Industrial context - NME history

A music magazine is a magazine dedicated to music and music culture. They could include exclusive interviews about the insight on albums and the artists. New Musical Express (NME), which is an indie and pop music magazine, has been the UK’s most popular music magazine since its first issue in 1952. It was the first British magazine to include a singles chart. It started as a music newspaper but gradually moved to a magazine format from 1980’s to 1990’s. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones would often feature on the front cover, these and other artists would appear at the NME poll winners’ concert, which was an awards event featuring artists voted most popular by the magazine’s readers. These concerts took place from 1959 to 1972. And from 1964 onward, the award ceremonies were televised to British TV. At the time, NME used to be in high competition with Melody Maker (existed since 1926) but seeing as there was a rise for the internet and a decrease in circulation, Melody Maker was forced to cease publishing. 

Audience research - focus group

 For my focus group research, I chose two male and two female (one older and one younger) to ask questions. My questions were; how old are you?, what is your occupation?, tell me a bit about yourself, who is your favourite band/artist?, and do you read magazines? Here is the responses:

Using this research, I am able to understand what type of music magazine I should do (based on genre and style) and also what type of stories to include (based on the focus group’s interests.)

Audience research - Audience profile

Mood board

Thoughts for my magazine

First edition:

I want to use the beach for my landscape in the photos, this could include photos in the sea and on the sand, but also I would like to use fields and parks. It could alternate between the pictures in the magazine and on the website. Here I created a mood board of inspiration:

Second edition:

On this edition, I would like to use the studio shot to create a powerful mid-shot image of a solo artist. I think I will use a plain background to keep the glossy and high end appearance.

Initial ideas

Initial ideas for the music magazine:

I want my magazine to stand out and have flare to it. Therefore, I will brainstorm some of my favourite styles of magazines with my favourite artists on it and get a greater understanding of my inspiration. By doing this I can get a general idea of what kind of genre, shot type, lighting etc I want to do.

I really like how light and bright colours look on the magazines, I plan to use a landscape in the background of my images instead of just a plain coloured background. I think if I use a detailed background then it can add depth to the image and it could work really well for the music magazine.

Inspiration

 Past blogs that have inspired me: 

• https://nea8075shsg.blogspot.com/

• https://8203shsgmedianea.blogspot.com/

• https://7131shsg.blogspot.com/

Chosen brief

I have decided to choose the option of Brief 3: Magazines and online. I am interested in this brief because I think I will really enjoy the topic of Music in the magazine and also I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to music media. I think I will have fun coming up with ideas and plans to bring my vision to light. Moreover, I knew I didn’t want to do a Music Video because I didn’t like the layout of iMovie and I found it confusing, so I think using photoshop and other similar platforms for the magazine will be much easier for me and it will allow me to give the magazine my full potential.