For my research I began looking into the different music genres covered by magazines and identify the types of magazines which focus on specific genres.
Kerrang!
Genre: rock, punk
Audience: young adults, rock music fans, teenagers
- the magazine has a bold masthead in a smashed font which is the font associated with Kerrang. This helps the magazine be easily identified.
- the magazine is laid out so the magazine is eye catching. The feature image is in the middle draws the attention to this area of the magazine and so the contents of the magazine are placed here.
- plenty of colour and pictures of people related to the contents has been used. This appeals to the younger audience as they will be more intrigued by the visual aspect rather than wanting to read layers of text on the cover.
- pictures have replaced words and any text used are short words instead of sentences to appeal to the right audience.
- the magazine has a bold masthead in a smashed font which is the font associated with Kerrang. This helps the magazine be easily identified.
- the magazine is laid out so the magazine is eye catching. The feature image is in the middle draws the attention to this area of the magazine and so the contents of the magazine are placed here.
- plenty of colour and pictures of people related to the contents has been used. This appeals to the younger audience as they will be more intrigued by the visual aspect rather than wanting to read layers of text on the cover.
- pictures have replaced words and any text used are short words instead of sentences to appeal to the right audience.
Q
Genre: indie, alternative
Audience: younger adults, indie fans
- the feature image used is quite provocative which helps indicate the magazine is trying to appeal to maybe older teenagers or young adults. Lady Gaga is considered to be quirky and different which is what Q represents so her being the feature image helps keep Q's in house style.
- a variety of different fonts have been used on the magazine, some are larger than others, some are bold whilst others are in italics. This helps the magazine look more eye catching and encourages the audience to pick a copy up.
- the language is short and snappy which helps the magazine get the point across quickly and appeal to the target audience. Using 'Jimi Hendrix' as one of the artists spoken about in the cover lines helps to show the target audience is older as younger generations wouldn't recognise the name.
- the feature image used is quite provocative which helps indicate the magazine is trying to appeal to maybe older teenagers or young adults. Lady Gaga is considered to be quirky and different which is what Q represents so her being the feature image helps keep Q's in house style.
- a variety of different fonts have been used on the magazine, some are larger than others, some are bold whilst others are in italics. This helps the magazine look more eye catching and encourages the audience to pick a copy up.
- the language is short and snappy which helps the magazine get the point across quickly and appeal to the target audience. Using 'Jimi Hendrix' as one of the artists spoken about in the cover lines helps to show the target audience is older as younger generations wouldn't recognise the name.
NME
Genre: indie, rock, alternative
- the feature image is on the right hand side of the magazine to make room for additional cover lines along the left to get the reader to read into the contents of the magazine. The Skins cast being used for the feature image helps represent teenagers as a specific social group as 'party animals' and would help appeal to the target audience more.
- red and yellow have been used which are bold and this helps the reader easily see what is written, also the font is all in upper case exaggerating the text.
- the masthead isn't as obvious here and is surrounded by features and additional photos which helps show it's target audience as the magazine is intending to be eye catching and snappy. Also, Skins is in a larger font than the title of the magazine as the target audience would understand that it is considered 'cool' to watch that specific TV show.
Top Of The Pops
Audience: teenagers, younger children (10 -13), mainly females
- bold colours have been used to help indicate the magazine is appealing to children and new teens.
- The feature image is placed directly in the middle of the magazine, with any contents or additional information around the outside. The use of Justin Beiber helps to show the magazine appeals much more to younger girls as he is considered to be a 'pop icon' for the younger girls in the world.
- The feature image is placed directly in the middle of the magazine, with any contents or additional information around the outside. The use of Justin Beiber helps to show the magazine appeals much more to younger girls as he is considered to be a 'pop icon' for the younger girls in the world.
- the layout is simple with plenty of pictures along the bottom alongside text to help encourage the reader to read what is inside the magazine.
- the language used is simple and short to help appeal to the younger audience as well as the use of the bubble styled font (almost similar to comic sans) which is usually used by younger children.
I would be competing with a magazine similar to Q and NME as the music genres they have based their magazine on are the ones I would base mine on. Both these magazines are focusing on the same music genre and I can see that they both contain the same elements such as snappy text, bold colours and fonts and cover lines.
