Initial Photos

Thumbnails of my photos:

Here are some collages of some photos:

Font Research

I still haven't decided on a name yet so I decided to try out different typefaces with all my possible titles. I really think the font I used for 'download' suits my genre however I think it looks quite childish. I also like the font for 'scandalous' but the problem with this is that it is quite girly but this may be resolved with a change in colour. Another font I like is the one used in 'project 1' I think it suits the genre well but the 1 looks like a lower case l and I don't want people getting confused and misreading it. 

Presentation of People in Music Magazines

Presentation of People in Music Magazines

More PowerPoint presentations from Ruby Rhodes

Pop Artists

In order to get some ideas for what type of celebrities I would have to copy in order to get my models looking like they belong in a pop/chart magazine I looked at which artists were on two pop CDs (Pop Party and Pop Princesses 2).

 

The artists I found on here also are influencing the type of  people that are in the pop genre. As these pop songs dominate the charts, the artists must be well liked as well therefore in order to attract people into buying my magazine I will need the interview in the magazine to have a similar personality.

Chart Music

The type of artists that I want to convey in my music magazine will hold a similar look to these artists in what they were, however their outfits will be more outgoing than the clothes I possess. I want my pictures to look similar to these that are in real artists music videos:

Magazine Title Ideas

For my chart magazine I thought about the following titles:

Change in Genre

After struggling to come up with a name for a pop magazine, I decided to broaden my genre to a chart magazine. I like this idea much better than doing a pop magazine as it means it can be similar to 'Billboard' magazine which is a magazine I enjoy reading. I want the content of my magazine to be similar to Billboard magazine, 'Billboard provides music charts, top songs & artist photo galleries'.

Magazine Title Ideas

After researching into other pop genre magazines I found that their titles were made from the same company that also has a TV show or a radio station i.e. 'Top of the Pops' and 'Smash Hits'. I also found other magazines called 'Simply Pop', 'We <3 Pop' and 'Pop Girl' this gave me the idea to in-cooperate the word 'pop' into my title as it seemed to be popular. 

My four favourite titles are: Beat Bop, Teen Twister, Music Mayhem and Pop Party. 

Change In Target Audience

Initially I wanted my target audience to be 'young boys and girls/teenagers (aged 11-15) who are into pop music'. Then I realised that this audience was too specific so I have decided to widen it. I now want my target audience to be both males and females aged from 13 - 20 (mostly teenagers). 

I know want the 'townies' tribe (from UK tribes) to be my main target audience because by the time they are 20, they hopefully will have found their favorite genre. With chart music there is a mixture of different genres, however genres with niche audiences i.e. heavy metal, generally don't make it into the charts because there isn't enough support.

 I am also changing the genre of my magazine to be a chart magazine, however it will still include the pop genre of music. This would make my magazine more similar to 'Smash Hits' which is known for 'squeezing stars' juicy bits'. It has content of good/popular music as well as celebrity gossip. There is a mixture of both music and private affairs from the celebrity endorser during their interview/article. 

Chart music is the most popular music genre, artists today include Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj and Swedish House Mafia. These are the top 16 songs out of the top 40 (according to the BBC) from the 11th November 2012 count:

Market Research Poll

In order to find out some general information about how much or how little people spend on magazines I have created an online poll to get some ideas about which features are popular in magazines and how often it should be produced and what the price should be. 

Magazine Analysis 2

General 

NME (New Musical Express) is a magazine published weekly in the UK since 7th March 1952 making it the worlds longest weekly running magazine. It is published by a company called IPC. It started as a music newspaper changing into a magazine during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. Each issue costs £2.80 which is more expensive than its competitor Kerrang! This would make people question the value for money especially as readers include young people. The genre is indie/punk rock, which attracts a fairly niche audience as it is not the most popular genre of music. The target audience is 16-19 year olds however the main story for this particular issue is about a band who released their album 10 years ago, meaning that people who remember the release (approximately 10 years of age +) are likely to also buy the magazine; widening the target audience to young adults. From the ABC website I have found the total circulation is 23,924. 

If NME sells 23,924 copies per issue, selling each copy at £2.80, it would make £66,987.20. However there will be a lower income due to the people who are subscribing and getting the magazine cheaper but it will also gain money from advertising.

The Cover

The title is 'NME' which stands for 'New Music Express' from this alone I can see the connotation is that the contents of this magazine will include information on new music. This new information will be the latest gossip as it is an 'express'. 

The title logo is 'NME' written in large bold red capital letters which is very simplistic yet it's still extremely eye catching. The font is sans serif which makes it very straight to the point as there are no extra formal serifs hanging off the letters. 

The main image consists of the four members from the band 'The Libertines'. This photo is staged at a photo shoot and well lit so that their faces stand out on the page making them more visible to possible readers while the magazine is on the shelf. All their directions of gaze are different, showing they all have a different focus point. Only one member (on the far left) is looking directly into the camera. The band members are wearing red military style jackets which matches the colour of the title giving the magazine a house style.  The clothing that they are wearing could reach out towards the ideal reader if it is something that they themselves would wear.  Their body language is calm and relaxed; one member has his hand in his pocket. They are not standing up straight 'paying attention' like they would if they were in the army/military which would match their outfit. 

The main image is the only image on this magazine cover making 'The Libertines' the main focus as it is a 'special Libertines birthday issue'. 

The cover lines have to be the most interesting articles of the magazine so that people are drawn into buying it. Compared to other music magazines on the market, this one is fairly vague as there aren't many cover lines (this is probably due to the fact that it's a special issue) However the content other than Libertines related features are promoted by cover lines are: 

The house style of this magazine focuses on the colour scheme rather than the fonts as there is a wide range of typography. The colour scheme is mainly red and yellow, the red is influenced by the band's outfit in the image. Red and yellow typically are put together but it could also work because these two colours are bright and bold; making the cover stand out. 

There is some direct address on the cover 'what became of your libs CD?'  This means that the magazine is addressing the reader personally which makes them feel like the magazine is talking directly to them, making them feel special.The rest of the language is persuading people to buy the magazine by using words like 'untold' and 'brand new' this will encourage people as they will want to read on. 


NME only has one image whereas Kerrang! had quite a few. 

The size of NME is distinctive, this is because it is bigger than A4 and larger than Kerrang!


NME looks much more ordered compared to the issue of Kerrang! I analysed.This is because there is less information crammed on making it not look chaotic and informal. This implies that the TA consists of people who are formal, however the edginess of the ripped paper effect gives the informal effect. 

Inside

There are 67 pages with 17 of them being adverts. The products advertised consist of men's beauty products, gadgets, mobile phones, shoes, bands, tour dates, alcohol, exclusive prints, subscription offer and another magazine. The features/article topics present are bands, live events (Gig Guide), tour dates, interviews, stories and reviews. There are 11 double page spreads and they are about festivals, bands including interviews, reviews and tour dates.

There are no 'advertorials', the magazine has avoided this by titling most pages with what the feature is i.e. in the top corners of the articles it says what it is, for example 'gig guide'.

Target Audience

UK Tribes

This project came about when Channel 4 commissioned it back in 2005. This website is 'the home of UK youth research' it explores a wide variety of all the social groups that youths nowadays are apart of such as hipsters, chavs and ravers. It gives information about them (how to spot/differentiate them), their alternate names, tribe icons, the brands they wear, the different types of media they absorb and how much of each type. Currently they have discovered 25 different tribes by creating a 'Find Your Tribe' survey where there were over 50,000 respondents in 2006.

To identify the different tribes they also used a range of qualitative techniques: Desk research
                                                            - Online forums
                                                            - Depth Interviews
                                                            - Video and picture diaries
                                                            - SMS-derived insight
                                                            - A UK network of young people providing regular trend reports
                                                            - Expert interviews with marketers, media, event promoters,
                                                               DJs, fanzine editors etc
                                                                                          

I decided I wanted my target audience to be young boys and girls/teenagers (aged 11-15) who are into pop music. I have decided this because by using this genre I am able to draw on my own knowledge and resources because when I was that age that was the type of music I listened to. I still listen to that music today but now it has widened further into different genres after experimenting with different artists such as Drake, Calvin Harris and Kanye West. This would be a popular magazine as there are other magazines similar to what I want mine to be like on/were the market already, these are 'Smash Hits' and 'Top of the Pops'.  These two magazines are reasonably priced at £2.00 for Smash Hits and £2.99 for Top of the Pops as the readers don't have jobs.The features of current magazines that attract the target audience is the celebrity endorsement of their favourite artists, the magazine can promote when they are visiting the UK, their tours, fan clubs etc. At this age these tend to be people like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus, for example, is also famous for her acting and for her clothing line at Asda. Readers will be influenced in their own fashion by copying similar items to what Miley would wear i.e. the snapback trend that has got older teenagers across the country wearing them has come from inspiration from their favourite artists.

I used UK tribes as the base of my target audience research, it helped me decide which group of people I want to be my target audience. It also gave me an insight into their interests so I had an idea of what content to include in my magazine. I couldn't find my specific target audience because as my audience are young they don't have enough money to go around experimenting in every genre of music, they will be influenced by their close family/friends music taste and the most popular music around; which is chart music.They also haven't necessarily joined a particular group yet e.g. bloggers, street rats or trendies. The group of people I want to attract are those who are known as 'the casuals'

My target audience is something similar to the 'young alts' who are described as 'something different, but beyond that, they’re not exactly decided. They’ll read about or listen to a huge variety of bands and try Skater, Emo and even Urban fashions. They also love a lot of mainstream fashion and music'.

The 'townies' are also part of my target audience, it is said that 'most people have little choice but to start as Townies. You have to make a decision to join a different Tribe, to break away from normality, to find your own niche, and indeed many make this decision as they move through their teens'.

Magazine analysis

General

'Kerrang!' is published weekly by Bauer Media Group, first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off supplement in the 'Sounds' newspaper. The target audience for the magazine is niche as there is not a huge amount of the population who are extremely interested in rock music; readers include fans of British heavy metal and hard rock. A quote from Kerrang! describes its readers as ‘independent of thought and musically experienced.' It costs £2.20; considering it is a weekly magazine with the target audience being teenagers and young adults (13-25 years old) with 63 pages in this particular issue does not show outstanding value for money because the readers are people who don't have much money despite this Kerrang! is the world's biggest selling weekly rock magazine.

Circulation is how many copies of the magazine it sells. Results from 2012 showed that 42,077 (according to Wikipedia) copies are sold each month showing that they are successful with gaining their target audience by providing them with information they are interested in. The amount of copies sold times three will give you an estimate of its readership. http://www.abc.org.uk/ gives the following information on circulation figures:

If Kerrang! sells 40,203 issues each time for £2.20 each (if there was no subscription discount) then the income would be £88,446.60. However there will be a lower income due to the people who are subscribing and getting the magazine cheaper but it will also gain money from advertising. 

The cover

The title of the magazine is called Kerrang! This is the onomatopoeic word/ sound that is made when playing a power chord on an electric guitar. This connotes that the magazine is loud, electric and crazy.  By having an unusual word like that as the title, it could put off possible buyers because they don't know what it means but would encourage people who know what it means to buy the magazine as they are intrigued.

On the issue published May 19th 2012 it has the masthead hidden underneath the celebrities so that the title is barely recognisable; you can see part of some of the letters. In this particular issue the title is not visible enough to be so noticeable that it is the first thing people's attention is drawn to when they glance at the magazine. This could mean that only people who were looking for this particular magazine would take the time to look for it on the shelf. The effects on the letters make the title look messy showing informality which is continued further on in the magazine. 

'WORLD EXCLUSIVE! GUNS N' ROSES THE TRUE STORY' 

Most of the text on the cover is either yellow or white; this strap line follows this pattern (house style). The words 'exclusive' and 'true' draw people into buying the magazine because people are interested in knowing the truth and gossip direct from the artists before anybody else (exclusivity). Each section of the strap line 'world exclusive' 'Guns N' Roses' and 'the true story' are all written in different fonts giving a variation, only 'Guns N' Roses' is in serif font.

The main image consists of the members of Guns N' Roses who are the main celebrity endorsement of this issue. They are situated in the centre of the page and are the central image, they take up most of the page showing that they are dominant and important. This photo does not look set up in a photo shoot setting, it looks like they are preforming at a gig live on stage. As this isn't a photo shoot there has been no lighting effects that have been done for photo purposes but the photo is brightly lit so we can clearly see them both making them stand out even more. They are eye catching and are the focus of attention as the picture is what readers will be first drawn to when they glance at the cover. We can see that they are not staged for a photo because they are both not looking directly at the camera or smiling like most people would in photos. One of the members (the one on the right) facial expression isn't visible due to his hair covering his face. The part of his face that is visible shows him concentrating on playing the guitar (this is where his direction of gaze is), he is taking no interest in the camera. His body language continues the theme of him playing a gig, it is not posed. The other man is captured whilst he is in the middle of singing showing his facial expression to be focused. His direction of gaze is looking away from the camera (we can assume that he is looking into the crowd). Once again his body language is not posed for the photo.  Due to the fact that both the men on the cover are playing a live gig, they are bound to get hot, which is why they are both shirtless. You can see the sweat on one of the peoples chest.They are both wearing trousers which would not be worn out on a daily occasion to a shopping center, they are appropriate for the scenario they are in. The specialist music magazine genre doesn't have an airbrushed celebrity in a photo shoot on the front cover like a lifestyle magazine would. This picture reaches out towards to the ideal reader because what they see on the cover is something that they would like to see in real life i.e. going to a Guns N' Roses concert. Furthermore the characters on the cover are individual and 'independent of thought' which is similar to the characteristics of the reader.  

There are 6 other images of other artists that appear on the cover, this is done so that it will draw a bigger audience as there is a wider variety of bands that people on a larger scale will be interested in reading about. All these photos are staged, especially the photo of Danny Worsnop which shows him to be a confident and silly character by his facial expression which could be of a similar personality to the readers. 

The cover lines have to be the most interesting articles of the magazine so that people are drawn into buying it. The content promoted by the cover lines is all to do with the bands featured inside e.g. 'PARAMORE ARE COMING TO THE UK.' This teases all the information that the fans of the band will want to know i.e. the details of when and what they will be doing in the UK. Gossip is promoted by people who know first hand of what is happening 'Duff and Slash on what really happened' and 'Danny Worsnop lifts the lid on their new film'. 

With some magazines, the colour scheme goes with the seasons i.e.  summer issues will have bright bold colours - pinks, oranges and yellows, but in this case this May issue does not follow the spring colour scheme which would be pastel colours - pale pinks, blues and greens. The cover mostly consists of white, black and yellow which are bold  but dark colours, this can associate the magazine with being dark; the music genre of rock is not happy and pink, it is more serious therefore using cold hard colours.
The graphics used of the duck tape give a grunge feel to the magazine, it also makes it more masculine because stereotypically women do not do DIY. 

The text on the cover is minimal, there is mostly small bullet points which are short and snappy rather than sentences. There is not enough text there to give a friendly and chatty tone which is usually used for editor's letters or lifestyle magazines. Also there is no evidence of direct address which makes the reader feel personal, probably because the technique of direct address is usually used when an advisory tone is used. The magazine doesn't have a direct link with the reader due to the fact that it does not use any direct address. Despite all the language devices that it is lacking, there is evidence of colloquial language which shows the informal nature and relaxed content; meaning that this magazine is soft, there is no hard core information like there would be in a fitness magazine. There are no slang words present, it is all basic Standard English which makes it for educated people even though the language is easy.

The format of the cover follows the pattern of most other magazines; 

it looks similar to magazines as it has the celebrity endorsement photo in the centre taking up most of the space and then has all the cover lines surrounding it. It gets its individuality by the size of the magazine, it isn't a set well known size, it is slightly smaller than A4. This makes sure that the magazine will easily fit into someone's bag if they wanted to read it on their way to school or work. Another way it gets it individuality is by the use of duck tape looking like its been stuck on the page and then there is information on top of it. However this could just be a one off technique for this particular issue. The title also has random lines and random extra and missing spaces in the letters making the title more recognisable. There is no specific USP; it offers the same things as other magazines i.e. freebies - posters and tickets.The only thing that will help sell this magazine is the fact that Kerrang! has the 'exclusive' and 'true story' of which is not offered else where. 

Inside

Throughout the whole magazine there are 63 pages in total with 13 of them being adverts. This questions the value for money further, I would much rather more pages of interesting subjects I want to read about rather than adverts. Most of the adverts are music related, keeping the theme of music going and not advertising products that some readers would have no interest in e.g. new nail varnish from Barry M. The advertisements are listed below:

Music: Tours/gigs - Twin Atlantic tour                                Festivals - Slam Dunk Festival
                              - Blink 182 tour                                                   - Reading Festival

                              - Warped tour '12

                              - Forever The Sickest Kids tour

                              - I Killed The Prom Queen tour          
                              - Of Mice & Men tour

                              - Gojira tour

                              - Devin Townsend Unplugged tour

                              - Limpbizkit tour

                              - NOFX tour

                              - William Control tour

                              - Less Than Jake tour

                              - I'll Be Your Mirror tour

                              - Tenacious D tour

                              - 2:54 tour

                              - Forever Never tour 

                              - Kerrang! Awards 2012

                              - 02 academy Islington

          

Miscellaneous:   Anti-Flag animal abuse

                         - HMV new DVD out

                         - Kerrang! magazine subscription 

                         - Kerrang! download rock club

                         - Loudclothing.com

                         - 02 Priority tickets for 'Rush'

These are the articles featured in the magazine:

Music:                                                             

Festival season                                                   

Mini interviews with bands                                   

Gossip and gibberish in the rock world

Reviews of artists' gigs

Reviews of artists' albums

Gig guide

'The Ultimate Rockstar Test'

Miscellaneous:
Feedback
Agony Aunt 'Life of Agony'

All the advertorials look like adverts, they could not be mistaken for an article due to the minimal amount of font.

There are 10 double page spreads that appear and they are:

All Time Low interview - a band member discussing the new album.

Lost Prophets review - a review of their gig

Guns N' Roses (6 page spread - main article) - reminiscing over their past and their achievements.

Slash interview - a general interview.

Guns N' Roses reviews - other artists commenting on the band.

Kerrang! Subscription advertisement - this is encouraging readers to subscribe to the magazine as it will be cheaper.

Danny Worsnop interview - there was some speculation about his new music video and Worsnop is talking about it and clearing up the rumours.

Advertising the Kerrang! Awards 2012 - it is promoting the event and giving the opportunity for a reader to win tickets.

Beastie Boys - article on a review of when they last featured on the cover.

Meeting 2:54 - promoting one of Britain's new bands and having an interview with them.

The magazine achieves a house style by keeping the colour scheme (of white, black and yellow) continuous.This makes the magazine recognisable to readers.

Readers must enjoy the way in which the magazine is written for them to keep coming back and buying it every week. The language continues to be informal: "IT'D BE AWESOME".

with words such as K!ONFIDENTIAL, K! KROSSWORD' and 'JOSH-OMETER'

The font that the masthead is in is used continually throughout the magazine as titles for pages, this makes the font more well known and will be connected with the magazine.

This house style is appropriate to the target audience because it is informal, which is what young people enjoy reading as it is the language they use. Most young people do not want to have to use formal language all the time, only when in important situations i.e. job interviews. The language implies that the target audience have a relaxed personality.