Questions - Using Conventions from Real Media

Which Were The Most Influential Conventions For You? How Did Your Study Of Them Effect Your Decisions and Outcomes?

The most influential conventions for my AS music magazines were the ones I found when I done my research. These conventions were the main image, the masthead/title, the colours, barcode and price, fonts, other images, layout if page, captions/quotes, whats included in the page, competitions/adverts etc. I found all of these conventions after looking at a lot of other music magazines such as Q, NME, Vibe, XL etc. I looked at music magazines from different genres such as Rock, Rap, R&B and chart music, and looked at how they presented their magazines.

These conventions were very influential as they were the basics and most necessary as they made the magazine because it needs all these conventions to be a good and normal magazine. For example, if a magazine didn't have a main image it would be very plain and boring and it wouldn't appeal to its audience.

Most of the music magazines I looked at in my research had a house style. So I tried to use a house style which was a influential convention for me as other music magazines i looked at used them and I wanted my music magazine to look as professional and like other music magazines as possible.

Another influential convention that effected my outcomes was the images. In my research I noticed that most music magazines had either one main image of a band/artist that is the main focus of the magazine or included in the magazine or loads of little images of stories/articles included in the magazine. So by looking at these influenced my decision as I looked at which looked better and was used more, which is why I decided to go with one main picture to appeal to the audience and make them want to see what is included inside. 

2. Did You Subvert Any Conventions That You Studied In Music Magazines? 

I don’t think that I really subverted any conventions as I wanted my magazine to try to look professional like other music magazines, I’ve also never made a magazine so I tried to follow the norms/rules of making one not thinking of how subverting conventions could have made my magazine more interesting and creative.

One way I did subvert conventions was my main image. I noticed in my research that a lot of magazines used close up pictures of bands/artist and had a plain or edited background or some even have no background at all. So I decided to go a different way and use a mid-shot image of my ‘artist’ which include a lot of the background which you could clearly make out what it was and I didn't crop or edit the background keeping it original but added a slight colour effect to it. I chose this specific background as I thought it looked appealing and fitted in well with the genre of my music magazine which was ‘indie’. Although overall I didn't think my magazine looked professional and I should’ve really edited my image