The document discusses the target audience for a magazine focused on the R&B music genre. The intended audience is 16-25 year olds, with a focus on African American males. R&B magazines typically use dark colors like purple, black, and blue on the covers to appeal to both male and female readers. The key expectations of the target audience are interesting celebrity coverage on the front cover and inside the magazine.

1. QUESTION FOUR
Who would be the
audience for your
media product?

2. The genre I will focus my music magazine on is the R&B genre;
R&B originated in the 1940s, marketed mainly towards African-
Americans. Having a new artist of a popular music genre on the
front cover will attract readers, as they will be interested to see
who this person is: will he become a massive star? Will he innovate
the genre? The genre is very popular in the modern day with artists
such as R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, etc. R&B
audiences are usually teenagers and young adults between the
ages of 13 to 25 and are mostly females. I used this knowledge as
a way to help develop my magazine, and I targeted mine at people
aged between 16-25. R&B fans are usually from an
African American black background due to R&B being rhythm, blues
and soul which comes from African America in the 1950's. This
type of music would be something their parents and grandparents
would have listened to, interesting their children in the same type
of music.
R&B magazines are mostly aimed at both Males and Females, and
is usually made clear on the front cover, so that the buyer is sure
that the magazine is for him/her. My magazine is clearly for male
audiences as the artist is male. Having a new artist of a popular
music genre on the front cover will attract readers, as they will be
interested to see who this person is: will he become a massive
star? Will he innovate the genre? My artist fits the conventions as
R&B artists tend to be ones of African origins, as the genre was
originally used by record companies to describe recordings
marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time
when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent
beat" was becoming more popular. This follows that specific
convention and also the artist having a sophisticated style is how
R&B artists like Usher for example portray themselves, developing
that convention too. This would satisfy the target audience as it
meets their expectations.
THE AUDIENCE

3. The colours that they usually use are dark colours, such as: Dark Purple, Black and Dark
Blue. This explains to the reader that the R&B genre of magazines are not gender-
biased, as they are presented with dull colours, which in some ways would appeal to both
genders as it is a mix of colours for both. For my cover and contents pages I used this
idea, and dark blue is the most prominent colour on both pages.
Looking at my primary research, I
found that my target audience are
attracted to the front cover of
music magazines because of the
colour schemes used and the
featured celebrity. I used a
conventional colour scheme for my
magazine and featured a young,
aspiring artist to challenge the
conventions that it is established
artists that feature on magazine
covers. Also, they would like the
inside content to be filled with
celebrity gossip or interviews,
which is something my magazine
does as seen on the sticker for the
cover page.
AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS

4. Another factor I found is that the general R&B
audience would be willing to pay would be £3.50-£5 on
a music magazine.
The type of poses they would expect to see from a
celebrity on a R&B/ Hip-Hop magazine would be a
dance move, pose or something fun to make it more
exciting. This I did not do for my cover as I wanted a
more sophisticated look so in this way by not reaching
a convention, it could hinder my magazines popularity
with the target audience.
Finally, when choosing an attractable name for my
magazine audiences tend to like titles associated with
the specific genre i.e. ‘Rolling Stone’ for Rock, for
example. I chose ‘RHYTHM’ as my title as, despite
being quite generic, it is associated with music.