This is an analysis of a double-page spread featuring Florence and The Machine. The article has been very helpful in deciding how to choose the layout for my own double-page spread using different features and typical characteristics of a DPS.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
My Double Page Spread
Lilly Howard is a brand new emerging artist. I want my audience to envy her because of her new life as she can barely go anywhere without being noticed anymore. She is 22 and not used to all the attention; I feel as though this feature about her could relate to the target audience as she came from being a normal girl to a well-known artist in such a short time.
The magazines discourse is going to be very simple. It will avoid using complex words so the magazine has the potential to widen its range of audience. Simplifying long words will make the magazine appeal to more ages as younger people will be able to understand and follow the story of Lilly Howard. Simple language will not only be used for the double-page spread, but also for the front cover and the contents page. It is true that the way you speak language reflects your perception on the world, and therefore people judge you for it; their first impression will be based on the way you speak. It is for this reason that there will be key words and phrases which will identify a particular audience; between 14 and 25. This is the key age for people who read music magazines and will therefore have a higher chance of success. The gender audience of 'TUNE' is not specified; but depending on who is featuring in the weekly issue, there may be more of one gender than the other each time. For example, boys probably won't want to read about the detailed life of Pixie Lott and what films she enjoys, but girls may not want to read about what Alex Turner's tactics are to get girls.
The magazines discourse is going to be very simple. It will avoid using complex words so the magazine has the potential to widen its range of audience. Simplifying long words will make the magazine appeal to more ages as younger people will be able to understand and follow the story of Lilly Howard. Simple language will not only be used for the double-page spread, but also for the front cover and the contents page. It is true that the way you speak language reflects your perception on the world, and therefore people judge you for it; their first impression will be based on the way you speak. It is for this reason that there will be key words and phrases which will identify a particular audience; between 14 and 25. This is the key age for people who read music magazines and will therefore have a higher chance of success. The gender audience of 'TUNE' is not specified; but depending on who is featuring in the weekly issue, there may be more of one gender than the other each time. For example, boys probably won't want to read about the detailed life of Pixie Lott and what films she enjoys, but girls may not want to read about what Alex Turner's tactics are to get girls.
Planning a DPS has to be focused on in two different aspects;
1) The positioning of the reader and subject (the main back story of the article and its purpose)
2) Patterns of word choice which will reinforce the subject-reader relationship
The positioning of my reader-subject relationship is explained in more detail in the "Intertextuality" paragraph on my blog. The patterns of word choice is shown below in the sample of the lexical cohesion that are the kinds of words that will be used in my magazine.
Indie - Rock 'n' Roll - Influence/Inspiration - Festivals - Relationships - Personal Life - Tour - Style - Individuality - Quirky - Confident - Laughing
These key words and phrases will feature in my article to reinforce the relationship between the readers and the magazine. It will help to define a specific audience by seeing who is interested in reading the article, which my focus group will give feed back on.
1) The positioning of the reader and subject (the main back story of the article and its purpose)
2) Patterns of word choice which will reinforce the subject-reader relationship
The positioning of my reader-subject relationship is explained in more detail in the "Intertextuality" paragraph on my blog. The patterns of word choice is shown below in the sample of the lexical cohesion that are the kinds of words that will be used in my magazine.
Indie - Rock 'n' Roll - Influence/Inspiration - Festivals - Relationships - Personal Life - Tour - Style - Individuality - Quirky - Confident - Laughing
These key words and phrases will feature in my article to reinforce the relationship between the readers and the magazine. It will help to define a specific audience by seeing who is interested in reading the article, which my focus group will give feed back on.
Semantic Field
INDIE ALTERNATIVE
Cool
Chilled
Individual
Messy
Scruffy
Films
Quirky
Cider
Confident
Funny
Food
Wine
Festivals
Cool
Chilled
Individual
Messy
Scruffy
Films
Quirky
Cider
Confident
Funny
Food
Wine
Festivals
Intertextuality
What is my artist, Lilly Howard, influenced by?
Lilly Howard is a quirky, individual and funny girl as well as a talented, young, well-known artist. This means that she is still a person even though the other half of her life is lived in the public eye. She is still influenced, encouraged and touched by everyday things, despite that readers automatically dispose of her human side and see her as only a celebrity.
Lilly enjoys watching "Russell Howard's Good News" every Thursday as she describes him as being "the most beautiful and hilarious man" she has ever laid eyes on. She admits through an interview that she copies some of his jokes and pretends that they are her own, even though she is "rubbish at telling them". She is impacted by the lyrics of every Coldplay song that Chris Martin has written, and tells us that she believes his words in a song are 100% true to every kind of situation people find themselves in, and tells us her favourite Coldplay song of all time is "What If" but has recently been threatened by "Up With The Birds" from their new album "Mylo Xyloto". She has always dreamed of many film ideas but says that as much as she wants to make the films, her love for singing overcomes the ambition of being a script-writer.
The level of detail I will write about Lilly Howard in the DPS is important to show readers that information and level of intimacy about her that is hard to establish when most media forms focus on their life in the lime-light rather than their personal habits and experiences. This more personal approach to her life is my unique selling point because it is much harder to discover who celebrities really are when the majority of articles are about their career. This way, readers can establish who they are inspired by, what they do and what they enjoy in every day life.
Lilly Howard is a quirky, individual and funny girl as well as a talented, young, well-known artist. This means that she is still a person even though the other half of her life is lived in the public eye. She is still influenced, encouraged and touched by everyday things, despite that readers automatically dispose of her human side and see her as only a celebrity.
Lilly enjoys watching "Russell Howard's Good News" every Thursday as she describes him as being "the most beautiful and hilarious man" she has ever laid eyes on. She admits through an interview that she copies some of his jokes and pretends that they are her own, even though she is "rubbish at telling them". She is impacted by the lyrics of every Coldplay song that Chris Martin has written, and tells us that she believes his words in a song are 100% true to every kind of situation people find themselves in, and tells us her favourite Coldplay song of all time is "What If" but has recently been threatened by "Up With The Birds" from their new album "Mylo Xyloto". She has always dreamed of many film ideas but says that as much as she wants to make the films, her love for singing overcomes the ambition of being a script-writer.
The level of detail I will write about Lilly Howard in the DPS is important to show readers that information and level of intimacy about her that is hard to establish when most media forms focus on their life in the lime-light rather than their personal habits and experiences. This more personal approach to her life is my unique selling point because it is much harder to discover who celebrities really are when the majority of articles are about their career. This way, readers can establish who they are inspired by, what they do and what they enjoy in every day life.
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
The Music Industry
I have recently made a conscious effort to keep up with the latest news about the situation of the music industry. After being in crisis for quite a long time (and still currently there), I have noticed that the media is really trying to turn the situation round and get the music industry back up and running like before. I have recently begun to notice efforts in Spotify adverts. With 'Spotify Free' after every few songs, your music stream is interrupted with a couple of adverts. These adverts used to always feature new artists and recommend different bands suited to the listener. However, recently, Spotify has been trying to introduce the idea of buying the 'Spotify Premium' experience. This enables an 'ultimate Spotify experience' including unlimited music, no ads, mobile availability, offline mode (to use Spotify without internet), availability of Spotify abroad and enhanced sound quality. All these features have been produced specifically for 'Spotify Premium' which asks for £9.99 a month for access to all this. This very reasonable price gets more money for Spotify to spend on advertising for artists and therefore gets the word around that they are here with brand new albums etc. This money also goes towards more advertising for Spotify to make their deals sound more irresistible to the public. Spotify currently advertises itself as a 'music sharers paradise'. This is the newest feature of Spotify; to be able to share favourite artists and albums with friends and family either via Spotify or Facebook etc. Another new advert from Spotify focuses on encouraging people to purchase 'Premium' because of the dramatic fall in the music industry. It not only mentions all the new features or Spotify Premium but also talks about how free music on Spotify is all people need and there is therefore no reason for music piracy and illegal downloads. For the first time since 2004, album sales have actually increased. Thanks to Spotify, discounts and major releases like Lady Gaga and the brand new Coldplay album 'Mylo Xyloto', the music industry is on pace to see its first sales growth in over half a decade. The CEO of Spotify stated, "There's a clear rebound in music sales this year. We don't want to claim victory , but the music industry may be at a turning point."Results to my survey
Here are the results for my survey to determine my target audience and get to know what they generally like and what their habits are.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Lesson 10/11/11
Todays lesson was used to take a screen recording of editing my new front cover photo. I have also created my survey establishing my audiences likes and dislikes, and what they enjoy.
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