Music MagazinesMusic Magazines

The Main Features:

Many music magazines are writing to inform rather than to persuade.

They give readers an insight to what the current news is from the music industry.

There are usually interviews with artists and in some more informal magazines they usually include some ‘gossip’.

In my power point I will show an existing front cover analysed in more depth.

I feel that my music magazine has grasped many existing factors of music magazines.In particular to make my magazine appear more authentic, on the contents page Iincluded a subscription box, whereby it tried to entice the readers to subscribe to themagazine for the reward of a free make-up set, I felt that this was appropriate for thefemale audience. On the front cover I also included a barcode, the price and date of

theIssue, to make the magazine more realistic.Also I have stuck with the tradition of including a free gift, mine happened to be aposter, I think that this would suite my target market as it is age appropriate and theycan still be tempted by such products.The sub headings are relevant to the magazine, as they all have a link with music, forinstance the Brit Awards is a well known event on the music calendar, so it can be seenas quite an important feature.I have used a main feature photo on both the front cover and double page spread, thisis found to be very popular with existing magazines. The photo helps to draw attentionto the magazine, in particular the front cover, this will then create the first impressionwhich is a key factor in trying to persuade the reader to buy the product.

(1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Clear Heading

-This is used to grab the attention of potential readers

Sub Headings

-They are used to give readers an insight to what they can find in the magazine

Free Gifts

- The aim of these are to help entice potential customers to buy the magazine

Main Photo

- The purpose of this is to also draw readers to the magazine as it is usually a celebrity so it makes the magazine seem more prestigious

Headline

- Normally consist of outtakes from the interview with the cover star, to make you want to read the full interview

Case Study Case Study

I chose to analyse this magazine as I feel that it has the most in common with my own music magazine, it has the same target market and it includes the same type of music and features, such as free gifts and gossip.

‘Top Of The Pops’

Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly glossy publication published by BBC Magazines. It features chart information, star gossip, fashion and beauty advice, quizzes, song lyrics and posters. It is a supplementary magazine for the TV show Top of the Pops.

The magazine was first published in February 1995, this means that it has continued to be a success after fifteen years, even though the television programme is no longer on air. However over the recent years there has been major developments in technology, for instance the introduction to internet on mobiles, these developments could have a negative effect on the magazine industry. This could be because people can access all of the latest music news from the comfort of their home, rather than having to go out and buy a hard copy of it.

It is published by the BBC and it is issued monthly at a price of £2.20.

I would say that the magazine is aimed at young female teenagers, this is due to the artists which are included in the magazine and also the colour schemes used.

The genre of this magazine is obviously pop music, this means that the magazine would include a variety of different artists and groups.

Case StudyCase Study

(2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

(4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

After researching existing music magazines, it was clear that there was a lack of Pop magazines, I also noticed that there was a gap in the market for a magazine with more of a female audience. This is because after looking at magazines such as ‘NME’ I found that they were targeted at more Individual music as opposed to everyday sounds.

Therefore my answer to the above question is that I think it would appeal to females of a young age, this is because it has enticements of free posters and includes a ‘Gossip with Georgia’ which sounds quite girly and teenage so to speak.I hoped to include a range of musical genres as I feel that this would help to broaden possible readers, so I included a female ‘pop star’ as the main feature on the front page and I also included on my contents page features such as the live lounge which features acoustic music, this would help entice a different genre of music lovers.I think that the cover photo used helps to create quite a tasteful image, this is due to the position of the model and also her clothes aren’t revealing, which doesn’t give off the wrong impressions to the younger audience.

The front cover uses a variety of fonts and colours, this makes the product eye-catching. The fonts used I feel are clear so it is therefore suitable for the intended audience.