My Survey

My survey which I am going to post on various forums and social networking sites can be found below:

CLICK HERE FOR SURVEY!!!!!

Rough Sketch Of My Mag

(Note: I Can't Draw To Save My Life)

Pop/Punk Band Artwork (For Graphic Style Ideas)

Band Examples

Below I have put some info on the type of bands that my magazine would cover. This will help me to aquire an overall style for the magazine...

MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK:
MCS are quite a new band to hit the mainstream pop/punk market. Even though they have been going for quite some time, it was only whe they called in the assistance of Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus to produce their most recent album, that major sucess came to them. Their graphic style is very common to the genre and doesn't really push the boundaries in the slightest. Their main theme now focuses around a cartoon dinasour and his little mishaps. Like many pop/pumk bands MCS tend to use very busy and loud images and a wide range of colours. Simply by opening their webpage you get hit with a wave of colours spanning the entire screen. This style isn't unusual in this genre of music but the 'In Yer Face' colours tend to grasp the intended audience.

(Web Page - www.motioncitysoundtrack.com)

A DAY TO REMEMBER:
Until their third album, A Day To Remember remained somewhat unheard of. Now however, they are one of the most Iconic bands to hit the Genre. The release of 'Homesick' in 2009 propelled the band to a new found fame. This was largly due to an old technique used by many previous pop/punk bands: covering a pop song, in this case 'Since U Been Gone' by Kelly Clarkson, and making it louder and faster. This captured the ears and minds of millions and since then the band can't put a foot wrong. Because of the fact they found fame later on in their career many fans found themselves going back and buying the old albums. Jeremy McKinnon (the lead vocalist) said "We didn't really make that much money from our music until Homesick. I mean, we made enough to be happy with but nothing dramatic. Not that we do this for the money but After Homesick though we made more from our old albums than we ever had in the past." Due to this, the band then re-released their first album with the title 'The Old Record'
In terms of graphic representation; ADTR until recently applied a high school yearbook feel to their artwork. Most of the backgrounds were royal colours (mainly red) with silver or gold writing over the top. With their most recent album 'What Seperates Me From You' and with the release of 'The Old Record' ADTR have again applied a comic book illusration syle to their artwork. No photography is used and their is always a wide range of colours in their images. Again the illustrations are very loud and their tends to be a lot going on in all of them.

(Web Page - www.adtr.com)

BLINK-182:
We've looked at the new & rising and the current kings, but where did it all start? With bands such as Green Day, NOFX, Millencolin and Less Than Jake. However these bands, in the early days, were either playing punk-rock or ska-punk; the first band to really transition punk-rock to pop/punk were Blink-182. Their songs were the first to be fast, loud, catchy and appeal to argueably one of the biggest audiences in history. They were pretty big soon after they started out, writing songs about everything teenage life involves. Chasing girls/guys, getting dumped, partying, getting drunk, skating, listening to music and even eating m & m's. They soon found themselves playing in the big leauges. However it was the introduction of drummer Travis Barker when things really started to pick up. Their sound was tighter and with the release of 'All The Small Things' they were propelled overnight to super stardom.
As pioneers of the genre, Blink-182 set the template for a lot of artwork to follow. All their ablums employ a comedic twist and this is always clearly visible. Again their albums are bright and include a mix of colours. However, something that has now been altered is that at the time bands such as Blink used photographs rather than illustration, but this didn't stop them from gaining exactly what they wanted. The attention of teens all over the globe.

Magazine Influences: Spin

In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard. It pointedly provided a national alternative to the Rolling Stone's more establishment-oriented style. Spin prominently placed newer artists such as R.E.M., Prince, Run-D.M.C., Eurythmics, Beastie Boys, and Talking Heads, on its covers and did lengthy features on established figures such as Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Miles Davis, Aerosmith, Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and John Lee Hooker.

Pop/Punk Ideology

Pop punk is generally described as a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. However more recently it had become much more of it's own genre due to the specific traits that are used by pretty much every Pop/Punk band; typically merging

pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and louder guitars & percussion.

In the mid-1990s, the California pop punk bands Green Day and The Offspring, who were later followed by Blink-182, would all achieve

worldwide commercial success. From the mid-1990s onwards, some bands associated with the genre have been described as "happy punk", "Skate-rock", "faux-punk", "mall punk", "pseudo-punk" or even "bubblegum punk". In the United States the genre underwent a resurgence in the early- to mid-1990s. Many pop punk bands retained a 'do it yourself' approach to their music, and a number of independent record labels emerged during that period; often run by band members who wanted to release their own music and that of their friends. The independent labels SST/Cruz Records, Lookout! Records, Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph Records were about to achieve mainstream success.

February 1994 was when Pop/Punk really started to gain commercial success. It was at this time that Green Day released Dookie. The first single, "Longview", instantly became a hit on MTV and modern rock stations across America and the United Kingdom. Following the success of their first single, Green Day released "Basket Case", which became an even bigger hit. Dookie sold over 10 million copies in the United States and over 20 million copies worldwide. They then went on to win a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. Soon after the release of Dookie, The Offspring released the album Smash on the independent label Epitaph

Records. The first single, "Come Out and Play", had a pop punk sound that differed from their earlier work, and it became popular first on radio and later on MTV. Other singles, "Self Esteem" and "Gotta Get Away", sold well. The album sold over 14 million copies worldwide, setting a record for most albums sold on an independent label.

In 1999, Blink-182 released Enema of the State,

which sold over 15 million copies worldwide. The album had three hit singles, including the #1 single "All the Small Things" and the #2 singles "What's My Age Again?" and "Adam's Song". It was from this time onwards that Pop/Punk became an extremely popular style. Teenagers across the globe started forming bands simply so they could be a part of the genre.

Between the late 90's and now Pop/Punk has faded in and out of popularity; many Pop/Punk fans followed the same bands they did when they were younger, therefore it has become march harder for new bands in this genre to get recognized.

I have chosen to base my magazine on Pop/Punk purely because it was the genre of music that I grew up listening to, blink-182 have been my favourite band since a very young age and the genre has almost seemed to mature with me. I am also in an unsigned Pop/Punk band called 'The Umbrella Academy', so as you can see my entire musical interest pretty much revolves around the genre.

Visual Representation: Loud, colourful, fun, busy & 'In your face'.

Audience Pleasures: Gigs, parties, skating, generally any times peoplefind fun! (It's a personal thing)

Rocksound: Mode of address

Me Vs Hero
Irrepressibly perky pop-punkers out to put the 'fun' back into 'fundamentally catchy'

You can't have failed to notice Me Vs Hero's ascent in the UK scene over the past few years. Through a combination of hard work, the use of a lot of bright colours and, of course, playing pop-punk that sounds like fun boiled down and turned into soundwaves they've deservedly won themselves boatloads of fans.

Sitting firmly within the raft of bands in the lineage of the likes of New Found Glory, Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy, MvH are on a mission to bring the smiles back to music. Want to moan about not being liked by a girl or boy? Fuck it, slam down some energy drink and run around in circles listening to choruses. Trust us, it helps.

Name three albums that made you want to be in a band...
"I was a huge Green Day fan back when I was younger, so listening to 'Dookie' was a huge influence on my life. Then Blink came along and I couldn't stop listening to their self-titled album over and over again. Fall Out Boy's 'Take This To Your Grave' had a huge impact on me as well, it was the first album I'd heard where I could listen to and enjoy every single song on it, not just a few hits, plus Patrick's voice made me scream like an 8-year-old girl."

When was the point you realised being in a band wasn't just something fun to do but a viable way to spend your life?
"Ever since I joined my first band (coincidentally with Mike, we used used to practise in his garage; we were terrible!) I had aspirations of making band life my career. Eight years on I'm still trying to get there, but we seem to have something good going with MvH so hopefully it pays off and the dream becomes a reality."



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As a genre of music Pop/Punk has mainly blossomed from 90's Skate Punk. Bands such as Green Day, blink-182 & NOFX were pioneers of the genre. Rocksound perfectly mirrors everything that these bands stood for; simple, fun, uncensored, yet meaningful teenage anthems. As the members of these bands matured so did their music and their fans, making way for a whole new generation of angst ridden teens.

You can clearly see from the above article that the magazine is very informal. "Want to moan about not being liked by a girl or boy? Fuck it, slam down some energy drink and run around in circles listening to choruses. Trust us, it helps." This basically sums up the genre and exactly what the magazine represents. All the articles in the magazine tend to relate to the band members more than other mags. Their personal lives and previous experiences are a key aspect of the magazine. All the information that is put out through the magazine is blunt and straight to the point and generally tends to be as carefree as the music itself.

Rocksound ticks all the boxes allowing itself to be called a modern Pop/Punk magazine. Even though this is a recent revolution for the mag (with it covering heavy rock until 2010) it has definately transformed itself perfectly.