Main Task : Music Magazine - Research

My Main task is to create a music Magazine to start my research i will look at Music Genre

MUSIC GENRE

The genres i have chosen are Rock /pop. The Key Features of Rock music are electric guitars ,bass guitars , drums , keyaboards rock has a significant impact on worldwide fashion and film styles the impact has been positive and facilitating chrity events (live Aid /Live Earth) . The key features of Pop music are that it it stands in contrast to classical music and traditional music and consists of a number of sub genres including pop rock and dance-pop.

The Different Genres Of Today's Music

• Indie
• Pop
• Rock
• Electro
• Dance
• Rave
• Alternative

To find the correct genres for my magazine i have included a list of popular music in the pop and rock charts as well as 10 artists from my own music.

Current Pop Chart

1. Lily Allen - The Fear
2. Lady GaGa featuring Colby ODonis - Just Dance
3. Tinchy Stryder featuring Taio Cruz - Take Me Back
4. Eminem featuring Dr Dre & 50 Cent - Crack A Bottle
5. Alesha Dixon - Breathe Slow
6. Kid Cudi versus Crookers - Day N Nite
7. James Morrison featuring Nelly Furtado - Broken Strings
8. Daniel Merriweather - Change
9. Beyonce - Single Ladies
10. Kevin Rudolf featuring Lil Wayne - Let It Rock

The Current singles chart doesnt really give me alot of information on the genres i have chose and the only artists i can see that would fit the genre well are James Morrison featuring Nelly Furtado - Broken Strings, Daniel Merriweather - Change, Beyonce - Single Ladies, Lily Allen - The Fear.

Current Rock Singles Chart

1. Muse - Feeling
2. Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody
3. Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
4. Kid Rock - All Summer Long
5. Nickelback - Rockstar
6. Linkin Park - What I've Done
7. Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
8. Guns n' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
9. Goo Goo Dolls Iris/ Stay With You
10. Queen - Dont Stop Me Now

The majority of the current rock charts are older rock songs being downloaded off the internet and the only new song actually in the chart is Nickelback - Gotta Be Somebody , this shows that the majority of rock music fans prefer older bands compared to the newer bands.

My Music

1. Beck
2. Foo Fighters
3. Cold War Kids
4. Feeder
5. Red Hot chili peppers
6. Duffy
7. MGMT
8. The Killers
9. Jack Johnson
10. Kasier cheifs

From my musical taste i have realised that its very male orientated with the only female being Duffy as well as that MGMT and Cold War Kid are New Music although all of them i would say except for Cold war kids are main stream music within the pop and rock music genres, Kaiser Cheifs and The Killers are Indie and Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers are Rock and Beck and MGMT are Alternative Pop/ Rock.

Q Magazine covers these genres so i will be focussing heavily on the magazine for ideas and using it in my research often.A feature that ties in with their audinece expectations is the Q50 which gives you fifty tracks that Q magazine has selected as the best of that month. as its a regular feature people bying the magazine will see this as part of the identity of Q magazine.

Now that I have found the genres i can now find my target audience. I want my Target audience to be Males and Females between the age of 16 to 23 who have an interest in new music and rock music.So in Order to keep the female audience i will have to Include in My Magazine Female Content.
I have created a Questionairre to make sure i am right about my target audinece by targeting what i believe my magazines target audience is i will get a Difinitive answe to the genre I need.

Here is The Questionairre:

my results are that



Music magazines

As i said earlier that i would look at music magazines inparticular Q magazine which fits into my chosen genres exactly.

Q Magazine

Q magazine started being published in 1986 in the UK and showed higher standard of photogrpahy and printing. the magazine uses a star system to rate albums and singles ,every other month along with its sister magazine also owned by bauer have a specail edition magazine about musical times, genres or important musicians. a usual feature is the Q50 wihcih i have mentioned earlier in my Research.

Front Covers and double page spreads

this front cover from a recent issue is still the same conventional style of every q magazine in that it has a bold picture the Q logo in a red box in the top left corner , bold fonts and plugs describing whats inside the issue.

here is an earlier issue from 2002 the main difference is there are no boxes round the text and the font is more spreaded around the page

the same applies to this though this one has many more plugs and a much bolder font with an outline the cover is cramped but there is still some blank space around the image.

the new look Q magazines double page spread as shown above and below consist of one page with the image and the other with the text the page with the text has alot of blank space.

As i researched further i looked at music Videos for inspiration for The mastheads and the photographs I found Justice D.A.N.C.E which i think is a good way to show fonts and express meaning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49esza4eiK4

I will use the basic ideas of this video in my magazine to express the music genres i have chosen