My First Wordle
    Today in my media lesson, I looked through a number of pop blogs as this is the genre I intend to aim my magazine at. I noticed that the majority of the blogs mentioned the same artists continuously, such as Justin Bieber, One Direction, Cher Lloyd. I also looked at pop magazine websites and noticed that in comparison magazines aimed at other genres such as Hip-Hop or R&B, the covers and blogs were much more lively, energetic and frisky.

Whilst looking through the website for the ‘we love pop’ magazine, I saw that the same things were being talked about in different ways. I copied a paragraph from their website and then created a ‘Wordle’ using the website ‘ http://www.wordle.net/’ ’

     

5 different Magazine Titles and their Names Signal and Connote
                           Vibe Magazine

·         Vibe magazine focuses mostly on R&B and hip-hop music.

·         'Vibe' definition: A person's emotional state or the atmosphere of a place as communicated to and felt by others: "a lot of moody people giving off bad vibes".

·         Although this is a word difficult to explain, the words meaning is basically how people feel. A vibe, in a club for example has an effect and influences peoples moods.

·         On the cover with Eminem, the title ‘Vibe’ has used a different number of colours, and it is almost like the colour is spreading, just like the vibe spreads.

·         I realised that on most ‘Vibe’ magazines covers, they have a mid-shot of an artist.

We Love Pop Magazine

The title ‘We Love Pop’ clearly tell the audience what genre the magazine is aimed at.

In comparison to other magazines such as Vibe, the cover is much more playful.

The ‘We love pop’ seems to be aimed at younger adults/teenagers and so the bright eye catching colours works well. 

The ‘We’ and ‘Pop’ is bold and black and the heart in the middle makes it more playful.

XXL Magazine

‘XXL’ generally stands for extra extra large and this could mean that the artists featured in these magazines are very dominant and imortent in the music industry.

XXL Magazine is focuses in Hip-Hop music

The title is very bold and stands out
The red background makes the white title stand out even more

The bold writing and the aggressive close-up shot could suggest that the genre is important, dominant and deserves to be noticed

Blender Magazine

I have been looking at a few of the covers and I have noticed that various different artsts have been used on the covers.  For example, Jay-z is a rapper and fergie supports pop music.

Therefore the title could hint that the magazine is aimed at all types of audiances.

In most of the covers we can see a mid-shot of the artist.

Blender generally means ‘Mix’

 

MOJO Magazine

The word originally means a charm or a spell. But now it’s more commonly said meaning sex appeal or talent.

The title could suggest that the artists featured on the cover somehow have a ‘spell’ on its audience.

Many of the covers have major artists such as Michael Jackson, Elvis…

The ‘MOJO’ title is bold and really stands out, and this could suggest that the artists featured on it are popular.
 

Types Of Research

Qualitative

1.    Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something rather than its quantity: "a qualitative change in the curriculum". 2.    (of an adjective) Describing the quality of something in size, appearance, value, etc. Such adjectives can be submodified by words such... Normally consists of close ended question and could have multiple choice questions. E.g. How many magazines do you roughly buy a week?

Quantitative

1.    Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something. 2.    Denoting or relating to verse whose meter is based on the length of syllables as opposed to the stress... Generally consists of open-ended questions. E.g. What interests you in a magazine? OR What do you look for in a magazine?

De-constructing Magazines

As we were set a task to do-construct 2 magazines, I chose a ‘We Love Pop’ magazine and a ‘Mojo’ magazine. This is because I am still uncertain on what genre of my magazine will be based on and therefore I wanted to explore different types of magazines and gather ideas.

'We Love Pop.'

 

·         Bright Title-attracts more customers

·         Use of stereotypically feminine colours such as pink could suggest that the target audience for this magazine and girls.

·         Consistency of colours- a limited number of colours have been used throughout instead of having random colours, and this makes it look more organised and neat. In fact colours such as pink and white have been used throughout, even on the articles.

·         The title is in black, standing out from the white background and personally this caught my attention straight. 

·         The main image is of ‘One Direction’ and their fan base is mainly young teenage girls and therefore this means that the magazine is most likely aimed at young teenage girls. Other images of artists such as ‘Cher Lloyd’ and the main fan base for Cher is also mainly young teenagers. Also, the clothes worn by the artists are also the colour of some text; again showing continuity and allowing the magazine cover to flow.

·         The main image is very clear, stands out and eve catching. 

·         Different font sizes and colours have been used but in a controllable way( there are a limited number of font types and colours used on text-not completely random)

·         Possibly the brighter and bolder writing could be more important and therefore these colours could have been used to catch the attention of the audiences straight away.

·         All of the information has been laid out in the neatest was possible in different sections to avoid the scruffy look. 

·         They have tried to make their magazine more noticeable by adding extra information such as ‘Winter Hot List-Style Steals’ talking about fashion... making the audience feel like they are getting more then then expect

·         The cost of the magazine is acceptable (£2.99) however bearing in mind that the target audience is teenagers, if it was for example £2 then more customers are likely to purchase it, as they’re normally using money from their parents and therefore it likely that they don’t have large amounts of money. 

·         The information that this magazine consists of is generally the most popular artists in the contemporary UK and therefore their magazines are generally sold in stores such as Tesco or corner shops, where many people would notice it. 

·         http://www.welovepopmag.co.uk/magazine is the official website for the magazine online. The theme has been continued on the website too...showing that there is a constant theme that the magazine sticks to. They have lots of information about the magazine online.

'MOJO'

·         In comparison to ‘We Love Pop’ Magazine, ‘Mojo’ is completely different and as I am not yet sure about what my magazine genre is going to be based on, I decided to look at different magazine types.

·         It is much duller and doesn’t use many colours. This could be seen as ‘boring’ but could also be seen as ‘mature’  and therefore its target audience could be adults.

·         There are 2 images on the cover. The main image is of a man holding a guitar, and he could be reflecting the target audience the magazine is for (middle-aged adults).

·         The Orange coloured writing is likely to be more important than the rest and the colour can be used to make that specific information stand out more.

·         The other image is of two men, and they’re also older men, supporting my idea of the target audience being older then the audience for the ‘We Love Pop’ magazine.

·         ‘SUP POP’ is written in orange and this could mean that there is a small group within society that listen and believe in a different type of pop, also possibly being their target audience.

M

Nicki Minaj Releases New Video!

It has also been posted on the page in her website. http://mypinkfriday.com/

This Weeks Top 10!

http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/hot-100

Universal and Sony reach deal to buy EMI for £2.5bn

Famous British music business could be split into two in agreement that hands control to biggest rivals

EMI has sold its recorded music unit to Universal for £1.2 while the department goes to a Sony-led consortium for £1.3bn. Photograph: Getty Images
EMI, arguably the most famous corporate name in British music history, fell into the hands of its two largest rivals in two deals worth £2.5bn – a finale to a disastrous four-year period that saw the company loaded with debt by financier Guy Hands and rejected by bands like the Rolling Stones. Universal Music, the world's biggest recorded music company, triumphed in an auction for EMI's recorded music business, with a £1.2bn bid for the label behind Coldplay, Tinie Tempah, and above all, the Beatles. Its offer was about £250m more than rival Warner Music. It was the first part of a two-stage break-up of EMI, with the music publishing division, the home of the Motown catalogue, going to a consortium led by Sony – the world's second-largest music group. Sony reached agreement in principle to buy the division for £1.3bn, seeing off a bid from BMG Rights Management, a joint venture by Germany's Bertelsmann and the private equity group KKR. EMI was put on the block by US bank Citigroup, which seized control of the company in February after it became clear that its owner, Guy Hands's company Terra Firma, could not contend with the £3.4bn debt taken on when he bought the business in 2007. The double sale means that Citi will recoup about £2.5bn of its original loan. The bank also scooped a little over £200m in fees from the original loans to Terra Firma, meaning that its overall loss on those loans is a little less than £700m. Bank insiders characterised that as "a good result" given that EMI was bought at the height of the credit boom and is being sold in a downturn. Universal's move for EMI means that the two companies will account for 38% of all recorded music sales worldwide. In some countries, such as France, that figure will be over 50%. Vivendi, Universal's owner, pledged to take on the regulatory risk in the deal. Chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy said it would pay £1.1bn in 10 months' time and a further £100m on completion. Simon Dyson, editor of industry newsletter Music & Copyright, said that he would "be very surprised" if regulators cleared the deal "without a lot of sell-offs" – and said that the overall market share level was perilously close to "the magic number for an outright no" for the Universal-EMI combination. Sony's deal for EMI's music publishing catalogue carries far fewer regulatory risks because Sony is a relatively small player. Universal was quick to emphasise its commitment to EMI's musical heritage, with Lucian Grainge, the British chief executive of Universal Music, pledging to keep the historic Abbey Road studios where the Beatles and many other famous artists have recorded. "Abbey Road Studios are a symbol of EMI, a symbol of British culture, a symbol for the creative community of exactly what the company is and we are [now] part of," he said. Universal said that it expected to save £100m a year in costs by combining operations with EMI. The company added that it was "very confident" that it would be able to get the deal through a regulatory investigation, which could take up to a year, saying that it expected "deep and fruitful dialogue". To emphasise the point, Universal wheeled out Mick Jagger, who moved the Rolling Stones catalogue from EMI to Universal after a falling-out with Hands. The singer said Universal's move was "a very positive development and I particularly welcome the fact that EMI will once again be owned by people who really do have music in their blood".