Evaluation- Codes and conventions

I have used the magazine 'RESPECT' as a model for my magazine throughout this module. And I believe that many of the conventions of 'RESPECT' are seen in my magazine LOUD as well. The simple yet effective look makes for an appealing magazine that seems not to be to 'wordy'. This particular front cover for 'RESPECT' shows an artist smiling, creating the idea of a friendly artist, similar to mine.

Many of the music magazines on sale today, have an image of a person that would attract young people and admirers of that person to buy the magazine. Most music magazines do this through sex appeal, showing an attractive person of the opposite gender, like the one below to entice an audience of mostly teenagers, or, some music magazines have an image of the same gender  as there targeted audience for young teenagers to aspire to be. I have chosen to challenge the usual codes and conventions of a music magazine, through putting an artist as the main focus of my front cover that isn’t well known, he’s an up and coming artist, showing him to be breaking into the scene, hopefully enticing teenagers to buy my magazine as they want to be the first to recognise his talent and tell their friends about. I think that challenging this usual convention of a music magazine will also be helped by the artist being a young one, creating more of a relationship with the reader as they can relate to him, exemplified by the fact that he’s from London which is a clear theme in my magazine, rather than the usual theme of American rap. The theme of London is made clear by the constant reference to London, and images of London landscape on my conents page. I have an attractive girl in a smaller picture, and although it is not the main focus of the front cover, like it would be in most music magazines, it still makes way for a larger audience. The biggest challenge to the codes and conventions of usual music magazines that I have made is that my magazine displays no price. I had thought about displaying the price in the usual way, however, I thought that perhaps, if there was no price, sales may be increased as they would have to ask for the price via the shop scanning the barcode, making them less likely to say no when they are told the price. The magazine wouldn’t be very cheap, which can be off putting, I believe this could help to the magazine being just as enticing despite the price.

Although I have challenged many of the areas of music magazines especially of the rap genre, I still believe that my magazine would sell, as it is different from all the usual music magazines, yet is just as cool, if not, cooler.