I will make a cover, contents and double- page spread for a music magazine based around idols, a sub-genre of Japanese music, as I am interested in this genre so I can write a lot on it and also it is different from typical genres and fills a gap in the market as there are no other magazines, especially in Europe which covers this particular genre. As such, I think that it would be popular amongst English- speaking idol fans as such magazines are hard or expensive to obtain especially in English, and the unique style may also interest others and make them want to know more about it.

Wikipedia: “In Japanese culture, female idols ( アイドル aidoru) are media personalities in their teens and twenties who are considered particularly attractive or cute and who will, for a period ranging from several months to a few years, regularly appear in the mass media, as singers for pop groups, bit-part actors, TV personalities (tarento), models in photo spreads published in magazines, advertisements, etc. But not every young celebrity is considered an idol: young celebrities who wish to cultivate a rebellious image, such as many rock musicians, reject the "idol" label. The current situation in the Japanese idol scene is called "Idol sengoku jidai" ( アイドル戦国 時代 ; lit. Idol war age).” Seiko Matsuda (24 Consecutive Oricon number 1 singles, Record holder for 22 years, Oricon poll Number 1 Idol of all time. Coined the 'Forever Idol') Pink Lady (Had a streak of nine number one hits from 1976 to 1978, with five being multi million selling) Morning Musume (Longest running female idol group, holds record for most consecutive top 10 singles (54) for any Japanese artist.) AKB48 (Guinness World Record holder for being the "largest pop group“)

Morning Musume – Kare to Issho ni Omise ga Shitai! (I want to open a shop with him!) AKB48 – Gingham Check °C-ute – Tokai no Hitorigurashi (Living Alone in the City) S/mileage – Yattaruchan (Miss ‘I Can Do It!’)

My research using a survey online found that the majority of idol fans are Females between the ages of 18 and 24 that like the colours pink, blue and purple. The most popular idols were also found to be Morning Musume, ℃ -ute, and AKB48. To appeal to this audience, my magazine will use those colours and have articles related to those groups which will interest that audience.

For the magazine I will need to organise: cover lines the masthead (what the magazine is called) the colour scheme the cover image and other images the layout the puffs and other shapes the subject of the double page spread

To do this I will use Adobe Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Indesign CS5 as these will be best to use for making a magazine because they are industry standard and as such will create the best results.

The cover page will draw inspiration from magazines like Top Yell, KERA, UTB and SHOXX, which are magazines that feature idols and music and as such cover the same genre. It will be a standard layout similar to these, with the model or models in the centre of the page with the masthead at the top, the cover lines surrounding them and the headline at the bottom.

As I know no Japanese girls who I can use to model for my magazine, I can use English girls and as such centre my headline and double page spread on the idol boom worldwide, especially in places such as the U.K, the U.S and France. The magazine can also focus on this side of things in terms of obtaining music, merchandise and also how to meet the idols (either at home or in Japan) which could also appeal to the target audience. The models I have chosen are three of my friends who are aged 16 and so while they are not the age of the target audience, they are the age of the average idol and as such this will suit the magazine more. They can wear clothing similar to the idols and be presented as a new, English idol group.

As the magazines I used for ideas for cover pages don’t have contents pages (with the exception of UTB, which I will be using), I will use contents pages from music magazines which show similar groups from the U.K and the U.S, such as We Love Pop. It will be similar in that it will use puffs to present the text, have images of things within the magazine (with page numbers on the images), a picture of the cover and also a welcoming message from the editor. The pages will also be separated by whether they’re on the cover or not, as the pages on the cover will have priority.

The magazine’s double page spread will be quite reliant on colours and images I take of my models, and these will fill up most of the page. As they were the most popular in the market research, the double page spread will probably be an interview with the group I take pictures of, and also profiles on them so that the reader can learn about them. The interview can cover idol fandom abroad, and also the rise of the Western idol. It will probably use a lot of page furniture in the form of puffs and sticker-like images, as pages seem to be more reliant on this rather than actual text within the genre.