21. Target Audience

20. Ideas for my magazine

After considering different styles for my magazine, and realising that I need a design style that appeals to a wide market, I have decided upon a vintage style. This will include design features such as polaroid images in either black and white or sepia colours, with a vintage feel to it. This will widen my target audience, as people may feel a sense of nostalgia and familiarity when looking at the 'old-fashioned' images, and if the content is less narrowcast this should also help to reduce the 'niche' stereotype.

With this idea in mind, I searched for images within my genre which would follow this - 

All of these images present very similar ideas; a relaxed, contented style which suggests that past times were better than modern times. 

After considering this angle for my music magazine, I decided to analyse various album covers within the genre of Indie, which would allow me to gain an insight into what to include within the magazine, as well as potentially gather ideas for my own photos which will be featured on the cover as well as in the articles inside. 

 Each of these album covers conform to the general stereotypes of what would be expected of Indie music and artists; they include cool, calm colours (mostly brown, yellow and black) which also have a natural feel, obscure images which relate to the 'individuality' of the artists and fans, and a relaxed art style which presents the idea of 'doodling', as people do when they are relaxed.

Personally, my favourite of these album covers is 'The Shins' as the image suggests another world - this may connote that their music can be an escape form the stresses of this world, into a more uplifting a cheery place.

19. Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a good example of primary research, which will allow me to gain an insight into the general public's impression of the chosen genre....

1. Do you like Indie music?

Yes

Yes

No

Yes 

2. What features would you like to find in a music magazine?

New artists

Songs of the week

Interviews

Photoshoots

Reviews

How to copy fashion styles

Tours

Concerts

Life stories

3. Do you prefer it if a magazine follows a colour scheme?

Changes throughout

Stays similar

Same layout & colour scheme every issue

Similar throughout

4. What do you think of Indie Rock fans?

Stereotypes - a lot of 'individuals' who are actually very similar

Very unique

Chilled out

Individual

5. What would you expect to find on the front cover of a magazine?

Biggest feature

Large main image

Price

Small images of what's inside

Headlines

Main artist

Clear price

Dressed in bold colours

Bold fonts

Recent artists

Calm colours

6. Who is your favourite music artist in general?

You Me at Six

The Kooks

Coldplay

David Guetta

After conducting this questionnaire is has become obvious that the genre of Indie Rock is so wide that it allows for a great deal of creativity. I hope to create a magazine style which would appeal to music fans of any genre, as well as specifically Indie Rock, so as to widen the market for the genre. 

18. Niche Magazines

Metal Forces Magazine


Some magazines have a very niche audience, because their subjects are particularly specific. For example 'Metal Forces' magazine is of a heavy metal genre, which is the sub-genre of rock. Genres can be split into sub-genres, and each sub genre (or sub-sub genre, sub-sub-sub genre etc) becomes more and more directed to a niche market.


Metal Forces is a British publication which emerged in 1983, and combined the two genres of metal and rock music. It was famous for its inclusion of unsigned bands, as it heightened there reputation and helped many of them to secure record deals. A vinyl album was also created, called 'Demolition - Scream Your Brains Out' which was based upon the magazine's columns, and was released in 1988. The magazine featured many interviews with alternative rock acts, for example 'Nivarna'. In 1991, 'Metal Forces' created another publication for the sub-genre Thrash Metal, which was called 'Metal Forces'. 









The website for Metal Force looks a lot more modern than the magazine, however it still focusses upon bands which were famous in the 80s or 90s. This gives a Retro feel, but also validates the idea that the target audience is extremely niche and established, therefore the content must be directed specifically towards this loyal fan base. 

Magazine readership and sales are decreasing at a fast rate for various reasons, the most significant being the rise in internet circulation (therefore less hard copies being sold), and the decline in subscriptions. Examples of niche magazines which this is affecting include 'The Caravan Club Magazine' which has decreased by 2.5%, 'Soaplife' which is down by 17.9% and Practical Photography which has decreased by 21%. 

Other magazine sales have increased recently; these seem to be the more broadcast style magazines, for example 'Tesco Real Food' has increased by 4.4%, 'Cbeebies' is up by 22% and 'Woman's Way' by 1.3%. This may be due to the more established and wider fan base. 

17. Tropes

Trope maker - the initial inspiration for the trope

Inverted trope - a trope reversed

Subverted trope - a trope that deliberately turns the trope on its head, or attacks it

For Example

Many artists sing about the DJ playing music louder, and the trope maker for this may have been Sam Cooke in the song 'Having a Party'. Other artists have then developed this, such as Rihanna with the song 'Pon de Replay' in which she says 'Hey Mr. DJ, won't you turn the music up', and another of her songs which has the lyrics 'please don't stop the music'. Other examples are Madonna in the song 'Music' where she sings 'Hey, Mr. DJ, put a record on, I wanna dance with my baby'.

Inverted tropes for this include 'Evacuate the dance floor' by Cascada, and 'Don't play that song again' by Nicki French, whereas subverted versions are within the song 'Panic' by The Smiths where they say 'hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ'.

16. Bricolage

Bricolage

This is finding new uses for musical devices, for example making instruments from general objects (like comb and wax paper for humming through), or the merging together of genres which would usually not work, but in the correct context they do. An example of this is when the typically heavy metal band Aerosmith recorded the pop/r&b song 'Walk This Way' in 1975. This was a huge success and has since been covered by bands such as Girls Aloud and Sugarbabes.

15. NME Magazine Deconstruction

Title

• Title of the magazine - NME

• Why is it called that? - 'New Musical Express'; suggests it is fresh and exclusive

Readership

• Target Audience - Older teenagers and adults up to the age of about 30

• How do you know this? - These groups of people are more likely to have disposable income and free time to attend music festivals and buy/download music. All of the artists featured are of a similar age within this bracket, and the magazine includes articles such as interviews and adverts for festivals, all which would appeal to these demographics

• How does the reader 'interact' with the magazine? - There seems to be a lack of interaction between the magazine and the audience; there are very few personal pronouns such as 'you' (the only time these are used is when they are looking for participation in articles, such as asking interview questions). This may be a result of the 'cool' feel to the magazine; they do not want to be over pushy, as the music style is laid back, calm and collected, and this is reflected in the magazine. 

The Cover

• Images - Noel Fielding in odd clothing, facial expression and makeup, suggests alternative ideas. Small image of an artist who'd story is developed inside. 
• What else appears on the cover? -

-Masthead (NME)
- Cover lines ('Jack's Back Solo album revealed')
-Banner ('Noel Fielding in his weirdest interview yet') - this banner is not conventional as it does not stretch across the entire page, and it includes a 'handwriting' font as an alternative design
- Pug (small headshot of 'Jack')
- Sell line ('Kasabian. Foo Fighters. Florence. Arctic Monkeys etc)
- Date Line, price, website and barcode
- Boosts - blocked to the left hand side and detail specific articles within the magazine ('The Black Keys prepare to invade UK')

• Reasons for particular items - Noel Fielding is famous for being a comedian, therefore the use of him in a music magazine creates intertextuality as he is now appearing as a rock star rather than a comedian. This allows the reader to further develop their knowledge about him and 'see another side of him', while also widening the genre of indie rock, as it is now diversifying into comedy. The font is conventional of music magazines; bold, sans serif and in capitals. 
• Does the cover look similar to other magazines? - It follows a wide majority of magazine conventions which allows it to conform to look like other front covers.

 <---- Other examples of NME covers

14. Raygun Magazine

Raygun was an American alternative rock and roll magazine first published in 1992. The director David Carson created a chaotic, abstract style, which was not always readable, but distinctive in appearance.
The magazine stopped being produced due to lack of sales - this may have been due to the readers' negative opinions on the ever changing house style. 

13. Four Fs

Function - what are the magazine's objectives?


Formula - elements which make up the magazine, e.g. how many articles


Frame - margins and gutters for printers


Format - how is the magazine is presented?


These all need to be taken into consideration when creating my own magazine as they will help to portray the professional appearance and reproduce many typical music magazine conventions.

12. NME Magazine Deconstruction

11. Research Methods

Primary - this is research which you carry out yourself, so you gather individual results, for example a questionnaire


Advantage: results are appropriate for the specific time and place
Disadvantage: can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money


Secondary - using other people's research to aid your own, for example using websites and blogs about the genre


Advantage: Low costs
Disadvantage: may not be able to gather the specific information needed


Qualitative - when you carry out in depth research into a small group of people who have strong views on the subject matter, for example a focus group with indie rock fans


Advantage: can gain a wide understanding of the topic
Disadvantage: it is hard to avoid bias from the researcher's point of view


Quantitative - this is more about collecting a wide, overall view on a subject to be able to identify a pattern or trend, for example conducting 200 questionnaires in the town centre


Advantage: Can gain accurate results and avoid researcher bias
Disadvantage: limited results as they are numerical without any detailed explanations 

10. Magazine Planning

First Impressions























Plan


As the typical target audience for music magazines is older teenagers, students and young adults, because the majority of their income (despite it being low) is disposable, for example part time jobs and pocket money, I aim to conform to this and include features which will appeal to this demographic. 


The genre of Indie Rock is dominated by male bands, with the occasional female artist, which suggests a lack of credibility for women within the industry. Therefore to develop the diversity I would like to include a large image of a female band as my main image and include a 'get to know you' interview etc. 


Sell lines such as details of interviews, gig dates and tours and some sort of 'exclusive' only for the readers will add to the persuasive power to buy the magazine. Because of the limited income for the targeted social group, special offers would be extremely effective; for example 'buy this magazine and get a free £5 HMV voucher'.


As there are not many examples of music magazines for this specific genre I will be able to be fairly creative with the headline and design. 

9. Mood Map

8. Development of ideas

After seriously considering creating a reggae based music magazine for the main task, I came to the conclusion that there were various obstacles, for example finding an appropriate model for the full page image - typically this is a stereotypical Jamaican character, for example Bob Marley.

Based upon my own taste in music, and the variety and flexibity I believe it could bring, I have now decided to alter my genre choice to Indie Rock. This type of music originated in the UK and USA in the 1980s, and since 2000, the bands within the genre have enjoyed more widespread mainstream success.

Popular Indie Rock bands are Oasis, Two Door Cinema Club, Bombay Bicycle Club, Vampire Weekend, The Fratellis, The Kooks, Arcade Fire etc.


There is a very limited number of examples of magazine's which focus upon the genre of Indie Rock. The bands appear in the charts, and therefore can be found within more general music magazines, most commonly 'NME' and 'Kerrang'.

NME magazine follows many of the conventions of a typical music magazine. For example the main image distorts the masthead, and there are various smaller subheadings with short captions detailing aspects which can be found inside.


It also has a continuous colour scheme of red and white, which I imagine would be retained inside the magazine. 

7. Magazine Deconstructions

As I had originally decided to create a music magazine specifically based around the reggae genre, it seemed useful to deconstruct various examples to collect a list of typical conventions of these texts. 

Possibly the most obvious feature of this magazine is the colour scheme - the colours within the masthead are bright and cheerful, and relate to the Jamaican flag. The background of the full page image is a pinky orange, which may link to the stereotypical heat of the home country of reggae music. 


The magazine uses a full page image of the most famous reggae legend - Bob Marley. It is a close up of just his head and shoulders, and he is not particularly smiling. This breaks the typical convention of a mid shot of someone looking alert and happy. 


The fonts are consistent; the masthead and all other text is in capital lettering, and a bold, sans-serif font. 


The layout is fairly organised - not busy or messy. This may reflect the calming and relaxed nature of the music as a genre. 






'United Reggae' is an online reggae music magazine, as there are very few printed examples. It too follows many of the conventions of typical music magazines, while also breaking some of them. 


Firstly, the national colours are once again used within the masthead, and can also be found within the main image. 


A masthead, date and issue numbers, and contents strip at the foot of the page are all features generally found on any magazine, as well as a full page image, however once again the image is a close up of just the head and shoulders. Also, the model seems to be smoking (typically in Jamaica they smoke 'ganja'), which would not be acceptable on any other style of magazine. He looks like a stereotypical Jamaican local, with his dreadlocks up in a tight hat, and wearing traditional, brightly coloured dress. 


Again, the layout is very simple, avoiding any unnecessary images or text. 




Overall, after comparing both of these examples, the conventions of reggae music magazine front covers are:

• Bright, national colours
• Typical Jamaican model, or wearing national dress
• Simple design and layout - usually one main image, with little text
• Masthead relating to the music genre (eg 'United Reggae')
• Inclusion of legends within the genre, such as Bob Marley