Joseph Brown - AS Media

Question 1: In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
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Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine was primarily based on the popular music magazine, NME. The name of my magazine shows a perfect example of this. Through the pages that I have designed and created I have abbreviated the name of my magazine from ‘Indie Nation’ to ‘IN’. Also the layout of my magazine can be recognised by NME magazine. I think that due to this similar style I have used I believe that my magazine appeals to an audience of young adults. Also, the images that I took were in the same way in which NME took theirs. If you look at the front page of my magazine and compare it to a front page of NME’s then you can see that they both look into the direction of the camera. This gives the impression that it is addressing the audience personally therefore enticing them in. I chose to use a font style that is used in almost all of the music magazines, which is a formal font. This is because it gives an adult feel to it that suits my target audience of young adults rather than an immature feel that you would get if I used an informal font. My media product would appeal to young adults who are interested into indie and alternative music over people who enjoy death core music because of my layout, image and colours. I think that the primary colour for a death core magazine would be black as this represents who they are and my magazine does not provide black as a main colour but include more blues and reds. Also my main cover image trends with other images from magazines such as NME and Q whereas they are almost the opposite of images from music magazine from Metal Hammer.

It was a early twenty ten, in a lowly London Club, when ‘Mercury Records’ spotted a shining light performing in front of a small crowd of under one hundred people. They didn’t know it at the time but this shining light was to produce a UK top five hit in early twenty ten as well as a highly anticipated album dubbed to hit the same heights of ‘Florence and the machines’ first album ‘Lungs’. This shining light is ‘Tiffany Page.’

Tiffany Page’s top five single, ‘On your head’, was released midway through December last year and received positive praise all round which has inevitably lead to the hype of how successful her debut album, ‘Walk away slow’, will be when it is finally released on February the 14^th this year. Tiffany is promising that this is the official release date after it was announced last November that the album could not be ready in time for the original date of 29^th of November due to being behind schedule on recording.

There no planning on taking a break to celebrate her first album either as her first UK headline tour is on the cards in April. Performing at such venues as Brixton Academy, Brighton International Centre and Newcastle O2 Academy is not a new thing to Tiffany as she was supporting ‘The Noisettes’ on their ‘Welcome to the Family’ Tour of the UK. You may be thinking ‘How can she cope with all this publicity so early on in her career?’ You will find out soon enough...

First of all, tell us about how you were recognised by the same music label that brought us great artists such as ‘Fall Out Boy,’ ‘Taio Cruz’ and ‘Pixie Lott’?

Tiffany: Well it all started by accident really. I wasn’t even meant to play at the London club where I was spotted. I was actually asked to perform at a wedding which was located across the road but I couldn’t find it.
Indie Nation: So you just walked into the wrong building and just started performing at the club then?
Tiffany: Well it went something like that, yeah. I walked into this club, thinking it was where I was meant to be performing, and some bearded guy with a top hat asked me why I wasn’t all set up yet. I assumed this was the right place and just started doing my thing. I realised that this wasn’t the right place when I looked over my shoulder and see through the window a horse and carriage pull up to the building next to me. I knew I quickly had to finish my set and only played one or two more covers to end.
Indie Nation: So is this when they approached you?
Tiffany: No, (whilst laughing) it was when I was actually apologizing, to the artist who was meant to perform, for stealing her slot.
Indie Nation: So did this artist see you speaking to the people of Mercury Records?
Tiffany: I was so embarrassed but overjoyed about the situation that I just ran out of the club before they had a chance to say anything.

Where do you gain all the inspiration to write all of your songs?

Tiffany: A lot of the songs on the album were written when I was in my early teens and I mainly got the inspiration just from my past experiences with family, friends and just life in general. One of my songs is actually about my first love, which was my pet dog and was written shortly after he passed away when I was thirteen.

How does it feel to be compared to the likes of Florence Welsh so early on in your career?

Tiffany: To even be in the same breath as Florence Welsh is an achievement in itself but to be compared musically, words cannot describe how proud I am. When I first read about this I honestly thought that the newspaper mistakenly put my name in the same sentence and even if I hear it again I feel shocked but very privileged as Florence is a figure I only dreamed about becoming when I was a nipper.
Indie Nation: It seems like you adore Florence, any chance of collaboration?
Tiffany: That sort of thing only happens in my dreams.