Thursday 26 January 2012


Dev. We all know Dev from the song 'Like A G6' by Far Eat Movement. And recently she was featured in one of JLS' songs, 'She Makes Me Wanna'. However, Dev also makes her own music and is also in the genres of indie, pop and hip hop. She can sing amazingly well and can also rap rather good.

She had released her own album 'The Night The Sun Came Up' and it was a huge success. One of her songs 'In The Dark' peaked at number 10 in the US Charts.

Dev was also tipped to be the next 'Ke$ha' in clubs because of her unique voice and club like music.

Drake Feat.Lykke Li - Little Bit



Here is another song that Drake is featured in with an indie/pop artist, 'Lykke Li'. The song is called 'Little Bit' and is about love.

Suprisingly, R&B works brilliantly with Indie. When you listen to this song, it sounds exciting yet chilled out. This is what type of effect I would want my magazine to give off to my readers.

The sogn was released in 2008 and is not that known but many people that have heard this song knows what potential both artists hold.

The Weeknd - The Zone (Ft. Drake)


This is by an artist called 'The Weeknd'. He is an indie, r&b, hip hop artist which seems very original as they are unusual genres to mix with.

The Weeknd is a good friend of world wide successful artist, 'Drake' and he is also featured in this song 'The Zone'. I posted this song on my blog because my magazine will be directed at a Indie/R&B audience. I chose this because I like both the genres and it is rare to see a magazine that focuses on these two genres, specifically.

The Weeknd reached fame when Drake tweeted part of his lyrics to all his fans and The Weeknd had kept his identity anonymous to attract much more attention.

What I would like to do is find upcoming artists like The Weeknd and do a few photoshoots and interview with them so that they could be featured in the magazine.

How to upload videos onto my blog.

We were told as a class to research on magazine covers and music that we want to include in our magazine.
Our teacher taught us how to embed html links into a post in which uploads the video to our blog, but I had found a much easier way.


The way I had discovered was to share it. YouTube gave me the option of sharing this video to various blogging sites with ease. All I had to do was to click on the blogger icon and then it automatically opens up a new post in a new tab and I can post it on there by publishing the post.

I had then informed my teacher of this easier way she could tell everyone else in my class which benefitted us all greatly.
'XXL' magazine is another magazine I will be researching on. The front cover is of a successful artist
Kanye West.

The magazine cover has a unique design in which at the middle of the page, it is repeated but upside down. Reasons for this may be because in the middle, it says 'Love' and upside down 'Hate'. Also, there is a caption near him saying 'The exclusive story by the man himself' which could represent the love hate relationship and by saying 'The man himself' would give the report a mysterious feeling which would attract the reader even more, would they be interviewing West or someone else?

The colour scheme of this magazine is red, black and white. It focuses more on the black and white which would also represent the 'Love' and 'Hate' as black and white are opposite tones. The red is only based on the magazine's headmast to emphasise the actual magazine itself, 'XXL'.

West's picture is made black and white to go with the colour scheme and to also give it a cool, smart and professional look as if this magazine has class. His facial expression is also rather straight with hints of aggression which is seen in a lot of other XXL magazine covers.

Underneath the headmast, it also says 'Special Collector's Issue' which could also be a relation to the edits made in the picture, because this magazine looks so crisp and unique it would be classed as a special collector's edition.

Overall, the magazine is extremely simple, I think the design was like this because it shows class, importance, focus and specialty. 

Tuesday 24 January 2012

This is the 'NME' magazine.
I have chosen to analyse this magazine again because it would benefit me greatly as I want my magazine to look as good and as successful as this very one.

The main artist/model featured in this 'commemorative issue' for Prince William and Kate Middleton is 'Tyler, The Creator'. He is a world famous rapper, record producer, music video director, actor, graphic artist and fashion designer from Los Angeles, currently signed to English independent record label XL Recordings and his own record label, Odd Future Records.

The magazine has quite cleverly  made Tyler pose with crowns on his head and in a pose which would show signs of being posh, which would relate to the royal wedding. However, there is a pull quote said by telling exclaiming that, 'I don't give a sh*t about the royal wedding' which conflicts with the whole point that this extra magazine was created because it was originally for the royal wedding.

In some aspects, this magazine replicates the 'Rolling Stone' magazine, it has the effect of the cover photo covering the masthead, just like the Rolling Stone magazine, explained in my previous posts.

'Tyler, the Creator' is the main attraction to this magazine and his name is also the first thing we see. This could show signs of him 'not giving a sh*t' about the royal wedding as it overtakes the whole point of the magazine's original idea.

The colour scheme only consists of four colours, red, white, black and blue. The blue is being worn by Tyler and it should represent his originality and how often he stands out from anyone else. Red is a colour that can stand for danger, or royalty. In this case, it could be both as the royal wedding would have been taking place when the magazine was released and danger because Tyler is there and he is an unpredictable character.

On the edges of the magazine, it has a brown, gold like frame which could also represent royalty because it could insinuate that this magazine has framing material because of the royal wedding or because Tyler is becoming such a sensation to the music industry.

Monday 23 January 2012

Rolling Stone Magazine

As a group we researched and analysed the rolling stone magazine in order to find out codes and conventions of the magazine. (below is a printscreen of out research)

The rolling stone magazine is one of the most well known magazines that portray music. The magazine was found in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner. The covers often portray a successful artist or group posing and majority of the time, their face or body covers the actual title itself.
 
 

Friday 20 January 2012

Martians Vs. Goblins

  

A video by an artist called 'The Game' featuring 'Tyler, The Creator'.
The video is based on Martians and Goblins and the two artists are talking about either one.
Tyler, which released his album 'Goblin' last year ironically supports Goblins and The Game is for Martians.

The lyrics may be too explicit for younger person(s) viewing.

I chose to upload this video because my music magazine would be aimed at people who are into this genre, which is, hip hop, r&b, rap. Also, it may be seen as indie too as Tyler is well known and loved by many indie artists and indie followers.

Monday 16 January 2012

Photoshop.

Can you spot the difference? Here, I have photoshopped an object out of the picture because it took away too much attention from the main subject, which is, Sasha. I had taken out the pole to her left. I did this by copying certain parts of the image that had similar surroundings to what need to be covered.