Evaluation question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Generically music magazine titles reflect the genre of the magazine in question, such as Kerrang sounds like the sound of a guitar (onomatopoeia) or Billboard magazine; which would imply that the magazine is contemporary and popular - similar to the adverts on a Billboard.

The magazine title I chose was 'Studio' as I felt that it was appropriate to my chosen gender (pop) as pop music is predominantly recorded in a studio.
For evaluating purposes I have decided to focus on the layout of Billboard magazine (as it is another pop magazine i see this to be appropriate to evaluate). After looking at several covers for this magazine I have noticed that
the model is central yet doesn't quite reach the top of the page, I kept this in mind for my magazine as it was the first edition I didn't want the model covering the masthead. Also taking inspiration from this cover I liked the idea of the text going behind the model rather than over it, I think this worked well on my cover as I didn't have any specific coverlines, just lots of artists names which implied it was a music magazine.
Usually pop artists are associated with wearing high fashion, stylish, possibly cutting edge clothes. I had to keep this in mind when chosing what to dress my model in on the cover, as I don't have access to designer clothes I dressed Sara in a black party dress, which I think looked simple enough to look classy and not distracting from the writing on my cover. I didn't feel it nessicary to use props in my photoshoot as shoots of popstars aren't dissimilar to fashion shoots, I also think this added to the simplicity of my magazine and didn't make it look too 'busy' which can be distracting. I think that my pictures alone wouldn't be easliy related to pop music yet the writing in my magazine denotes that, whereas in pop magazines the artist is usually connected to pop music without having to read the magazine; I didn't have a popstar to put on the cover so I couldn't use that to my advantage.
I found that after looking at several magazines of different genre's that pop music photos are simple, usually using midshots or full length shots rather than experimenting with different angles like rock or r&b might use. I used face on angles and a slightly high angle in my photo's as I didn't want to over complicate things. I think that this looked effective and mimiced what is used in published pop magazines.

I chose the title 'Studio' after mind mapping different names for any music magazine. I decided to use this as it is a single word therefore more memorable like Billboard, Complex and Q. The masthead font is similar to that of Elle magazine, as in my research and planning I stated that I was heavily influenced by fashion so I felt that by taking inspiration from Elle would be appropriate and would give the magazine the style I wanted it to have. The font of the article that I used was 'Georgia' as I found that that was similar to the one in Elle magazine and was simple and easy to read, it also looks classy and again; simplistic so it didn't over-complicate the look of my magazine. I also boxed the paragraphs as I think it looks neater and this is also used in professional magazines such as Billboard.
The style of the magazine I have gone for is a mix of Elle and Billboard magazine, after having my first set of feedback I decided to change the colour  scheme from purple, yellow black and white to black, white and a pinky shade of red. I did this because I think it made my magazine more eye-catching and appealing to look at, I also think it made it look fresher. The only issue I have with my overall style is the issue of my front cover not exactly matching the contents page, yet I think the double page spread's tie them together nicely. I also have put an 'S' in the corner of each page in the masthead font to tie the magazine together more.

The genre of pop music magazines is reflected by the artist on the front and the cover lines. For example, this cover of Miley Cyrus is focussed around her, and the cover lines a lot smaller - to draw more attention to the feature artist. The image of Miley Cyrus with the coverlines would tell the reader that it is a music magazine, and that it is more than likely from the pop genre. I took this into account whilst doing my cover and made 'Sara' the biggest piece of text on my cover in a different colour so it would stand out more and indicate that she is my feature artist.  The contents page of Billboard has a lot of information on it, and it is all organised neatly around the text. I tried to mimic this and the contents page of Elle to reach a happy medium of the two. A criticism of my contents page would be that it doesn't have a specific colour (bar black and white) that runs through the page. Like Billboard, I used images of my artist on my contents page to keep the feature artist running throughout my magazine. On my first double page spread I used the lyrics 'Only Girl in the World' which is the title from Rihanna's recent song, I think this has kept the 'pop' theme in my magazine so that it didn't come become too heavily fashion influenced.
After writing my magazine article my artist 'Sara' is represented as an outgoing, down to earth teenager. I tried to make my model do poses which would reflect this.