Masthead Font

I am going to experiment in using different typefaces to see which one fits the genre appropriately and will stand out the most on a magazine cover to engage the audiences attention. 

This typeface has a very professional look towards it and could make my magazine have a more expert feel. I quite like the pointed arms on the typeface and this has a unique look towards it which I quite like. The font is quite thin however so it doesn't stand out as much as other typefaces I have experimented so I don't think I am going to use this in my design.

This font looks quite interesting as it matches with the masthead name. This font has similar characteristics of a string as they look rounded and long which is why I quite like it because it fits with the name is 'Sixth String'. Although I am looking for a more outgoing and eye-catching font that will stand out on a shelf and makes it easy to read and I believe this font just isn't quite there so I wont be using it for my design.

This typeface I chose is a lot different from the rest in this selection of my experimentation. This typeface looks like its ripped up and rough which looks quite interesting but I don't think it's the style and theme I am going for so I don't think I will be using it for my own design.

This typeface is very streaking. It consists of very chunky and thick text which stands out a lot and this is what I am looking for mainly as my masthead.  It is quite a unique typeface as each letter looks quite different. Some parts are pointed, some are curved and it never really follows a pattern which is probably why I like it so much as it stands out from the rest. Even though this typeface is interesting and creative I still don't think it is the one I am going to use.

I quite like this as it involves some characteristics consisting of music, On some points such as the dots on the 'I's' and the descenders there are tuning pegs each side which are also on a acoustic guitar so it fits the theme well. The overall font is quite bold and looks very professional but I still don't think its at the standard I want as it doesn't overwhelm you.

This type face is my favourite one out of all my chosen typefaces and I think I have decided I am going to use this for my masthead of the front cover and other pages, It is a very bold font which stands out very well and also as some character towards it because it is slightly slanted. The font is also quite thick compared to the rest of the other typefaces which I chose which could be the reason why I chose to use it because it stands out from the rest.

Masthead Name Ideas

I firstly thought I could name the masthead of the magazine to be a part of an acoustic guitar as from researching a popular acoustic magazine is called 'frets' which I think sounds amazing. Therefore I did further research into parts of an acoustic guitar and came up with these possible options: bridge, headstock, soundboard, binding, rosette, fingerboard and fretboard. My favourite from this idea is 'rosette' as I think it sounds the most appealing and professional out the choices I had. It is also one of the parts that most stand out on a guitar and especially as its a beautiful pattern that resembles a rose it does just look astonishing. 

Then I went on and  brainstormed words that are related to the sound and movement of music and came up with various names that could be acceptable to use for a masthead. Firstly, 'sonic' which relates to using sound waves which every song uses sound waves therefore it makes sense and also sounds quite interesting. Then I thought of 'harmonious' as this word means its a pleasing sound and very tuneful which acoustic music as a whole is so it fits well and looks great. Furthermore, I like the word 'tremble' and this could relate to the shaking movement of the strings in a guitar or the sound coming from it. Then similar to the meaning of tremble I also came up with 'quiver' which I think also looks great. This also means a slight trembling movement or sound, especially one caused by a sudden strong emotion - I think acoustic music demonstrates very strong emotion within the lyrics and sound of the lyrics.

Moreover, I researched popular types of woods that are used for many of the instruments used in acoustic songs, especially for guitars. I think using a wood type, the audience would know this and understand the meaning from it more. I came up with three names 'koa, morado and mahogany' which I feel that all three reflect a nice calming feeling off it which the music also has the same traits after listening to it.

Lastly, I came up with some random ideas that have no meaning intentionally I just love the sound of them. 'Ultimate Guitar' which stands out well as it looks heroic and suggests the magazine is the most best and extreme of its kind. Then lastly, I also liked 'sixth string' which in fact I will chose for it to be my masthead because I think it looks extremely smart, professional and also uses alliteration because both words begin with the same letter therefore it is very catchy and people will remember it easier. Moreover, there are six strings in a acoustic guitar in total so the sixth string is quite important and musicians who buy the magazine will understand and appreciate that.

My target audience

There are many sub genres in Acoustic such as pop, country and rock however I do not have a particular sub genre I am doing it as a genre in whole. Therefore my target audience does not have a specific gender it can be aimed at both males and females who are interested in all types. I would say that it is mainly aimed at people aged between around 16-25 years old so late teens and the beginning of early twenties. The type of person who would read Acoustic would be a normal, day-to-day female and male who could very between classes, working, middle or upper class. They would have a passion for music and likely to be very focused in music and may even play their own instruments. It could also interest younger readers, who are interested in music and learning new music, Indy style who don’t like to follow the mainstream music. My magazine will contain a large variety of genres and range of articles including all aspects of acoustic music so it can fit all the needs for all people within the acoustic genre.

Sub-Genres Of Acoustic Genres I Will Include In My Magazine

I want to include all the types of acoustic genres so that It will result in having a wider audience because it will fit the likes of more people consisting of everything within the genre. There are three main sub-genes in acoustic:

Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the United Kingdom around the mid-1960s.
Soft rock
Soft rock or light rock is a style of music that uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound.
Surf rock
Surf rock has two major forms: largely instrumental surf rock, with an electric guitar or saxophone playing the main melody, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, and vocal surf pop, including both surf ballads and dance music, often with strong harmonies that are most associated with the Beach Boys.
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s and 2000s

Researching My chosen genre in-depth: Acoustic

Having decided to do an Acoustic Magazine for my project, i thought it would be ideal to look more in depth and to analyse other magazines of the genre, to figure out what the conventions are and to get a basic idea what to include in my magazine design. Lastly, it would be good too understand about more information on the genre itself too.
What is the genre Acoustic?

Acoustic music comprises music that primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric electronic means.  Acoustic music is varied, as there are many different approaches you can take towards it.However the conventions of music, keep the songs fairly slow-paced and always have a significant meaning behind them. I think this is one of the reasons i chose this genre, as i like music to tell a particular story, and allow you to connect and feel the emotions of the song.
Target Audience
Both men and women aged around to the late teenager stage to early twenties who wear similar, smart and casual clothes to the artists and the majority of people who enjoy an acoustic vibe as well.

What artists are in the Acoustic Genre?

Jack Johnson, Collie Caillat, Ed Sheeran, James Blunt, Tenacious D and many more.

What instruments are in the Acoustic Genre?

Acoustic music instruments can be classified into two areas: Air and solids. The most commonly used air instruments are pipe-like. The most commonly used solid instruments are strings, bars and membranes. Some examples of the instruments are flute, trumpet, guitar , piano, drum, trautonium etc.

Acoustic in Magazines
The ''Acoustic'' magazine is a very popular magazine and it is a British glossy publication that concentrates on only acoustic music. Originally, it was bi-monthly publication, however, now it has changed into a monthly magazine. The typical conventions you would find in this magazine are features such as:
-Reviews, Guitar reviews, Artist interviews, Guitar lessons, Tricks, Vintage guitar advice and lastly, many of it's columnists are famous guitarists and musicians.
Representations in magazines
In magazines i found that the artists are typically represented as 'raw' and 'organic' with mostly a natural background or just a plain coloured background. Women and men are shown to be angelic with normally a slight smile on there face. They are almost always photographed with their guitar; an acoustic artist guitar is often very personal to them and can be recognisable symbol that they're remembered by such as the paw-print sign on Ed Sheeran's guitar which is now a graphics for an album cover.
Front Covers of Acoustic Magazines

• The main images seem to use direct address by giving you eye contact. 
• The majority hold guitars and act like they are playing them.
• The headlines are very thick, bold and take up the whole of the upper section of the magazine.
• The appearance on the magazines are quite crowded with sub-headlines, competitions and other information that's inside the magazine.
• The emotions on the characters are quite calm and pleasing to look at. You feel very welcomed when looking at there emotions.
• They both dress wearing white which are gentle colours to wear.
• They both use buzz words like 'EXCLUSIVE' which is an effective technique to include as it will catch the readers attention as there is something inside that is new for them to read.
• They both have similar themes colours of white, black blue and red.
• Both of the magazine covers consist of a range of thick and thin fonts which makes the magazine look interesting and pact with information.

Choosing my genre

After doing my research from looking at all the music genres there is I have concluded to 3 music genres that i think would be best suitable to my surroundings, knowledge and equipment to represent these genres best. I couldn't choice rap for example because i don't have any fashion that suits that genre correctly and i couldn't choose electronic because i don't have the right equipment to represent that genre well. 
Therefore i came to these 3 genres as they are easy to have accessibility for the music equipment, clothing and the correct cultured people to portray the genres.

CLASSICAL

-The look of classical magazines are very professional, neat and modern and i feel that i can represent this very well.
-I love the curves in the text that gets used in classical magazines.

INDIE

-I like the bold and thick text used on its font cover and throughout in the magazine.
-I have great knowledge with the artists in this genre such as Coldplay who is my favorite band so i can use this as a benefit.
-The layout of indie magazines are very simple with a lot of emotion within the characters face which i like.

ACOUSTIC-

I have the instruments such as a piano and guitar that could be represented for the mis en scene well in the pictures for the magazine,-Acoustic magazines have a lot going on in the front cover which looks quite appealing and packed with a lot of information and imagery.-Lots of colours and a variety of different typefaces used within the magazine.-I know a lot about acoustic because i used to play guitar and my step mother is a music teacher and her specialty is piano.

In conclusion, i have decided that i am going to go for the acoustic genre to use for my music magazine. I believe that this will fit best with the mis en scene such as costumes and instruments that i have and my knowledge behind the genre. I think that classical and indie are too plain and don't use my abilities as much as acoustic will.

Possible genres for my Music Magazine

Music can be divided into different genres in many different ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often subjective and controversial, and some genres may overlap. Concluding to this I think it is necessary and important to understand the vast amount of genres in music there is to further help decide what genre my music magazine will be in the end and to understand the backgrounds of each genre deeper.


Blues

A kind of jazz that evolved from the music of African-Americans, especially work songs and spirituals, in the early twentieth century. Blues pieces often express worry or depression.

Sub-genres -Blues rock -Country blues -Punk blues

Techno

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s.

Sub-genres -Detroit techno -hardcore techno

Acoustic

Acoustic music is music that solely or primarily uses instruments that produce sound through acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means.
Sub-genres -acoustic pop -acoustic rock

Jazz

Jazz music is a language, sometimes intimate, often boisterous, but always layered with experience and life profoundly lived. Jazzis not found in websites or books or even written down in sheet music. 

Sub-genres -cool jazz -acid jazz -smooth jazz

Hip hop

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop or rapmusic, is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.

Sub-genre -country rap -igbo rap -corrorcore

Pop music

music appealing to the popular taste, including rock and pop and also soul, reggae, rap, and dance music.

Sub-genre -bubblegum pop -country pop -dance-pop

Punk rock

Punk rock (or simply punk) is a rock musicgenre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunkmusic, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock.

Sub-genres -folk music -elctropunk -deathrock

Electronic music

lectronic music is a blanket term used to describe music that generally is made using electronic instruments (such as drum machines or synthesizers) and is rarely organic-sounding. It is sometimes mis-refered to as "Electronica" or "Techno."

Sub-genres-ambient music -crunk -electronic dance

Classical

In technical musical usage this means music composed during the late eighteenth and earl nineteenth centuries, characterized by the development of the sonata by such composers a Mozart. In popular use,however, the term is used to mean any serious art music as distinct from jazz, pop, or folk.

Researching Different Genres of Music Magazines

For my research I chose to look at a wide variety of music magazines containing different genres to get ideas for what path of genre I want to aim for my own magazine.

Indie All indie magazines seem to be very simplistic in the overall appearance. The masthead is usually a bold, simple and large title which mainly takes up the whole upper section of the magazine cover - they may do this because it will stand out compared to the other magazines and it will be very clear and easy to read from far away on the shelf's in stores among its other competitors. The central image seems to mainly be a musician or band as most indie music is aimed at the younger generation usually aged between 16-25 and usually white British which is why the magazine on the right is white British. Indie is not as messy such as like rock so it would not reflect the same layout on its magazine being cluttered, in this case its kept simple however the colours can be very similar to rock magazines like dark and neutral colours but the music isn't as loud and heavy like rock so the indie magazine would reflect differently slightly to its cover more.

Dance Dance magazines would have bright and powerful colours that would reflect the club lights. Bright colours have been used so the main cover line stands out on the page to the black background. The use of the ellipsis  such as “messages…” highlights that the story is to be continued. The image seen of the moon on the bottom left highlights how the magazine is about clubbing which is a night time activity. Furthermore, the central image of the front cover is a medium close up and the artist is directly looking at the camera, as if hes looking at the reader which draws them in and also it would attract more to a female audience than a male audience. They would have puffs and graphic images of celebrity gossip as dance magazines would be mainly aimed at the younger generation at 18+ as they would be clubbing at this age. The magazine would be cluttered which would reflect the people who go clubbing as they would like to think they have a crazy ‘cluttered’ lifestyle. The masthead would be bright and bold to attract people to buy the magazine again stall the other dance magazine competitors.

Pop Pop magazines seems to typically follow the same trend of vivid and bright colours all over the front cover. They also consist of a wide range of typefaces and graphic images which are usually pop artists and this will gain interest to the audience as they will all look up to them as role models. Also the vast amount of  information packed into the front colour will again attract the younger audience successfully. The colours such as on the 'we love pop' magazine below has a lot of feminine colours. This is due to the large amount of audience are girls aged 13-15 that would buy this pop magazine. Secondly, it would also involve many articles such as hair and make up tips and a large amount of celebrity gossip and this would again encourage the female demographic to purchase the magazine. The main image would always consist of a popular celebrity that would contain the most new gossip about, the name of the magazine would be extremely large and bold with bright colours so its easy for the young demographic to read from a distance and therefore will attract them to purchase. The language would be informal as the targeted audience will not be that so that the readers feel like the magazine is talking to them therefore forming a relationship between the magazine and reader which would encourage them to buy more magazines from that company.

Rock Rock magazines usually consist of a main image of a band member from a rock or heavy metal band, they normally have numerous tattoos all over there body, darkened eyes with eyeliner and even flowing long black hair. The masthead would also be a big and bold text that makes it easy for the viewer to read such as the 'KERRANG' one to the side. Furthermore, The colour scheme for rock magazines are similar for most rock magazines, they mainly all use white, black and red. However KERRANG uses a small amount of red to keep it subtle, therefore KERRANG differs from most rock magazines. The layout on the magazines typically be not very orderly, mad and messy because the heavy metal readers and their music would be seen like this also so it would reflect onto the magazines front covers and there audience, lastly they would also have various buzz words around the front cover to attract the readers again. The target audience for this magazine would first and foremost be teenagers (mainly those 16+) and also those in their 20’s. Some of its viewers would be approximately in their 30’s (the same age as the people featured in the magazine). Or simply, people who admire rock and loud music as the magazine mostly centres on rock and punk music.