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1. My Music Magazine

2. ● conforms to the stereotype of metal genre magazines, by representing itself as a strictly
male product
● McMahon and Quinn’s Symbolic Code helped me decide on what colours to use for my
magazine
● general feel of the magazine is quite dark and eerie because it is typical of the metal genre
music magazine style
● main theme colour is red because it symbolises danger and masculinity, which is what the
metal genre represents
My Magazine (SONAR) Kerrang!
How Does My Magazine Use Existing Media
Products?

3. ● outdoor photoshoot with a local band
● research on existing products determined that my
photo would have to be dirty looking, dark, and
unposed
● shadows on faces make models look threatening
and serious
● eye-line shot makes audience feel equal to the
band
How Does My Magazine Use Existing Media
Products?

4. ● research of existing metal music magazines showed that all of them used slanted images
with borders to accompany their articles
How Does My Magazine Use Existing Media
Products?

5. ● metal magazines have crowded covers
● my magazine is aimed towards getting publicity
towards new, local bands - so simple cover
attracts as much attention as possible to the band
on the cover
How Does My Music Magazine Develop or Challenge
Existing Media Products?

6. ● metal magazines use over-exaggeration and short, simplistic sentences, lots of pictures
and large fonts - assumes a young adult audience looking for style as much as content
● I found that 90% of the metal fans were either in college or university and 10% were
working a full-time job
● contradicts what existing metal music magazines contain, so my magazine is more
intellectual in terms of wording, and has smaller text
How Does My Music Magazine Develop or Challenge
Existing Media Products?

7. Front Cover Comparisons

8. Technical Code
● camera angles on both magazines are eye-line matches - makes the reader feel equal to
the band members
● both have adverts on the covers to attract a larger audience
● both have smaller cut-outs of images overlapping the larger cover photo - attracts further
audience as they are advertising other things
● Kerrang! has used shadows on only the vocalist - suggests that they are not as mysterious
or interesting - transferring the attention to just one member
● I have tried to ensure that I made everyone involved in the magazine equal
Front Cover Comparisons

9. Front Cover Comparisons
Written Code
● both have large titles that are in plain, block colours, which grabs attention - without taking
attention off of the band
● both use large fonts for the band names on the cover, to attract attention to them
● both magazines have a certain font(s) as part of the house style and use it/them all over the
cover and throughout the magazine to secure a familiar style that the readers will like and
recognise
● black and white lettering contrasts with the full, colourful backgrounds of each magazine -
attracts the attention of the readers without taking too much of the attention away from the
main cover photo

10. Front Cover Comparisons
Symbolic Code
● both magazines use red as the main colour theme - suggests danger, anger, rage,
courage, etc - connotations associated with masculinity
● facial expressions and body language of models are threatening and powerful - associated
with masculinity
● Comparing my cover (photo and editing) to Kerrang!’s cover, it is quite clear that my
magazine is not meant to be flashy and expensive-looking, but a magazine that helps
young male fans relate to the members

11. Contents Page Comparisons

12. Technical Code
● both contents pages feature images
● my contents page has photos of bands blended into the background - leaves enough room
for the page to be text-filled
● images on the contents page of Metal Hammer are all photoshoot images with the bands,
so they are all objective
● the images on my contents page were both taken from the crowd at gigs, which makes
them subjective - gives the reader a sense of belonging and involvement
Contents Page Comparisons

13. Contents Page Comparisons
Written Code
● both magazines use a certain font(s) that is part of the house style
● both contents pages address the audience directly, and informally, e.g - ‘Download Preview
- You’ve got your ticket, now you just need to plan your weekend.’
● both magazines have an editors letter - makes magazine personal
● both contents pages have the title of the magazine at the top to reinforce the house style

14. Contents Page Comparisons
Symbolic Code
● both use red to symbolise masculinity and keep the house style and colour
scheme running
● vast majority of metal magazines use red as their colour scheme for this
same reason
● Metal Hammer features a few women - only used to advertise merchandise
and as ‘props’ for one of the bands, portrayed as sex objects or trophies
● only female in my mag is the editor - important role rather than object -
challenges stereotype

15. Double Page Spread Comparisons

16. Double Page Spread Comparisons
Technical Code
● Metal Hammer has used a huge photo as part of their double page spread, which takes up
a whole page
● my magazine is much more text-heavy - used up as much of my two pages as possible for
text
● images in Metal Hammer are also all posed - suggests it is an upmarket magazine
● my magazine is targeted towards getting publicity to up-and-coming bands - the subjective
images from inside the crowd fit perfectly

17. Double Page Spread Comparisons
Written Code
● Metal Hammer’s double page, in terms of font size and the
amount written, is surprisingly different to typical magazines of
the same genre, which tend to use large fonts to take up room
so that not much text is needed
● the other page is filled with small font text in columns - shows
Metal Hammer (like SONAR) assume they have an older, more
intelligent audience than other metal music magazines, for
example Big Cheese

18. Double Page Spread Comparisons
Symbolic Code
● use of blood spatters on a black background on both articles suggests
violence, danger and anger - attracts the male target audience of metal
magazines
● both magazines continue the red colour scheme over the double page
spread, continuing to symbolise danger and rage to keep the male
readers interested