New Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The final draft of my magazine follows the main conventions of a music magazine. It's specific traits to a music magazine is to advertise and promote certain types of music, to have interviews with musicians, to advertise upcoming gig's and tours and also to feature musical terminology and musical props. Another key element of music magazines is to follow a specific colour scheme throughout which I have used black, blue, yellow and green for so that the reader can identify my look straight away at first glance as my masthead will always feature the same style every month and will become the brand identification towards my magazine. My magazine specifically does not attempt to challenge any of the conventions of music magazines as with following normal conventions it is easier to know what sells to the public and what magazines are in high demand and popular with the majority of the public at this moment. Therefore I specifically tried to base my magazine around other popular magazines so that I knew it would be a success and also would guarantee sales and be a success in the eyes of others. I did not try to reinvent conventions with it as it would have been a gamble in whether it would have been a success and whether it would have been a hit with other people in terms of interesting them and being appealing. I feel that my magazine looks traditional to the Indie music scene and upholds key points of it. This is why I have had to change the design of my title a couple of times, in order to meet the criteria of the Indie style but not to be complex so that it loses signs of originality.

Originally I went with the first one but I thought it looked a little boring and very simplistic that it would not appeal to many people. Afterwards I thought about the second one as I thought it looked authentic and the type of title you would see placed on a Indie magazine but then I began to doubt it as it looked a little decorative and old fashioned for a style of music which is constantly reinventing itself and therefore I wanted a more modern look. This pushed me and made up my mind that the third one was the best as it looked like a new style and I also felt it would drag in my intended audience that was for teens and young adults. I then tripled it to match the name of the title which I thought would cement a young persons view into buying it as I thought they would understand and relate to it but also give them a sense of maturity and intrigue. I based my look on some of the typical conventions of the "NME" magazine.