen to research and create a case study on is Adam Elmakias. I chose this photographer as he specialises in concert photography of bands that get featured in magazines that are similar to the one I am creating. This is some of his work:

I plan on incorporating Adam's photographical style into my own work as I like the angles he uses, the lighting, the way the subjects of the photographs model and even the way some of his images are black and white and others are colour etc. 

This is a video of Adam talking about how he got started in the photography industry etc.

This is a backstage video of a photoshoot that Adam did.

Something I have learnt from Adam is that when he does a photoshoot from a live concert he only gets about 5 - 10 good shots even though he has taken 100 - 200. This tells me that shooting images of bands is very hard and has to be done properly and professionally in order to achieve the best results. What this tells me about shooting images for my magazine is that I may have a problem getting the right shots and must take a lot of images just to be sure. Another thing I have learnt from Adam is that lighting is extremely important when taking images of bands because they are not professional models so unlike shooting for a fashion magazine they do not know how to pose in order to look there best, so lighting that the photographer has set up has to do the job for them. Something I plan on incorporating into my own images is the beam-style lighting that Adam uses as a background for some of his images, as shown above. I want to use this in my own work so it gives the effect that the person in my main images is playing a live concert or feels at home when playing a concert so I have set up lighting to match the lighting of a concert to make them feel more at home and comfortable which will allow him to act the way he would when performing therefore allowing the reader to experience this in the comfort of their own home without actually going to a concert.

Article Research + Draft Article

I researched articles from magazines of the same genre as the magazine I am creating, these are a few ideas that I got from articles I found that were the most similar to what I want my article/feature page to be like.

• Interview - semi casual, makes a few jokes but has serious elements to it.
• Informational - Information on artist, albums, life, tours etc.
• Review of a concert
• Guest post - Artist on the cover of my magazine writes a feature 

The article style I am going to create is an interview. This is because I feel this is the most likely article to be the main feature in a magazine of my genre and style.

James Gibson has taken the world by storm in the past year and has revealed

he has plans to completely take over the world this year. He has just released

his second studio album, Secrets (which actually does see James tell his listeners

some heart-felt and personal secrets!) and is now sat down with us in a swanky

hotel in Cornwall telling us even more secrets.

Natalie: So James, what are your views on the past year of your extremely

up and coming career?

James: Well it’s been amazing. I’ve played more festivals than I’ve ever been to in my life, I’ve met so many of my inspirations, I’ve gained more fans than I’d ever dreamt of so yeah, it’s been amazing.

N: You mentioned your fans, does it continue to baffle you just how dedicated they are?

J: Yeah definitely. I mean at every venue on my UK tour there were people camping in line and queuing for 12 hours, I have crowds of fans waiting outside for me to finish TV interviews, radio interviews etc, I’ve even had fans turn up at my house – god knows how they found my address!

N: Wow, dedication indeed. Let’s talk about your new album, Secrets. What’s the biggest secret you reveal on it?

J: Uh.. Hmm, that’s a hard question. Probably on the song ‘The Moon + The Stars’ where I talk about my bout of alcohol and drug problems that I had when I was hanging around with the wrong crowd when I was 15. I know it’s really cliché but I never tell anyone about this because I’m so ashamed and I mean, I just struggle. I nearly lost my dad because of it, I was failing school in the most important year, I don’t think anyone but my family knew about it until this record so.. Yeah.

N: That must have been difficult, well done for being brave enough to reveal that. A slightly easier question on its way – On your song ‘Castles’ you say the line “I’m 16 going on the end of my days” but you’re 22 now, does this mean you started writing when you were 16?

J: I actually started at about 13 and it’s weird because this is my second album so people probably wonder why I didn’t put this song on my first album; It was meant to go on it but the producer had different plans so it’s on this album instead and I think it suits Secrets better anyway because it kind of follows on from ‘The Moon + The Stars’.

N: What would you say is your favourite song on the album?

J: Either ‘Sandpit’ or ‘Indian Summer’. Just because ‘Indian Summer’ is an upbeat, happy song and I want to dance ever time I hear it and ‘Sandpit’ is at the other end of the spectrum being a strong ballad which I love to sing.

N: Yeah I love ‘Sandpit’ too [laughs]. So on a lighter note away from the album, what was the most embarrassing/funny thing you did on your last tour?

J: In the US leg of the tour we went to Atlantic City and ended up getting “mildly” drunk in the middle of the day. I didn’t do anything that wouldn’t be highly unusual on a night out but because it was in the middle of the day it seemed a lot worse. Basically, I stole a golf cart, drove it into the sea where it got stuck, called basically everyone on the beach over to help me, by which time I had taken the majority of my clothes off because I somehow thought that would make it easier to push the golf cart out of the sea and when I finally got it out I just fell flat on my face onto the sand and fell asleep for a bit. I have no idea where my friends were but yeah. I don’t think I’ll be going back to that beach anytime soon [laughs].

N: Oh dear, James! [laughs]. So just to wrap things up, do you have any message you want to give your fans?

J: Just thank you so so much, you’ve made my dreams come true, I’ll be on tour again very soon and er, don’t get drunk in Atlantic City in the middle of the day [laughs].

Planning My Photoshoot

For my photoshoot I am going to make sure I follow the common conventions of other music magazine shoots. These are things such as lighting, poses, clothing etc.

My photo shoot is going to involve just one person as this is the type of image I want for the front cover of my magazine. My subject is going to hold a guitar as this is a strong, iconic object that represents rock music. The reason I chose the person I chose for the main image of my magazine is because he has a look that is common in the type of audience who will read my magazine. I tried not to be too stereotypical when choosing the mise en scene of my main image which was quite difficult but after doing some audience research I noticed that the kind of stereotype I chose to portray was actually not a stereotype, but the truth.

The equipment I plan to use on my photoshoot:
DSLR camera
A tripod
2 Guitars - Electric and Acoustic
Drum kit
Plain background
I chose these pieces of equipment because these are items I felt would look good in my images and would suit the theme of my magazine. I chose a plain background because after analysing generic magazine front covers I noticed that this looks better than a natural background.

Cast list -
I am using one male model in my photoshoot. I  feel like it would be better if I used more than one but this was not possible. I chose this particular person for my photoshoot as he has the looks that are common in people who like this genre and make this genre.

Clothing - These are the type of clothes I want my model to wear for the photoshoot as this is the type of clothing people in the rock music industry wear, and the type of clothing my target audience stereotypically wear.

Key Institutions

An institution can be a large corporate, business or company that is responsible for producing a number of products that are bought and known by a lot of people. For instance, the BBC.

The BBC are one of the largest and first corporate companies as they produce products such as magazines, television, books, radio, websites etc. By producing a wide range of media products that are on all the media platforms, virtually anyone who consumes even only one of these products on a regular basis have almost definitely at some point consumed something made by the BBC. Of course with success comes money, the BBC have a revenue of £5.086 billion.

Another example of a large corporate company is Disney. With 166,000 employees, theme parks, television channels, films, a record label and much much more, many would argue that they are the largest corporate in the world. However, they only mainly cater to young children and the parents of young children as they do not produce any products for people from the age of 13 - 40, which is a flaw the BBC do not have. Disney do however have a larger revenue than the BBC at £27.759 billion. 

A small independent company is a company that in most circumstances is not widely known for reasons such as only catering to a specific target audience or only producing media products in a certain area (only focusing on creating magazines or producing records etc). An example of a small independent company is Sonic Publishing who are responsible for producing Rocksound. 

Other companies that focus solely on producing magazines are IPC, Bauer Media and Conde Nast. These companies produce some of the worlds most popular magazines such as NME, Vogue, Kerrang!, Q, and Empire. Bauer Media reach 19 million people in the UK every week through their brands including Kerrang! and Q. This means they would be an effective company to pitch my magazine to as they already publish extremely popular music magazines so they would have the necessary skills and knowledge to make my magazine perform to its highest potential. 

The company I would like to publish my product with is either Sonic Publishing, Bauer Media or the BBC. The reason I chose these 2 is because the BBC is an extremely well known company that has a lot of money therefore being able to advertise and produce my product on a number of media platforms which is something Sonic Publishing would not be able to do. However, because Sonic Publishing and Bauer Media already produce popular rock magazines they will have experience and knowledge on the subject which means they will be able to take my magazine and develop it further so that it has the highest potential at attracting my target audience. As well as this, there would be a chance I would be able to advertise my new rock magazine in an already existing rock magazine which is aimed at the same target audience.