Research

Music Magazine Timeline:

For this task, I had to research music magazines of all genres and present my findings using the online program 'Prezi'. The information that I have included for each magazine, are things like when it was first published, who publishes it, the magazines genre and also its target audience. I also talk about elements that I will need to consider from looking at these magazines, in order to make mine to a good professional standard.

 

Moodboards:

In this task I had to choose four different music genres (bearing in mind I will use one of them for my own magazine) and create a moodboard for each one. These moodboards show a collection of different magazine covers and the purpose of this, is to give me a better understanding of some of the typical conventions used by each of the genres.

 

Jazz:

 

The moodboard above shows a collection of various Jazz magazine front covers. Most of the magazines use similar font colours such as red, blue and white, and all of them use men as the main images. This suggests the genre is not only aimed at men, but dominated by them (the musicians). Also, a large number of the magazines mastheads in my moodboard are located in the top-middle of the page. This allows them to be seen clearly and stand out due to the use of colours. Some of the mastheads also contain the word 'Jazz' which immediately indicates to anyone buying the magazine, it's genre.

 



Pop:

This is a Pop genre moodboard consisting of many well known Pop magazines such as 'We Love Pop', 'Top of the Pops' and 'Classic Pop'. Pop music magazines have a very broad audience but it's main audience (primary), is young girls who are aged around 10-16 years old. Pop magazines always include well known, established pop stars as their main image on the front of their magazine. By including these images, it attracts people to buy the magazine because they will want to read about these stars and get the latest news in the pop industry.

R&B:

The moodboard above consists of music magazine covers from the 'R&B' genre. As you can see, these magazines often use colours such as blue, red and yellow which are very light in comparison to those that can be found in Rock magazines. This suggests that these magazines are inviting and that you don't have to be a huge R&B expert to enjoy reading them (although that may help!). However, I would also say that the colour red says a lot about the artists, suggesting that they are very serious about what they do, but are also quite rebellious. The target audience for R&B in my opinion would be people aged around 16+ due to some of the themes of the songs.

 

 

Rock:

My final moodboard shows 'Rock' music magazine covers. The Rock genre tends to be stereotyped as very dark, and most, if not all of the Rock magazines above emphasise this. The magazines above use lots of dark colours and even most of the artists used as the main pictures have dark hair/clothing. The majority of Rock magazines have male artists/bands as their cover image instead of women, suggesting that the genre is dominated by men. The Rock genre has a very big audience with it mainly consisting of people aged 16+, and people who have been brought up with Rock or people who simply enjoy listening to it in general.

 

Moodboard Podcast:

I made a Podcast to summarise what I found from the four moodboards that I created for part of my research on music magazines. During the podcast, I talk about some of the representations and themes that are presented within the genres I chose and also compared how each of them differ. For example, pop uses very bright colours compared to rock which uses much darker ones. Now that I have looked at these four genres in some depth, I have decided I will create a rock magazine for my final product because I feel it is the genre that I know most about, and the genre which interests me the most.

 

 

Extensive textual analysis of two music magazines:

For this task I wrote two essay's analysing two different music magazines front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. In the essay's, I talk about both magazines design, layout, colours used, along with some of the themes and representations that are presented. After analysing the magazines I wrote a comparison between the two, comparing how they are both similar and different. The magazines which I decided to write about were 'Q' (a rock magazine) and 'We Love Pop' (a pop magazine).

To view my essay of 'We Love Pop' magazine: PLEASE CLICK HERE

Go Animate:

The purpose of creating my 'Go Animate' was to show what I can use in my own magazine from reviewing some of the techniques that the magazine 'Q' uses in my essay. In this short animation, I present a brief summary of what I learnt when analysing the front cover, contents and double page spread of the rock magazine 'Q'. For example, I am now aware of what pull quotes are used for (to maintain the readers interest) and where they are located within magazines (in the middle of an article).

AS Media GoAnimate by AaronHunter96

 

Survey:

I created a survey using 'Survey Monkey' and shared it via the social networking site 'Twitter'. The purpose of this, was to gather different people's opinions on the different aspects of music magazines. I am now able to look at the results of the survey, and use them as a guide when I come to making my own magazine. For example, I will price my magazine around the same price which was most voted for in my survey.

 

 

 



 

Survey Results:

Below, are the results of my survey. In total, I collected 11 responses which was less than what I had hoped for, but enough for me to analyse and think about how I am going to create my magazine based on the responses given. Hopefully by analysing the results I will have enough information on people's requirements in music magazines, along with the research I have already done.

 

Question 1 results:

 



 

1) Question 1 suggests that males are more likely to read music magazines as opposed to women. As I am going to do a rock magazine, I would not say there is a lot that I could do to make more women read it. In my opinion, you either hate rock, or you love it. Having said that, women may be attracted to the magazine if the artists within it wear similar clothing to them (e.g. dark trousers/shirts) and so I will try to make the people in my pictures wear appropriate clothing to fit the genre.

 

 

Question 2 results:

 

2) The most popular music genre in my survey was rock, which was what I intended to make my magazine anyway. Because a lot of people enjoy rock magazines, I will have to make sure I include lots of conventions that are typical within them. For example, I will need to include lots of informal language as it connotes the artists in the genre (and perhaps the audience') care free and hostile attitude.

 

Question 3 results:

 

3) In question 3 most people selected 'sometimes' for the question "how often do you read music magazines". Based on this, I would release my music magazines once a month because people do not always read them. This would also allow the target audience of rock magazines (late teenagers and adults) to be able to afford it, because they will not have to constantly dip into their money every week.

 

Question 4 results:

 

4) For question 4 the majority voted for rock as their favourite genre of magazine to read. This means that when I come to making my magazine, I will have to think about following some of the conventions of rock magazines whilst also trying to make mine different from existing ones. I believe I can do this in a number of ways. For example, I could stick to the colours that are heavily associated with the genre (red, black, yellow etc.) but have a different layout to existing magazines on the cover, contents and double page spread pages, giving the target audience a new and fresh experience.

 

Question 5 results:

 

5) The most selected answer for question 5 was £2.50 - £3.00. This means that I will price my magazine around these prices because they are affordable, but enough for the people buying them to think that they are not wasting their money buying a piece of rubbish. Again, as my target audience is predominantly old teenagers/young adults some may be able to afford the magazine, and others wont. Although this is a slight negative, I would say it is the same with most magazines, no matter the genre.

 

Question 6 results:

 



 6) Finally, question 6 asked people what their favourite magazine is. The majority was the magazine 'Kerrang!' and so I will look at the magazine and hopefully gain ideas from doing so. Because 'Kerrang!' was most voted for, this is helpful for me because I am aiming to make a rock magazine. I will start to analyse some conventions that 'Kerrang!' uses and try to incorporate them into my own magazine, while keeping it unique.

 

Overall, from looking at my survey results I now know what I need to consider when creating my own magazine. Questions 4 and 5 were the most useful in my opinion, because I now know roughly how much I will price my magazine, and also that I need to create a unique magazine that is not similar to others in the same genre (rock). However, the other answers were also useful and all give me things to consider when developing ideas for my final product.