Diary Entry Week 2: Research into Music Magazines

Monday 7th February- On the first day I spent time researching into what magazine genre i wanted to do, while looking through magazines such as Kerrang!, Source and Clash I realised these magazines weren't for me. So I decided to look at magazines such as NME, Mojo, Q and Rolling Stone as they were more indie pop which is where I wanted to head with my music magazine.
Tuesday 8th February- As I had a more clear idea of what magazine genre I wanted to do I went into researching the different codes & conventions of NME. This worked out to be very helpful as I wanted to base my magazine on this product. I mostly looked at the front covers, contents pages and double page spreads which gave me alot of inspiration.
Wednesday 9th February- On the third day of researching I looked into Q magazine which was another potential magazine that I would base my own music magazine on, while flicking through the magazine I really liked the basic plain backgrounds to make the headline stories stand out; I also loved the white, red and black colour scheme which i may also use for inspiration.
Thursday 10th February- I then moved on to looking at the music magazine Mojo which was alot more old school with its layouts and presentation. But what I did love about this magazine was its individuality, the designers didn't really stick to the typical codes and conventions of a regular music magazine for example: the designer of the Paul McCartney interview used 2 columns instead of the normal 3. I realised after researching that Mojo is a very individual company and thrives on questioning the standard codes & conventions. This magazines style may come in handy if I want to add my own touch to my music magazine.
Friday 11th February- On the final day I did my final piece of research on Rolling Stone magazine as the plain simplistic background design attracted me to it. While looking through this magazine I loved the fact it was very varied and didn't always focus on the headlining acts of today a lot like NME and Mojo. This idea may be a useful idea if I decide to do an interview of an older singer. Some parts Rolling Stone didn't appeal to me as much as the other researched music magazines though, while looking through magazines such as Q and NME I realised they were more what i was looking for as eye catching ideas for my own music magazine.