MAGAZINESKey Concepts

Codes and ConventionsWhat do we expect from a music magazine? – what do they contain:

Here you should discuss the main findings from your SPR. There are 3 areas that I have been discovering and exploring in the past couple of weeks to help me understand wheat I need to do for my own music magazine that will make it look professional and realistic. These are:

1. Front Cover – possibly the most important part of the magazine because that is what the audience sees first and depending on the attractiveness of it will depend on whether they actually rummage around inside their pockets to find some change.

Aspects of the front cover are:• Masthead• Cover lines• Images (Full bleed, other)• Plugs• Barcode• Price• Featured Articles• Fonts• Colours• Issue Number/date• Logo

3. Contents page – less important perhaps than the front cover, but it’s a good sign that the readers are interested if

they’re looking at the contents page. The contents is important because if the articles and the layout are not suitable or to the

likeness of the reader, then its not going to sell.Aspects of the contents page are:

• The layout (is it clear? Precise?• Colours (house colour scheme? Continous?)

• Articles (correspond to the front cover? Interesting?)• Plugs

• Images• Text

• Issue Number• Logo

• Editor’s note• Page numbers

2. The double page spread – this usually consists of full bleed images and lots of text. Questions and answers, interviews, facts etc.

Double page spreads are typically of the featured artist(s) on the front cover.

Aspects of a double page spread:• Good images of the artist(full bleed, interesting,

appropriate for that genre)• Text

• Colours• Questions/Answers?

• Facts• Title

• Page number• Interesting background?

• Logo possibly somewhere• Pull quotes

AudienceMagazines are there for four reasons (Uses and gratifications theory). There are there to:

•Education – magazines are meant to educate us, give us inside knowledge that other people may not have. This will the reader feel knowledgeable and make them feel like they have something to impress people with. Types of information they might gain are upcoming artists, albums, songs, festival and gigs and unlimited items. •Personal Identity- magazines can help us build our personalities, as we can find out what we like, what we don’t like, what inspires etc. •Social Interaction- because magazines help to build and form our personalities, it also gives us an opportunity to seek out others like us. There may be a festival or online forum/blog featuring the artist you’re interested, and of course, then you’ll find other people interested in the same thing. This way we create new relationships with new people. •Entertainment- lastly, the most obvious reason that magazines are still read is for entertainment, they are a source of escapism for some people, a chance to duck out of their stressful lives, if only for a short while.

I think people still read magazine despite there being access to similar material on the internet because there are a lot of people

out there who still prefer tradition to modernity, some people may not be able to get their head around technology, some people don’t have technology e.g. Mobile phones that always have access to the

internet, but also because some people prefer to flick through a tangible copy rather than tapping a screen.

Representation:The genre of music that I am going to presenting in my music magazine MM (Music Matters) is Alternative Rock. There are aspects of this genre around in magazines but not enough.

Artists

Queen

Radiohead

Imagine Dragons

The FrayKings of

LeonColdplay

Starship

Nickelback

Kaiser Chiefs

Awards:Award Winning Artist

Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

Radiohead

Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

Coldplay

Teen Choice Awards for Choice Rock Song

Imagine Dragons

New Rock Artist of the Year

The Fray

Representation:Album Covers:

Iconography:

• Alternative Rock bands usually started off as unknowns, and gradually their success

was due to word of mouth.• This type of genre is well renowned for it’s

rejection of ‘mainstream’s success. • Alternative rock lyrics tend to address

topics of social concern, such as drug use, depression, suicide, and environmentalism

•Typical instruments include vocals, electric guitar, bass, drums and keyboard.

• Alternative Rock videos generally have a darker colour palette to that of a pop music video, with a more serious plot and setting,

but often with a clip from a live music performance (this will give the viewer an

idea of what the artist is like live, encourages them to go and see them)

Representation:Attitudes:

Alternative Rock artists are sometimes very serious characters, with some having serious background behind them. A lot of Alternative Rock acts do not like the idea of becoming ‘mainstream’ as their aim is to be individual and not to get ‘roped in with the X Factor sh*te’ – As indie singer Jake Bugg said in an interview it’s “my job to keep that X Factor cr*p out of the charts!”However, unlike Hard Rock artists, they aren’t so aggressive and do not use the same language, facial expressions or body language as those associated with hard rock.

Clothing:

Alternative Rock can range from anything, jeans, t shirts etc, though Alternative Rock artists probably won’t resemble the same appearance as heavy rock artists e.g. Skulls, slashed clothing etc

Institution: How do magazine publishers make money? How are they attempting to retain

audiences? What business models are used to ensure a sustained audience? What are some of the magazine’s wider assets – TV, radio, awards, stages etc.

•There are two ways magazines make money:1) The money they receive from the customers actually buying the magazines; of course

as circulation and readership increase, so will the interest in magazine consumption. 2) The second way is the most profitable, and that is making millions from advertising. It

costs thousands and thousands of pounds to put an advert in a magazine, and of course it’s not just going to be the one advert, you want at least two featured, and not just in one issue.

Magazines attempt to keep the audiences interested by:1) Having different but attrractive covers2) Introducing new and current famous singers3) Interviews with these acts4) Freebies5) News and Gossip6) Unclassified information being shown7) Links to social media and the internet8) Reviews9) Merchandise10)Much more but these a few of the main ones

Institution (cntd) Some magazines like to take it further than just the glossy pages of

a magazine. Some music magazines have expanded their industry into the following:

1. Stages and events at gigs and festivals

2. Radio Stations (e.g. Kerrang!)

3. Merchandise Shops (e.g. NME, Q)

4. TV / adverts(e.g. Kerrang! NME TV)

• These business models are important very effective because they are everywhere. For example, most people own a television set, and so will be able to see the TV adverts morning noon and night, through advert breaks at breakfast or lunch or especially in the evening when it’s prime time as most people settle down to watch a film. Most people can also access the internet through mobile phones or other methods of technology, and so they can view the merchandise almost anywhere. Radio station are the same, can access them from phones but particularly when driving in a vehicle. Stages have been set up and are owned deliberately by music brands so that when the time for gigs and festivals roll around, there is a competition to display the best line of performers so your target audience will be encouraged to buy tickets for your stage and your line up. This constant ‘being’ will help develop a further interest and relationship between company and reader.