Really thorough look at the key concepts of the music magazine industry and what goes into creating a successful magazine brand.

1. Key concepts applied to
music magazines
Noa Lightman

2. The four key concepts…
There are 4 key concepts that are applied to
music magazines:
• Representation
• Genre
• Institution
• Audience

3. Representation
• Magazines are presented in different ways and it tends to
depend on the type of magazine and what the subject
matter is
• For example, magazines feature artists in every issue,
therefore it’s important that the publishers and editors
ensure the content is appropriate for the target audience, as
well as ensuring that all information given is true to avoid
legal complications
• The artists used must be appropriate for the sub genre of
magazine , so if it’s a rock magazine, it must have a rock
performer and not a performer from another genre
• On the cover of Kerrang Fall Out Boy are featured, they are a
rock group so clearly fit in with genre of the magazine.

4. Genre• Genre is seemingly one of the easiest things to pick up on from a
magazine
• All magazines have a genre- music magazines, however, have sub genres
as well. This allows for more depth and exploration of a genre, it also
gains a smaller, more specific audiences
• Sub genres include- hip hop, Indie pop and rock and heavy metal to
name a few
• You can identify a music magazine’s genre by a multitude of things,
including: performers that are mentioned, the logo design and style as
well as the colour scheme
• For example, Pop magazines usually use bright, eye-catching colours and
well known artists, usually that are in the charts-especially if it’s a mass
publication
• Whereas Rock tends to use darker colour schemes and include rock
artists who are known widely and appreciated by loyal fans
• This helps each magazine strongly associate itself with its chosen genre,
as well as help the target audience identify it as the genre it’s intended
to be

5. Institution
• Institution means/ is about the making of money within the specific
industry, in this case the music magazine industry
• Publishers aim to make a large profit and so try to do this in many ways,
they may own more than one magazine to maximize the amount of
money made
• Another way in which they achieve this is by using adverts and accepting
sponsored articles
• Advertisers pay large sums of money to be featured in major
publications
• Mojo, Q and Kerrang are all owned by Bauer media group. Bauer own a
total of 600 magazine brands worldwide, so they make a huge profit
• Whereas, smaller publishers make less profit and are likely to have fewer
brands- both as a cause (can’t make more money by using different
magazines) and as a result (can’t afford to publish and produce different
magazine brands)

6. Audience
• When it comes to creating a magazine, more specifically a music magazine, the
publishers must decide on whom they want as their target audience and then
focus the magazine around them- so for example music featured, headlines+
language used, even the colours and typeface.
• All magazines have a clear demographic in terms of Class, Income, Gender, Age
and Race. Therefore it is pretty crucial for the music magazine to be perfectly
suited around the target audience so it attracts their attention.
• From the cover of Top of The Pops I can tell that it is aimed at children as it uses
bright colours and informal/colloquial language , however it is quite feminine as
well, with lots of use of pink so it is clearly aimed at girls, perhaps aged 8-13.
There are lots of images on the cover so it’s visually pleasing for the audience.
Celebrities like Taylor Swift and Little Mix are on the cover, both of these artists
have predominantly female audiences, therefore they fit in to the audience of
the magazine quite well.