My evaluation

My music magazine

Here the finished version of my music magazine.

Drafting and planning

After creating my draft of my music magazine i have since changed and improved the front page and the contents page, after receiving feedback on it. A piece of feedback i received was that there wasn't enough features on my contents page and too much was written about an artist, so i have made the description about an artist smaller and added more features to the page. Another piece if feedback i got was there wasn't enough page numbers for a monthly magazine, so i have increased the number from 44 to 123. The feedback i got was very beneficial to me as it helped me improve my magazine.

Drafting and planning- Contents page

Here I have drafted the text that will feature on my contents page.

PINK HONEY
Sugar and spice and all things nice is certainly not these girls. Find out how these feisty ladies channel their passion for girl power through their music ahead of their world tour.
Page 7

MARK ZEN
Known for his bad boy antics, Zen has released a killer album that has flung him straight into the spotlight again, but this time for all the right reasons.
Page 12

SPOOKTON
Experimental alternative pop sensation has done it again releasing a chilling new EP Dark Nights Dream and it's giving us goosebumps !
Page 37

THE THIRD TALE
With an almost fairy tale success story this bands new album is one to watch this year

NICO MILLS
Good times and good vibes. Laid back alternative pop artist Nico will be headlining this years summer festivals. Find out where he'll be because you don't want to miss it.
Page 33

MAZES
Brit music award up-and-coming artist winner Mazes has certainly not disappointed, with her new album Backfire which has had a lot of online interest has finally dropped.  We talked to her to find out about her whirlwind year.
page 38

Drafting and planning- Article

I have written the article about my artist, Ava saint Mae that will feature on the double page spread. In this article it discusses Avas rise to stardom, her views and opinions and also her background and influences.

Upcoming 'Alternative Pop' superstar, Ava Saint-Mae, reveals all in her exclusive interview this week with 'ALT MAGAZINE'  as she speaks from the heart on her influences for her own unique artistic brand and give us insight in to what she stands for: Girl Power and Teens having fun! 

Just after 15 months of the immediate success of her first album Against the World, Ava Saint Mae is back again with her most alluring album yet, Sweet Despair, solidifying her place in British music history.  

This past year has proven to be a monumental one for Ava, from releasing one of the most iconic alternative pop albums to headlining Glastonbury! Ava continues to go from strength to strength and she’s only 21! Ava has found herself in heaps of controversy just lately. She is a very candid speaker: openly disrespecting other celebrities in the public eye, in the tabloid press and on Twitter and commenting on the 'Live young; Die fast' lifestyle. I touched on this exciting example of a born to be wild mentality with her and all she had to say was “We have to take life by the horns and live it in the fast lane! I've being do it for all adult life and I love it! Do what makes you happy and if no one likes it, well fuck them - I honestly think that". Well what more can you say to that?  

Ava is only days away from the official release of her new album 'Sweet Despair' and her excitement at the prospect of sharing more of her passion for music is evident. We began by talking about her new album and the inspiration behind it. "Sweet despair for me is the epitome of contradicting the norm. I always think it's good to be different but then what is normal? My music should resonate with a female audience and empower them to independent and face reality." 

In the public eye, Ms Saint - Rae is the typical posh girl gone bad and has plunged into the world of the Sexual Revolution. When asked about her attitudes to guys and relationships she simply remarked with a grin; "I like to have fun and push boundaries. Don't run before you can walk, especially if you can ride." She laughed and apologised but her motor mouth, however daring, does speak interesting and intelligent words: "As a liberal and as a woman nothing is more important to me than equality in our society with everyone having equal access to education and health care especially. Everything in life is a little bit better if you have your health and knowledge is power - that's as political as I get." 

The rebel that is Ava tells of her turbulent times as a child - desperate to liberate herself from the stiff conservatism of her background. Self identifying as working class and committed to working hard to make music, she is not proud of her boarding school education and after meeting "some of the most genuine and extraordinary human beings ever" this Saint Alban's chic is the polar opposite of pretentious, "yeah it's cool and appealing to be the little, rich white girl who rebels and is an anarchist but I am not into all that just for the camera. Already I have done things I wish I hadn’t and have faced the consequences. I am a real person who does real people things. That's why my music means so much to me. Sing a song that has a connection with someone and has so much meaning that it will be talked about forever. That’s my ambition - however ambitious haha!"  

  

 

Drafting and planing- Cover lines

I have drafted the cover lines that will feature on the front cover of my magazine and here they are:

MARK ZEN
Bad boy Zen is back with a vengeance.

PINK HONEY
Girl power ! The three feisty young ladies embark on world tour.

SPOOKTON
Realises a chilling new EP.

I have carefully thought about these cover lines as they need to reflect the artists persona and help show the reader why they are featuring in the magazine. Also I tried to make them short to help grab the readers attention and not over crowd my front page.

Organisation and planning

I have been looking into suitable cover line to feature on my music magazine. I've looked to this magazine for an example because its a good demonstration of appropriate cover lines. As you can see that this magazine feature lots of different artists names for its cover line and these are effective because the names that do feature as cover lines are famous rock artists. So for my magazine I have to create a few suitable names of alternative-pop artists to feature as my cover lines. Also I will need to make sure that the names of these artists will need to sound believable so I'm going to do some more research into alternative pop artists names and I will my ideas in a later post.

Organisation

Here is what I planned for my secondary artist "spookton" to wear in the photo shoot. I decided on the black Harrington jacket as this is a very popular jacket with "cool/indie" people and this is the demographic of people that I want my artist to appeal to. Also I opted my artist to wear black slim jeans and a hoodie to give him a more relaxed every day look which helps to relate to teens.

Organisation

Here are the photos of my supporting artist called "spookton". I took these photos in a black box studio which allows me to edit the background as it is just one colour. Also i experimented with different angle shots giving me a variety in my photos that i can use on my contents page. I tried to steer away from doing medium close up shots as i have used this a few time already on my magazine, hence why as you can see in the photos i took i used some close up and  side profiles. 

Oraganisation and planning

Today I am planning to take photos for my secondary artist to feature on my contents page. The location I have decided to take these photos in is a black box drama studio, as the all the walls are black allowing me to if I want to edit the background. After I take these photos I will review them and decide the best one to use on my music magazine.

Drafting and planning

I have changed the style and colour of my masthead of my music magazine. I did this because I felt my previous masthead did not suit the colour scheme of the magazine. In my opinion I like the new colouring of my masthead as the white does stand out grabbing my audiences attention and also it doesn't clash with the other colours i am using. However even though the colour white isn't apart or my colour scheme palette it still fits in but helps to make a distinction making the masthead stand out. For now I am currently happy with my masthead however this is subject to change if I later on feel it doesn't work.

Drafting and planning

I have been continuing to edit my music magazine and so far I have added an effect on the photos of the contents page. I have done this because previously they didn't have one and I felt that it didn't fit the colour scheme of my magazine.

I decided that this effect on my photos is quite appropriate as the bright colours used contrast with my secondary artists though there is a real sense of symbiosis between the backgrounds and my artists. Additionally, having a natural background for my main cover star is quite effective as the attention maintains on her.

Drafting and planning

Name-Ava saint Mae

Age-21

Name of CD – Sweet despair is her second album that following the success of her first album called against the world.

Motivation/theme for album- 

The motivation of the album is about teens being wild and free but having fun and they don’t care about rules and consequences.

Background/influence ?

coming from an affluent background in St. Alberns influenced Ava's songs. As she studied in a boarding school renowned for their strict rules, Coming into her mid teens Ava slowly began to rebel causing her to get kicked out which then began her musical career. 

Tour dates: 

-Birmingham O2 institute 

-Manchester club academy 

-London, UK – Hammersmith Apollo

-Manchester, UK – O2 Apollo

-Glasgow, UK – O2 Academy Glasgow
-Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street

Draftin and planning

In my music magazine I will have two other artist featuring in it with photos of them. I have created two names for my secondary artists as they need to have an identity inorder to be believable.
My first secondary artist in a three piece girl band called PINK HONEY, I have chosen this name as I feel it's suitable for an alternative pop band. The other secondary artist will be called Mark Zen as I feel that this name would suit the artist because mark is a normal/ordinary name but Zen isn't and has connotations of peace/cool which reflects the artists laid back attitude which is shown through the photo of him.

Drafting and planning- colour scheme

For my music magazine I am taking inspiration from the colour scheme in the clash magazine featuring Lana del rey. The colours used are quite dreamy/summer colours which creates a nice effect. the reason i want to use these colours is because it will contrast with my artist as she is seen a dark and also using these colours could be considered as going against the norm with alternative magazines which reflects my magazines ethos as it breaks the rules. In my previous post of my draft version of my music magazine, you can see that i have done this however I feel that my masthead doesn't suit the colour scheme so I am  in the process of changing that now.

Drafting and planning

After creating my first draft of my music magazine(http://benitaasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/drafting-and-planning-first-draft.html) i recived some feedback that my anchorage text that features on the front cover could be more 'edgier'. I agree with this too because my artist is hevily influenced by Lana del rey and Lorde as they are both popular female alternative-pop artists. So I have looked at anchorage texts and main cover lines from magazines that feature Lana and Lorde, the image on the left. The main cover lines that feature the word 'sultry' and 'mysterious' reflects Lana's ethos and the ones that say 'Baddest diva' and 'girl who broke the rules' reflects Lordes. As my artist is influenced by these two artists my main cover line/anchorage text should incorporate this. Once i have created a new one I will use this in my next draft of my music magazine.

Drafting and planning- First draft

 

Here is my first completed draft of my music magazine.

Drafting and planning

In previous posts I have talked about my artist name and my artists album however I have been undecided on it but now I finally finalised what I'll be using.

Artists name

I had a few names for my artist that I couldn't decide between, Ava Saint May/Ava Saint Mae
Ava Mae/May, Indiana Saint or Indiana May/Mae but out of these I will be calling my artist Ava saint Mae. This is because it is my favourite out of all the names I created and I feel like this best represents my artist.

Album name

Also I did have a few different album names that I couldn't decide between, Against the world, Sweet despair or Deadly truth. After careful consideration I have decided to go with Sweet despair as I like the fact its an oxymoron and represents how my artists contradicts the norm of artists within the same genre.

Now I have finalised what names I'll be using I can carry on creating my draft version of my music magazine.

Organisation

I have successfully did a photo shoot for my music magazine and planning, hair/location/makeup/ and costume really helped with this because as you can see I stuck to what I said I was planning to do in my previous posts. Also I made sure I use a variety of different angels and shot lengths so I can get the best photo I possibly can.

Drafting and planning

In my music magazine my artist will be promoting her new album as well as herself. So I am trying to create a name for the album that helps to represent her and reflects her music style. To do this I have been looking at album names of other artists with the same music genre. 

 

Lana del rey's album "Ultraviolence" is very effective
because represents an endlessly fascinating cornucopia of dysfunction which is the artists whole ethos, so by having the album being called "Ultraviolence" it helps the audience relate back to her. Also "Ultraviolence" is a song that features on the album so by it also being the albums title it shed a light as to the types of songs featuring on the album. Furthermore the fact that the album name is one word makes it easier to remember.





I also think Lorde's album "Pure Heroine" Is an effective album name because it is quite daring meaning that it will stick in audiences heads. Also the album name isn't a song on the album like Lana's but it still represents the songs on there as the songs on the album are about misfit teenagers and there culture, so the album name is very fitting.






Here are some album names I have come up with.
-"Against the world" I feel like this would be an appropriate band name because my artists genre is 16-19 and usually this is how people of that age range feel. Also it could represent how my artist felt when she started her music career.
-"Sweet despair" This also I feel would make a good album name because the use of the oxymoron represents how my artists contradicts the norm of artists within the same genre.
-"Deadly truth" This would be a good album name as it is an interesting name making the audience what to listen to it, also it reflects my artists personality as she is a candid person and like to be truthful in what she says and it her music even thought not everyone may want to hear it.

I'll be using one of the above album names in my magazine however I haven't decided out of the three which one it will be yet. 

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