Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In general, Classical music magazines are very simplistic and have only a few different colours used on the front cover. This is because the simplicity creates a sophistication that cannot be gained through the use of neon colours and hundreds of strap lines.

As you can see from the examples above, the magazine below will gain a lot more credibility because of the uncluttered, light, professional look. The upper 'OK' magazine is crammed full of articles and bright lights trying to attract readers, the model is in a bikini showing a desirable body for woman with a correlating coverline telling them that they can gain the body shown. Displaying the price, so that people can see how cheap it is from far away, is also a way of drawing readers in, 'Listen' have not done this as it is a specialist magazine and the audience will seek out the magazine.


On my magazine front cover I have not put too much information on it to try and keep the sophistication, this is working with the usual conventions of Classical magazines in general. The masthead for 'Listen' is a thin, plain, sans serif font which has connotations of sophistication, I have used a similar style for my own magazine which conforms to conventions. The stereotype that classical music listeners are smart, educated and respectable is one that I wanted to reflect in my magazine. Professional magazines manage to do this, I think that going against this convention would be harmful to my audience matching, from my research I have not come across anyone who is a fan of this genre and is against the stereotype. It is widely agreed on so seems right to reflect this. I have tried to show a smart looking mode, looking in no way confrontational but at the same time strong and powerful. I think this connotes professional nature.

The way I have developed the generic design of a Classical music magazine is to include a few more cover lines and another image on the front cover. I liked the way that the front cover looked smart and not too cramped with information, but I also wanted to show that the magazine contained a lot of articles to interest the reader.


I have decided to go against usual convention of classical magazines by showing a rather young model on the front cover, popular belief is that classical music composers and artists are very old, grand looking men. Because I am aiming my magazine at a slightly younger than normal audience, I have decided to create a character the readers can relate to and even aspire to be like. Most of the classical magazines I have researched have older gentlemen and women on the front covers, very established and famous composers.