PRELIM TASK: Reader profile

Name: Tiara
Age: 16
One of my favourite genres of music is pop music - it encompasses such a wide range of vocals and people into one genre. It brings people together whether you're out having a good time jamming to feel good music but contrary to popular opinion can also have meaningful lyrics which normal people can relate too. I think young people are especially attracted to pop music because it's very now and younger people tend to dig fresh new tunes. 

My name is Kessia and I am 18 years old. I am at university studying International Business whilst living in Hertfordshire. Listening to music, watching movies, reading books and going out to eat food are some of my favourite things to do. In my spare time I enjoy finding about the latest music trends and celebrity gossip. Some of my favourite musicians consist of The Weeknd, Drake, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa. I have actually gone to see some of these musicians in concerts and music festivals. The person that I preferred the most to see live was The Weeknd, because I have been a fan of his music for a while and he has an amazing voice. I enjoy reading about new music and what celebrities have been up to on online platforms. Twitter is one of the best ways to find out about new stories and catching up on new memes. Magazines, however, are great in providing more personal information about musicians through interviews that would otherwise be inaccessible, hence why I like buying magazines. Magazines also provide great editorial photoshoots, which are beautiful to look at but also great to get inspired in different fashion and make-up styles. 

PRELIM TASK: Focus group with intended target audience and survey

I spoke with a group of girls who were my intended target audience about pop music.
Here are some questions I asked them with their responses:

Why do you like pop music?:
- Gets you in the mood and makes you happy
- the meaning is better and gets you energetic
- It is fun to listen to, it is my style and is very catchy
- It has symbolic meaning, for example, Sia's music
- It has more of a diversity than rap and there is meaning behind the music

Who are your favorite pop artists?:
- Rianna
- Beyonce
- Michael Jackson
- Sam Smith
- Drake
- Zayn Malik
- Justin Beiber

What Would you like to see in a magazine?:
- popular singers, merchandise- A page of what you can get and where you can get it from
- interviews
- games crosswords and riddles
- gossip about favorite celebrities
- pop up shops and charts and a roundup of the year's highlights and  music
- alternative cheaper looks that mirror celebrity looks
- adverts that interest us and unusual stuff about the readers in the magazine, relatable problems for example acne

Here is a survey which I conducted towards my peers:

This link takes you to a youtube video where i have recorded my focus group with their opinions and thoughts in an idea magazine:

https://youtu.be/AOAOyDj5kDU

PRELIM TASK: Deconstruction of Media Texts

The things that I learned about a music magazine is that they usually promote the artists work on the front cover. They also put quotes up about interesting statements or pull quotes from the artists to capture the consumer's attention. I will use these examples to construct my music magazine. In this magazine,  I like the angle of gaze which gives a fetish aura to the consumers which is done on purpose to capture the attention. I also like how there is not too much text on the front cover, which is another thing that stood out to me as a lot of text could be overwhelmed to the reader. I will use this as an example to conduct short precise text in my magazine.

PRELIM TASK: Initial thoughts/ ideas

To begin with, i assessed and analyzed what type of music I listened to, I did this as it would be more convenient to base a magazine based on my interests. At first, it was quite difficult as I listened to a variety of music then I came to a conclusion that I mostly listen to pop. These include artists like Justin Bieber, Sam Smith, Adele, Clean Bandit, Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson and more. I feel confident in presenting pop and explaining it in the magazine through images and text, However, i think I will need to do more research into pop and the artists involved. One of the skills needed in order to make this project successful would be using Photoshop. This is an area that I would need to learn and develop in order for my magazine to be a success.

Branding

Representation

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aRnCEyqrfXLwKj99wVB8BoVfs5xMl0ig8iFyRgZTzOY/edit?usp=sharing

Colour Theory

Here I have created word clouds on this website (worditout.com) to show the connotations of different colors. In this lesson, we learned how magazine producers are careful about what colors they use to put on the front cover as they each represent some sort of emotion. We also learned that we associate colours to specific feeling based on past experiences, this means that all consumers would interpret each colour differently to one another. Therefore each colour does not have an exact correct meaning or connotation as they are interpreted differently by the audience. However these wordles above state the obvious references towards each colour.