Magazine Review
The target audience for NME is teenagers, both male and female, we know this because there are picture including male and female musicians on the front cover. The main readers will fall into the age category of teenagers as music in today society is focused on them. However, NME won’t appeal to all teenagers, only the ones that like the genre of music and its features.
The front cover is of Lily Allen (a British singer-songwriter that has had a lot of negative press when this cover was published). Lily Allen has probably been chosen to feature in the magazine because she has been in the press a lot as being rebellious which is what teenagers are stereotyped as being.
She looks like the stereotypical image of an ‘emo’ with her black messy hair and dark eye shadow. Although the text next to the image which says “Lily Allen takes on the world” represents her as being a strong female so her appearance could be used to make her look more masculine.
The masthead looks really simple; it has remained similar to the style now since the late 1990s, early 2000s, so people are familiar with it and would be able to find it easily on a shelf. NME stands for 'new musical express' which gives the impression that it supplies people with new music information and gossip. New Musical Express is written in a much smaller font underneath the masthead.
The main coverline is in a much larger font size than the other writing which appears on the front cover. It is written in a house style font. The letters aren’t the same size and they are not all straight. This makes the coverline look like it’s made up of letters cut out of newspaper headlines, which also follow on from NME which used to be a newspaper.
A pull quote above the coverline also anchors the image. It’s in a similar font to the coverline so readers know that they are related.
Included with the magazine at the bottom there is a list of band names; this is used to attract readers. They are then separated by yellow line the house style. And after the band names “plus” gives the impression that there is more things to do with other bands inside
Above the masthead is a black banner, the black stands out over the red of the masthead. With the new realise of arctic monkeys tunes it gives buys the feel there is exclusive content inside. Other cover lines are inside circles, making them stand out and to separate them from the main coverline.
Another different feature about NME is that they include major issues what are going on in the world ‘how David Bowie started the Credit Crunch’ this increases the chance of a broader buying market.-
The target audience for Mixmag is young adults due to its clubbing theme, and it’s also aimed at female and male, we also know this by the pictures on the front of the magazine including both genders. The front cover has the words “Who is the greatest DJ of all time” this is a good cover line because people for a long time have been trying to figure out who it is and why. They also include a sub heading “ get ready to vote in the most important poll in dance music history” this makes readers feel like they will be part of history being made and an exclusive poll, making the readers feel important and they want their vote.
The masthead is simple and has been similar since its first copy sold on the February 1, 1983 as a 16-page black and white magazine. Since then more colour and pages have been added to make it a great dance and clubbing magazine. It styles itself as “the world’s biggest selling dance music magazine”
Mixmag covers dance events, and reviews music and club nights.
And to keep up with today’s society the magazine include features on fashion and according to Mixmag “Improved production. It also includes a cover mount mix CD each month from different DJ’S or artist to inties viewers to buy.The sub heading is in the same font to what is follows to show readers they are relevant to each other. The words plus after the plugs tells the readers there is more inside and not what is on the front. They include the most important and selling stories on the front to advertise to readers.
With the black, grey and orange theme the orange stands out the most and that is what is used to show the most important aspects of the magazine and then the black too show the second most important factors.
Kerrang. The target audience of Kerrang is most likely 15-20 (teenager to young adults). A good clue to tell what the target audience is to look at the people on the front cover and what genre of music they create and who like that music, yes there will be exceptions where younger or older people buy the music and read the magazine, but the main target will be 15 -20 year olds.
I believe Kerrang is aimed at both genders because there are different bands what get followed more by one or the other gender.
The font cover picture is a real good picture because it shows all band members and the most important one at the front but you can see everyone. They include a sub heading to go with the picture “The welsh stars battle to save their future” this is a very interesting capitation to get people to buy because it’s shocking. People will think it will be interesting because there saving their future but battling to do it.
The magazine has a good colour scheme with the White as the most important things i.e. the mast head or the band title what they are covering and then the yellow and blue, the yellow showing the other key information and blue the little less relevant information.
The masthead of Kerrang is more different to the other two magazines but it hasn’t changed since its first release on the 6th of June 1981 which AC/DC featured on the front cover. it can boast the success of averagely selling 43,000 of one copy and in 2005 selling over a staggering 80,000 copy’s this was thanks to Paul Brannigan who brought the magazine back to its glory days, where it slummed to where in one copy it only sold 11,000 copy’s. Paul Brannigan has now left Kerrang and given the editor crown to Nichola Browne. Kerrang is published weekly therefore it will have less pages then fort night or monthly magazines.
Its usual artist includeled in the magazine are Papa Roach, Slipknot and Linkin Park
On the front cover of this issue, it show what posters are inside on the bottom left. I like this because it’s different but you can still see the main image and information. There are little plugs on the page but they use the banner to show what music artists can be found inside.
Contents pages
Contents pages need to reveal what can be found in the magazine without “spilling the beans” To get readers to go to the better and important pages, lines must be catchy and interesting. Not just “An interview with kanye west” it has to be interesting “See what happened when we got in touch with the amazing and wild kanye west about his new album”. I must include relevant pictures to the information, there is no point of having a picture of a new drum kits if we are talking about a new guitar.
I like this contents page, due to its simplicity with large picture to represent key articles, and smaller less irrelevant story’s on the side. Numbers next to the pictures and side stories are very important telling readers to the page the story is. On this contents page it tells you what it is “Contents” And includes details such as issue and date released I think this is a very good feature and could possibly include it in mine. Another good feature for this contents page is the short phrases below the pictures revel a little more about the article.
Questionnaire
I made a questionnaire so I could get an idea of what my target audience (15 -22) wanted and need with a magazine
The 11 questions I asked to were:
1.) What gender are you?
· Male
· Female
2.) What type of music do you prefer?- R’n’b/Rap
- Pop
- Indie
- Rock
- General music/what’s in the charts
- Other
- When a new one is published
- When you feel like reading one
- Hardly ever
- I don’t
- £2 or under
- £2-£4
- £4 or over
- Front cover- who’s featuring in the magazine
- Contents- tells you what the magazine contains
- Stories inside
- The type of genre the magazine is e.g. r’n'b, pop, indie
- Freebies; win, prizes, trips ect
- Who’s featured on the front cover
- The plugs
- Headings
- Freebies
- News
- Features
- Reviews
- Extras
8.) Why do you buy music magazines?
- Interesting
- Entertaining
- Your work requires it
- Informative
9.) How much on average do you spend on music a month?
- Nothing
- £5 or less
- £5.01- £10
- £10.01+
10.) How do you receive you music?
- CD
- Download
- Other
- Record
11.) Would you rather have lots of text on a magazine or more/bigger picture?
- Text
- Pictures
Questionnaire Review
- After receiving my results from my questionnaire I discovered that more people preferred R&b and Chart music to the other genres such as Dance, rock and indie. This backed my idea that I should do a charts magazine with additional information about clubbing and R&B, this would increase my target audience and age categories.Another good reason for my doing a magazine about charts and R&B is that I’m familiar with the music and I can quickly go on the internet to get information about the genres. The least elected vote was rock this would most likely be due to the people I aimed my questionnaire and where I was when I gave them my questionnaire, due to the social environment. By doing the questionnaire I knew doing rock wouldn’t be a good idea.
- Another issue with magazines is the price, it must be reasonable price for when its published. Obviously the people who filled in my questionnaire where going to want the cheapest magazine. I believe a magazine at the price of £1.99 would be very reasonable.
- Another question on my questionnaire was whether I would include a free giveaway such as a CD. From my results 9 people said they would especially buy a magazine if it had something free but the other 11 said they wouldn’t go out to buy a magazine just because it had something free.
- For my magazine, I also have to create a contents page as well as a double page spread and my front cover. But I didn’t really have an idea of how to design, to solve this I asked a question “Would you rather see pictures or text”.15 people said they would rather see pictures to text. Thanks to that answer I am planning to use at least 5 in my contents page. I also want the pictures to be colorful but the text what is there needs to be informative.
- Another key question I asked which is important to my magazine, what my target audience liked to see in there magazine, the ones that where the most popular where gossips/stories, gig news and features. I believe this would be because it gives them insists to what the music artists do day in and day out. So I need to focus my main articles on these aspects.
- I need a nice to look at and interesting theme because colours attract people to the magazine. So I designed a poll on my blog. All the themes could apply to my magazine so I asked my target audience.
The results came back as Black,White and Gold being the most popular and the other four being tied on 1 vote.
After looking at magazine fonts 90% of them tend to use a simple easy to read font because less people will tend to be turned off. Magazine such as Vibe and NME use Calibri and those two being such popular magazine with a lot of reads so I believe this is a positive choice. So I believe I will use this.
Double Page Spread
- This image is a double page spread, and the article features “GZA” This is the only image that the readers are presented within this double page spread. This magazine genre is Hip Hop we can get an idea of the genre by the clothes he is wearing and his posture as he is laid back and relaxed. There is a lot of power in this picture and the reader can see it. The picture gives of an impression that “GZA” is stuck up and arrogant and has an “EGO” problem. This is a coincidence because when GZA was a rapper there where stories and hatred for his high ego of himself.
- This article could appeal to both male and female teens and the possibility of young adults (13-22). The males would find him “cool” and would want to be similar to him. The picture is portrayed to be powerful and dominant with the camera shot looking up at the suspect, and you can see his whole statue. It could appeal to females as well because they may find him attractive and find him interesting. However more males would general be more interested.
- The main colours that have been used in this specific article are Black, White and Pink. Pink is used very efficiently and used on the lead after the title of the article and key information in the double page spread. This is a very good idea because it makes it stand out causing the article to become noticed. This is because black and white are boring and subdued whereas pink is lively and vibrant.
- The text in this article is separated by the question what is in pink and the answer is in black, this makes it a lighter and a happier feel. The title “Pure genius” is bold and powerful and here to make a statement, this is a good title for the interview because GZA is trying to make a positive statement from his negative issues. It makes the readers believe him. The answers and question are in a basic font though so it’s easy to read, clear and can be followed easy.
- The language that GZA uses is powerful vocabulary causing a tense interview. He swears continuously throughout the interview and makes he answers clear and he has hatred for something. But in one answer he expresses that he doesn’t care about money and is a music artist because he enjoys it. He also accepts that people might find he unapproachable and antagonizing because his strong minded and his approach to succeed in the music industry.
- The article lay-out is divided into two sections, the text and the image. The image on the right page is in the center and fills the frame; you can see every aspect of him, even his toes. Some people would believe that the picture is more dominant but personally I believe that it isn’t because the text is interesting and you get to understand GZA a little bit.
- The magazine article is similar to the style of the magazine cover. They share the same colour scheme; Pink, Black and White. The also use the house font that doesn’t change throughout the magazines life.
Masthead
My magazine needs a masthead that stays in the mind of the reader I have thought of 6 magazine names and what I believe of them.
1. Back to beatz – This is a title what you could use for any genre of music because every music has a beat, but it reminds me of a “Hip Hop” or “RnB” magazine. It does sound like a professional vibe about it.
2. My Music – This masthead makes the readers feel in control of what they are reading, as its address as them. It doesn’t have a great feel about it though.
3. Bass – I could see this as my magazine title because its short and sweet, and is commonly recognized as my target audience and what music they like (Bass music). Another great feature of this being my masthead it doesn’t have a specific genre it could be aimed at.
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5. Vision – This would stay in the mind of the reader because it’s a unique title, it stands out but, isn’t a great title but it’s not the worst. The word vision give a reader the impression that maybe they could expect to use their imagination or they could expect to be inspired.
6. Anthem – Commonly known as something great and something worthwhile will convince first time readers to keep reading as its special and unique. But the name is old fashion and wouldn’t stick in my mind personally, for this reason I don’t think I will use this name
Personally I liked 3 and 4 but couldn’t chose so I made a single question and asked my target audience which the like best. I asked the same 20 I gave the questionnaire too.
1. For a magazine, what title do you believe is the best?
- Bass – A stylish title which is recognized all over the UK and Europe
Or
- Prestige – A classy high quality word making readers feel important and wanted.
Bass received – 12 Votes
Prestige received – 8 Votes
After research my magazine masthead will be Bass♪
I now need to select a font for my bass title, I will look at four different fonts.
1. Lobster
2. Harabara
3. Amsterdam Graffiti
4. Pincoya Black
I have four very different and unique masthead fonts; I could use any of them. But personally I believe the fourth one is the best (Pincoya black) it has a professional look about it. Another good feature about number four is that it would be easy to edit i.e. the colour.
Front cover
Contents Page
Front cover
Contents Page
