Josh Fielding: Media+: Initial Ideas for a Music Magazine

Initial Ideas for a Music Magazine

My chosen genre for my music magazine is at the bottom of this post.

· Target readership is slightly wider than the usual for a music magazine, as it is males between the ages of 16-35. This is because a lot of metal bands have been consistently making albums since the 1980’s (such as Slayer and Cannibal Corpse), who still have a large amount of fans. Additionally, there are new bands who appeal to the younger generation, and traditionally these are both covered by metal magazines, as only covering one limits the target audience too much to be profitable.
· The style is usually darker than most music magazines and creates a brooding atmosphere. This is because the aesthetic of metal is almost always dark, and often has satanic undertones (or overtones depending on the subgenre).
· The colour scheme is dark, and predominantly uses black with white for text, and washed out colours to highlight feature articles and the mast head.
· A metal magazine’s articles would mainly be about new albums from artists, either reviews or features. There would not be any gossip, as metal fans are not interested in it. Articles may also cover older albums, either to talk about what made them successful, compare them to newer material from the same artist, or to review how well it has held up over the years.
· The font is usually quite Gothic in order to fit with the dark theme.

· The target readership for a rock magazine is younger than that of a metal magazine, and it can also be aimed at both males and females between the ages of 16-25. This is because many modern rock bands are focused on their image as much as their music, which appeals to younger people more than older people.
· The style is usually very bright, to create an exciting tone to the magazine. Almost all of the material covered in a rock magazine is new, so the exciting tone links to and reflects this.
· The colour scheme is usually very bright for a music magazine. A common colour scheme is white or light grey for the backgrounds, black for the body of text, and red for mast head, titles, and highlighting. Red is often used as it as multiple meanings, it can either be love or passion, or it can be danger, or excitement.
· The articles in a rock magazine are almost all about something new, whether that be a new artist, or a new album from an already famous artist. Older material is almost never covered outside of “special edition” magazines, as new material is what sells.
· The font in a rock magazine is mainly simple, perhaps with more exciting fonts for the mast head or the titles of articles. This is because the tone is mainly set with the colour scheme, so the font is kept simple so it is easier to read.

· The target audience for a pop magazine is usually quite young, to reflect the age group that pop music is aimed at. This is usually males and females between the ages of 14-21, perhaps more toward females than males. This is because pop music traditionally uses techniques that are pleasant to listen to, such as generic chord sequences, and younger people are less likely to be bored by this, compared to other age groups.
· The style is usually very exciting, to fit the almost flamboyant atmosphere that modern pop music artists convey.
· The colour scheme uses a myriad of colour in order to seem exciting, so colours like red or blue are sometimes used as background colours, with text in either black or white. The mast head and feature article titles could be any colour, but it usually fits in with the colours used in the rest of the magazine.
· The articles are always about new artists or albums in a pop magazine, as older albums are no longer popular, and do not appeal to the audience who would potentially buy a music magazine.
· The font in a pop magazine can vary from ‘incredibly eye-catching but hard to read’ to ‘very easy to read’.