Music magazine questionnaire results

After deciding I wanted to create a pop and R'n'B music magazine, I wanted to find out if this genre of music is more popular with female teenagers or male teenagers so I could design the magazine aimed at the correct target audience. I asked 15 males and 15 females if they mainly listened to chart and R'n'B music and if not, what music style they preferred. Out of the 15 boys that completed my questionnaire, only 5 said that they mainly listen to chart music, with most preferring rock or metal music, whereas 11 out of 15 girls preferred pop and R'n'B music. Therefore I will design and target my magazine at older teenage girls who are interested in this genre of music.
I also asked questions to find out what music magazines were popular with my target audience and what genres of music were catered for in a magazine. 20 out of 30 people questioned said that they did not read a music magazine and of these, 16 said that this was because there was not a magazine for their preferred genre of pop and R'n'B music. This shows that there is quite a large market for a pop and R'n'B magazine although there does not appear to be any in publishing at present. 9 out of 30 people said that they read music magazines such as 'Kerrang' and 'NME' for rock and metal music and 7 of these people were male. This shows that the audience for a pop and R'n'B magazine would mainly consist of older female teenagers and therefore I will design my magazine aimed at this target audience.
I also asked whether my target audience would prefer a male or female artist or band on the cover of the magazine and 21 out of 30 people said that they had no preference between male or female covering artist. I will ask my focus group this question to help me make my final decision.
To find out what else my target audience would like in the magazine I asked whether they would like other features such as fashion or celebrity gossip in the magazine. 15 out of 30 people I asked said no, they would want the magazine to just focus on music and the musical careers of artists, however 6 females said that they would like the magazine to contain features on these areas. I will probably focus my magazine mainly on music, but add in some features on other interests of my target audience such as fashion, film reviews and sport which were common interests shared by the target audience.
I also wanted to find out how my target audience of older teenagers got their music, as this would help in the methods of promoting new music in my magazine. Almost all of the people questionned (19 out of 30) download songs illegally for free with only 11 purchasing CDs or downloads legally. I will try to encourage the readers of my magazine to legally purchase music by offering free itunes vouchers as prizes to make it easy for people to gain access to songs quickly.

Questionnaire for music magazine

I have decided to design and create a pop and R'n'B music magazine as I feeln that there is a lack of music magazines for this genre aimed at older teenagers. After researching music magazines, I found the only pop music magazines I could find were 'Top of the Pops' - aimed at young teenage girls and the American magazine 'Billboard' and R'n'B magazines were even less common.

I created a questionnaire to find out more about music interests of 15-18 year olds which I asked 15 males and 15 females in this age group to complete.


Do you mainly listen to chart and R'n'B music?
Yes/No-please state what type of music you prefer...................................................................

Do you read any music magazines? If so which ones?
Yes.................................../No

Is there a magazine for your favourite music genre? If so which ones?
Yes................................../No

Would you be more likely to buy a music magazine with a male or female artist/band on the cover?
Male/Female/No preference

Would you like a music magazine to contain feautres on other topics such as fashion, celebrity gossip etc?
Yes/No/Not bothered

What are your other interests?
Sport/Fashion/Dancing&acting/Books&films/Other..............................................................

How do you get music?
Buy CDs/Purchase downloads/Download for free

Music magazine moodboard

This is my moodboard for my pop and R'n'B music magazine. I have included various popular artists such as McFLY, The Saturdays and Cheryl Cole from Girls Aloud, as well as R'n'B artists such as Rihanna, Chris Brown and Ne-yo which are popular with both male and female fans. I have also included the 'Hit40UK' logo as people interested in chart music are likely to listen to and be interested in the top 40 music tracks in the UK each week.

Case Study: Top of the Pops magazine

Background and ownership

Top of the Pops magazine is a monthly magazine published by the BBC, which was originally launched to supplement the Top of the Pops television show and continued despite the termination of the TV show in 2006. TOTP was formerly aimed at young teenagers and resembled the 'Smash Hits' magazine but its emphasis on music has gradually shifted to focus more on young girl's lives and interests, resembling more of a stereotypical teenage magazine. The use of slang and informal phrases such as 'Christmas cringes' and 'Joe buffs up' relates to the young audience, as does the short captions inside the magazine accompanying pictures, rather than long articles.

Content and approach to music

TOTP magazine focuses on chart music and mostly features popular artists such as Girls Aloud, McFLY and Rihanna that appeal to young teeangers. However, the magazine's emphasis seems to be more on the appearance and private lives of celebrities rather than their musical talent, reflecting the caption on the cover, 'More gossip! More Scandal!' For example, the cover photo and main interview is of High School Musical stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgen, reflecting on their relationship, with the headline 'Together forever?', encouraging readers to buy the magazine to find the answer. The interview is accompanied by a section where photographs of the couple are analysed and their body language is seen as reflecting the state of their relationship, for example; 'Zac and Vanessa's fingers are interlocked suggesting an intimacy that can't be faked'.

Popular singers such as Jonas Brothers and McFLY are also interviewed in the magazine but are rarely questioned on their music and instead personal questions such as 'Are you single?' are asked to probe into their personal lives and uncover gossip stories beyond their musical careers.
The magazine also contains features on fashion and make-up tips, often resembling stereotypical teeange girl magazines rather than a music magazine and in this issue, Rihanna's make up is used to promote other make up brands to encourage girls to mirror Rihanna's appearance rather than her talent.



Editorial Content: 'opinion leaders' and reader interaction

In TOTP magazine, there are many chances for readers to interact and write in to the magazine by publishing letters from readers including photographs or their opinions on a certain topic. The letter page, run by DJs - JK and Joel allows readers to take part in discussions and express opinions on celebrities and gossip stories which is very different from other music magazines where readers interact by reviewing new music rather than the lives of the music artists.

Promoting the industry

TOTP magazine promotes and gives away prizes that appeal to the young female target audience, such as Nintendo DS games and High School Musical merchandise and promotes certain products and celebrities at times of popularity, for example, High School Musical features in almost every TOTP issue around the time of the film release. Pop singers and groups are also interviewed often when releasing a new single or album, for example Girls Aloud are interviewed in this issue of TOTP following the release of their new album. Nintendo DS is also promoted through this interview as Girls Aloud appear in these advertisements, as the target audience for Nintendo DS and Girls Aloud are likely to overlap. The advertisements in TOTP magazine consist mainly of products expected in stereotypical young teenage girl magazines such as female hygiene and Nintendo DS games, rather than music promotions as expected in a music magazine.
The free gift with this TOTP issue was a tin pencil case with matching stationary, appealing for young girls using this stationary for school. This free gift demonstrates how the emphasis on music for TOTP magazine has shifted to target young girls' interests and now is hardly recognisable as a music magazine.

Analysis of music magazines

Kerrang is a rock magazine, published weekly by Bauer Consumer Media. Its emphasis on certain types of music seems to change quite frequently with popular music trends and it has included music styles such as rock, heavy metal and grunge but more recently has focused on emo and metalcore music. The readership of 'Kerrang' is 60% male and 40% female and the choice of colour, style and male artists on the cover seems to reflect male interests rather than female. Metal and goth music have created subcultural identitys and the style and colour of 'Kerrang' is representative of stereotypical emo and goth fashion which has become more commonly associated with the word 'emo' rather than the music. In recent years, the media has associated emo with being emotional, shy, introverted or depressed and the dark colour scheme of black and red reflects this as well as the serious expressions of the band on the cover. The clothing of the band on the cover is also stereotypical of emo fashion as they have dark styled hair and are dressed in plain black clothes. Even without knowing the name or music of the band, it is obvious what audience they are aimed at, because of their stereotypical emo fashion. The same colours are The band Funeral for a Friend are a well known emo rock band and the use of their name in large lettering on the cover draws attention to them as the main feature which makes it obvious that the magazine is aimed at emo and rock music fans.

'Kerrang' uses words and phrases on the front of the magazine to support the loud and heavy sound associated with metal music, for example, 'Life is Loud' and the name 'Kerrang' refers to the sound of a block chord played on an electric guitar; a loud and abrupt sound to reflect its music genre. The language used on the cover is informal and the use of slang terminology shows that the readership consists mainly of teenagers and young adults. 'Kerrang' specifically targets the emo/goth subculture, presented by its dark colour scheme, style and fashion as worn by the band on the cover.

This is the cover for the weekly pop magazine, 'Billboard'. Although 'Billboard' is an American magazine, it covers popular chart and new music releases in various countries in print and on the web. This magazine cover contains a wider range of colour than 'Kerrang', immediately targeting a different audience from the emo or goth subculture and its use of dark colours on the cover. The readership of 'Billboard' is male and female young adults, however this particular issue seems to target female readers as the main use of text colour used is purple, a stereotypical female colour. The main photograph of the page is of Miley Cyrus, a pop singer/actress, popular mostly in America, showing that the main focus of the magazine is on American artists and chart hits. Miley Cyrus is pulling a silly but her expression is friendly, reflecting the fun appearance and style of pop music, in contrast to the serious expressions of the band on the cover of 'Kerrang'. 'Billboard' also features R'N'B or pop rock artists who's music is likey to also appeal to pop music fans of the magazine. The cover also includes captions of what features inside the magazine which are all featured around artists and their musical careers or latest chart updates. This is very different to the 'Top of the Pops' magazine, a pop music magazine for young teenagers which tends to focus on the personal lives of artists rather than their music. 'Billboard' uses informal language on its cover to appeal to young adults and its overall style and colour has connotations of fun and happiness, associated with popular music. I like the style of this magazine and will incorporate some of its conventions into my own.


This is the cover for the hip-hop and R&B music magazine, 'Vibe'.

Its focus is on urban hip-hop culture; fashion, politics and entertainment as well as its music, and has a circulation of around 8 million in various countries. 'Vibe' features many well known R&B artists as well as actors or other celebrities representative of the urban hip-hop culture. Artists featured in 'Vibe' magazine are predominantly black such as Ciara, Jay-Z and Kanye West and R. Kelly covers this issue of 'Vibe'; a stereotypical black hip-hop artist. Stereotypes of the hip-hop culture include aggression and the terminology such as 'thugs' and 'sickest' used on the cover reflect the common themes of violence and aggression in the lyrics of hip-hop songs. The colour and style of this magazine appears to be targeted at a male audience, with black and red as the main use of colours, mirroring the style of 'Kerrang' magazine, with its readership consisting mainly of males.

Evaluation

While carrying out my research, I found that sixth form magazines were quite hard to find as many schools publish a general school magazine rather than a specific sixth form magazine. Most of the sixth form magazines that I found seemed to be aimed at parents rather than students as most of them seemed to be 'selling the status' of the school by using the school name and logo as the main feature on the front covers, such as the Rainey Endowed School. These magazines seemed to be focusing on the sobriety and tradition of the school and could almost be seen as a prospectus than a magazine due to their formality which could be seen as 'boring' by teenage students as I found that the magazines that appeal to teenagers have 'busy' front covers with lots of text, pictures and bright colours to attract the reader. I also found that there was a lack of ethnic representation in the school and sixth form magazines that I looked at and I wanted to cater for different ethnic backgrounds in my magazine. I found that magazines such as Sugar, Heat, Look and music magazines are popular with teenage girls as older teenage boys did not seem to read many magazines and I based my design on the layout of these magazines as the majority of the sixth form and my target audience are girls. These magazines were very different to the style of the school magazines I found that were generally quite plain with no indication of what is inside the magazine on the cover.

I wanted to make a magazine that would challenge the forms and conventions of existing school magazines by making it fun interesting and lively to appeal to older teenage student readers rather than their parents.

I chose a medium close up photograph of a female sixth form student smiling over her shoulder at the camera for my cover, against a background of grass. I chose this photo as I felt it connotes friendliness and she seems independent and free to wear what she wishes as there is no sense of a uniform. This photo seems friendly and relaxed which would relate and appeal to sixth form students.

The font that I used for my title was less serious and organised than the standard fonts that were commonly used in school and sixth form magazines and could represent graffiti lettering which creates an informal feel to the cover that would appeal to teenage readers. I used yellow text boxes around the captions 'UCAS forms', 'Uni open days' and 'Revision tips' as they could represent post-it-notes that students would often use for revision or on noticeboards in their bedrooms, which also creates a sense of informality that would appeal to teenage students.

I read some of the magazines that were popular with teenagers to get an idea of the language used to address the readers which was informal and chatty, unlike the formal language commonly used in school/sixth form magazines. Therefore I used informal language on my magazine cover such as 'Meet the new team!' which creates an inclusive welcome and a friendly chatty feel to the magazine that would encourage teenage students to read it rather than parents.

On the front cover, I included a balance between school and lifestyle features to ensure that the magazine appealed to the interests of older teenage students as well as advice and information about school/sixth form. I was aware of the lifestyle of older teenagers and included a caption about a feature on the Reading festival as I knew that many teenagers attend music gigs and festivals and this would be popular with a large majority of both male and female members of the sixth form. I also included a competition to win an ipod and itunes vouchers as technology plays a big part in teenagers lives and would be appreciated by older teenagers.

For the contents page I had originally planned to have three photos in each corner with the text down the middle but when I started making it, I changed it to photos down the left side of the page and the text more to the right as I preferred this layout. I wanted the contents page to represent a page from a notebook or a diary drawn by a student and I did this by using a font in a handwriting style and brushes of stars, arrows and scribbles on the background to represent doodles. I felt that this created a fun, creative and informal feel to the page that would encourage teenage students to read on.

I used the results of my research to decide what I would list on the contents page of what would appear in the magazine. I mainly focused on events and advice for school and sixth form as most people said that they would like to see advice for sixth form life in the magazine. I found that students would prefer to read a magazine on their own interests than school information as this could be too 'boring' so I mixed the school information between music features and competitions on the list. I also included captions with each feature in informal language to make them more appealing to read such as 'Natasha, Helen & Alex speak out' which was a phrase commonly used in popular magazines when featuring an interview with a celebrity.

When carrying out the project I encountered some problems when taking photographs as I found it hard to frame the photographs well and many of the photographs did not look as effective when loaded onto the computer. I also had a problem with sun spots on some of the photographs and so I had to re-take them on a less bright day and I learnt how to use the self timer setting on the camera which I used to take a photograph that included me on the contents page. From this project I have increased my knowledge of using cameras to take and frame photographs well as well as how to use photoshop as I had not used it before this project.

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