Draft Evaluation Question ONE

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

    After looking at several published magazines such as Kerrang, Rock Sound and Alternative Press, I found  elements that were present in all of them - elements which i believed would make my magazine seem more professional. Firstly, each of the magazines used the font of the main artist featured on the front cover for their name. For example, when Rock Sound featured the band, My Chemical Romance, they used the bands own unique font on the cover of the magazine for the name. I thought this was good for my artist, Tiffany Blews, as it creates a feel that the artist has more of an input in the interview and emphasizes their importance within the magazine.
For my written content I reflected the genre, another typical feature of rock magazines. The contents page features a lot of rock bands, in order to reiterate to the audience that it is a rock magazine. The tone of the interview is relaxed and friendly, which occurs often in Kerrang, illustrating to the audience that the magazine cares about it's readers and interviewees. For my story, I had my artist reveal a low point in her life - particularly alcoholism - which reflects the rock-and-roll lifestyle of today's music. I drew inspiration for this from real life cases of singers partaking in alcohol abuse and ending up in hospital or rehab.
Another feature of real magazines that I used is the three colour pallet of red, white and black. This is commonly used in magazines such as Q or NME. I think this helped my magazine achieve a professional look as it focuses attention on the artist and content, rather than distracting the reader with too many colours. The red in this pallet also reflects my genre as red is typically seen as an energetic or angry colour, and these emotions are often associated with rock music. It is also a non-gender specific colour, so will appeal to my target audience of both males and females.

   There are also features of conventional magazines that I have developed. The text on the front cover of my magazine has been placed as to go around the artist, instead of on top of the image. This attracts attention to her and emphasizes her importance as a 'big star.' The masthead itself is a typically 'rock' font, and I have placed it on a white background - which I believe illustrates the battle between alternative music and the clean-cut pop music scene.
Another feature I have developed is the artists costume. She is clothed in a black dress, which is not often a feature of females on covers of rock magazines. Artists such as Hayley Williams are usually depicted in jeans and a top, however I wanted to play on the fact she is a female by dressing her up in feminine clothes - but the black contrasts with this, making her seem more edgy and be more appealing to an audience.

   I have challenged typical conventions of a rock magazine as I only have one artist on the cover, whereas magazines such as Kerrang have a whole band or images of other artists within the magazine.  I did this because I wanted to again reinforce that she is a big name within the rock music industry and she is the major feature of the magazine. By having names of bands in the text on the cover, I can tell the audience who else is in the magazine without necessarily showing them pictures.
The artist chosen for my cover is also challenging typical conventions of my genre. She is a female, whereas the majority of artists on the cover of rock magazines are male. Thereby I can appeal more to the female audience with this issue, while still attracting a male audience with the reassurance that there are other male bands inside.