Article Design

This is the design process for the article of my magazine.

Here is the first draft of my article:

               It takes some special kind of skill to write, record and    produce an album, then go ahead to be nominated for 2 BRIT awards, winning one, all in the same year. Luckily for him (and us), Richard Shard has that skill. “Haha, yeah it has been a crazy year... and a busy one too!” When asked about writing his music, he explains: “Most people can think of lyrics almost instantly, they write music to express emotions or feelings they have been experiencing within their life. With me, it was the opposite. I sat down and thought: ‘What am I going to write about? I literally have no emotions.’ It was then when I became aware of just how much I wanted to express in the form of song, a realisation I had never encountered before. It’s a powerful thing, music.”

His crticially acclaimed debut album ‘Humble Beginnings’ has reached number #1 in both the UK and the US simultaneously. An impressive feat definitely, but what does Richard blame for his success? “I guess I’m just a genuine guy, I don’t know. I don’t claim to be big or clever or the ‘next Michael Jackson or anything, I tell it like I want to in my music and I think people appreciate that. I wouldn’t consider myself a musician. I mean... I like music - maybe just a bit more than it likes me. It brings out the worst in me sometimes.” Apparently, Shard was planning to name his album ‘Shed’ as that’s where the majority of it was written. “The shed in my garden was my home for about 2 months where I just sat, cramped, writing music with nothing more than a guitar. It felt real - I can’t imagine how few still write songs in that sort of homely, ‘real’ setting. I decided against that name. No-one wants an album called ‘Shed’ in their collection do they? Haha.”

                Richard Shard is also a great believer that anyone can pick up a guitar and become a musician. “I’m not saying you can write a smash hit in one go, but I’m saying that emotion and meaning are the only two ingredients you need to perform. That will get you noticed by a few people at least - people who appreciate good music. From this, it’s likely you will be able to expand your career further. Many artists slip under the radar of the ‘UK Top 40’ for their entire lives, and they’re fine with that. I guess I’m just one of the lucky ones who managed to appear on the radar.”

‘What advice would you give to new artists who want to make it big?’ Soundcheck asked. “Don’t aspire to be big. Aspire to write good music and work hard - the rest will follow for sure. I was lucky enough to get inspiration when writing my album. Others may not be so lucky. If so, don’t say: ‘Meh, it will do’ and whack it on your album. Just wait for the right time and the creative spark will come to you.”

Referring to the state of the charts at the present moment, Richard responded: “I’m not angry or upset about the state of the charts and mainstream music in general, it’s just a sign of the times, right? Personally, I hate The Beatles, but if they were played virtually 24/7 on the radio, I’d be likely to take an interest in it and grow to like it. That’s why I try and stay away from radio as much as possible. I don’t like many of the artists around at the moment - and I’m sure many don’t like me. That’s fine by me. Everyone has opinions.”

In my opinion, this first draft follows the conventions of a typical magazine article. It is quite short however, which is not typically seen within magazine articles. Because of this, this article would not be seen as a professionally quality article, and I should focus on padding out the contents of the article to fit within the three-columned layout like I plan to.

This is the second draft of my article:

It takes some special kind of skill to write, record and    produce an album, then go ahead to be nominated for 2 BRIT awards, winning one, all in the same year. Luckily for him (and us), Richard Shard has that skill. “Haha, yeah it has been a crazy year... and a busy one too!” When asked about writing his music, he explains: “Most people can think of lyrics almost instantly, they write music to express emotions or feelings they have been experiencing within their life. With me, it was the opposite. I sat down and thought: ‘What am I going to write about? I literally have no emotions.’ It was then when I became aware of just how much I wanted to express in the form of song, a realisation I had never encountered before. It’s a powerful thing, music.”

His crticially acclaimed debut album ‘Humble Beginnings’ has reached number #1 in both the UK and the US simultaneously. An impressive feat definitely, but what does Richard attribute for his success? “I guess I’m just a genuine guy, I don’t know. I don’t claim to be big or clever or the ‘next Michael Jackson or anything, I tell it like I want to in my music and I think people appreciate that. I wouldn’t consider myself a musician. I mean... I like music - maybe just a bit more than it likes me. It brings out the worst in me sometimes.” Apparently, Shard was planning to name his album ‘Shed’ as that’s where the majority of it was written. “The shed in my garden was my home for about 2 months where I just sat, cramped, writing music with nothing more than a guitar. It felt  real - I can’t imagine how few still write songs in that sort of homely, ‘real’ setting. I decided against that name. No-one wants an album called ‘Shed’ in their collection do they? Haha.” 

Richard Shard is also a great believer that anyone can pick up a guitar and become a musician. “I’m not saying you can write a smash hit in one go, but I’m saying that emotion and meaning are the only two ingredients you need to perform. That will get you noticed by a few people at least - people who appreciate good music. From this, it’s likely you will be able to expand your career further. Many artists slip under the radar of the ‘UK Top 40’ for their entire lives, and they’re fine with that. I guess I’m just one of the lucky ones who managed to appear on the radar”. ‘What advice would you give to new artists who want to make it big?’ Soundcheck asked. “Don’t aspire to be big. Aspire to write good music and work hard - the rest will follow for sure. I was lucky enough to get inspiration when writing my album. Others may not be so lucky. If so, don’t say: ‘Meh, it will do’ and whack it on your album. Just wait for the right time and the creative spark will come to you.” 

Referring to the state of the charts at the present moment, Richard responded: “I’m not angry or upset about the state of the charts and mainstream music in general, it’s just a sign of the times, right? Personally, I hate The Beatles, but if they were played virtually 24/7 on the radio, I’d be likely to take an interest in it and grow to like it. That’s why I try and stay away from radio as much as possible. I don’t like many of the artists around at the moment - and I’m sure many don’t like me. That’s fine by me. Everyone has opinions.” He was rather surprised at some of his album reviews. “Never before have I seen so many stars, haha. It’s really quite humbling to see so many positive reactions to something that I’ve worked so hard on. I tend to find reviewers are a bit harsh towards albums nowadays. People are afraid to post a full, 5 star review. This shouldn’t be the case. If they love an album, they should put that. They shouldn’t knock it’s score down simply to show that they aren’t too generous. 

So, is Richard planning to tour anytime soon? “Touring is definitely something I want to go ahead and do. Travelling to loads of different locations in a short space of time may seem like hell to some, but to me, it just seems like more chances to get my music out there and heard by as many people as possible. Plus it’ll be nice to see other places of the UK other than the North East. America? Definitely! Touring the States after such a warm welcome sounds great. There’s nothing worse than playing to a crowd who don’t know any of your songs." I don’t think we should be seeing much of that!

This is the second draft of my article. I believe that this version of the article is much better than the previous. It is much longer than the first version, which instantly improves its appearance within the magazine. This way, it bears a closer resemblance to that of a traditional magazine in the sense that it is of a significantly large length. The article also goes into great detail regarding the singer and information about him. The article uses informal lexis to put forward an idea about the personality of the singer, portraying him as casual and relaxed, fitting in with the interview style which is present in most music magazines.

I think the second article improves on the first, therefore this will be the version which I use for my double-page spread article.