Research/Case Study Front Cover : XXL

The magazine that I have chosen to base my research upon is XXL magazine, the genre of this magazine is Hip-Hop. This is portrayed through the styling of Drake, you can very well tell of the back that this is either a Hip-Hop magazine or a Rap magazine.

Firstly I analysed the front cover and I began my analysis upon the image. The shot type of the rapper 'Drake' used is a Medium Close Up. The lighting the magazine has chosen to use is directed towards Drake's face and beyond that becomes more or less of a shadow. Drake is fairly styled as in he's wearing what we as the audience are used to seeing him that of a; bummer jacket, white t-shirt and a gold chain, this all fits the styling of the magazine as its in black and white.

Secondly I moved on onto the Conventions of the Page Layout. Lets begin with the Masthead. The masthead is generally behind the artist/musicians head, this is done because the artists used - in this case Drake is very well known by the public or those interested in the genre itself, by the magazine using a popular artist this will already attract customers. This is also done as the magazine is already established the first 'XX' is enough for the audience to identify which magazine it is. Also in most cases the masthead is the largest font of the whole front cover but in this case the Anchorage Text where it says 'Drake' is the largest font of the issue.

The Font Choices used are very simple throughout the front cover, all the text is bolded out this gives it a surreal look as its merely plain and standard. The Colour of the Masthead is its usual red background with its bold white 'XXL'. For this issue they incorporated gold into it. The Anchorage Text is in gold saying 'DRAKE WATCH THE THRONE' the gold symbolises all of Drake's winnings, also his hot new album that's about to drop - which has been the talk of the town everyone thinks this will be the album of the year. Also the image and the colour of the Anchorage Text are linked up and this detonates the fact that all the praises Drake has been receiving, he's perceived as a 'gold star' so by Drake not looking into the camera and addressing the audience (mode of address) it shows his humility and humbleness as he's grateful for the compliments and the spotlight he's been receiving.

XXL used the 'Left Third' technique whereby we as the audience tend to look at a magazine and the first place we tend to look at is the left side of the magazine this is where the important facts are, on this magazine they've included BIG names in the music game (industry) for example; Kendrick Lamar, NAS, Macklemore etc. Those are the kind of names that will instantly attract a customer or the audience. 

This issue of XXL doesn't really have that much Cover Lines other than on the top right corner of the page with only to stories and this is done to advertise the articles and entice the reader to pick it up and read on. This may be purposefully done as theyve wanted to keep it simple as the main focus of the issue is Drake. 

Thirdly moved onto the Language used on the front cover and the tone of it would be quite straightforward as there isn't nuch information , although they do draw you in through the use of the numbers on the top right corner (cover lines) as it looks like a lot of information so more people will wan to read on.

This summs up the codes and conventions of the Front Cover.





Preliminary Task LSC Magazine: Research College Mag

This is an annotated front cover of 'College' Magazine, just highlighting a few key points of the codes and conventions of a front cover. 

Quick Photoshop Test Run: BUZZ Beyonce

This is a print screen of my quick Photoshop run.
firstly in order to begin, we had to create a sheet into an 'A4' piece of paper, we did this by  clicking on 'File' then press 'New' and there's a multiple choice column you change it to 'International Paper'.
we then needed to align the paper using the ruler tool this is to endure that the text will be aligned we did this by clicking the 'Curser' and getting the white curser and dragging it across and down to any number as long as its all even.

 We also learnt how to zoom in and zoom out; to zoom in you have to press 'Ctrl +' to zoom out you have to press 'Ctrl -' and that's how your able to zoom in and zoom out when you want.

Also in the right bottom corner there is a section whereby your able to adjust each image, text, background etc.you do this by selecting what you wish to work on and then editing it to fit your needs. For example to edit an image you first have to unlock it, you do this by clicking the lock icon and double click then press 'OK' then press 'Ctrl T' this helps you to navigate the image around easier. 

Those are some of the things that we learnt in our test run of photoshop.

Kerrang Magazine Analisys : Double Pages Spread

 

This is an example of double paged spread that we looked at in lesson:

This is an article of the band 'Chemical Romance', talks a little about themselves and them as a whole , their music and many more.

The font is fairly standard, its bold and strong just like the band being represented. The images used matches the house style and the colour scheme as the heading of the article is in red, so as the artists hair, there is also the use of black and blue which flows through the article also. also the arrows signify the band moving forward in the music business and that they are now being noticed and adored by fans. these images definitely effect the genre as Kerrang magazine is a rock magazine that's why there is a rock band on the double paged spread and its quite evident even without knowing the name of the magazine. The magazine were very intelligent in making the DPS, they only used 4 columns but  when you look at the DPS it doesn't look like there's much to read but once you start reading you find out that its quite lengthy and that's a good trick to use as the audience just like to read between the lines and look at pictures. Overall it was a well rounded double page spread.





Crash Magazine Analysis of Contents Page

This is an example that we looked at during lesson:
The font use is very professional and bold, very straightforward, however for the title they used a more creative font.
The contents page includes:

• Features
• Regulars
• Fashions

They give a detailed description of particular parts of each section as they've detailed the more important ones with numbers so that it gives the audience an idea of what article they should locate first.

There isn't really a colour scheme other than the fact that monochrome seems to be the standard theme, which makes the contents page and magazine as a whole look very modern.
the images used make the magazine look as though its a fashion/photography/art magazine because the images have an 90s vibe but once youv4e read the contents page you'll find out that they are artists/musicians.They didn't include the logo of there magazine.

Document: Download or Down - No?

Download or Down-No?

We live in a generation of everything having its cost, but there’s that one thing that seems to become more and more price free and that’s what they call Music Piracy also known as music piracy.  

So the big question is what exactly is music piracy? Well I can clear that up for you. Music piracy is when music files are copied and shared in which the composer, recording artist, or even the copyright-holding record company did not give permission/consent to own this piece of music, this is then called copyright infringement. As we all know music piracy is a criminal offence, so why is it that in the last decade it’s become such a popular crime to commit? Is it because m any people don’t see it worthy enough to be a criminal offense? Or is it because our generation is just rebellious? Well almost a third of the UK internet users who stream or download music, TV and films did so at least once illegally in the quarter to the end of January, with a gob smacking total of 400million files digitally pirated in the three-month period during 2012. I know you’re thinking wow, that’s a lot for just a three month period, so you can only imagine how much music files are downloaded illegally in just a year! Let’s get our breath back from that whopping piece of information and get to the root of the matter.

So do you think music piracy is wrong or right? Well I agree with music piracy and let me tell you why. If were looking from an artist’s prospective, free downloading of music is a good thing as your promoting and distributing the artists music, it’s almost like advertising in a way and exposing their music for free. Also free downloading can lead to later purchases from the consumer, because someone may genuinely like the song and just purchase it for “keep sake” as they call it, so downloading music promotes future purchases and without it those purchases wouldn’t have been made. Music is by far the most popular digital media pirated, accounting for 280m of the 386m items of file sharing websites illegally accessed over the three-month period in 2012. There are two main popular websites that seem to be gracing the scene which are ‘YouTube converter’ – in which you copy the link from YouTube and paste then download. Another example would be ‘aimini.net’ which provides very good quality of music. The most important reason why most people download illegally is because purchasing music can be expensive and as we know we are living in the recession and the majority of the pirating generation are teens and college aged students, whereby money is tight so it’s simply easier to download for free.

Some people may even argue that file sharing is destroying the music industry but I’m here to tell you that it’s not, in no way shape or form. I’mma let you in on a secret, artists get up to 25% of the sales they make from their singles; meaning their record label gets up to 75% of the single sales - now isn’t that a rip off? Even influential artists like Lady Gaga agree with file sharing she says “Artists make up to 50 – 100 million on their tours, I don’t really care about that, I make most of my money on my tours anyway”. (huffingtonpost.com – 2011)Even the beautiful and talented Joss Stone said:“I think it's great. I love it. I think it's brilliant, and I'll tell you why. Music should be shared. I believe that this is how music turned into, like, some crazy business. Now, the only part about music that I dislike is the business that is attached to it. Now, if music is free, then there is no business. There is just music. So, I like it. I think that we should share it. It's okay. If one person buys it, it's totally cool. Burn it up. Share it with your friends. I don't care. I don't care how you hear it, as long as you hear it. As long as you come to my show and, like, have a great time and listen to the live show, it's totally cool. I don't mind. I'm happy that they hear it.”

However there are many people out there including artists that strongly disagree with music piracy, due to the facts that it its ilegal – stealing is morally incorrect and stealing if defined as claiming anything without permission from the rightful owner. Also some people may say it is an insult and harmful to the artist as they’re putting their all into their music and not getting anything back from the audience this then makes them feel betrayed or ‘double crossed’ as they say, because some bands live off the money they make from the music sales so it’s basically like were stealing from them, that’s one way to look at it. Illegal file sharing negatively effects the music industry as they have to invest in studio time, music videos, hair&make –up, styling etc. some argue so where is their return? Do we live in the day and age whereby people now work for free? It also effects the artists and the record label because they’re missing out on BIG money and their royalties therefore this could make them increase the prices of the singles making the loyal fans who genuinely buy the music very much legit they have to pay more. Globally music piracy causes 12.5 billion economic losses every year and about 71,060 jobs are lost through this, so from that perspective it seems pretty bad, and it is. Even Michael Jackson the influential king of pop said “it is wrong to illegally download, but jail isn’t the answer” So there you have it that’s music piracy summed up all in one, the good and the bad – the bad and the good.

Now it’s your turn to decide what you think?

Production Schedule

File Sharing Article