Enrolement Task

While enroling to Woking College's media course, we were given a number of tasks, which basically got us to draft ideas for our music magazine and then we had to write an essay on our favourite magazine or artist/band.

A) Potential Mastheads?

RAWR! ?
Youth ?
Next Gen Music?

B) Target Audience?

Late teenage (15-19) male audience
Drum and Bass, Rock, Indie

C) Potential Features?

Big section of unsigned bands
Every week magazine
Each week a4 sized posters, 4 or 6 posters each week
Opportunity for the public to vote each for the big poster which will be in released with the next magazine at the beginning/end of the month
Set up a myspace page where the public can suggest an unsigned band which will then be interviewed and added into an issue
“We recommend” page
Each issue has an interview with famous bands ranging between Pendulum to Arctic Monkeys, Paramore to Papa Roach.
Advertisement page
Up and coming gigs
Gig reviews

D)Essay on my favourite band/magazine.

My chosen band is Papa Roach. One of the reasons why Papa Roach are one of my favourite bands is that they have a great image, in every photo or video I have seen of the band, they always have their own unique style, dark but powerful and they would most definitely stand out in a crowd, as a teenager, this rebellious image inspires me to dress in a similar manor to feel as powerful. However the bands lyrics pick up on many important issues, one of which is individualism, so despite the bands physical image they encourage their listeners to keep their individualism.

The bands lyrics cover a large number of issues including: poverty, politics, self harm, and much more. The bands success in all their lyrics come from their first hand experience in near enough all of the issues, this shows listeners that this band is the real deal, they don't just sing about these events, they have in fact, lived through them. The lyrics are very empowering despite, in most songs, being about desperation. Listening to the Papa Roach albums really gets me to think more about the world as the band raise issues that, normally, I would not think about and this then gets me to broaden my opinion on the world, as songs like “Getting Away with Murder” highlight the American governments bias view and how, as long as you are in this government you can do anything, listening to this song then got me to think about politics more. Whereas songs like “Lifeline” and “Last Resort” highlight an idea of desperation in the teenage lifestyle, the songs reach out to teenagers while they are in a state of mind where they want help, as they sing about a need for a “Lifeline” to save them from the state they are in.
Each of the Papa Roach albums focuses on a different type of genre with each one highlighting a key topic of issues, for example the album “Infest” is about poverty and a broken home, whereas the album “The Paramore Sessions” focuses on love and fighting for yourself.

The songs on the “Infest” album were written by lead singer of the band, Jacoby Shaddix. He is an inspiration to me as a musician and song writer, as his parents divorced when he was 6 and he had to bare through the arguments between his parents, he also is a sufferer of ADHD, but despite this he still managed a successful music career and ended up marrying his high school sweet heart. Jacoby has suffered from a drug and alcohol addiction, which he managed to kick one year ago. It is also rumoured that during his teenage years and the years of his addiction Jacoby self harmed, which he also recently got over.

Along with the meaningful issues in the bands songs, they're also my favourite band due to their catchy lyrics, guitar riffs and drum beats.