R&B artist's comparison

Above there is a comparison between two diverse R&B artist's , this will help me for my magazine because when I base my artist profile I can use the comparison's above to my advantage and this is essential for me to take a look into as it improves my understanding.

Indie R&B record label moodboard.

Above I have created a moodboard on an indie R&B record label, called 2point9. This is a British based label. By doing this it gives me an insight into the R&B industry, this is currently helping me with research.

R&B Moodboard

Now above is the moodboard that I have created using the web 2.0 programme Glogster. I have utilised this website in order to create my moodboard. The feature's it has are simply phenomenal one example of this is how youtube video's will also play on the moodboard. I thought it really will help me because what I am creating is based upon music so audios and visuals in my opinion are essential!

Reader Profile

Yo, my name is John Dee, I'm currently an AS level student undertaking Mathematics, Economics and English literature. Originated from London, currently living on the outskirts in Surrey. My date of birth is 30^th March 1995, that would make me about 18 years old and my age is something which is usually a subject to change. Putting my sense of humour to one side I am fairly passionate about R&B, it’s like a whole new chapter to my life with singers such as T-Pain, Jay Sean and Ne-Yo. I cannot explain my compassion for their music but let me just say that I don’t believe I can function in everyday life without listening to ‘beautiful monster’ by Ne-Yo. My hobbies are sports, I love sports, this makes my mind sharp and active and also my body feels much healthier after a good gym session or football match. I have also realised that now I cannot leave my house without a pair of my handy ear phones, they transmit music to my ears from my MP3 player which I cannot live without, call me crazy  but I've adopted this very bad habit in such a way that it’s now considered to be good luck for me. Oh how silly of me I haven’t mentioned my gender, well in that case if you must know I'm a male and as you can see I am quite the lively character with my music I am very ecstatic. I also have quite a few friends, Mr.Popular if you ask me; yes that is precisely what I am!

Analysing responses from the survey I conducted #5

Now this question above is the only question on my survey which required an explanation so that I can find out what people most look forward to when reading a music magazine. This is essential for me to take everyones views into consideration so that my music magazine is extremely successful. Now below you can see some of the 24 responses to the question that appears above.

The responses shown are above should be shown in my own music magazine so I can meet my target audiences demand. This is essential because more people in my target audience will purchase my music magazine and this question also helps me see if there are any gaps in the market for content in music magazines.

Analysing responses from the survey I conducted #4

This is the final multiple choice question I had asked in my survey mainly because I wanted to do a more generalised music magazine survey, this for me is essential so I can find out preferred magazines , most iconic features, appealing covers and also how ofter music magazines are read. This question I have asked so that I can find out how often a person would read a magazine, now according to the results most people don't often read magazines so this data is essential to me because by making my music magazine stand out I can grip my target audience into reading my music magazine.

Analysing responses from the survey I conducted #3

Now this question I asked so that I can find out the participants preferred magazine, this can help my magazine because by doing something similar and expanding to the preferred magazines on my magazine then I will have more people wanting to buy my magazine.

Analysing responses from the survey I conducted #2

Now the question above I had asked so that I know how much of my target audience purchases a music magazine, it's nearly 50/50. This is so that I can find out if the participants of the survey have ever witnessed what they deem to be an attractive music magazine, so now I know for my magazine cover it will have to be attractive or no-one will purchase it.

Analysing responses from the survey I conducted #1

First of all I had asked the question above to see what part of the magazine cover is more attractive so that I can possibly use this data into my own front cover. According to majority of the people the masthead is most attractive then colours, now knowing this I shall make my masthead stand out and use a colour which is quite appealing

Focus Group Analysis

From the focus group, we got together in order to discuss current music magazines, at this stage it is unclear what genre I want to create my music magazine to be so I have asked questions regarding the genre of R&B. In this focus group i had used statistics in order to agree with the people I am conducting this focus group with if they understand why blue and red are the most iconic colours for a R&B magazine. Yes, they did agree with the research I had conducted before. I also found out that all magazines created must be a consumer magazine.

What is a consumer's magazine?
Well it is a magazine that can be sold to the public, why is it sold to the public. It is sold so that Vibe for example can gain money to be a profitable organisation.

We also discussed conventions....
Current conventions..
Colour schemes
Masthead
Artist
Shots
Layout

Then we compared all the big magazines, Kerrang, Vibe and XL.

Focus Group

This is the focus group I have conducted about magazine covers I had included results from the Poll I had conducted earlier this week.

Online Questionnaire

I have created the survey above with use of survey monkey on web 2.0 although I have done this online I can also print out some copies and distribute to people with difficulties in finding my survey.

Research Rationalle

The type of target group that I will have access to are mostly teenagers between the ages of 16-19 and to be honest that’s the ideal age range for me. Teenagers also will give me more critical feedback regarding the genre of R&B even though this might not be the genre I decide to choose for my music magazine based upon my research. Then I can ask them in a focus group that I am deciding to create, what type of artist they would like to see on the cover for this different genre’s. I will be conducting research in order to receive both qualitative and quantitative data so that I know what to do next, what’s preferred and even how to do it. By conducting research to find quantitative data I will have to create surveys, questionnaires and polls. My research will mainly be conducted online using web 2.0 as you can gather more data quicker and more efficiently, one more reason for the use of web 2.0 is so that Paper can be saved in order to help protect the environment. First of all I will create a poll in order to see what colour they believe is most iconic on the front cover of a music magazine out of the following; red, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, orange and yellow. I will be doing this so that I can find out what colour alongside black and white should be used in my magazine, I will also show the three most chosen iconic colours on a music magazine covers (different) and present it to my focus group and see their reaction. In order to conduct my research I believe I may need the following equipment; camera, computer, Internet, Google account for putting my focus group on to YouTube and also a survey monkey account in order to create questionnaires. I will create a questionnaire online on survey monkey, more people will then be able to access this and it also prevents my results from being lost.

What makes this R&B magazine cover stand out?

• First of all there is a masthead in place of the magazine called 'VIBE' in big bold clear font. The masthead is so big so that this feature stands out.
• Then secondly on this magazine there is a highly effective pull quote which is used in order to grip the readers attention from the cover directly into the magazine its self.
• Furthermore there is also something called a feature, this is to show who the main attraction of this magazine is and this will also grip the audience into taking the magazine, the feature is normally the most important or famous person inside the magazine.
• Chris brown also uses the angle of gaze, this is to show the reader that the magazine is created solely for you as the main cover is focusing on you and that generally means that we the audience are the correct target audience.
• Finally there is use of an exclusive this is in order to show an insight of the R&B music genre, so this may potentially grip you into buying this magazine.

Magazine comparisons and annotations

There are 3 music magazines which I have annotated above, all 3 magazines are for different companies. Bleeder, Vibe and Kerrang.

SIMILARITIES

All magazines are similar in their unique way, like in this case the most obvious is that they all are trying to pursue a message in the same language, now music is that language, these 3 magazines fit into that music genre and all include a feature, a feature is someone that promotes their magazine by name for example a celebrities name in big fat bold writing would be classed as a feature.

All 3 magazines include a masthead however that is pretty much compulsory to have on a magazine otherwise how would you have a title on your magazine cover?

DIFFERENCES

The genre for music, Bleeder is POP, Kerrang is metal and Vibe is R&B and Rap.

The way the cover page is laid out is also different because for each magazine the type of shot the cover image is, is different, e.g. The amount of people in the picture.

The background for Kerrang magazine is different to the others as it also has more going on that's whys the colour of background had to be altered so there was no clashes with the bleeds aswell. Each magazine also has a colour scheme which is different this is so that it stands out. Price is another factor as Kerrang is the cheapest with £2.50 , Vibe is £4.99 and Bleeder is £5.00.

• Masthead is used in magazines to show what it represents and it makes the colour of the magazine stand out 
• Feature shows what the magazines will be featuring inside it, what artists will be involved and pull quotes or rhetorical questions related to what the artists' stories will be about.
• Pull Quotes are used for attracting the audience's attention and makes the story it is related to stand out. It also makes the audience want to know more about the story involved. 
• If the Angle of Gaze is directly at the audience, it would make them feel involved in the magazine and more in touch with the artist.
• Medium shot is used to match the type of genre such as in pop, Katy Perry is using a glamorous type of look whereas in the R&B Magazine, Rick Ross and MMG are using a serious and direct type of look. 
• Teasers are a way of attracting the audience's attention and making them aware of the freebies available to obtain. 

Bass Control Brief

Bass Control is the name of the blog I am creating, this is to ensure that I can publish anything relating to the magazine I have to create in order to show the world what I can possibly create, This blog will consist of a music magazine cover, a double page spread for that same music magazine and then a contents page for that same magazine all of these will consist with complete evidence and analysis in order to show how I achieved my goals and also how I created this masterpiece with extreme depth.

So far this academic year I have created a magazine so I do have a fair understanding on how programmes such as photoshop works, also I have conducted some market research however it is for another task, the experience I have achieved from that task will almost certainly help me do that much better for the real thing.

I hope to create an outstanding piece of work for the genre R&B yet at the moment I am not completely sure on what genre my magazine is going to be on. I want to show the examiner all the skills I have learnt till date and put it in with my own blood, sweat and tears so that my hard work will pay off at the end of the day.

I will try and conduct research to the best of my abilities with the use of many formats such as videos, surveys etc.

I am thinking to create this piece of work as a consumer magazine, it should in my mind have the following on the cover; Masthead, teasers, cover lines, cut-out, Angle-of –gaze, graphic, pull quote and a caption. The more I use of the above the better my magazine will hopefully look. However I must at all costs make sure that the front cover of my magazine is not at all over crowded.