First draft for front cover

First draft for front cover

Masthead- Critical Mag (Black and White, opposing colours so they stand out on the backgrounds)

Main image overlapping the masthead as it’s a typical convention of a magazine.

Bold and clear main cover line talking about big story to entice readers. “Northern Lights – Biggest UK Tour Yet”

Cover stories ideas:

·         Exclusive line up details for Leeds

·         Enter our giveaway for a free iPad

·         Win a free Northern Lights album

·         Win free tickets to Reading

·         We go backstage with Vince Cage

·         Who are Northern Lights?

Costume and Prop research

For my costume and props research I mainly looked into bands with three or four members, a few I looked closely at were Arctic Monkeys, Green day and Blink-182. The reason I did this is because my band were mainly aimed at the same audience as these bands; this would then help my choose costume and look of my band. As I looked into these bands I noticed that a lot of the time they're just wearing casual clothes such as tshirts or coats, with this in mind I made sure to note down that I'd have my pictures in similar clothing. Also in most of the pictures no props were used, this I felt would look better as there's nothing to distract away from the actual band themselves.

As you can see from this image I chose to make sure that my band were all going to be in coats as it makes them seem very casual and that's how I wanted them to appear. I think doing this will appeal to my target audience well as lots of my audience will wear casual clothing and so this will relate to them. Also this image of the Arctic Monkeys is an example of what I aimed to recreate with my band.

Photoshoot

Photo of magazines in a shop

Taking this photo has helped with the planning with my magazine, this is because it has shown me that in order for my magazine to appeal to the audience on the shelf it'll have to have some bright colours which contrast with the background colour. For example in this photo the AOR Rock magazine has a black background but uses a shiny bright red and gold to stand out in comparison with the Mojo magazine next to it with a grey-scale colour scheme. However of course if all the other magazines were brightly coloured then the grey-scale magazine will stand out clearer. Also as you can see at the top of the image the Classic Rock magazine is hidden at the back, this means that it is key to make sure your magazine stands out to the audience.

First draft for double page spread

Drawing of my first draft of the double page spread.

We go backstage with Vince Cage and the rest of Northern Islands.

"That's how you get over failure."

Vince Cage is a man of many talents and has always been motivated to do more and more for his band 'Northern Lights'. He and the band have been entertaining the public since 2008 where they got their first record deal and raked in $50,000 in their first year. Ever since then they have stayed true to their fans and promise to keep on producing and making people happy.
As Vince and the rest of the band were preparing for their UK tour we managed to catch up and ask him a few quick questions about him and how he deals with being a rockstar.

Many people like you want to get into the rock music industry, have you got any tips on how to promote yourself?

"Mainly I'd say get your name out, and I mean get it out, everywhere, to the bus stop, the local cafe, hell even your postman. If you want people to know who you are then you've gotta get recognition from the public first, then you'll be getting that record deal you've been dreaming of."

How would you define a rockstar?

"I'd have to say someone who not only creates rock music, which would be the obvious choice, but someone who also looks the part. I think it's key that rock music producers make it clear to the public that that's what they do. I tried my best when I was first starting, as did the rest of the band, and many people asked if creating rock music is what I did. How you dress is a massive part of your personality. "

Does Vince Cage ever have a relaxation day?

"Without a doubt! Every saturday me and the guys like to just do something all together in where we can relax or just have fun together. This not only helps us relax, but allows us to become better friends. Being friends is extremely important since you may be stuck on a bus with them for 3 months, and believe me you don't want to be sitting around a bunch of people who you don't like for that time."

Is it stressful when recording a new song?

"It can be, but me and the guys like to take our time instead of doing it all in one sitting and getting worked up. It's key to just keep a cool head since you might just be producing something you end up hating. You've gotta be relaxed when producing music."

Do you think it's important to maintain communication with your audience?

"Yes, maybe once or twice a day we'll keep our fans posted with what we're up to, this makes them feel connected to you and that's what I want to be. But however, you want to keep a cloud of mystery otherwise your character goes out the window."

Have you ever experienced failure?

"Unfortunately yes, however that's life and I like to keep as motivated as I can. The worst failure you can experience is when you have spent hours writing out and planning a new song and then you end up hating it and then scrapping it, but just never look back on bad things that have happened, always look forward to better, greater things. That's how you get over failure."

Do you think that the internet has killed the rockstar?

"Sadly, I think it has. Since you can find pretty much everything on the internet now, there is no demand for 'rock stars'. People just like to look around the top layer of the internet for new music and never go further. If you dig deep enough you'll still find rock stars all around the internet, new and old."

Northern Lights kick off their tour of the UK in London on February 14th. For full details make sure to check out the gig guide on Pg 56.

Typography

I chose these fonts as I felt that these best showed what my genre is about. I aimed to get a grungy, rock font to use for the headline. For my main bodies of text I'll probably use an easier and more clear font, such as Verdana or Arial. I think these fonts are the easiest to read and that's what I'd like to have when it comes to me double page spread story or my contents page and also for feature stories on my front cover. 

How women are represented in rock magazines

Female representation in rock genred magazines is a lot more positive than compared to a lot of other genres like for example in rap, hip hop or pop.

The band "Paramore" is a good example for the positive showing, this is because the bands singer is a woman and so where this would usually be criticised, it isn't so it's a positive representation. Paramore have had lots of success over the years, this definitely shows that it's not only men who make it in the rock genre.

In this magazine as you can see lead singer Hayley Williams stands out in the front of the cover with colour, this is because everyone in the background is in greyscale clothing and this also shows that she's the main element of the band. As you can see they allow her to wear whatever she wants and don't 'doll' her up like many other genres in loads of make up and pink dresses, this shows that she's allowed to be who she wants. Also the band is specialised around Paramore as you can see from the top left, this is a very positive representation for women in the rock genre as it shows she's made it big.

Evanescence are another band who have a female singer and possibly created one of the biggest songs in rock of the 21st century "bring me to life", this was such a song because of the powerful vocals from the singer Amy Lee. This song just shows completely that it doesn't just take men to create a number one hit, but that women can definitely also do it.

The front cover of this Kerrang magazine features a large picture of Amy Lee giving a big headline with the bands name across the front. This is a typical convention of a rock magazine since it's very eye catching, this is very good since it shows they're treating her like any other rock artist and not treating her like an individual just because she's a woman. They also put a tagline above the band name saying "Amy Lee bares her soul", this will appeal to fans of the band as she may be giving out information about her. They also highlight her name and the bands name in a bold, vibrant yellow to make sure they stand out on the darker background.

Overall I think that the female representation in the rock genre is definitely a positive one.