1. How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?
Attracting My Audience:
The first and foremost important attribute to any magazine is to attract an audience.
This is often done through the front cover in many different aspects. My aim was to
make the front cover as busy as possible and make the front cover exciting and one
that will stand out, without losing the magazines identity.
The front cover uses a full bleed image of my main model, sporting a leather jacket,
dark make up and jewellery. My model is seen to be pointing directly at the reader,
enticing someone to take notice of the magazine, to which I aimed to encourage said
reader to look at other aspects of my magazine. Furthermore the masthead of my
magazine is bold and white and contrasts directly with the background thus making it
stand out to the reader. In addition the colour scheme on the front cover is
advantageous in attracting readers because the use of yellow to highlight areas of
importance in apparent contrast the generic use of reds and blacks draws the attention
of the reader directly to these areas of the page. The use of said colours was also used
so that my magazine would contextually stand out, on a shelf for example. Also in the
cover the price is clearly presented at £2.50 to which is cheaper than market leaders
such as my style model, Kerrang! but also relays to the reader that the content within
is of a professional standard, thus attracting the readers to my magazine.
Moving on my contents page further attracts the attention of the reader. In my
contents page I have used self-taken images from concerts I have attended, to aid the
realism and the relation with the multitude of ‘gig-going’ readers, to aid the notion of
my magazine being a people’s magazine. Forming said relations creates loyalty and
emphasises the magazine and the social spectrum of the genre. Furthermore I have
continued the theme of dark, leather clothing with my models, and the use of aspects
such as red lipstick, to appeal to the large male consensus to who are likely to buy my
magazine.
I addition my feature articles, provide fans with all of the relevant information
regarding the chosen act. This is particularly important because in all social groups
that are based on a common interest, often the greater the amount of knowledge you
have regarding that interest the more important you become socially, and so the heavy
factuality of my magazine conforms to this thesis. Despite this however my magazine
also encompasses many extra features, usually located in box outs, in support of the
main article, but provide a greater source of entertainment for my readers to prevent
the readers becoming disinterested in the factuality of the main article, therefore
keeping them interested in reading and buying my magazine.
Addressing My Audience:
Music magazines serve many general purposes to its audiences. This can be
categorised, four-fold. Said categories are as follows;
Information
Personal Identity
2. Integration and Social Interaction
Entertainment.
This is therefore how I addressed my audience.
Information:
My magazine inform the reader by providing key tour dates of select bands, album
reviews to allow the audience member to make an informed decision about and album
they may be considering purchasing. My magazine also informs readers by hosting
topic themed interviews with important and known faces within the genre and
industry, to provide an in depth insight into the industry or the set topic of the
interview. Furthermore I have included a segment that looks at the technology within
the industry thus informing the reader of the technological advances currently
occurring in the industry and therefore what the reader can expect to see being
produced in the near future.
Personal Identity:
This genre of music is notorious for its dedication and passion form audiences in
changing their identities to conform to and emulate the icons they follow. Therefore
iconography was always likely to be an important factor in my magazine. Having to
use our own images however meant that I had to ensure that the photography within
my magazine emulated that of known personalities and icons within the industry. For
this reason therefore I decided to ensure that my model emulated the fashion and style
of American band Halestorm’s lead vocalist Lzzy Hale, as I felt that my model was
already like Lzzy Hale appearance wise and therefore using Lzzy Hale as my style
3. model would be the best option for me in my quest for professionalism. In terms of
the posing and actual imaging of the photography I used pre-existing images of icons
of the genre such as Steel Panther, Taylor Mommsen, Reckless Love, Laura Wylde
and Axl Rose, as the style models for my photography.
Entertainment:
My magazine is one that focuses on the informative side, however considering my
target audience of 16-50 year olds the entertainment aspect of my magazine is equally
as important. So I have ensured that the amount of dead space in my magazine is
minimalistic so that my readers always have something to read. I decided to approach
the entertainment aspect of my magazine by including box outs on each of my three
double page spreads for my feature article, so that although the interview with the
main ‘star’ is quite long and ‘wordy’ my use of box outs means that the reader doesn’t
get bogged down with the main article and can instead have a break from the main
article by reading something different such as an album review or a set of light
hearted questions. This is effective because it doesn’t detract away from the agenda of
the interview but it does provide the reader with an alternative source of
‘entertainment’.
Social Integration & Interaction:
The title of my magazine is one only audience members of this genre are likely to
relate too, due to its relation to the hit film ‘Spinal Tap’ that is based entirely around
my chosen genre of music. The film is famous for its use of the phrase ‘Turn it too
Eleven’ in reference to the infamous Marshall stack amplifier that ironically only
‘goes’ to 10 and so the use of ‘Eleven’ as the title for my magazine evokes a
sentimental or emotional response from my target audience. Finally I have also
included social media icons and usernames, so that readers can become a part of an
extensive social group, on popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, to
which is beneficial becomes it keeps the magazine up to date with modern social
platforms but also gives people a basis to form social groupings based on their similar
interests such as my magazines genre of music.
