What to Call my Magazine?

When deciding on a name for my magazine, I wanted to pick a name that was just one word, so that its short, easy to say and memorable. Magazines like Kerrang! , Q, and NME all have short titles. Rolling Stone is an exception, but you still remember it because of the band The Rolling Stones.
I tried to think of words that relate to rock/indie music, but also had a cheerful vibe.

I went through my iTunes to see if I could find any inspiration from bands, and song titles.
I liked the idea of having a positive caption under the Masthead, I came up with this idea because of the song title 'Total Life Forever' by the band Foals. The caption could say this, or something similar like 'Music to the Max'.
I then came across one of my favourite bands, The Strokes. I love the short simple name and it sounds fashionable and cool. It sounds similar to the word 'Stoked' which means to be enthusiastic and excited. I think this word will be good as my magazine title, because in my opinion it sums up the feeling you get from going to gigs, festivals or getting a new album by your favourite bands. My magazine name will also have an exclamation mark at the end, to make it seem more loud and exciting.

Primary Research.

To help me get more ideas of what my target audience would want to see in a music magazine I did some primary research in the form of a questionnaire. I asked 15 people between the ages of 16 and 22 to answer them. I tried to include a range of questions, such as closed and open questions, so I could find out peoples opinions.

Here is a screen print of my questionnaire..

My Results:
My questionnaires were answered by 6 16 year olds,5 17 year olds, 2 20year olds and 1 21 year old. The genre of music that was most popular was Rock/Indie and it was picked 12 times. Vouchers for music related items were the most popular free item, this was important to my research because I wanted to include a free item in my magazine cover. Everyone who took my questionnaire wanted information about local gigs, I would be able to feature this on my contents page. 7 out of 15 people think that a simple text is better than a fancier text, so I will use a simpler text in my article and contents page, but will use a fancier text for titles and mastheads. 8 out of 15 people prefer a magazine with a mixture of pictures and text, which I will take into consideration on my front cover and double page spread. I asked what the maximum price people would pay for a music magazine, so I know what kind of price to put on the front cover. 7 out of 15 people chose the £2-£2.50, so I will have the magazines price somewhere between this price range. I asked what magazine they think has the best layout, and 8 out of 15 people chose Kerrang! Reasons why included that they offer posters of bands, and have good photos of the bands featured. I have shown some of my results in the form of a pie chart:

Nearly 50% of my panel would want to recieve vouchers for music related items and 25% would like to recieve posters. I have used this research and have included an indication of free posters on my front cover.
I will price my magazine between £2 and £2.50 as this is the ideal price my audience would pay for a music magazine.
I will be using a simpler text such as 'Calibri' for my magazine, as my audience prefer that to a fancier text.
Kerrang! is the most popular music magazine out of my panel, with over 50% of people choosing it. They chose it because of the photos they have, and the bands they feature.

This research has given me a better idea of what my target audience would like to see in a music magazine, and what I should include.

Deciding on my Target Audience.

The indie/rock genre is typically consumed by males, although the slightly softer music women may prefer. Also this magazine genre tends to have more male singers and bands on the cover, which might influence who buys the magazines, and according to NRS 09-10, 276,000 males read NME, in comparison to 76,000 females. I would like to have a mixed gender audience, so that it can appeal to a wider range of people. I will achieve this by making the magazine housestyle slightly more feminine, but still make it appealing to a male audience.

The typical demographic for this genre is aged 15-44 according to NRS. The figure of 15-44 year olds reading Kerrang! is 370,000 in comparison to 29,000 of 44+ who read NME. To make sure that my magazine appeal to this age band, I will design the magazine so that it appeals to a slightly younger audience, by using mode of address that isn't old fashioned or too complex language. I would like my magazine cover to have a youthful and exciting feel, that would make people want to read it.

I don't think race and ethnic groups will be a big issue with my audience, but rock music is typically enjoyed more by white caucasians. I will not put any comments or pictures that would be offensive to people of other races. Also my magazine will not be either for or against sexual preferences, so there won't be any comments or images which homosexual people could find offensive.

According to NRS, people in the ABC1 social class read NME and Kerrang! more than the C2DE class, which surprised me. This suggests that the ABC1 class listen to the rock/indie genre. Although the results on NRS about Kerrang! show that 207,000 people in the ABC1 class read it, whereas 189,000 in the C2DE class read it. This is a very small difference in numbers which could suggest that Kerrang! appeals to a very broad audience. I want my magazine to appeal to a wide audience, so I will use conventions that will appeal to a range of social classes.

I would like to have my magazine appeal to females more, as I feel music magazines aren't always directly aimed at women. I would want my target audience to be people who like going to gigs and like to live the party lifestyle, as it would give me more to put on the contents page. It makes them more outgoing and interesting. rock/indie genre magazines usually have a section reviewing gigs and informing the audience of future gigs and concerts. I could also use the convention that Kerrang! and NME use and make up an event that is sponsered by the magazine, as it makes the magazine look more reliable. This would also appeal to my target audience as it is a social activity and gets people involved.

Summary of my Research.

In my research i have learnt about some of the music magazines currently on sale, such as NME and Kerrang! and have looked into how they attract their audience and their different styles. These are things like the housestyle, the mode of address they use and even the font style. My preliminary task also helped me to understand what sort of conventions look good on a front cover and contents page of a magazine, and also let me experiment with ways of presenting the layout. I have also learnt about how many different sub-genres there are in larger genres, and how the styling of an image can affect how the audience perceive the person in the photo. This involves ideology, which is important to consider when looking at images.

I would like to use conventions like a mid/long shot of my subject, but then I would like to incorporate the unusual setting instead of a studio, like they do in NME. Examples of this could be taking the photos in an outside setting, like a large field or a forest. I will use a large banner to draw attention to the magazine, with a short catchy name. I would like my magazine to have an indie/rock genre.

Deconstructing an image.

I am going to deconstruct an image of Florence Welch, from Florence and The Machine, as i have a few pictures of her on my moodboard.

She has long bright red hair, that sometimes looks quite disheveled, it could suggest that she wants to stand out, because of the vibrancy, and also the messiness and full fringe reflects her indie/folksy genre of music. Her make up looks quite haunting, with the dark eyes and red lipstick against her pale skin. It reminds me of some of her music, particularly 'Sleep With One Eye Open' which sounds a bit eery.

She is wearing a lot of black and is wearing quite a grungy outfit, with the vintage t-shirt and bomber jacket and short skirt, this is quite typical of an indie genre singer. The fact that she isn't wearing obvious brands and isn't sporting an outfit where brands are clearly displayed makes her seem less generic and maybe not all about the image. The black clothes also make her seem quite dark and mysterious. Also the setting of this photo isn't where a pop star would usually have a photo taken, compared to an expensive studio.

In comparison to this, I'm going to deconstruct an image of Justin Bieber, who is an American pop singer. Firstly he is wearing a NY baseball cap with a small but recognizable logo. He could be quite influential with his style, because people can relate with well known brands more easily. He has a thick, mop style haircut, which is also a popular cut. It makes him look more innocent and youthful and possibly more appealing to teenage girls. His clothes are plain, but could be copied very easily and the purple could represent his youthfulness. He is posing towards the camera, not smiling and showing the peace sign. This shows that he is positively gesturing towards the audience, with a hand in the pocket, which makes him seem casual. This pose has become quite generic of pop/r&b genres.

My Moodboard!

This is a small scan of my moodboard. It includes magazine titles, famous singers and bands, some of my favourite album covers, shots and photoeditting that I like, and some of my own pictures from Reading Festival 2010. Also I have added some fonts that I like the look of.

Different Research Methods.

There are different ways on how to research.

Primary: Original research, such as photos taken yourself, or research found yourself, usually after secondary research. This is a good method because it allows you to feel more involved.

Secondary: Collecting existing research, such as searching on Google. Examples of this can be things like images, existing interviews and information off Wikipedia. A good thing about this research method is that you can get a lot of information easily. The disadvantage of this research is that a lot of photos or information on the internet may be subject to copyright.

Qualitative: This type of research is more indepth, looking further into topics, such as how the decisions are made. It could be looking into why someone does something. The advantage of it is that you can get a deeper understanding or something, however you may not find a lot of information. An example of this could be questionaires.

Quantitative: This kind of research is generally used in mathmatical investigations, because it involves numbers and statistics. The disadvantage of this is that the information may not be accurate, and might not be very relevant to the subject as much as qualitative research may be.

I will be using a mixture of primary and secondary research, such as buying my own magazines, instead of always using internet research. Buying the real magazines allows you to see the whole thing, close up. You can also see the articles that won't be shown on the internet. Qualitative research may also help, as it allows me to look into things in more depth, so I have more understanding of something, such as Mode of Address and Deconstructing an Image.

Mode of Address.

Mode of address is the way that a magazine will 'speak' to its readers. Certain words, phrases and punctuation will be used.

For example, Kerrang! magazine uses exclamations frequently, this could be because the music they focus on is loud with instruments such as drums and guitars. They write words like 'explode' 'unleash' and 'hits back'. They are quite loud and active phrases and relate to the magazines title. They might write like this to appeal to a teen audience, as they use simpler, more abstract words that make the article more interesting to read.

NME tend to talk in a slightly more educated way, like the reader has a broad knowledge of music, and some words used are complex. In an article, they write 'The band run through the cataclysmic intro to 'Drum Courts'. By using slightly complicated words, it educates the reader and may also appeal to a reader who is more aware of these phrases.

Genres of Music.

Genres are types of music, and sub-genres are smaller groups in the main genre. Here is a mindmap I made of well known music genres..

Ideology of Music.

All genres of music have an ideology. This is a set of ideas and values that would fit the genre. Claude Levi-Strauss has the theory of 'Binary Oppositions', that in Western culture we think in pairs of ideas that are opposites ie. Love and hate, war and peace.

For example, this table below shows how Pop/R&B genres differs from Rock/Hip-Hop genres.

Pop/R&B	Rock/Hip-Hop
More conformist	More rebellious
Better produced and more expensive to make	Rawer, less over-produced
Conscious of having a ‘good’ image	(pretend to) care less about image
Less obvious sexual references	More sexual obvious references
No alcohol or drug references, clean	Open about drugs and alcohol
Passive, non offensive	More aggressive, open about feelings
Universal messages, relates to a lot of people	Mostly about artist, more self indulgent
Mainstream, mass audience	Outside mainstream, niche audiences
Non violent, no swearing or blanked out	More violent references, casual swearing
Conspicious wealth	Act poor

The ideology affects how musical genres are represented. For example pop and R&B records are more likely to be played on the radio due to their universal messages and the lack of swearing. It also affects the way they will be shown in magazines and on TV. A rock magazine will have a different layout to a dance magazine. Rock magazines tend to be darker, also the font can sometimes be different. For example Kerrang! magazine has an eroded style font to appeal to the target audience more. Magazines based around Pop genres will be more cheerful and colourful, when Smash Hits! was still published it was always very colourful, and the people in the pictures would always be smiling.

This is different from rock genre magazines where the people in the pictures may not be smiling, or be posing in rebellious way or not smiling. The 'Magic Bullet Theory' can be relevant here, as the way that these people pose for these magazines might affect the personalities of those that read these magazines. Groups of people that prefer rock or heavy music may appear to be less friendly and dress in a way that doesn't look friendly, whereas people who prefer Pop may dress in brighter clothing, and appear to be bubbly and lively.

Textual Analysis of 2 existing music magazines, (NME)

The logo is large and bold black text, which helps it stand out. The red black and white style links with the normal housestyle, although in recent times NME have released 7 covers for a magazine, to show diversity. The logo has also changed, the letters used to have a white outline and a red fill, whereas now it is just black. The regular change in housestyle could suggest their outlook on music, and that they are open to different types of music. The midshot of James Allan from Glasvegas is quite striking because of the direct eye contact with the camera and the writing on his chest, such as 'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.' It gives the cover a bit more edge and makes it more appealing and interesting to the reader. On the right there are a list of bands and singer featured in the magazine, they are quite a mixture, for example 'Vampire Weekend' make different music from 'Cee-Lo Green'. Also small thumbnails of Mike Skinner and PJ Harvey show who else is in the magazine. By doing this the reader knows instantly who is in the magazine without having to read through it in the shop. The use of the word 'Free' with the posters makes the reader feel like they are getting a bit more for their money, and makes them feel privileged, (not shown on scan).

The contents has an interesting layout, the sections are randomized and show the highlights of the magazine. A small section with the heading 'Plus' shows what else is in the magazine, and they usually feature the usual sections here. I like this layout, 'Inside This Week' is bold and clear against the white background, and think the way the contents is random makes it more interesting to look at. Underneath the small pictures, quotes are taken from the articles, it makes you want to go to that page and read more. The main picture and article is in the middle, also the title of it advertises NME. By having an awards ceremony, it shows that they are more than just a magazine, and gives them more authority.

I wanted to analyse this double page spread because I am a fan of the band, and i like the layout. The font is interesting, and is different from the normal NME font. The title refers to the article, and their new album title. Because the font is unique, it could be portraying the band as that. I like that the pictures relate to the article, and that they aren't shot in a studio, it adds a bit more individuality to the article, and gives the pictures more edge. The lighting is quite dark, and the mid shots show them in a relaxed stance. The pictures of them at work show the objects they have been using as instruments, and aids the article. On the 2nd page, i like how the text of the quote is set out, it makes you take it in more. I really like this double page spread because of the layout, and how the photos portray them as quite casual and slightly mysterious because of the lighting and setting.

Textual Analysis of 2 existing music magazines, (Kerrang!)

The 2 magazines i am going to analyse textually are NME and Kerrang! They are both issues from January 2011.

The cover of Kerrang! is eye -catching as it is very busy and full of text and images. It shows that the reader will be getting their moneys worth, because there is a lot going on. The mid shots of famous singers and featuring their names such as 'Paramore' and 'Linkin Park' makes the magazine feel more established. The font on the title and the number '150' is an eroded style, which suggests the magazine is aimed at an audience who may not be interested in being pristine and perfect. It also draws attention to the main article in the magazine. They use the posters as a free gift, which makes the customer feel like they're getting more for their money, and also mentioning other band names at the bottom shows who else will be featured in the magazine. Above the logo, your eyes are drawn to the phrases 'Download:20 acts added!' and 'Exclusive interviews inside'. Consumers of the magazine will be interested in the lineup of Download Festival and saying the interviews are 'exclusive' it makes the reader feel privileged.

The contents page carries on the housestyle theme to show consistency, and the contents splits up into the regular sections of the magazine. The title of the page is written in bold, and a brief summary of what the article includes is written beneath. In the In the left corner there is a note from the editor. He uses synthetic personalisation to talk directly to the reader, even though he is talking to a large number of people. Using his own signature at the bottom also makes it feel more personal. The main articles are shown largest, such as the 'Escape The Fate' interview and 'The ultimate 21st Century playlist' to draw attention to them. Midshots of 'Escape The Fate' show you what the band look like, and show their emotions in the picture. Also, in the right hand corner, there is a small advert for subscribing to Kerrang!, to try and advertise their magazine more.

The double page spread is of the recent lineup for Download Festival 2011. The eroded font carries on to the title of the page, and stands out against the dark pictures. The title suggests the festival is going to be very successful this year, and they also mention that the event is sponsored by Kerrang!, which shows they are trusted, and also advertises their name further. The large pictures clearly show who is playing at the festival. They show a variety of bands, from ones that aren't as well known like 'Black Veil Brides' to the more successful ones like 'Bullet For My Valentine' and 'Alter Bridge'. The pictures are mid shots, apart from the main image which is a 2 Shot of 'Alter Bridge' playing live to show variety on the page layout. The picture is also relevant to the article. On the right there is a thin long yellow text box, which adds extra information about rock bands. It also adds more to the page.

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.