Research

Prezi 

I have created a timeline of music magazines using prezi. By doing this is has widened my knowledge and understanding of the history of music magazines and how they have been adapted over the years. This will help me in the planning of my own music magazine as I can see how the conventions of a specific genre are portrayed to the target audience.

This is my prezi:

Initial Audience Research 

I conducted some initial audience research by making a survey using surveymonkey.com. I asked 5 questions using a variety of multiple choice answers and some that required a personal answer. My intentions of creating this survey and pushing it out is to find out what sort of music magazines people will be interested in and what would entice them to buy one, whilst it being quick and easy for them to complete. After completing my survey I posted the link to both my facebook and twitter page to get responses. This allowed me to asks people of all ages, however it does not guarantee that people of all ages will respond. Using this particular website will be really handy for me as it's quick and easy to summarise as it analysed the results for me, this saved me a lot of time that I spent completing my preliminary task.  

Moodboards and Podcast

I have created four A3 mood boards each made up of different genres portraying a diverse range of music magazines, as a part of research in the build up to producing my own music magazine. I made these moodboards to show the lifestyle of the audience, the cover page, contents page and double page spread of different music magazines as well as the house style and colour scheme. I chose to make a Classical mood board, a Rock mood board, a Hip-hop mood board and a Pop mood board, although for my final music magazine I hope to construct a Rock and Roll magazine, this task will allow me to broaden my knowledge and understand the codes and conventions used within each particular genre of music magazine, so I'll then know what to steer clear of.

The Classical Mood Board - This mood board shows how basic Classical music magazines are, they all use similar colours including red, white and black, suggesting that they don't take risks and play it safe as their audience know what they like, also because classical music is aimed at and older audience the colouring is more basic as the audience are more sophisticated and mature. The images used on the front of classical magazines are usually of women, however there are a few examples when a male is used. The pictures on the front cover usually use one image with the person being depicted using direct mode of address, this is to make the reader feel as though they're being spoken to and is more welcoming. I found that the majority of these magazines used Serif fonts for their masthead suggesting the style of music is of an older style as many magazines now a days use San-serif fonts. 

The Rock Mood Board - This mood board shows how Rock magazines employ the use of dark colours, which reflects the mood of most rock music. The majority of the images used on the front cover depict male artitsts or bands using direct mode of address, this is to invite the audience into the magazine. Very few Rock magazines employ a female as their cover image as the genre of music is dominated by males. There has been a shift in their target audience and this is shown through the older magazines using a serif font whereas the newer editions use sans serif.

The R&B/Hip-Hop mood board - The R&B/Hip-hop magazines tend to use colours such as Red, Yellow and Blue which is a lot lighter than those of Rock magazines which suggest they're more inviting for a reader. The use of the colour red connotes the more dangerous side to the artists as they have a representation of being rebellious. There are more females associated with this genre of music than rock therefore more magazines use females as their cover image although it's still dominated by males. All mastheads are bold and clear for the audience and use san serif fonts which suggest the target audience is quite young and modern. The mis-en-scene of the images consists a lot of the artists wearing gold chains which is iconographic to the R&B/Hip-hop genre and shows the more glamorous/bling side to the genre. The women tend to be sexually objectified by being dressed in little clothing.

The Pop mood board - The Pop magazines use the brightest colours out of all the previous mood boards I have created, this is because their target demographic are young children from the ages of about 11-15. We can further identify the demographic as being girls because the high use of pink for the mastheads and coverlines. The pop music industry is the music industry where there are as many female artists as males therefore, the magazine cover images are usually either. The use of males attracts young girls that are 'in love' with these boys that are usually depicted using direct mode of address, this encourages the younger audience to spend their disposable income on it because they think they're being acknowledged by the artists. The use of females attract young girls and some times boys, as the girls aspire to be like the female artists and look up to them, where as the boys will buy them because they think they're pretty.

Podcast - To accompany my four genre mood boards, I have created a podcast summarising my findings and views on the ways in which these genres of magazines are constructed and transmitted to their target audience.

If for any reason this podcast does NOT work please click here to listen to the podcast on soundcloud's website

Reflection of Survey Monkey Results



My survey monkey, results reveal that the majority of people that took my survey have never bought a music magazine. I asked what would entice them to buy a magazine and a popular response was the inclusion of a free gift such as a CD or Free music Download. Another response was to teach their readers how to improve their own musical skills. I was surprised by the number of people that said the appearance of the magazine was a large contributing factor to why they would buy a music magazine and will definitely focus on the quality and appearance of my own magazine in order for it to appeal to audiences, I will consider adding a free gift, however it may be hard to find something that will fit with the genre and the target audience. R&B/Hip Hop proved to be the most popular genre of music magazine that the sample chose, although I have not decided to go with this genre as there are already several magazines of this genre, instead I have decided to go with a less popular genre of magazine that is Rock and Roll, this is because I feel like there is currently minimal competition for music magazines of this genre. The survey showed that no one will pay more then £4.00 for a music magazine and they'd prefer to pay between £1.01 and £2.49, I think I'll be able to push this price slightly higher to around £2.69/£2.79. 79.2% of the people taking my survey found out latest releases and chart information online, however I wont be focusing on mainstream new releases and charts but instead reminding audience of music from the past and the influences on it today and possibly similar artists about today to artists at the height of Rock and Roll in the 50's and 60's.
However, by using this method I was unable to target the demographic that I want to, because I pushed this out on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter which tend to be used by the younger generation. My magazine will be aimed at the older target audience which means I may need to use more traditional methods of primary research such as, Post surveys, interviews or emailing the survey.

Case Study Research Essay

To help me with the construction of my own Rock and Roll magazine, I analysed a 'Vintage Rock' front cover, contents page and double page spread, to help me identify and broaden my knowledge of codes and conventions that Rock and Roll magazines follow. Through doing this essay I feel I have a better understanding of Rock and Roll magazines and have withdrawn information that will be vital whilst constructing my own piece.

A link to my Case Study Research Essay:
Case Study Research Essay

Go Animate

I created an animation using 'goanimate.com' to summarise my findings from the analysis of the front page, contents page and double page spread from Vintage Rock. The animation also shows how these finding will influence my own practical work, and if I forget it's a more fun way of reminding myself and will help keep me motivated.

You can view my animation below:

Media Coursework by charlotte.olrod on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Major Institutions Rule - Article

To finalize my research, I have produced an Article with the headline, 'Major Institutions Rule' to demonstrate what I have learned about the major magazine institutions, it's also put into perspective how hard it must be for the smaller institutions to compete with some such as the BBC or IPC Media. 
Link to Major Insitutions Rule Article