Even the very nature of my magazine which includes a variety of music genres challenges codes and conventions of a typical music magazine front cover. Although my masthead does conform to the conventions of real media products such as NME magazine it does develop it by not being in a typical block colour. Instead, my masthead is in an urban style with a block of light colour behind it. The tagline underneath 'bringing you the BEST in new music' does conform to codes and conventions in terms of it's positioning. The barcode on my front cover is not in the typical place that you’d find it on other magazines as you can see by NME magazine. It is placed in this specific place due to where I have positioned my cover lines so anywhere else I would have tried to put it would have modified my layout in a way I didn’t want it. My main cover line is also atypical in its placing as they are usually found at the top so it is the first thing you read. Due to the position of my model it was not possible to place it there so instead it is on the left hand side at the bottom. I have no rhetorical questions on my front page although I do use exclamation marks a couple of times to convey the meaning that it is something you would be interested about. I have also included a command with ‘win tickets to Unsung Divas London Concert’. Lastly, the model or cover artist has strong eye contact with the camera which draws the reader in; this is typical of music magazines.
As well as my Front Cover, my Contents Page also uses the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine contents page while also challenging them too. I have used a Q magazine contents page to compare it too. In my contents page there are columns which are adhere to the codes and conventions and can also be seen in my example contents page. I again conform to codes and conventions by having a separate editor’s letter however I also develop these codes by adding an image of the editor which isn’t as common in music magazines as it is in gossip magazines such as ‘Heat’. The amount of columns I have challenge conventions because usually there would be a larger main image covering more of the page as is clear in the Q magazine and then just one column down the side with one underneath the main image. Instead I have three columns with colours separating genre’s as well as lines which I have not seen in other music magazines. My use of colour also challenges codes and conventions because a lot of other contents pages stick to a black font. I however, chose to use colour because my target audience would find this appealing and because the different genres needed to be clearly separated so as to make it clear to the reader which one was which. Due to my use of thumbnail images on my contents page I would say that I am conforming to codes and conventions because many other magazines have these, although the amount I have on the page may be an example of developing typicality as there are more of them than I have seen used in any other music magazine contents page.
My double page spread conforms to codes and conventions in that it is set out in columns which all magazines are. The interviewer and solo artist questions and answers are in different colours- in this case black and pink- so the reader can easily identify who is who. Another way I conformed is in the way I have a bright bold title to introduce the interview, it stands out to the reader and lets them know that the feature is going to be an 'Exclusive Interview'. I have page numbers for both pages of the double page spread which again conforms to conventions. The four images on my spread page also conform, firstly because of the number of them and secondly because of the variety of shots. I have used a close-up, a couple of mid-shots and a full length one of my solo artist sitting down, this makes the reader interested and not overwhelmed by the amount of text in the feature.
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