First Front Cover Draft and Ideas

Masthead: I am aiming to come up with a creative masthead which represents my chosen music genre of pop. After researching other music magazines I have found that the mastheads all reflect the music genre in one way or another. For example 'Kerrang' is onomatopoeic of a guitar being smashed and 'Rave' is a common term used to describe a type of dance. Therefore I have come up with the following masthead ideas which represent the pop music genre;

The most obvious name would be 'POP' this straight up represents the genre with no connotations or another title could be 'SIMPLY POP' this re-enforces that the magazine is focused on one music genre.

I like the idea of the mastheads which are made up of letters as this makes the magazine stand out and more individualised. TNT is an abbreviation of a type of explosive. If something is explosive you think of big impact which is what I hope my magazine will have on people.

I think the masthead Alive indicates that the magazine is full of life and bursting with excitement which would be more influential to whether people decide to buy it. Alive suggests a fresh outlook and with my magazine being new to the market this is the message I would want to be portraying to potential readers.

The name, Bop connotates as a type of dance move for example when you 'bop' your head to the beat of a song, which immediately relates its to music. And also the fact that it rhymes with the word 'pop' shows it is connected with music.

I feel that the title, Flow is a good representation of music as the key to good song is for it to have flow and rhythm. By using this as my masthead it will portray to the potential readers that my magazine only features successful and well put together music.


Slogan: After extensive research i found that many magazines have a supporting slogan to their magazine to put it out there and make it more recognisable. The slogan must be catchy using language techniques such as alliteration. For example Kerrang's slogan 'Life is Loud'.
These slogans are used to persuade the potential buyer that they have made the right choice in the sense that the particular magazine they have picked up is the best. For example Mojo's slogan 'The music magazine' suggesting this is the one and only top music magazine.


Main Image: As I'm designing my magazine based on the pop music industry, ideally I want my main image to be a pictorial of an artist or band which are popular to this genre. I have had an idea to feature a new band, consisting of four girls who go by the band name of; 'The Sweetest Thing'. The band name has given me many different thoughts of how my photo could be posed. I would like to use a sweet theme with chocolate, lollipops etc. I think this would reflect the band and their title in the sense that it connotates them as been sweet, innocent, tastefully and fun.


Main Headline: The headline must be bold and entertaining. If the audience must find the main headline if interest as this could determine whether they choose to purchase the magazine or not. I have not come up with a definite headline as of yet but I have being jotting down various ideas that I think could have potential depending on what I decide to use for my double page spread as the main headline has to support this. The following are a few ideas which I have come up with so far; Not all sugar and spice ... The pop princesses talk songs, scandals and success ... From make belief to mainstream.


Other Cover Articles: The other magazine articles will also be about other artists, general news that is currently happening in the pop music industry. These will include such things like the latest reviews, the best and worst music video's, play lists etc. Also plugs that will offer chances of winning prizes, these would be music related, an i-pod for example. As well as my original image I will feature other supporting images to articles such as a CD cover a picture of another artist.