Music magazine research :)

Research music magazines.

Introduction

A music magazine is a publication that entertains its audiences through images, news, interviews, articles, puzzles, lyrics and freebies. Most of them have niche audiences and focus on particular people and music genres, this allows them to form an intimate link with the audience as if assumes they know what the magazine is about.

I'm going to look at 'Q' magazine first - This magazines Target audience is the older generation and with that suggests that the magazine focuses on a generation more than a set genre of music. They represent the older generation due to the fact that other magazines ignore the older target audience and focus on teens. It is targeted at people with modern music tastes as well as the iconic music that was around fewer years ago. The general ideology suggests that it focus' on music of all aspects and generations and focuses on bands that are well known rather than newer bands as they know that the reader will want to read about them because they would be involved around their generation. New upcoming bands would fit in with the new generation of people.

MOJO targets a specific genre and that is rock. The magazine is for people that love rock but more classic rock.  The age range for this would be around late 30s and is aimed at both genders.  Mojo focus' on a genre and represent it by the way they style their magazine around it.  It shows about classic rock in the magazine and also people that are involved with it and what audience will know. Mojo targets its audience by classic rock which includes people such as boy Dylan and pink Floyd.  The ideology of Mojo is trying to show that classic rock has a value and that there is loads of artists out there and people that like it. It aims to have more articles in it that it does reviews of gigs and festivals like other magazines do like kerrang and NME. They make the magazine sophisticated and mature to suit the target audience and it focuses more on older and wiser bands and artists also.

Kerrang targets 16 - 24 year olds of both genders which are interested in punk and rock music. Mostly new and well known such as my chemical romance and bring me to the horizon. kerrang targets its audience by the images and also articles which have a range of gigs and shoots of gigs and shots. Kerrang concentrates on bands such as lost profits and green day. It keeps the audience interested by having articles and reviews about gigs, festivals and the bands involved. Also every week, there is one main big article about a new band and makes them the focus and they have a double page spread about them. Kerrangs ideology is to rebel against classic hard rock views. Kerrang focuses on rock, punk and metal and either new or well known.

Most music magazine

- Have a colour theme of 3/4 main colours, these colours are usually from a limited range as this makes the magazine stand out more to its audience.

- The masthead is at the top of the page and it's main job is to draw in the audiences attention as it suggests the genre and target audience, for example a children's pop magazine like "Smash Hits" has bubbly font which appeals to children.

- Buzz words are used in order to attract attention for example "plus" and "free", these words both get the reader to want to buy that magazine.

- Around 5 cover lines are used which also link/relate to the genre of music.
There is always a main image used which is of the main band or artist, when it is a band it's usually a long shot however when it is a solo artist it is usually a mid shot unless it is a solo artist who is looking at the camera in order to connect to the audience where their body language reflects this audience and the genre of music.

- Subsidiary images are used which may also get you to look at the magazine, especially when well known images are used. These images may be used as a back up if some of the others do not appeal to the audience.

- There is an organised layout which suggests a more mature audience as it is formal, this is then appropriate to the genre and the target audience an example of this is Q magazine as it looks more serious.

- A tag line is used which also is there to attract attention and give the magazine an edge for it's audience.

- There is also normally a plain background used as this makes the other features of the front cover stand out more and make it look more formal.

- Basic information is also featured on the front cover; which is needed for most magazines in general like a bar code, price and issue date. If the magazine is more expensive then this price tends to be smaller so that it isn't the first thing the audience see and get put off by. On the other hand if the magazine is cheap then the price is usually bigger and bolder in order to quickly draw in the audiences attention.