Week 9

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product is a music magazine. The genre of my music magazine is bhangra, therefore it needs to meet the needs of a bhangra music magazine. Also I've decided to create my magazine modernised with a western twist which will allow me to appeal more to my target audience. My music magazine will challenge forms and conventions of real media products as bhangra is originated from asia, therefore I will include asian people and asian clothing and music types within the magazine. Below I will show what I've found out.

What is Bhangra? how it originated?
Bhangra originated from the punjabi culture within india in the late 1960's. 1st and 2nd generation immigrants from the punjab region of pakistan and india developed Bhangra in britain in the 1980's, linking westernised musical styles and the punjab region songs. Along with the bhangra music there is also a bhangra dance, the earliest Bhangra dance was developed as a folk dance conducted by punjabis to celebrate the harvest. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDPQZOcAQqs  

This is a printscreen of the link of the video I have placed from youtube.

This is a typical bhangra track and it is by PBN (Punjabi By Nature) and Miss pooja. This has helped me with the type of clothing which is worn within the bhangra/asian music industry and the colours bhangra is associated with. for example, Bhangra costumes are very colourful or decorated and videos and music tend to be upbeat, and attentive. It helped me understand what type of music it is. 

 

Bhangra Clothing

http://www.baisakhifestival.com/baisakhi-dress.html 
This is a Printscreen of the page I have linked, this website helped me understand more about Bhangra clothing for both men and women.

It is traditional within bhangra dances, the clothing worn by both male and female is fun packed with lots of colour. Bhangra clothing tends to be very colourful and attractive looking. below I will explain further the male and female dress code.  

Lehenga Choli

 


Saree

Women

Salwar Kameez

Within the traditional Bhangra dances women have a certain dress code. Either Salwar kameez or a lahenga choli is worn. Also Saree's are worn as it is also a traditional asian garment. Within Bhangra, I've discovered women do this kind of Gidda dance. For this dance, and other bhangra dances, women dress and wear certain things. 


Parts of the female Bhangra Dress includes the Dupatta (chunni or scarf), the kameez (shirt) and the salwaar (baggy pants). Also lets not forget the jewellery. 



Example of mens Bhangra garment -
Kurta & Lungi





Men  



Pajama

Men also have a certain dress code within the Bhangra dances. For men, the traditional garments worn are kurta (similar to shirt) and lungi (loose lioncloth tied around waist), or pajama (shirt and loose pants). The headpiece worn is called the Turla/torla, or a pag (turban). A jugi (waistcoat) is also worn with the bhangra outfits.   
Men also wear jewellery with their Bhangra costumes.   




Dhol - Drums

 

Bhangra Instruments

The Drums

The drums are very popular within bhangra. The drums are referred to as the "Dhol". The Dhol is held horizontally and then both heads (of the drum) are played with beaters. Bhangra is a type of folk dance from punjab, and the "dhol" is used within the music and provides percussion for the Bhangra dances.



Iktar

 

Chimta

 


Tumbi



Within bhangra and punjabs folk music various instruments are used. To accompany the Dhol and help the music sound more up beat and live, other instruments are used as well. Within Bhangra, there is more popular instruments such as the "iktar" (which means one string), the  "Tumbi" and the "chimta". 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWCxDKOEAIk 

The Printscreen on the right is showing the youtube video of the link above. This is a modernised Bhangra track by H Dhami. This video is quite different to other traditional bhangra music video's as the clothing is more westernised. As i want to target a modern and westernised bhangra audience, my audience will be similar to the audience of H Dhami's music. It is westernised, but it still has its bhangra twist to it. This video helped me decide that I should include traditional bhangra elements but I can give it a westernised twist to it as well by adding certain elements that may help influence my audience. Music is very important within this culture and it is used very often.   



2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product is aimed at south asian people in particular, but it will be more westernised and  therefore my audience will be British Asians or citizens of the european union. 

The social groups that will be represented within my media product will be teenagers, kids, adults, Punjabi people, indian people, pakistani people, and south asian people on the whole, whom are interested in bhangra music with a western twist, for example the recent bhangra artists like PBN (Punjabi By Nature), Alyssia, H dhami, Richi Rich & Apache Indian.  

My media product represents these particular social groups as they are all of south asian heritage or may have an interest within the culture or music. As my magazine is aimed at westernised south asians, whom tend to listen to or may have huge interests in RnB, PoP and other subgenres, my bhangra magazine can cater to those interests with its bhangra twist. I may involve other famous westernised artists within my magazine that are creating albums with a bhangra twist or if they are collaborating music with bhangra artists. I will reach out to my target audience using my magazines and conventions I include within my magazine. I will include conventions like the colours - as they would be bright and colourful similar to south asian tradition as clothing tends to be really bright. I may use colours like oranges, reds, Yellows, Blues, Purples and Greens. Also the clothing colours would be bright too. My magazine would relate to my target audience as I may use south asian clothing within my bhangra magazine, also the audience can relate to the ethnicity of the artists in my magazine. The music type is bhangra and people who listen to that music genre will be generally interested also.    

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

As my media product is a music magazine and it is similar to many other magazines, I believe that magazine distributers like Bauer Consumer Media might be interested in distributing it. 

Bauer Consumer Media

Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, and is Europes largest privately owned publishing group. It is a worldwibe media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries both printed and online. Bauer Media is a multi-Platform UK-based media group consisting of many companies colleged around 2 main division - Magazines & Radio. It is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers & listeners. They connect to their audiences with excellent content through their broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and wherever and however wanted. Bauer magazine spans over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests. As Bauer media publish for a diverse range of interests, this institution will be the perfect match to publish my media product.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

South Asia

As I am creating a Bhangra music magazine, my audience will be south asians. On the left I have included the region of south asia, and these are my broad ethnic audience, and what kind of people will be targetted for my bhangra music magazine. On the whole, my magazine will be distribute within the UK and the region of europe. Therefore my audience may be citizens of the european union, or be british. 

The age range of my music magazine will be from 15-35. Also my target audience will be both males and females as within the asian regions, music is very important, and men are interested as much as women therefore i decided to broaden my target audience to men aswell as women. 
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