We think music magazines are popular because...

We think music magazines are popular because

• Articles with musicians

In my opinion, articles with musicians is one of the key reason people buy music magazines, as this sort of information is less likely to be found on the internet than other information included in magazine such as tour dates and CD’s on the market. I think music articles have become so popular as they present a personal side to the artist that their music and other media doesn’t always show. However there is a large difference between the sorts of articles found in different genres, showing different sides of the artist lives, as artists of different genres present themselves differently. NME and TOTP both do this as they have different audiences to attract and these audiences are attracted by different things.

For example in the TOTP 4^th December 2012 issue there is an article on Little Mix, but interestingly it doesn’t focus on the music aspect of the band at all, the whole article is devoted to party dilemmas and tips. This refers to the ‘Cult of Celebrity’ theory where celebrities’ are more famous for being famous -and therefore getting sponsors jobs and other commitments- rather than a talent eg. being a singer or sport player.  This however is completely different with the Jake Bugg article in the 17^th December issue of NME where it is clearly centred around the musicians aspect.

In the 17^th December issue of NME, there is an article about Jake Bugg which is significantly focusing on his arrogant, yet truthful opinions which seem to voice what most indie/rock audiences are thinking. These opinions would not be able to be voiced anywhere else and therefore fans would this article is a glimpse into his true identity.  Equally the Little Mix article does this on a slightly less personal scale as it reveals their ‘Party secrets’, however due to the audience being young teenage girls who are  more focused on being entertained than educated, the content doesn’t delve into serious personal information.

I have come to the conclusion that due to the recent sudden increase of the use of the internet and advanced technology in everyday life, websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have become very popular. This consequently means that artists now have a quick and easy way to connect with their fans and give them an insight to their lives, and once more these websites are free to access where as magazine have to be paid for. But then again you come across the argument that it just more enjoyable to read a magazine that’s laid out professionally in a way that would attract the reader and keep them interested.

Magazines use marketing techniques to keep the reader engaged and entertained and make them want to buy the magazine, and they do this by using the uses and gratification theories. For example in both the Jake Bugg article and the Little Mix article the title are references to songs of that genre, the Jake Bugg one titled ‘The times they are a-changing’ is referring to a Bob Dylan song about civil rights and Bob Dylan used his music to get his opinion out and try and change things, which is what Jake Bugg is attempting to do to the music industry- clear from his open negative opinions on pop music/The X-Factor. Even though a less intellectual reference, the Little Mix article title ‘How we do party!’ is referencing to a Rita Ora song. Despite the referencing requiring very different levels of intelligence, when the audience recognise the reference they feel proud and contented, and they relate this feeling with reading the magazine, making them want to read it/buy it again. This is feeding of the uses and gratification theory of reading/watching the media to feel educated.

To conclude articles with musicians are very central parts to a magazine as it gives them variation from what free e-media on the internet can provide. It helps the audience to create their own identity and relate to the artists, as well as create relationships with other people or sharing the same interests and knowledge and giving them information to start conversations with. This also relates the educational aspect where readers feel like they are being educated by the magazines articles. Last but not least it entertains the reader helping them to escape from the problems and stress of the outside world, and this is the key aspect to why people by magazines.

Question 2

Some have suggested that music magazines are generally aimed at male readers. To what extent would you agree with this? Provide examples to support your views.

On the whole I agree that music magazines are typically aimed at males, however there is some popular music magazines aimed at females, but they appeal to a much younger audience. For instance one of the most popular music magazines with a typically male audience is Q magazine with 75% of male readers and only 75% female, where as another popular music magazine is Top Of The Pops, which population of readers is mainly female dominated, with 86% female readers, and 14% male. An example of an ‘in-between’ magazine as such is Kerrang, with 57% of male readers and 43% female readers, which statistics show that even though its readership is pretty balanced on the gender side (which may seem strange for a magazine with such a aggressive theme) there is still a bigger percentage of male readers than female.

An example of evidence that Q is intended to appeal to the male gender is its use of red, black and white as its repeating colour scheme. Even though red can be viewed as a unisex colour the shade of red commonly used by Q is harsh and can display connotations of anger and danger, and black and white are binary opposites which creates contrasting atmosphere which you wouldn’t find in a female music magazine. Also the front cover typically includes an unsexualised image of a male, which would attract the male audiences. Interestingly, if there is a female on the cover they are always sexualised and viewed more as an object than a artist, and are generally viewed from the chest area up, different to the normal close up of the face when a male is on the cover. This highlights that the magazine is not aimed towards females because if they were to see this image it would not attract them to read the magazine, it also may make them angry at the magazines objectification of women. The front cover also contains aggressive imagery and the main artist commonly sports a sombre expression, all of which attracts the male audience. The font is being bold and ‘straight’ with no elaborate fonts is viewed is viewed as a more ‘male’ type of font and adds to the aggressive atmosphere.

Kerrang magazine could attract more of a female audience because even though it has frequent use of swearing and aggressive language and imagery which is usually viewed as a male trait, its images of males can be viewed as attractive to people of the female gender due to their ‘bad boy, rockstar’ image. The images aren’t as objectified as they are for women for example in Q, but there are still presented as more attractive than the sombre close up images of men in Q.  Not objectifying men is important because the magazine is also meant to appeal majorly to men as well. The fonts commonly used have a distressed style and there is common use of harsh words such as ‘warped’ which again implies it is directed towards males as they are looked upon as the more aggressive, violent gender, There is offers of poster which is viewed as typically used by female to demonstrate their loyalty to a music act. Kerrang magazine colour theme is also typically harsh colours such as blue, which symbolic sign and generally portrays male connotations.

Finally an example of a mainly female oriented magazine, Top of The Pops. This is one of the few music magazine aimed at females, but it has a noticeably younger audience than the other two magazines mentioned, possibly because as the females get older they transfer to the internet as there source of information, also priorities their money spending for other things (i.e clothes). Interestingly there is still sexualisation in this magazine particularly when males are on the cover since half of their success in music is based on looks, and the other half on music, unlike the rock genre when the success is mainly due to just the music.

To conclude male magazines are generally aimed at 20-30 year old male readers due to them being the most common demographic for buying music magazine.

Question 3

So, Conde Nast, I believe you are looking into expanding your publishing asses and venturing into the music magazine business? Well look no further because I have the solution perfect for you! My brand new rock/indie music magazine RED is guaranteed to be flying of the shelves and completely thrash and current competitors such as NME, and with your help I am extremely confident that we will not only reach but NME’s readership of 23,00 but also beat t by 7000 more copies!

Title
So why RED I hear you ask? Let me explain; being a rock/indie magazine appeal to a wide range of people, especially the most common demographic for purchasing music magazines, 20-30 yr old males. This guarantees our magazine to be a hit! In my opinion and most likely the audiences, the adjective RED displays connotations of anger and danger, perfectly suiting the image of the magazine. The bold, capital letters also enhance the aggressive atmosphere.
House Style
I believe with our combined efforts it may be possible to create an instantly recognisable magazine and make it famous world wide, a Nobel prize in the music press terms. Using techniques used by world renowned magazine VOGUE, such as placing the front cover image on top of the masthead to imply that it is so famous it need no introducing. I will also have a repeating colour scheme of black, white and red to ensure consistency between the articles and help its 'instantly recognisable' status

Regular Features
My magazine shall contain regular features such as ‘Top Ten…’ ‘arena reviews’ ‘up and coming artists’, social media shoutouts/competitions and many more to enable the reader to establish a connection to the magazine and become a loyal customer. With interesting and unique gimmicks such a social media shoutout and competitions (I will explain them in a minute) it is a definite possibility that we could overtake NME and become the leading music magazine in the UK! Now, what are social media shoutouts I hear you cry! I shall explain, the shoutout is a feature of RED that will appear at the bottom of each page in the magazine, which basically consist of readers tweets followed with the hashtag #Redmagazine, which they can tweet from there twitter account and (depending on the number of pages) a certain amount of tweets will be randomly picked from the hashtag (#Redmagazine) search.

Target Audience
Being a rock/indie magazine RED appeals to a large selection of 20-27 year old males who are the most common demographic for buying music magazines, making it a perfect asset to begin your journey into the scary industry of music magazines. 20-27 year olds are common users of social networking sites therefore making the social media shoutouts a suitable feature. This will encourage consumers to buy the magazine so they are able to see if there tweet managed to get in the magazine! Also it provides free publicity for the magazine, as useful asset for a recently launched magazine.

Why do music fans buy magazines instead of getting the information of the internet?

A music magazine is a magazine centred around the music industry, including a variety of articles about important happenings in the music industry. Music magazines typically include:

• Reviews of albums/artists/concerts/songs, both famous and undiscovered.
• Important music news
• Posters of bands/artists
• Interviews with people associated with the music industry
• Exclusive photo-shoots
• Gossip about bands/artists
• Information on upcoming music events

People buy music magazine for the interesting, (generally assumed to be) quality articles about their favourite band or reviews new album that has just been released. The main controversy centred around buying music magazines is why people don’t just get the information of the internet where it is easily accessible and free? The magazine/print industry is under a lot of strain because of the ever-increasing popularity of social media and the Internet where all the information normally included in a magazine is available at a click of a mouse, free of charge. Also with the majority of the population constantly using smart phones with Internet access, you can also access the information on the go, just like you could with magazines.

Reason music fans would prefer to buy a magazine rather than find the information on the Internet:

• The design of a magazine is more attractive and appealing, instead of reading a whole lot of text placed in a standard fashion the magazine is strategically placed to look interesting and make the reader want to read it.
• Reading a printed magazine seems like a more enjoyable activity than looking the same information on Google. Surfing the web is very common activity in most people’s lives and most jobs require using the computer and the Internet, so reading all the information from a magazine differs from the normal task of using the web which is generally viewed as a tedious, bland activity.
• Also magazines provide all sort of information all in one place, so instead of having to search around, you only have to open the magazine and all the information you want is at your availability
• Since you have to pay for magazines it is generally assumed that you are reading good-quality information and it is not just any joe bloggs writing there opinion.
• Writing article in print press has more legal rules about the truthfulness and reliability of the information being said, so is therefore assumed to be more believable than a blog on the Internet, which doesn’t have as many legal restrictions.
• Being a dedicated music fan, buying the same magazine each month or week can bring satisfaction to the consumer that they have continued to be loyal to the magazine. Also there is an attraction for fans of a certain musical artist or band to buy a magazine purely because it contains information or and article about them, maybe because they feel they need to prove there dedication to the person(s).
• Finally the Internet doesn’t have the added bonus of posters to stick on your wall, due to it being a purely on screen experience.

It is solely the preference of the consumer as to whether they would like to buy a magazine or read it on a digital device, but unless people are in a very comfortably well-off, buying a magazine seem like a expensive option when you can get it for free on the internet.

Cover Analysis

Taylor Swift

Can’t Be Tamed (Music Video) Review

Today I will review the music video ‘Can’t Be Tamed’ by Miley Cyrus. The whole video has a very eerie, spooky fell to it, relating to the lyrics of the video, and departs from Miley Cyrus younger ‘Hannah Montana’ image, while saying with the usual pop genre. It is aimed at the age range of teenagers, and t is unlikely that any parent of pre teen fans of Disney Miley, would bar them child from watching this. The video includes very provocative clothing and actions, again showing a more adult, grown up Cyrus, but still with a (old) teenage vibe. The theme of ‘Cant be tamed’ centres around Miley being a species of a aggressive, exotic animal being unveiled, representing her unveiling of her new, older, raunchy image. The song is a massive contrast to another of her recent songs ‘When I Look At You’ which displays her as a innocent young g girl, very unlike the rebellious appearance she portrays in this new video. The black feathers outfit she wears in the majority of her video, as well as her dark, dramatic make up also enhance this. There is a clip of Cyrus with displaying a more natural look, a big contrast to the other scenes, implying to fans of her previous image that she hasn’t fully gone. Overall this songs tune may be similar to her previous work, but the lyrics and video are a very dramatic change.