I Am In Love - I Want You. Single review

I Am In Love. There have been stranger band names, and to be fair to the quintet from Leicestershire it’s very in keeping with their kooky, edgey, cooler than you persona.

There first single ‘I Want You’ encompasses all of this. From the first initial chords, a stabby guitar riff and electronic beat, you are taken back in time to the glory days of the 1980s. It is clear that the band have been influenced by the greats, Prince, The Cure and of course David Bowie; but yet they still manage to create a sound that marries an 80s throwback with a more modern electronic feel.

The soaring, high timbre of the vocals sets off the track and mirrors their trendy electronic style, reminiscent of the Scissor Sisters vocalist Jake Shears. The vocals flit from flowing highs to a chanty chorus, giving the song plenty of twists and edges.

All in all, this band offer something a little unique; although not enough to make them a complete stand out. Their dreamy electronic pop is a worthwhile listen and a change from the usual indie based sounds of many new bands. I Am In Love are quirky, trendy and effortlessly cool... but it’s not enough to make you fall in love with them.

Mikaela Osborne

3/5

What have you learned about design and the way in which it communicates meaning?

Design is a key element to a magazine, as it is what a consumer relates to as well highlighting the type of content that the magazine will include. When designing a magazine it is necessary to consider the target audience as well as the type of magazine you are creating, “You need to analyse the target audience and the aims of the magazine before you embark on the design as different types of magazine require different visual treatment.” (D. Dabner, A Swann, 2003, pg 102) with music and journalism magazines the text content will be high and the structure of the pages usually follow a Column format.

With Kerrang magazine the design of the magazine allows the consumer to be aware of the genre easily and quickly, “The look, shape and style of a publication has an important impact on the way it is viewed by the reader.” (C. Frost, 2003, pg 9) The magazine title is iconic and the basic background colour schemes are always dark, the magazine main genre is rock music ,with major links with metal therefore the dark colours and loud font symbolise this.

Bibliography:

Kerrang.com

C. Frost, Designing for newspapers and magazines Routledge, 2003, pg 9

D. Dabner, A. Swann, How to understand and use design and layout, Adams Media, 2003, pg 102 

What have you learned from Tri Media - how can thi sbe brought most effectively into your journalism?

The use of Tri media within the journalism is, in the current age, a necessity. With continuous developments in technology and the growing expectations of new generations “The basic strategies by which online journalism will become financially viable in the long run are now clear.” (B Mcnair, 2009, pg 146) journalism has spread from its traditional written word format into other branches.

Within Tri media a range of skills are taught and learnt, skills that will encourage and aid in order to create magazines, websites and short video clips. All of the programs used – Finalcut pro, Photoshop and Dreamweaver have prepared me with a sufficient knowledge of how to create something quickly and easily. In terms of the magazine pages for Vibe and the online webzine the skills learnt mean I will be able to offer these skills to future employers, who will be looking for something more than ability to write well within the journalism industry today.

As well as this, the type and style of writing needed when writing for an online medium differs to that used for a print publication. Through creating webzines within Tri media and adding news backgrounders and features to the pages it becomes apparent that with the layout of an online publication only a small amount of text is used and each point has to earn its place on the site.

Similarly through research within Tri media it was discovered that the type of consumer differs from print publication to online, meaning the focus and attention of an web browser needs to be captured almost straight away “For today’ students and journalists, knowing how to build a web site is not enough – knowing how to craft a news story for maximum impact via the web is a must.” (D.A.Craig, 2010, pgs 192) as found within Tri media the content within an online publication is less than other journalism mediums it became necessary to write pieces that would fit to the style and layout of the webzine as well as being interesting and captivating.

Bibliography:

NME.com

Rollingstone.com

B. McNair, news and journalism in the UK, Taylor and Francis, 2009, pg 146

D. A. Craig, Excellence in online journalism: exploring current practises in an evolving environment, SAGE, 2010, pgs 192

What is the difference between fan writing and music journalism?

In some ways there are many similarities between fan writing and music journalism, the basic aim and goal of both is the same, to write about music. However the way in which this aim is reached differs between the two mediums.

Fan writing is written by fans, fans of the artists or genre that they writing about, therefore some of the critical slant that is found within journalism is lost, also as many fanzines are written or edited by an individual the benefit of having other opinions and inputs is removed also.

Yet the basis of the two forms, professional music journalism and amateur fan writing hold the same ideas:

“The fanzine shares much with is professional counterpart  popular cultural journalism, For instance the roots of the popular press in the UK and the US lie not in professionalised journalism but in amateur underground press of the late 1960s.” (K Wahl-Jorgenson, T. Hanitsch, 2008, pg 270)

Therefore the differences that set the two apart are, the professional style of the music journalist, with an edge of reflection and critic, opposed with fan writing and the centred, individual style they offer. Fan writing is seen as the amateur side of music writing whereas the music journalist, with the perhaps more objective view is deemed professional journalism.

Bibliography:

K Wahl-Jorgenson, T. Hanitsch, The handbook of journalism studies, Taylor and Francis, 2008, pg 270

What form to fanzines take today?

Traditionally fanzines were small daily or weekly low budget publications written and organised by fans of certain bands and genres:

“Produced by one person, or a group of friends, working from their homes fanzines are usually concentrated totally on a particular artist or group, and are characterised by a fervour bordering on the religious.” (R. Shuker, 2001, pg 89)

The from in which fanzines take today differs slightly from the original format, this is mainly due to the effectiveness and availability of the internet, “The internet has provided a new medium for the international dissemination of fanzines.” (R. Shuker, 2002, pg 120) The internet provides the facilities to blog, this means anyone can publish their thoughts and ideas, as well this many people now have the skills and programs to be able to create websites and online fanzines that can be quickly and easily put on the web.

Bibliography:

R. Shuker, Understanding Popular Music, Routledge, 2001, pg 89

R. Shuker, Popular music: the key concepts, Routledge, 2002, pg 120

Discuss your work on Vibe magazine, taking into account the editorial focus, market suitability, and magazine content. What have you learned from the process?

Introduction:

The assignment given to us was to form into groups of four and individually create magazine pages that would fit and flow together in order to create a complete 24 page magazine.

Planning and preparation:

In order to create magazine pages of a high quality, that fit the brief in terms of target audience, genre and style, it was necessary to plan the approach we would take to gather the information needed.

During group discussions it was agreed amongst us which pages would be assigned to which members of the group. It was decided that myself and Eloise would create pages 4 and 5, with Nick and Tom creating pages 2 and 3.

Having settled with our separate pages i was then able to begin the planning procedure, this meant I could start to think about the design elements of the page as well as discovering the key elements that are stereotypically found within magazines.

I then created a simple design for my magazine page, using Word, this would enable me to have starting point in terms of the direction my page and allow me to have something basic to add to and improve after researching further.

Research:

When researching for the magazine design assignment I chose to look at and evaluate other established magazines and webzines, in particular Kerrang!, NME and Q. I focused on the page furniture they had, and the layout of the pages. This meant i could start to focus on any patterns or repeated themes and therefore involve them in my design.

The target audiences of each separate magazine seemed to have a significant impact on its design. For instance, Kerrang! Is a magazine aimed at a younger age group, teenagers particularly. This therefore gave it a different feel to a magazine such as Q which is generally aimed at a slightly more mature music fan. With NME there is some crossover in terms of target audience, as they attempt to involve a wide range of ages.

The genre and type of magazine also has some sway over the design of the pages, with Kerrang! Being known as a metal focused magazine and NME a classically Indie inspired magazine it means the audience expect a certain colour scheme or font that compliments this genre.

After looking into these different elements I then started to think about the target audience and the feature i would include. As the magazine is aimed at students on the music scheme i chose a piece that was written about a Solent Student.

Creating magazine page:

To create our magazine pages we used the program InDesign, we were taught the basic principles during lectures which they enabled us to develop our designs.

We spent time discussing the font type and size so that all the pages would flow well and look complete.

I decided to put a slight angle on the image and caption on my page, as after looking at issues of Audio Addict it seemed quite a popular trend within their pages.

A pull out quote was added as this is also a common feature within magazines, and livens the page up; giving the reader more incentive to read the piece as well as balancing the page out.

When choosing the colour scheme it was necessary to consider all the other groups choices, and in particular Eloise’s as our pages would be placed side by side. I chose to add a pastel colour which complimented the image I had. Therefore page 5 was also coloured in a pastel colour allowing for continuity.

Improvements:

There are several elements that could be improved during the process of designing my page; with an extended knowledge of InDesign it may have been possible to create a higher level of design.

Also, with further research more evidence could have been gathered to help shape my design more thoroughly. Similarly with better communication between other groups it would have been easier to choose definite page furniture.

Bibliography: 

NME.com

Kerrang.com

Discuss two music websites and the way they represent race and ethnicity

One music website that offers an interesting slant on the focus of music publications and in particular those that have a niche genre and audience is Vibe. The former CEO Keith Clinkscales has said “We don’t think of ourselves as a Hip hop or R&B magazine. Vibe is a music magazine, the way Rolling Stone is a music magazine... Vibe’s goal is to be as important if not more important than Rolling Stone.” (S.C. Watkins, 2005, pg 56) Yet despite having this objective and belief when looking at the website itself the largely predominant if not only race found within the site is black. For a magazine with the tag line ‘Redefining Hip Hop’ it may be expected that the main target audience are young black males and females, and the publication caters for this well. Yet with the idea of creating a place where Hip Hop and R&B is not solely stereotyped or targeted towards a black culture there is very little to highlight a white target audience, or even news stories involving a mix of both white celebrities as well as other races. In terms of representation Vibe represents a black audience well, the adverts for the website show black actors and artists, yet the there is little found to represent a white audience, the thing being a mention of ‘Paris Hilton’s top sexiest photos’.

So when compared to the Rolling Stone website, it is quickly obvious that the two show almost complete opposites in terms of their representation. Rolling Stone includes video clips of white male fronted bands, as well as news about white acts, however there are snippets of news surrounding acts such as Rihanna and Run Dmc. What Rolling stone manage to do, that differs from Vibe, is keep the classic rock genre that they are renowned for as well as incorporating other forms of genre.

Bibliography:

www.Vibe.com

www.RollingStone.com

S.C. Watkins, Hip Hop matters: politics pop culture and the struggle for the soul of a movement, Beacon press, 2005, pg 56

Website Report - Tri media assignment 3

Introduction:

For our final assignment the task was set to complete an online webzine that would reflect and accompany the magazine created – Vibe. In order to do this Dreamweaver and Photoshop would be used to design and create five linked web pages.

Research:

As our pages for Vibe magazine had already been created the task of putting together a five page website would be helped along due to the fact the general colour schemes, font and style had already been set.

As well as referring to our magazine pages it was necessary to do some other researching, I looked at several popular online publications, such as Kerrang, Nme, Q and Mojo. The styles of these websites seemed to differ slightly depending on whether the publication was a weekly or a monthly, however the basic themes seemed to revolve around a dark background and coloured boxes of information and content.

After looking into ways to create and design a website that would fit in with those within the same field as well as ways to make the website as user friendly as possible I discovered the concept of BWD – Balanced Website Design: “Together with the intrinsic purpose needs of a website, these aspects form three pillars of website design, and hence the BWD methodology ... usability, purpose and aesthetics.” (D. Lawrence, S. Tavakol, 2007, pg 10) the basic ideal of this is to create a website that functions well and looks appealing as well giving the audience the features needed.

Photoshop:

When designing the website the program that was best suited was Photoshop, working with this I was able to quickly pull together ideas as well as alter and add certain elements. By using Photoshop it meant the design could be easily transferred onto Dreamweaver to be created. It was only necessary to create a basic format for the website, focusing on the home page as it is the hub and therefore first port of call for anyone visiting the site; by creating this page all other pages would follow this format and style. Through further research it became aware that there were certain aspects that make up a quality homepage: “At least seven major rules must be considered when designing a homepage for an internet resource or service: purpose, scope, structure, enhancement, links, forms and maintenance. “ (M.D. Harris, 1997, pg 899) Through choosing the general colour scheme and font style, whilst working with the magazine page I’d created earlier I was able to ensure the two could be matched together to a degree as well as working well as a functional website.

One main element of Photoshop is the use of different layers, for each new part added to the page a new layer can be created, this means different layers can be worked on a different times, without affecting any other images of text on the page. BY locking certain layers, colours can be added to background layers or to text boxes made on higher layers.

When the primary design was completed I was then able to begin to transfer the work onto Dreamweaver, in order to do this I used the Marquee tool; this is an aspect of Photoshop that allows images and other components to be traced around and copied onto another program.

Dreamweaver:

By using Dreamweaver I would be able to process a webzine quickly and easily “Dreamweaver provides you with the tools for publishing your site by copying the web document and supporting files from the computer you created them into the web server and make them accessible to viewers,” (Kogent Solution Inc, 2008, pg 18) To make the transition from Photoshop to Dreamweaver it was necessary to make a table that matched the height and width of the design created within Photoshop, to do this I changed the height and width from percentage to pixels on Photoshop and typed in the number into the ‘raw’ code on Dreamweaver.

I added a background to the five pages I had created, I sourced the blue-grey texture from Google Images (www.google.images.co.uk) as it was in-keeping with the pale colour scheme created within my magazine page. Also I used blue and grey colours for the header and navigation bar as well as changing the font colour to grey #ccc.

By using ApDiv boxes I was able to move images and text around easily, I aligned all text to ‘centre’ and focused on making the content appear in some form of columns, symbolising a magazine format. I kept the amount of text small as within webzines the amount of information and news is lesser than that found within the print publication, in some ways it may act as a taster.

I linked all the pages together using by following the website lecture notes on MyCourse. I went to properties and browsed the root folder and setting the target to self; however when adding external links I needed to paste the link and set the target to blank in order to open a new window.

To make the sections within the navigation bar – Home, Magazine, Blog, Video and Feature change colour when the viewer rolls over the word I went to Page Properties and changed the colour of the text  to black and underlined, this meant that the viewer is aware of where the links are on the page.

To add a video to the page I followed an online tutorial, I copied the embedded code from Youtube and changed the page from split to code, I then pasted the video code into the html and refreshed.

Throughout creating the website I viewed the web pages within the live view, by doing this I could check the hyperlinks and get a better and fuller look at each web page. 

Bibliography:

www.Kerrang.com

www.NME.com

http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=184961

http://www.youtubeget.com/yg8.html

M.D. Harris, Handbook of home healthcare administration, Jones and Bartlett learning 1997, pg 899

Kogent Solutions Inc, Dreamweaver in simple steps, Dreamtech Press2008, pg 18

D. Lawrence, S. Tavakol, Balanced Website Design – optimising usability, purpose and aesthetics Springer, 2007, pg 10 

How do magazines such as NME and Kerrang reflect Subcultures and Gender?

NME and Kerrang magazine are both established publications, with back catalogues spanning over several decades, NME was first released as a relaunch of Musical Express in the 1950s and covered many new genres and reached new audiences. (U. Lindberg, 2005, pg 82) Similarly, Kerrang first touched the shelves in the 1980s which a metal themed tinge spreading to cover the majority of consumer needs (P. Honeywill, D. Carpenter, 2003, pg 84)

One of the things that Kerrang are most reputable for is the almost niche attitude towards metal, especially and more so in its early days, “Kerrang, the preeminent heavy metal of the 1980s.” (D.Weinstein, 2000, pg 174) as a genre heavy metal was rife during the late 70s through to the 80s, with many subcultures arising from it such as glam metal, hair metal, thrash metal and many others. One subculture that appears to have taken Kerrang as something of a symbol or element of its identity is Goth “Kerrang magazine, read by Goths and those into metal and nu-metal music, it has recently become the most popular music periodical in the UK.” (T.Waddell, 2007, pg 37) The magazine also reflects this main subculture through its design, style and layout, “A teenaged Western metal fan’s reaction to the typeface, colours and layouts of Kerrang magazine are likely to be roughly the same as other members of that subcultural group.” (M.Barnard, 2005, pg25) Kerrang now has a reputation and background as the original ‘metal magazine’ and focuses on creating pieces for the cultures within this broad meta-genre.

There is also the idea that as more subcultures began to emerge, the writing style and type of writers began to change to fit with the new demands of the audience “With writers guidance new areas that would have stayed concealed started to emerge.” (N Macdonald, 2001, pg 53) niche magazines are also a large part of subcultures, with many focusing wholly on one type of music and reflecting the beliefs and attitudes surround the genre.

NME is a generally indie based publication with some deviation into Rap and Hip Hop but never far enough to outstretch its trendy, adolescent feel. The majority of the bands and artists with the publication are male lead, a lot of indie bands are four or five piece male groups, which are the main focus of NME “The readership of NME tends to be adolescents or young males in their twenties and thirties; the writers of the magazine, adopting the attitude of being ‘one of us’ tend to reflect this group.” (C.W. Jones, 2008, pg 122) therefore the gender reflected within the publication appears to lean towards a male dominated readership and so the content may be focused on this audience rather than a balanced female to male ratio.

A factor within music magazines such as NME and Mojo as well as many others is the lists and collections put together within issues such as ‘100 greatest rock songs’ or ‘ultimate rock list’ the phrases found within these lists and sometimes within other features is ‘Women in rock’ the phrase itself seems to purposefully set apart the genders and highlight the idea of women in music:

 “The very phrase ‘Women in rock’, which features in a great number of articles focusing on female musicians, is in itself problematic. Rather than simply pointing out the activity of female musicians within a particular music genre, the phrase usually works to peculiarise the presences of female rock performers.” (M. Leonard, 2007, pg 32)

It appears to be a general theme within rock orientated magazines to publish a higher amount of content around males than females, perhaps simply because the amount of musicians within the genre is dominated heavily by males therefore giving publications little else to write about. Magazines such as Q identify with and communicate with fans of classic rock, which is a highly masculine genre, meaning the publication has little mention of female musicians, “Where magazines are concerned Bayton (1970) studied 1980s and 1990s publications for guitarists and found that women’s presence in such magazines was minimal.” (J. Shepherd, 2003, pg 233)

The reflection of subculture and gender within music publication therefore depends highly upon the magazine itself, the audience it is targeting and the needs and wants of the consumer.

Bibliography:

M.Barnard, Graphic design as communication, Routledge, 2005, pg 25

P. Honeywill, D. Carpenter, Digital magazine design with case studies, Intellect Books, 2003, pg 84

C.W. Jones, The rock cannon: canonical values in the reception of rock albums, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2008, pg 122

M. Leonard, Gender in the music industry: rock, discourse and girl power, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2007, pg 32

U. Lindberg, Rock criticism from the beginning: amusers, brusers and cool headed cruisers, Peter Lang, 2005, pg 82

N. Macdonald, The graffiti subculture: youth, masculinity and identity in London and new York, Palgrave Macmillan 2001, pg 53

J. Shepherd, Continuum encyclopaedia of popular music of the world, Continuum International Publishing group, 2003, pg 233

T. Waddell, Cultural expression of evil and wickedness: wrath, sex and crime, Radopi, 2007, pg37

D. Weinstein, Heavy metal: the music and its culture, Da Capo Press, 2000, pg 174