Conventions of the Music Magazine Industry

Before creating my magazine I took the time to research other music magazines in which I thought would be appropriate to base my magazine genre on, including ‘Flavour’, and ‘Vibe’. Before I could even start the photo shoot, there was a lot of planning involved. Not only was the model important, but I had to consider conventions such as intense eye contact, clothing, makeup, background, lighting etc. this required research into magazines, which allowed my to specify the social group/target audience, I was appealing to through my front cover. I tried to compose the image so that it actually looked as though it had been professionally taken, like in real music magazines. I did, however, take into account the ability of Photoshop editing. I wanted my model to look glamorous, as well as professional. This was in attempt to make the magazine look professional and realistic.
The lighting was relatively, dim, however, after experimenting with flash use on the camera, I decided the best, and most focused images were achieved through relatively dim lighting, and use of the flash on my camera, to keep the professional photo shoot look consistent.
I tried to style my models with the R&B, and pop music genre taken into account.
The most focused features, were the models hair, eyes, and clothing. The hair had to be ‘big’ in order to maintain the allure aspect of the artist. Their outfit also had to look ‘expensive, stylish, and appealing to the target audience. I focused on her eyes, because her eyes are the centre of the page, strong eye contacts is achieved. One of the reasons I decided to use images from Vibe magazine, is because it is one of the only magazines, which suit my music magazine music genre. Also vibe ,magazine costs £3.99, which is affordable for my target audience age of 14-24. For my target audience, pictures are very important, because people tend to look at the images before reading the article. In some cases, the image determines whether they even read the article. So the image should be an "attractive picture" as my target audience is relatively young and are still influenced by the glamour images of celebrities. This is why it is important to have an attractive picture on the front cover as it will make the reader want to pick up/buy the magazine up and take a look. To create this image I researched the most suitable poses, colours and props from relative magazines.

Considering posture, gesture, angle, shot type, lighting, costume, expression and hair when I was researching an artist’s photo shoot I found this picture of Lady Gaga, The comparison shown above is just one example of how I got my inspiration for my images.
I have taken inspiration from Elle magazine, which is a fashion magazine, and could therefore be seen as irrelevant, however, the artist shown on the cover, Lady Gaga, fits into the genre of music for my magazine. Also lady gaga appeals to my target audience . The lighting in both the images is bright but does not defect the images at all., also the use of a white background, assures that there is little distraction form the artist
Also she ‘features’ as one of the ‘featuring artists’ in my music magazine.
I used the idea of the hand in the hair to accentuate the big hair.
Both are displaying direct eye contact, which draws the reader into reading the magazine. The eye contact also creates the ‘personal’ effect of the magazine. The eye contact attracts people into reading the magazine as they both have a blank stare on their face, which causes the reader to be intrigued. Both artists maintain direct eye contact towards the audience, engaging them with unreadable expressions
The dresses used are quite similar. Even though the style is different, as one is strapless, they are both black and reveal some celebrity flesh. Both images are medium shots and are central of the picture.



The three images to the left of the screen, have been taken from vibe magazine. Vibe magazine is the most appropriate magazine to inspire to for my music magazine genre. The first image, is the image I used for one of my double page spreads. All images are of people leaning to some extent in different direction, with different postures. I tried to combine all three images, as well as adding my own style to the pose created by Rochelle. This, however was very time consuming as she had to do a variety of poses before I could fins the correct one. Another thing I began to realise, was the extreme use of eye contact. All four images include strong eye contact, even with their different stances, and postures. However, there are factors that completely contrast between the two photos. All images contain the artists hips, slightly slanted to the one side of the picture. This is in attempt to accentuate their eye-catching sexuality through their curves. However, there gestures are different; Rochelle is clutching her jacket, and slightly facing her right. Mariah Carey is holding her hips and slightly facing her left. Keri Hilson is holding onto her shorts, with her head slightly to her right. Beyonce, however, is backed up against a wall with her hands on the wall, with her head slightly facing her left. Most of the images are shot from the same angle; the front, the artists are simply leaning to a particular side. All images are medium close ups, which reveal the head of the artist, down to the artists thighs. This same contrast can be seen in their expressions also. R&B is renowned as a genre which contains artists with a lot of attitude, beauty and soul. This has to be revealed in the images. The eye contact reveals certain attitude about the artist. This is also conceived due to the fact that they all have their hair down

The social groups represented in my magazine are a range of social groups, because my magazine has an average age range from around 14-24 the social groups include young workers, university and college students. I feel the magazine represents these genres because my magazine is quite mature and sophisticated, and therefore may not appeal to a younger age. This can be shown through the mise en scent of the artists and the posh/expensive clothing worn. Also the continuous uses of the colours black, white, silver and pink are sophisticated colours, and they are basically the only colours used throughout the magazine to reveal house style. The older generation may not be interested in this type of magazine because it shows the glamour and gossip of the new, upcoming and current artists, which the older generation may be unaware of. When representing particular social groups, after looking at the pose of different artists and models on the front of magazines I decided to research costume. I also used these two particular images to help me construct a final image for my magazine image. I feel I have used the conventions of the other magazine to represent a particular social group because Vibe is a successful R&B music magazine in the USA and is an ideal example to use.