Investigating current music magazines.

For part of my research, i will look at two music magazines currently on sale. The first magazine is 'Rolling Stone'. I wanted to investigate this one first as i like how iconic it is, and the covers are always eyecatching and sometimes quite daring.

The 'Rolling Stone' magazine was first published in 1967 and the editor was Jann Wenner. They became well known for their coverage on current affairs as well as music and the culture that goes with it. Over more recent years they also focus on tv shows and artists. Their website contains blogs and videos of bands. It is quite a classic magazine, and have a 'Rock 'n' Roll' feel to them. The usual content is music news,reviews of the latest gigs and albums, music culture and political happenings. They cover a wide range of music, from classic rock to pop. i think the typical reader is someone who is maybe older than early 20's, and who has a broad taste in music. The publisher is Jan Wenner, and is co-edited by Will Dana. Their logo is 'Rolling Stone' in a large red font with a white outline. It's quite classic and American style. They normally have the main photo overlapping the logo, as the logo is still recognisable, and small pockets of font surrounding the picture. The magazine mainly focuses on American singers and bands, and because of the rock and roll feel to the magazine, i think the social groups represented in this magazine would be quite cool,cutting edge people. I like how the writing that explains the contents of the magazine changes depending on who is on the cover, for example below, the band are in Western costume, so the font underneath is in a country and western style.

'Rolling Stone Kings of Leon cover,April 2009'

The second magazine i have investigated is Mixmag, a dance and clubbing magazine, i picked this as it is focused on a different genre. It was launched in 1982 and is currently the only dance magazine being sold in the country. They are produced by 'Development Hell Ltd', since 2006, and their current editor is Nick DeCosemo. The typical reader is a male or female who is interested in dance music and likes going to clubs and dance gigs and I would say the age range would be about late teens to early 30's. The housestyle is quite colourful with a simple font for the logo 'Mixmag'. The logo colour changes on the cover regularly which makes the magazine seem trendy and more exciting and they tend to have a short slogan that simplifies what the issue will have a main feature on. I think the people who read it are represented as happy, lively and exciting, because of how the cover protrays the genre.