Rejected Images For Music Magazine Double Page Spread:

I really wanted to use this image, but the dark red made most colours very difficult to use. Neither white not black title seemed to fit with the image, and any text which would be written around the image would be forced to change colour when it reached the treeline in the bottom right. Which I was hesitant to do so chose not to.

This second image is the same place, the same pose, but with colour left in the image. I eventually chose the black and white version because I wanted there to be no connotations of hope left in the image for a page called 'Apocalypse'

This image was a close up of the same place and person. I preferred this as an image because of the shadowing on the persons face which masked identity and implied hostility.
However, the image did not clearly show the abandoned bomb shelter and so did not engage as well with the title of 'Apocalypse'

As a different take I thought about using an image without a person in the scene. However that lost the idea of a band album to me, as often even the stranger band albums keep a person (or resemblance) of a person on their cover. I also realized that due to the shades of the image, writing around it could become quite difficult.

My Own Music Magazine Double Page Spread:

Evaluation:

Conventions:

The reason the two pages do not match completely and cut out the person in middle's face is because I visualized the cross over in the two pages to have this effect and so did each page separately with an end in mind.

I do not feel that obscuring the persons face and almost whole of their head takes away clarity and merit to this image. In this circumstance, given the connotations of destruction that go along with a title like "Apocalypse" I believe the person is much less important than the surrounding shot and paraphernalia that comes with a bomb shelter.

In this way I may have gone against conventions of keeping the person the most important focus of the image.

I have however followed other conventions of this page such as the quote from the article given at the bottom, made clearly visible so that at a glance it can be read.
I also a strong title font and positioned it well against a dark background, so that it was clearly readable.

Representation of Social Groups:

My double page spread, may be unconventional in that it does not concentrate on a band or an artist so much on this page. However, this blurring of a persons face does well to connect with the representation of the 'loner' or the 'emo' that has emerged not as a group per se but as another social stereotype. The concept of a figure breaking away from others and going away somewhere alone, with a backdrop of destruction is the epitome of the emergent 'emo' stereotype and the associated antisocial psyche.

Attracting target audience:

Again, like the contents page, although there are darker themes present there is still a good deal of references to rock culture that would engage with such an audience. And again, quite often a mainstream rock band (or less mainstream) may produce an album with apparently darker themes and the band is no less popular for it.

The detail of the image, even with connotations of destruction could be from any band releasing an album and so would attract an audience that followed the rock/metal genre.

Unlike previous pages, there is no clear gender bias towards males. In other pages the main character is shown to be male, or people in band photographs were obviously male. Here however, the obscuring of the face means less exclusion of females. Even if it is still clear that the person is male, their gender in the image matters much less.

What I learned about the software I used:

Using GIMP once again, I made use of border markers to try to keep each page of the double page spread in line while developing them separately  This was something I had not done before, and took some practice to be able to use effectively.

Lessons learned from this product:

Revisiting an earlier lesson of aiming to go for a more simplistic and practical approach I would like to expand and modify that, in future projects I would keep layout and design simplistic and yet aim for the most creative approaches to key features to a particular page. In this double page spread for example I felt confident that simple layout would work and thus was able to spend more time creating the photograph that dominated the page.



Please Note: Neither the contents page or the double page spread will contain a section on distribution or outlining who the target audience will be, as this is a constant throughout the magazine and was laid out clearly in the evaluation of the front cover.

Music Magazine DPS Draft

For this draft I thought about the cross over of the two pages and how I could use it to show that it was designed as a double page spread.

You can see the title, here just "DPS" for double page spread, crosses over the midpoint of the A3 paper. I intend to create my image in two halves and put the halves together. The unavoidable fraction mark in the middle is no different to the unavoidable crease in a real magazine across a double page spread.

I will use one main image, that has a large and ideally dark background to it, where I will write text around the edge of the image.

As with the example double page spreads, mine will aim to contain a quote from the interview at the bottom of the page.

Example Music Magazine Double Page Spread:

This page from Metal Hammer displays a professional quality minimalist approach to the double page spread. Principally the double page spread has a dominating image that covers both pages of the spread, the title links with the image, and there is a quote contained separately from the rest of the text in this case in the top right.

Because of the dark tones of the image, the white text stands out clearly. The use of only dark colours, contrasting with the distinctive white and red give the page a feeling of superb higher quality. In this double page spread, it is the space that is not used that makes it look attractive.

This next double page spread is from Rocksound and shows again, a great deal of space around the image. 

Again, precedence is put on selling the artist. And the use of a quote that summarizes the article allowing for quick viewing can be found clearly visible separate to the rest of the text in the bottom left.

Likewise, there is a dark image with use of white text that gives it a professional veneer.

This last example is from Kerrang, who previously had shown a very cluttered front cover. In comparison to Metal Hammer and Rocksound there is certainly a lot less free space, with the main image being squashed into the middle. 

Unlike the other two examples, Kerrang has used a lot of different colours. There are pinks, reds and darker colours that are interrupted by band members wearing grey. The whole page is less organised, and it damages the quality of the double page spread.

Although, it is clear that an image, a title and a quote from the article (however short or wherever it may be placed) are all clearly visible. In the example from Kerrang you can see the quote in the center right of the double page spread.

Music Magazine Contents Page Rejected Images

This image was to be replaced by the gravestone, mostly because I only want to use it due to the framing of the person in the shot. However, when the image was shrunk to the size it was going to be for the contents page, the person could not be seen and so my attraction for the image fell sharply.

This other image was going to be the final image in place of the gravestone, but the colours of the image interfered with the rest of the page so it had to be scrapped.

My Own Music Magazine Contents Page:

Evaluation:

Conventions:

I attempted to meet the image conventions of the contents page by using several smaller images that 

related to bands or to album covers.

I also used a different font than in the front cover, like many magazines do for the contents page,

The contents page gives the necessary information to direct the reader, fulfilling the basic requirements of a contents page.

Representation of Social Groups:

I feel that the images used represent a variety of groups.

The first image could be found on an alternative rock album.

The second, I constructed purposefully with the indie style in mind the high contrast that begins to distort colour (popularized by the Inbetweeners)

The third is more obscure and could be found on a black metal album.

Attracting target audience:

This particular page, with the darker colour scheme and red border is more suited to darker themes of rock. This is not necessarily a negative aspect, as every now and again rock magazines even Classic Rock will play with the ideas and attractions of darker rock.

 Like the front page and magazine as a whole, the contents page aims to appeal to a variety of rock enthusiasts. 

The use of different social groups within the images used helps achieve this, appealing to those that are represented within the images. Hopefully although the darker theme of the contents page, the indie homage image would encourage anyone who likes rock and indie to read the rest of the magazine.

What I learned about the software I used:

This time, again using GIMP, I revisited the idea of a border and created a margin from a photograph I took and edited. The image was then repeated and I had to learn how to place the copies of the image and smooth the edges so that the margin pattern looked flowing. Each side of the margin is made up of eight fractals put together carefully.

Lessons learned from this product:

This assignment taught me to pay more attention to layout. Previously, layout had been rather simple with the front cover but here it became an issue. I felt that the use of space on this page was not as effective as it could have been if I had been more careful with my layout designs. Perhaps making a second draft or sticking closer to a draft is the way to resolve this issue and it is something I will aim to correct for the double page spread. 

Please Note: Neither the contents page or the double page spread will contain a section on distribution or outlining who the target audience will be, as this is a constant throughout the magazine and was laid out clearly in the evaluation of the front cover.

Music Magazine Contents Page Draft:

This was a draft that combined the option of a music magazine contents page layout of a multitude of images with my layout I used in the school magazine contents page.

I wanted to have text flowing the opposite side to accompanying images. And have a section ruled off at the bottom where an additional image would be shown and more information given.
The images would also be rotated slightly to give a reckless feel to it, like Kerrang or the punk genre.

In this assignment I would also make use of margins, using a repeated photograph I took. This would hopefully help create an atmosphere and feel of professionalism that I first attempted in my school magazine front cover.

Examples Of Music Magazine Contents Pages:

I included these two different music magazine contents pages both from Rocksound magazine to expand upon differences mentioned briefly in the section of planning photographs.

In the example on the left, there is a multitude of images, all connoting a band or solo artist. The images are mostly confined to one area of the page, giving the text of the contents page room to breathe.

At a glance, the contents page splits into four easily read sections of "The Noise" "Exposure" "Features" and "Reviews" allowing for quick scanning of the contents page to get to the general area that the reader is interested in.

In contrast there is a very different model of the contents page, this one using a dominating image that only bears a quote from one of the artists the photograph is of.

Once again the text is given it's own clear section of the contents page. The contents are split into key sections once again for easy reading.

The  important aspect of the contents page being to allow for clarity of reading the information both in detail and at a glance.

Rejected Images For Music Magazine Front Cover:

This first image was considered as the fire added to the power of the magazine title I had created and the background being all black I would have easily been able to write around it in white or red.

However, the shot does not clearly sell the artist and loses valuable merit in terms of following music magazine convention.

This photo could have been used, but at a glance I knew that the colours of the photo would make the image very difficult to use if I wanted to write a lot around it, and the image didn't hold enough sense of grandeur to be able to be a minimalist front cover like the example Metal Hammer explored earlier.

This final image was far too dark to be on the front cover, I attempted to rectify thise with posterising and light balancing on GIMP but this did very little. The guitar used is also an acoustic which, if it could be seen, would give the wrong connotations and appeal to the wrong audience for my music magazine.

My Own Music Magazine Front Cover:

Evaluation:

Conventions:

To make the page look like the front page to a music magazine I used a medium shot of myself combined with several small aspects of the music magazine such as the publishers mark in the bottom left.

To achieve the concept of selling the artist, I tried to use musical paraphernalia of the guitar in combination with alternative rock/metal attire like the hat, cross, bracelet and fake cigarette.

I included mock album covers which were not too different from the real ones which appeared in the example music magazine front covers I looked at.

I was pleased with the effectiveness of my magazine name logo, particularly how the 'T' met with the guitar, giving the implication of a union between the magazine logo (and therefore the magazine) and the musical instrument.

Representation of Social Groups:

I believe I achieved a reasonable representation of the alternative rock/metal social group through two ways. First of all is the paraphernalia I mentioned to help sell the artist. Such icons as the hat, cross, bracelets and fake cigarette portray the character as potentially belonging to these social groups. These items are often linked to both performers and enthusiasts of the  rock/heavy rock genre.

The font used for the Music magazine itself connects with the appropriate social groups. The connotations of a flaming font, which looked quite aggressive before it appeared to be on fire, are quite similar to say the cartoon images of Iron Maiden. These links to iconic rock bands also link the magazine to rock culture.

Which institution would distribute my magazine:

Because of the link to guitar, (which they have shown by the magazines they support to have a bias towards) and the target audience that my magazine aims at then the magazine would likely be best distributed by Future publishing.

Audience:

 This front cover would be good for attracting an older teen and adult audience. The use of a fake cigarette puts limitations on teen or younger audiences.I would be aiming more for alternative and heavy rock enthusiasts. Likely mostly male orientated as there is a male character on the cover and the rock genre is often male dominated.

How my magazine attracts target Audience:

The magazine creates links to guitar, connecting to those that enjoy rock and it's variations where the guitar is a favored instrument. The false album covers on the front page is more in the style of alternative rock bands, attracting those that enjoy alternative rock.The magazine name font gives the implication of harder rock (it's aggressive tone from being on fire). Together it seems reasonable to say that those that enjoy rock would be attracted to the music magazine.

The use of only few colours may make the page seem more professional to a more mature audience, whereas a younger audience may expect more colour or more images to engage with.

Older teenagers or young adults may feel more of a connection with my magazine, because the individual on the front cover is an older teen. This would also be why the magazine would likely be male orientated.

What I learned about the software I used:

Broadly speaking the project helped me re-familiarize myself with GIMP image manipulator, which I had not used for some time.

More specifically, the project encouraged me to try out different techniques for the magazine title. After completing the front cover I learned how to use shadow, contrast, and blur techniques to create a flaming effect on the font. As shown in the Logo section of my blog.

Lessons learned from the preliminary task:

After the preliminary task I felt like I needed to take a more simplistic route to reach a more professional looking end result. The border which I attempted in my school magazine front cover was not a failure, but I was not sure if it had worked to the extent I expected it to. I want to try the idea of bordering a section of text again, but I am also glad that I did not attempt to do so in this project where the use of space is more crucial than other pages to it's merit. 

I also felt that after the school magazine front cover, I wanted to manipulate the title much more to make it more of a spectacle in itself. This was more achievable in the Music magazine as it did not look out of place, however it would perhaps have been strange to have a more ornate title to a school magazine.

Music Magazine Front Cover Draft:

                                                                                                                                                                      

This is a rough draft of the front page of my music magazine. I decided I wanted the magazine name at a slant to make it more iconic. I also decided not to re-attempt a border for the features like I had previously in the front cover to my school magazine. 

The main image would have to be a medium-close up, that clearly showed a person who could be identified as a musician (either through fame or musical paraphernalia) I would try to keep features on the right hand side, leaving space on the left. I would then introduce a secondary image towards the bottom left. I also noticed the publisher mark which I intend to copy with my own.

Example Music Magazine Front Covers:

Here is an example Magazine front cover from 'Classic Rock'. As shown by the dominating centre image, the concept of selling the artist is crucial for the front cover of any music magazine.

This particular front cover has very little colour to it, this could be to connote the feeling of the artist as aged and much before the time of the present.
It could also be a stylistic choice, to draw attention to the text in lime green "Ban the booking fee" in the top right. or "Plus" in the bottom left.

There is not a great deal of space left on the front page, but that does not mean that the page feels cluttered  Keeping a single image stops the page looking crowded and poorly done.

Except for shoulder level, every inch of usable space is crammed with features. This may be something I would have to try to copy, to make as much use of limited space as possible.

'Classic Rock' is a medium between the much more cluttered 'Kerrang' and more minimalist 'Metal Hammer'

Here Kerrang pushes the notion of using free space to the limit. Rather than using text to cram the space, Kerrang uses lot's of smaller images.
This magazine is a lower price than Classic Rock or Metal Hammer, has a different target market and is of a lower quality than it's competitors.

What is clear, is that yet again there is the need to sell the artist. A medium or close up shot of a singer or band being expected for the front cover. Although the page is cluttered, the artist's face is unobscured.

In terms of colour, the page comes across as much less professional than 'Classic Rock' except for the Iron Maiden caricature in the bottom left or the images of Dave Grohl it could be said that the magazine keeps to more autumnal colours.

This particular Metal Hammer serves as the final example of the Music Magazine front page. It is a very simple choice, of only magazine name, image and band name.

The content of the image, although focused on the guitarist, extends to most of the page which would make a style like either of the previous inaccessible as it would obscure the main image. Because of this, there are no features expressed on the body of the page because there is in effect no free space.

The title 'Metal Hammer' is obscured by the image itself. Metal being almost tagged onto the edge of 'Hammer.' Although a letter is obscured, the audience still recognizes the name of the magazine. This technique is almost self-promoting in that it implies the magazine knows it is famous enough to obscure a letter and still be legible. Magazines do not take this to extremes and obscure most of their magazine name however, as the name and font of the magazine is one of the iconic symbols that readers expect to see.

Logo Research:

Having already given basic breakdowns of a few magazines, such as their price, target audience and logo I looked back at what I could say about each logo and thought about what aspects of each I could incorporate into my own.

                                                                                         

First of all there was Kerrang, which I saw as being a sloppy out loud celebration of the punk genre and attractive to a younger teen audience. Having already decided that my magazine was to be aimed at a more mature teenage or young adult audience I felt a logo like Kerrang would be a little inappropriate.                                      

I saw Metal Hammer to be halfway between a punchy punk rock logo and the refined smooth 'Classic Rock' logo below. The pointed tips on the edge of the 'H' and the 'R' reminded me of the sharp tips that many Gothic styles embraced. 

 Classic Rock was a brilliant example of a mature, neat and tidy logo that was aimed at an older audience. Essentially the logo is quite simplistic and less violent or eye-catching than Kerrang or Metal Hammer.

Ideas for my Logo:

I decided to incorporate the kind of strong, violent character of Metal Hammer with the more delicate and tidy Classic Rock logo. I wanted to create a logo that stood out from the page, as bold as Metal Hammer but made more into a more ornate piece.

At first I was looking for a dark coloured or black logo, but decided I wanted my logo to have the effect of appearing on fire. This would make whatever font I used more aggressive, making it more suited to a heavy rock or metal magazine.

Evolution Of The Font 'Chaos'

At first I was going to use this font I developed, deciding it worked best as 'Chaos'.

First of all I used VTKS Rock Garage Band font from www.dafont.com 

I chose this font because it fit the two criterion which I wanted: Stand at from the page as an aggressive font while being more ornate and flowing than Metal Hammer or Kerrang.

At the initial stage, the font looked like this.

I then decided to add blur to the image, by using GIMP image manipulator and using a combination of smudge and roughen.

I then used pencil tool and smooth to remove the centre of the 'O'.

Finally I added Gaussian blur to the font to finish it. At last being satisfied with the font, I used it in the front page of my music magazine but not as the title, merely a false label on my guitar.

You can see 'Chaos' on my guitar as a small addition to the front page. I used it to give the connotation that the character on the front page was a member of the band 'Chaos' that would appear later on in the magazine for the double page spread.

Stages Of Editing The Title Font 'Pure Metal':

After I found that Chaos did not work as well as I had hoped for a title font, I decided to start drawing out other ideas for what sort of font I wanted.

 

While I had a whole page of font ideas I had drawn out I selected to include this particular one as it has each letter done in a different style.

I was able to find a font with a serif on the 'R' and 'A' that I particularly liked. The font is called "Scorch Flash Font" and it is once again from Dafont.

To make the font look more aggressive I used the Gaussian blur once again, as before with 'Chaos' and then turned up the contrast. Finally I changed colour settings so that all the shadows were dark red.

The end effect made the font look like it was on fire. I decided I would go with this font on a black background to draw the most attention to the effect. The above image is how the font was used in my Music Magazine front cover.

Plan for Photographs:

Front Cover:

The main image should be like that of the Front cover of the school magazine. A medium to close up shot of a person. However, to adapt to the genre of the Music Magazine the image would need to be more provocative.

In this example from an October 2008 issue of Rocksound magazine, the image comes right out of the page rather than remaining static. The boxing gloves and pose fits with the sub-heading in the bottom right "'Fall Out Boy' Come Back Fighting."

The way I am to achieve the provocative and active front page image is by making use of paraphernalia of the Rock genre. Such items like instruments (chiefly guitar), smoking or substance abuse (the later being perhaps too provocative a connotation for a school project). A photo shoot for this would require an experimental approach to see what was most effective as a front page image.

Also unlike the School Magazine Front page, the image for the music magazine would have to look more posed and beautified (or after effects added) as opposed to the more natural (in most cases) appearance of the School magazine.

Contents Page:

Rather than repeat a central image that dominates the page like in the front cover, I decided to go for more of a collage of shorter, snappier images that showed active bands. This could perhaps link to text on the Contents page, advertising such bands later in the magazine.

The images used could be as simple as casual photographs of a band, like 'My Chemical Romance' above. When images of a similar nature are put into use on the contents page the finished piece looks similar to that of Rocksound Contents page below.

Here, six images are used all on one page. With the main text occupying it's own set area in the bottom corner. Five out of six of the images have accompanying text on them, directing readers to the relevant pages.








In contrast, a very different Rocksound contents page, where only the main image is used. Once again the text is confined to one area of the page, leaving the image to dominate.






As I am going for the first option, of smaller, more collage like images of bands I will need to take a variety of photos of different groups posing in different ways. For example I could have one group of five standing talking, another group of four sitting down, a single artist or two or a small group playing musical instruments. The key to these images is including a lot of people, giving the connotation of lot's of active and very different bands or artists covered in the music magazine.

Double Page Spread:

For this final project, I am going to try using a more artistic and expressive photograph. I felt that the only limitations were to make a solid connection between the image and either the album that it is for, or the band that the double page spread is about.

In this double page spread from Metal Hammer, there is a rather voyeuristic shot of an artist through the trees. The band name being 'Porcupine Tree' the connection justifying an otherwise potentially puzzling image. Rather than separate the two sections of image and text, I would prefer to use an image with dark borders that allowed white text to be written onto the image.

I aim to find an interesting yet practical photograph from a selection that I will be taking as part of an AS photography unit on portraits. This will require intuitive thinking as to set location, and themes that the image will convey. This last photograph should be the most striking and memorable of my Music Magazine.

Proposal Of My Music Magazine:

My magazine will cost around £4.00

My magazine will consist of around 120 pages

My magazine will be sponsored by 'Thomann' guitars

The Magazine will be distributed by 'Future' Publishing

The Magazine will come with free stickers or guitar picks or other 'freebies'

Possible Names:

Rage-Bold Red

Mosh-Steel Grey

Chaos-Undecided Colours

Sludge (Kerrang style alternative)-Toxic Green

Awe

Metal Artist

Metal Virtuoso

RAW

Pure Metal

Analysis Of Music Magazines:

Metal Hammer

Target Audience:Mature Teens and Young Adults

Price: £4:25

Extras: Free CD's Posters and Stickers

Logo: Metal overshadowed by the dominating 'Hammer'
Hammer giving the connotation of metal anyway.
The text is broad, recognizable and not delicate or ornate. A halfway-house between that of Kerrang and Classic Rock.

Kerrang

Target Audience:Mostly teens

Price:£2:20

Extras:Posters and Stickers

Logo: A good characterization of Punk Rock, punchy, sloppy, battered around the edges. Brilliant for appealing to teenage audiences.

Classic Rock

Target Audience: Almost all Adults

Price:£4.50

Extras: Free CD's Posters and Stickers

Logo: Not brilliantly elegant like calligraphy writing, but a much more refined logo than Kerrang. The idea of 'Classic' being unimportant, while 'Rock' stands out on the page is essentially the same as Metal and Hammer. Unlike Kerrang, the logo is sophisticated and tidy, appealing to it's more mature target audience.


Primary Research:

To get an understanding of what the majority content was in music magazines I went through an Issue of Rocksound and made a tally of different types of pages, I then compared this against the total number of pages (131) and turned the data into a pie chart. As seen below:

The pie chart clearly shows that Band interviews and news of upcoming events take precedence in Rocksound and this is something that my Contents page would have to reflect to make it seem more realistic. Below is the table for raw data, giving a numerical breakdown of the statistics.

Band Interviews	58
Reader Submitted Content	14
News of upcoming events, tours and albums	39
Adverts	11
Other (Contents, Posters,Puzzles)	9
Total	131

I then started asking friends, family, peers at school about their music magazine habits and preferences. The statistics and explanation are below.

	Under 13	14-16	17-21	22-30	31-45	Over 46
Age	2	7	19	5	6	1
	Jazz	Classical	Classic Rock	Alternative Rock	Pop	Electronic
Preference of musical genre (first and second choice)	4,9	5,2	8,14	6,1	9,4	3,5
	Never	On Occasion or only special issues	Almost Bi-Monthly	Almost Bi-weekly	Almost Weekly or more
How often do you buy music magazines	3	11	12	6	3
	Under £2	£2-£3	£3-£4	£4-£4.50	£4.51-£5.00	£5.01-£5.51	£5.51-£6.00	£6.00	N/A
How expensive is your chosen music magazine		6	6	15	3	1	1	2	3
	CD	Poster	Stickers	Toy	None	N/A
What freebies does your magazine come with	19	31	27	4	2	3
	Not particularly	Partly	Mostly	Very Much	N/A
Are you generally satisfied with your magazine	1	4	16	11	3
	Total Asked
	35

Some things like a free poster were obviously going to be popular and expected free items to come with the magazine.

Classic Rock and Jazz were shown to be popular second choices for people's preferred music magazines.

What surprised me the most was that 14 out of 35 people said that they either never bought music magazines, or only went for special issues.

Music Magazine Readership: Metal Hammer

Age:

This particular magazine has been in circulation since 1986, but instead of attracting older Metal fans the average age of readers for this magazine is around 22. This age demographic is high enough to bring about expectations of maturity within the magazine, without leaving the magazine inaccessible to mature teen audiences. For example, although the average age is 22, the magazine could be said to be 'appropriate' for readers aged 16-40.

One way that the magazine achieves a large appropriate age range is by covering Metal or alternative rock groups from all different periods and genres.

In this particular front cover for example, Metal Hammer has made this false rivalry of "Slash Vs Avenged (Sevenfold)." As if to include both the slightly older fans of the guitarist known as 'Slash' (who's career perhaps peaked in the late 1980's with the group 'Gun's 'n' Roses') with the much more recently famous 'Avenged Sevenfold' (breakthrough album 'City of Evil' 2005)

Gender:

Having looked through a few dozen front covers for Metal Hammer, I was not able to find a single one with a female artist on the front cover (not to say there isn't one). This is perhaps proof of the male-orientated nature of the magazine. Reflected in it's astonishing audience demographic that is 85% male dominated. 

In the June 2012 issue, Metal Hammer did coverage of the band "Butcher Babies" and released this poster with it.
Needless to say if the audience for the magazine was less male orientated there likely would have been more controversy over such an image.

Another example of sexism on Metal Hammer's own website, with the same offending band. This time being interviewed, while there are no graphic images there is descriptive text which is very blasé about the degradation of women. The link will be provided at the end of this post, but two extracts from the offending texts would be "self-proclaimed slut-metal L.A superstarlets" or "Warning: Contains reference to nipple tape." 

These are the more "extreme" moments of sexism, and the magazine aims more to be humorous or to engage with a targeted male demographic than they mean to cause offence.

Price and Publisher:

The average price of Metal Hammer is £4:25 and an issue is released once a month, with a special issue once a year. This price sits higher than Kerrang (£2.20) or Rocksound (£3.60) primarily because of it's higher quality but also because of it's more mature demographic that would have some source of income (Kerrang certainly is more for teenagers) Metal Hammer is able to charge a higher price for it's product.

According to ABC, Metal Hammer suffered a slight decline in popularity comparing 2010 with 2011. With 41,800 subscribers in 2010, and only 35,200 in 2011. This is a decline of 15.7% and could be quite serious in terms of the stability of the magazine.

The publisher for Metal Hammer is 'Future' (PLC).

Future Publishing is also the publisher of these other music magazines, most of these being steered towards guitarists and rock music genre:

• Classic Rock
• Computer Music
• Future Music
• Guitar Techniques
• Guitarist
• Total Guitar

Advertising and Sponsors:

In a survey, 80% of those that were subscribed to Metal Hammer said they were often persuaded by information in the magazine to go and buy a new or previously released album.
Although ABC reported a slight decline in readership, the magazine holds promising opportunities in it's power of advertising. Nearly 30% of the magazine itself is comprised of adverts. The subject of these adverts are:

• Band merchandise
• Band tours
• Music festivals
• Music Instruments (both secondhand from other readers, or brand new)
• CD's (often covered within that issue, or a later issue or a previous issue to inform the reader)

Metal Hammer is sponsored by several different companies, one of the notable sponsors is Thomann guitars.




Being sponsored by a guitar manufacturer, as well as published by Future an avid supporter of guitarists, Metal Hammer then carries on the implication that the magazine itself is primarily a Metal magazine but with the admiration of guitarists in mind.

The second sponsor to be mentioned is the Heavy-metal enthusiasts favorite music channel 'Scuzz'. The simple reason for a pairing of the music channel and the metal magazine is that they target essentially the same demographics and benefit from the prosperity and popularity of the other.

Summary:

• Average age 22
• First started in 1986
• 85% Male readers
• Appropriate for both mature teens and adults
• 15.7% decline in readership from 2010 to 2011
• 30% of the magazine is adverts
• Costs £4.25 
• 13 Issues a year
• Active website for the magazine
• 80% of readers encouraged to buy a CD after reading
• Published by 'Future' publishers

Sources Used:

http://www.theadindex.com/Advert_Displays/Metal_Hammer__9271.asp?ServicePage=3

http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/abc-classic-rock-readership-slips-12-yoy-metal-hammer-loses-65k/048101

http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/tag/butcher-babies/

http://www.futureplc.com/what-we-do/portfolios/music/

http://magpie-moth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/metal-hammer-butcher-babies-poster.html