I have decided to produce a music magazine cover, double page spread and contents page. I want to base my magazine on the indie/rock/electro music that is vast spreading. I would like to research magazines such as Q, NME and Uncut and one different magazine to help me to create my professional look.
This music magazine (XXX) cover suggests a hip/hop or rap theme. The use of the rapper ‘Lil Wayne’ helps to suggest this genre. The representation of the image allows us to believe it is a hip/hop magazine. This is because of stereotypical views of rappers. For instance the tattoos of the rapper and the mean facial expression could represent aggression which links with the hard expression of hip/hop. The ideology of this music magazine links in with the stereotypical brash and violent portrayal of hip/hop artists. Society’s attitudes, have allowed this ideology to change over time, but it is different in different cultures. What the readers of XXX think helps to keep consuming as the rap culture obviously is wide spread and vast. The design of this magazine is really quite simple. The main image is strong enough to carry the page. The lack of text highlights the main text in blue and black on the main image. The layout is quite spread across the page, which draws you to the main image.
NME music magazine is an Indie magazine. It is quite different to the XXX magazine, as its design is packed and full of colour and information. The typeface is bold and doesn’t even have to be seen, it’s that noticeable. This catches the eye of buyers. The representation of the indie theme is ‘cool music’ ‘cool clothes’ and ‘cool behaviour’. This magazine highlights the positive representation of indie behaviour and highlights the cool side of the music. It represents teens, male and female, and of all ages. It highlights their behaviour and the stereotype of the music magazine allows for its huge audience because they can relate to the music and artists within the NME magazine. The Gossip are upcoming icons in the indie world and buy using Beth Ditto and her controversial ways, we can see that NME have obviously chosen them to be on the front cover to help with income and buyers from their audience. The ideology of this magazine is that it is ok for women to talk about sex and skins. The institution has changed over the years as has representation and ideology of women. The music mag is bright and the fonts used help to grab your attention. The page is packed but helps clearly to show the ideas and representation of the magazine. I have noticed repetition throughout, and keeping to conventions. Many of the indie/rock magazines use strong contrasting colors such as NME which uses black, red and white. This could symbolize a variety in the indie music or could represent the good and bad views/attitudes on the music- the drugs, sex, rock and roll and the music that is produced by the artists.
The contents pages of a music magazine are important because it tells you the information about what will be inside. It needs a lot of text, clearly portrayed and also it needs to be bright to attract viewers. These contents pages have small images to help make the page more interesting. Its representation and ideology is the same as the front cover and the theme should carry on through the magazine.
Target Audience + Research
The target audience for a music magazine is very important. The magazine has got to get in touch with its themes and issues to reach their intended audience. Things such as color, type fonts, images and the overall layout are very important. Also the music magazines theme/genre, whether its hip/hop or indie the magazine needs to portray that into the magazine, so then the indented audience can relate to the magazine. I developed questioners to help me with the layout and genre of my magazine. I asked questions that could relate to a potential target audience, as it is important to relate to the buyers. I asked a number of people about specific audiences such as ‘Indie, Rock, Grunge, Punk, Chav, and Grime’ and many more. I came to the conclusion that many people are in the selected ‘indie’ theme. This is because indie covers such a vast audience of controversial and upcoming new music covering rock, electro and many more types of music. By having a specific group I can individualize it and make it my own and still reach out to the selection specifically. I feel that my potential audience is vast but helps to represent a selection of music fusing together. This representation could link with my magazine as I could merge indie genres together still supplying for a vast audience. I think my intended target audience is teen ranged form 15-19+. It’s quite an awkward selection but the ideology and representation has changed in the past years and now music is vastly influential to this age range as the dominate ideology helps to create this. I think this age range would befit my magazine because when I asked my random questionnaire to all ages, many put themselves in the 15-16 categories I had created. I feel that creating the magazine to an age range of 19 or + helps because music is still a big influence to all teens. For my target audience I am hoping and intending not to leave any race or sex out of my magazine. I believe that this magazine can be for both sexes and all races, it’s purely about the audiences interests. By using an indie magazine it could fuse social groups together, which could make this interesting. In my questionnaire I asked my audience about colours, text and images. My results came out by highlighting the fact that they would like a bright look that would catch their eye and something new and interesting for the layout. I feel my intended target audience would try and capture a non-discriminating view on nay race. I think my target audience would involve any race as I feel like leaving out or discriminating another culture is not an option. Social class will not affect my magazine as my target audience is vast and for a lot of people and music can bring people together.
Sample of my Questionnaire, for a target audience and their needs.
1) What type of magazine would you usually buy?
-Rock
-Punk
-Rap/Hip hop
-Pop
-Heavy Metal
-Dance/Hardcore
-Electronic/Experimental
-Indie
2) How much would you pay for a magazine?
-£1 - £1.50
-£1.50 - £2
-£2 - £2.50
-£2.50 - £3
3) Would you prefer a bright couloured magazine or a dark magazine?
-Bright
-In-between
-Dark
4) What age are you?
-13-15
-15-16
-16-19
5) What do you expect on a front cover to a music magazine?
- 1 large image
- Little text and hardly any information
- Lots of little images
- Large text but hardly any information
- Few headlines
- 1 main storyline
- Catchy title
- Colour scheme
From my questionnaire I got vital information about my target audience and their needs. Such as, many of the randomly selected people would not buy a magazine over £3. Also they would prefer a bright themed and coloured magazine. And the overall theme would be an indie/rock and electro vibe. This helps me to create and later my magazine to fit the criteria from my potential target audience of 15-19+.
The target audience for a music magazine is very important. The magazine has got to get in touch with its themes and issues to reach their intended audience. Things such as color, type fonts, images and the overall layout are very important. Also the music magazines theme/genre, whether its hip/hop or indie the magazine needs to portray that into the magazine, so then the indented audience can relate to the magazine. I developed questioners to help me with the layout and genre of my magazine. I asked questions that could relate to a potential target audience, as it is important to relate to the buyers. I asked a number of people about specific audiences such as ‘Indie, Rock, Grunge, Punk, Chav, and Grime’ and many more. I came to the conclusion that many people are in the selected ‘indie’ theme. This is because indie covers such a vast audience of controversial and upcoming new music covering rock, electro and many more types of music. By having a specific group I can individualize it and make it my own and still reach out to the selection specifically. I feel that my potential audience is vast but helps to represent a selection of music fusing together. This representation could link with my magazine as I could merge indie genres together still supplying for a vast audience. I think my intended target audience is teen ranged form 15-19+. It’s quite an awkward selection but the ideology and representation has changed in the past years and now music is vastly influential to this age range as the dominate ideology helps to create this. I think this age range would befit my magazine because when I asked my random questionnaire to all ages, many put themselves in the 15-16 categories I had created. I feel that creating the magazine to an age range of 19 or + helps because music is still a big influence to all teens. For my target audience I am hoping and intending not to leave any race or sex out of my magazine. I believe that this magazine can be for both sexes and all races, it’s purely about the audiences interests. By using an indie magazine it could fuse social groups together, which could make this interesting. In my questionnaire I asked my audience about colours, text and images. My results came out by highlighting the fact that they would like a bright look that would catch their eye and something new and interesting for the layout. I feel my intended target audience would try and capture a non-discriminating view on nay race. I think my target audience would involve any race as I feel like leaving out or discriminating another culture is not an option. Social class will not affect my magazine as my target audience is vast and for a lot of people and music can bring people together.
Sample of my Questionnaire, for a target audience and their needs.
1) What type of magazine would you usually buy?
-Rock
-Punk
-Rap/Hip hop
-Pop
-Heavy Metal
-Dance/Hardcore
-Electronic/Experimental
-Indie
2) How much would you pay for a magazine?
-£1 - £1.50
-£1.50 - £2
-£2 - £2.50
-£2.50 - £3
3) Would you prefer a bright couloured magazine or a dark magazine?
-Bright
-In-between
-Dark
4) What age are you?
-13-15
-15-16
-16-19
5) What do you expect on a front cover to a music magazine?
- 1 large image
- Little text and hardly any information
- Lots of little images
- Large text but hardly any information
- Few headlines
- 1 main storyline
- Catchy title
- Colour scheme
From my questionnaire I got vital information about my target audience and their needs. Such as, many of the randomly selected people would not buy a magazine over £3. Also they would prefer a bright themed and coloured magazine. And the overall theme would be an indie/rock and electro vibe. This helps me to create and later my magazine to fit the criteria from my potential target audience of 15-19+.
Internet Research
I have gone on some websites that can help me look at the design of a magazine then link it to my target audience. These websites have helped me to see the design and layout of a magazine and how it became big. It shows the representation and ideology of a magazine at a present point in time.
http://www.magforum.com/glossies/music_magazines.htm
This website
showed me the different types of music, their design/colour/theme/text ECT. For example I looked at a music magazine called Barbed Wire. It followed punk-inspired music artists from 1978-1980. The copies were sold in record shops and schools and colleges which help to represent its target audience of teenagers.
It was 30p for 20 pages and as you can see it still followed the ‘usual look’ of a magazine with a title and 1 main image. Also it helps to represent the genre by the image and the brightness.
This website helped me to see the varied magazines that exited, and you can see how they were portrayed in that time when dominant ideologies were shown.
I also looked a publishing companies and their link with the music magazines they produce.
http://www.ipcmedia.com/brands/
This website shows the brand and the different magazines they produce over a wide spectrum.
IPC MEDIA produce NME magazine, Guitar and Bass magazine and Uncut magazine. IPC MEDIA is a main company involved in the music magazine area. Here is some information I discovered about what IPC MEDIA does:
IPC Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone. (Our 80 magazines)
Our digital properties include NME.com, the third largest commercial music website in the UK and housetohome.co.uk, the UK's first homes portal. IPC's brands are very simply at the heart of the UK's cultural life IPC is owned by Time Inc., the publishing division of Time Warner Inc. Our business is split into five distinct publishing divisions: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire, IPC Ignite, IPC Southbank and IPC TX. Alongside these is Market force, the UK's leading magazine distribution business. This shows that big media companies have some control over the magazines they produce and websites they own nation wide.
By looking at these internet resources I have developed more information about target audiences and the actual media companies involved in the magazines. I think they are beneficial and to me and to audiences because the publishing companies know what is ‘in’ at this time and they know the dominant ideas/genres that most of the population are interested in and this is listed in the magazines they chose to publish.
I have gone on some websites that can help me look at the design of a magazine then link it to my target audience. These websites have helped me to see the design and layout of a magazine and how it became big. It shows the representation and ideology of a magazine at a present point in time.
http://www.magforum.com/glossies/music_magazines.htm
This website
showed me the different types of music, their design/colour/theme/text ECT. For example I looked at a music magazine called Barbed Wire. It followed punk-inspired music artists from 1978-1980. The copies were sold in record shops and schools and colleges which help to represent its target audience of teenagers.It was 30p for 20 pages and as you can see it still followed the ‘usual look’ of a magazine with a title and 1 main image. Also it helps to represent the genre by the image and the brightness.
This website helped me to see the varied magazines that exited, and you can see how they were portrayed in that time when dominant ideologies were shown.
I also looked a publishing companies and their link with the music magazines they produce.
http://www.ipcmedia.com/brands/
This website shows the brand and the different magazines they produce over a wide spectrum.
IPC MEDIA produce NME magazine, Guitar and Bass magazine and Uncut magazine. IPC MEDIA is a main company involved in the music magazine area. Here is some information I discovered about what IPC MEDIA does:
IPC Media is a leading UK consumer magazine publisher. IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone. (Our 80 magazines)
Our digital properties include NME.com, the third largest commercial music website in the UK and housetohome.co.uk, the UK's first homes portal. IPC's brands are very simply at the heart of the UK's cultural life IPC is owned by Time Inc., the publishing division of Time Warner Inc. Our business is split into five distinct publishing divisions: IPC Connect, IPC Inspire, IPC Ignite, IPC Southbank and IPC TX. Alongside these is Market force, the UK's leading magazine distribution business. This shows that big media companies have some control over the magazines they produce and websites they own nation wide.
By looking at these internet resources I have developed more information about target audiences and the actual media companies involved in the magazines. I think they are beneficial and to me and to audiences because the publishing companies know what is ‘in’ at this time and they know the dominant ideas/genres that most of the population are interested in and this is listed in the magazines they chose to publish.
My Magazine
I now know that I want my magazine to defiantly feel like an indie magazine. So I am linking in rock and electro to my magazine to add in and bring in different areas of my target audience.
I have started to list some main points that magazines regularly do.
The title should be short, snappy and catchy. It should be bright and eye-catching and the texts should have key features that would make someone interested in the subject.
The images should represent you genre and should be eye-catching and effective in portraying the ideas and maybe stereotypes within the genre.
I started to come up with some magazine title ideas.
-SWITCH ME:
I thought this was quite effective as magazine name. It strikes you quite hard and helps to represent music well. I feel it would be bright and energetic which is what I am looking for. It has an edge to it that the rest of the magazine would have to follow. I like this idea but I would prefer something more sharp and snappy to help represent the genre in the magazine.
-PUMP:
I thought this was good; it gives some connotations such as the magazine would ‘pump more music around’ and that the music being portrayed in the magazine would be pumped fresh like new and upcoming music. I really like this for a title as it portrays good ideas. I think though the magazine would have to go for a blue/black theme which I don’t think works that well, because I need bright colours.
-FTM: (Face the Music)
I really like this title for a magazine. This is because it is short and it relates to magazines such as NME and Q because it uses single letter to make the connection with music. I really like this idea because I feel something short will benefit the magazine.
Overall I am going to chose FTM for my magazine name. I feel a lot of fonts would look good in this format and because it is a short abbreviation it could be placed anywhere on the magazine that looks effective.
I tried out various fonts with the FTM name
I used http://www.dafont.com/ to help get a different variety of fonts.
I used these fonts:
-Stencil fix
-Urban tool
- Twist round
-DX
-Tom’s written handwriting
And many more to help create the right look.
I now know that I want my magazine to defiantly feel like an indie magazine. So I am linking in rock and electro to my magazine to add in and bring in different areas of my target audience.
I have started to list some main points that magazines regularly do.
The title should be short, snappy and catchy. It should be bright and eye-catching and the texts should have key features that would make someone interested in the subject.
The images should represent you genre and should be eye-catching and effective in portraying the ideas and maybe stereotypes within the genre.
I started to come up with some magazine title ideas.
-SWITCH ME:
I thought this was quite effective as magazine name. It strikes you quite hard and helps to represent music well. I feel it would be bright and energetic which is what I am looking for. It has an edge to it that the rest of the magazine would have to follow. I like this idea but I would prefer something more sharp and snappy to help represent the genre in the magazine.
-PUMP:
I thought this was good; it gives some connotations such as the magazine would ‘pump more music around’ and that the music being portrayed in the magazine would be pumped fresh like new and upcoming music. I really like this for a title as it portrays good ideas. I think though the magazine would have to go for a blue/black theme which I don’t think works that well, because I need bright colours.
-FTM: (Face the Music)
I really like this title for a magazine. This is because it is short and it relates to magazines such as NME and Q because it uses single letter to make the connection with music. I really like this idea because I feel something short will benefit the magazine.
Overall I am going to chose FTM for my magazine name. I feel a lot of fonts would look good in this format and because it is a short abbreviation it could be placed anywhere on the magazine that looks effective.
I tried out various fonts with the FTM name
I used http://www.dafont.com/ to help get a different variety of fonts.
I used these fonts:
-Stencil fix
-Urban tool
- Twist round
-DX
-Tom’s written handwriting
And many more to help create the right look.
