2. Classic Rock.
Classic Rock magazine covers exactly what the name
implies. It focuses on specific bands within the classic
rock genre, particularly from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Although it does occasionally cover contemporary and
up-coming bands that are worth pointing out.
It targets an audience who felt that NME and Q were
too mainstream and also because the majority of issues
only ever focused on the next big band to break.
From the picture on the side there is an obvious
example of some meta-language, as it says “Whole lotta
AC/DC.” This reference would be understood by
listeners of classic rock music as the “whole lotta” bit
comes from a song by Led Zeppelin, another band that
falls under the genre of classic rock.
This particular edition may attract a younger audience
(and therefore potentially imply that they are trying to
reach out to a wider demographic) as it includes
freebies. The guitar picks of course are aimed at guitar
players which is a key target audience that you would
expect from a rock magazine.
In terms of design, Classic Rock has shown a lot of
simplistic covers. The magazine allows part of the main
image to cover the logo which means that they are
confident that people will always recognise their
magazine from afar. The use of the bold red with the
mainly black and white cover may link to the whole
dangerous and bad boy personality of AC/DC.
3. Classical.
Classical Music magazine quite obviously covers
classical music, which expectedly is aimed at an older
audience.
As Classical music is mainly associated with “class” and
“style”, so it isn’t surprising that they have used
traditional font and a white background. The font too is
to promote style and the white background is to imply
cleanliness and innocence.
The price of the magazine is £4.25 and comes out once
a fortnight which means it could possibly be aimed at a
“well-to-do” audience and so they could afford it.
This may be an issue as classical music is not a genre of
music that is entirely based within a more sophisticated
and upper class demographic, and therefore the
magazine aren’t reaching out to the whole of their
target audience.
4. R&B and Hip-Hop.
Vibe magazine is a Premier urban music magazine. It
focuses on the R&B hip-hop music scene and its
musicians.
It is published bi-monthly which means the genre of
music may not be very fast moving and means that
people see it as an architectural review which people
may want to keep in their house for a short while.
Vibe also reach out to their audience not just through
the magazine but also through books on the culture of
hip-hop.
In terms of layout and design the cover lines always
appear to circle the musician in the main image, in the
case of this edition Lil’ Wayne is not only being circled
but is on a thrown, which is trying to point out that he is
the current centre of attention and the “king” of the
genre in its current state.
The magazine regularly tries to use models of all
ethnicities when needed which is appreciated by all
cultures that may take in interest in the world of Hip-
hop.
5. Heavy Metal.
Metal Hammer focuses on a heavy metal demographic.
They focus on both mainstream and unusual bands in
the heavy metal family.
The design of the magazine is quite messy with quite
loud colours, which absolutely represents the
personality of heavy metal music. It may also relate to a
younger heavy metal audience as they appreciate chaos
and anarchy.
The front cover of this particular magazine shows Bring
Me The Horizon singer Oli Sykes topless, struck with
arrows and with a bright aura around his body. They
have shown him topless and showing his tattoos which
may give readers the idea of what being a heavy metal
star is all about and may see him as a authorative figure.
The magazine is very popular in Germany, which is not
surprising as Germany is known to have a widespread
heavy metal fan base.
The magazine also makes reference to cartoons like
Beavis and Butthead, a show about two rock-loving
teenage delinquents which may reflect the lives of
many heavy metal fans.
