Research-Music Magazine

Research

Both these magazines are aimed at people that like rock music or metal. The front covers use bright colours that contrast together to make the magazine stand out. The pictures used are of bands or band members that are well known for the rock music, also they are pictures of the main story in the magazine. The font used on the front covers are very grim and edgy. This gives the magazine a sense of danger and attracts its target audience better.

The contents pages have been created to highlight the pictures more and to make the target audience want to look at the pictures and identify the bands better. The content carries on with the theme colours as well making sure the audience are still interested all the way through. 

Furthermore on the front cover both have got competition entries or merchandise offers that are available. By the magazines showing these offers on the front page it entices the target audience to buy the magazine so they can get the offers. Moreover where the merchandise is advertised it takes up over a quarter of the page so it shows this is one of there main strengths in selling the magazine. 

On both magazines the main cover line is about the main band the magazine has covered that week. By doing this it shows the popular band and it means they are able to use persuasive writing to draw the readers in. With the other cover lines they are made to stand out in either saturated boxes or they use the same colour as the main title. by doing this it shows what else is on offer in the magazine and it also shows that all the other bands are still just as important as the main story.
With the content pages, the text is the smallest part. Although the text is important, it is the smallest because they have so much to pack it. Also the readers wont take much notice of the text they will mainly scan it and look for the information they need. By keeping the text small they are able to enhance the pictures and interest the reader more. On the content page it is more about how it is all laid out instead of the design. The theme is simple, still making sure it attracts the readers attention but also gets its point across without distraction.

Overall these magazine represent their themes well and they portray the music genre through colour and pictures. When creating my magazine I need to make sure I am able to do this so that the reader is clear on what the magazine is about and so I attract the right target audience. I need to make sure I have a lot of pictures to show and that the type of text I use keeps to the theme as well. 

To help with my research I created a questionnaire to find out how many people buy magazines and how often they do. Once I had created it I handed it out to 30 people and recorded the responses. I found that no matter the age range, not many people are buying magazines at the moment because of the internet availability. If people where buying the magazines it was mainly the genre of rock that was bought. This i found positive because this is the genre my magazine will be designed as. Furthermore, in the final question the main answer tended to be bands. This answer will help me the most because it will help with the design of my magazine and what to include in the production. 

Magazine Questionnaire

This questionnaire will help design a new magazine with a genre of metal and rock. 

Please circle one of the answers for each question.

1-   Age?

a.   13-16

b.   17-20

c.    21-25

d.   26+

2-   Do you read magazines?

a.   Yes

b.   No

3-   If yes, how often?

a.   Everyday

b.   Once a week

c.    Once a Month

d.   Rarely

4-   What genre of music do you look for?

a.   Pop

b.   Rock

c.    Rap

d.   Indie

e.   Classical

5-   What do you look for in a magazine?

a.   Bands

b.   Articles

c.    Merchandise

d.   Advertising