Music Magazine Evaluation
Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
To assist me with answering this question, I have searched several different key words on the website Tumblr which is popular amongst my target audience of indie rock music lovers. I searched 'indie rock', 'indie girl' and 'hipster girl', so that I could compare my own images with those of the images that I find which are associated with the key words and also use these images to help justify my answer.
The primary goal of my finished product was to represent it's target audience truthfully whilst also appealing to them, through mise-en-scene, typography and appropriate colour schemes and layouts. I believe that my finished product represents similar social groups as NME and Kerrang! magazine as the content and the images used are quite similar, and it also represents the social groups evident on websites such as Tumblr and Twitter which I will further continue to analyse below.
I have chosen to compare my image of Becky from the contents page to an image I found on Tumblr after searching 'indie girl', as this is the type of person I styled Becky to look like. Firstly, both girls wear large, baggy t-shirts which give off a careless, rebellious vibe as baggy t-shirts are most conventionally found on men, so therefore a female wearing one gives off the impression that they don't care for conforming to their gender - which is a lot like the rock genre in general; it's rebellious and almost uncaring. Secondly, both girls wear a beanie which is also slightly masculine and therefore also not conforming to their gender, whereas it does conform to the genre. Both have their hair styled in a messy, wavy way which further backs up the idea of being careless/carefree and hints at rebellion as they aren't dressing as prim, proper ladies, they're dressed how they pleased. They are also both posed in a similar way - both slightly crouched and with a slight pout and an intense, direct gaze. This pose gives off the impression that they're sure of themselves, even if they are crouched over, the pout and the intense gaze signifies that they know they're the one with the power, which is a lot like the rock genre; the rock genre is powerful.
On each page of my product, I tried to convey a sense of attitude, whilst briefly channeling looks and poses which have been used previously in NME magazine which my magazine is based on. For example, on the cover page I posed my model with a intense, direct gaze and portrayed her having a fierce, sulky attitude. This photograph slightly mimics the main image of Florence on one of NME's past covers, so therefore hints that my magazine is intended for the same audience as NME. Furthermore, the pose Becky is in on my contents page mimics the pose Rihanna had on another previous edition of NME, which further backs up that the audiences are the same. However, the people I have used are younger than NME's, giving the impression that my magazine is targeted at a slightly younger audience in comparison to NME and other magazines on the market.
Overall, the photos I have used throughout my product reflect and represent a young social group, and this is reflected throughout my magazine via the clothes my models wear, the make-up they wear, the poses they are in and the language used throughout.