This document discusses the genre and target demographic of a music magazine focused on contemporary R&B. It analyzes examples of magazines in related genres to understand conventions and appeal to different age groups. Research included questionnaires and analysis of iconography used in contemporary R&B music and magazines. The goal is to design a new magazine that brings together music and fashion to appeal to 18-30 year olds interested in R&B, hip hop, music and London/New York culture and lifestyle. Understanding the target demographic and genre conventions is important to meet the needs and wants of readers.

1. Preliminary Research

2. Firstly, the titles anchor the texts to the genre
of teenage magazines. The source seems to
be directed at young demographics as the
title signifies a sense of gossip which is the
ethos of youth, as it’s cheeky.
The title the source acquires this
quality of idealism, as teenagers look
up to these celebrities and their
lifestyles but as the word stretches
across the width of the page it could be
suggested that the reader is more sassy
and naive in comparison to the more
mature or sophisticated reader you
would find in Q magazine. This is
further substantiated by the use of
colouring.
The colouring of the images and layout
helps to reinforce the target audience
of this magazine as silver and gold
signifies that the artist is well
established and is associated with R&B/
Hip-Hop artists as they wear a great
amount of ‘bling’ (jewellery) as its apart
of their ideology. This is denoted
through the use of large imagery of the
silver chain on the front cover.
This magazine follows the generic
conventions of a music magazine
as it has the main information of
featuring celebrities in bold
highlighted in yellow and red. This
is a marketing strategy used to
attract the reader as ‘young
money’ is renowned and will
automatically attract fans. His
importance within this magazine
is then reinforced within the sub
heading ‘America’s most wanted.’
The word wanted signifies a sense
of need and makes him seem like
a luxury item that you can win and
can’t live without.
The form of language
demonstrated within the source is
informal and includes many
colloquial speeches, such as
‘Ghostage’ as this reinforces the
demographics of this magazine as
it’s aimed at a young audience
interested in R&B/Hip-pop. This
displays a sense of customer
loyalty as this magazine has
managed to find their target
audience and focus the context of
this magazine to primarily suit
them.

3. Three colours all tie in
together and with feature
stories in puffs
Her hand touching her lips
is quite seductive and
reinforces the R&B genre
as were focusing on her
jewellery
Big bold font, cover
image blocking it as it is
a recognisable name.
Cover image is of an
instantly recognisable
person, anchoring text
relates to the artist
Grey background
makes it easier to
use colour and add
font, whilst
matching the silver
detail on her dress,
so maintaining the
colour scheme

4. IDEA
The genre of a magazine is important for establishing its demographic. For example, a pop
magazine with fashion and gossip features (like Smash Hits) would most likely be marketed
at a pre-teen girl, whereas a rock magazine featuring a band from the 80's (such as Q or
Rolling Stones) would be targeted at middle-aged, middle-class men.
Contemporary R&B is one of the fastest growing and most popular genre's in the charts
today, thus meaning the demand for journalism in this field is high. Other magazines such
as NME and Q draw in this type of readership, however I believe there is still an opening in
the market for a magazine that brings elements of music and fashion together to make one
ultimate publication.
My target audience: 18 - 30 year olds, male and female, living in London, middle class,
interested in music, fashion and the London/New York party scene, like to travel to and fro
London and New York. Due to the versatility of my music magazine genre as its
contemporary R&B I wouldn’t want to direct it to one specific class. However it is safe to
assume that it would probably appeal to low and middle class consumers as it offers them
a sense of idealism.

5. This is a sample of the type of
questions featured within my
questionnaire, which helped me to
establish how I would be successful in
meeting the needs of my target
audience. As at this point I started to
explore and focus on the conventions
of Contemporary R&B more in depth.

7. Iconography
I found that the generic conventions of
contemporary R&B music font tends to be quite
soft and curvy simply because the target audience
of this genre tends to be young teenagers as it
matches their light hearted mentality and lifestyle
as they have no worries in the world. Their
innocence and youth is signified through the choice
of pale colouring . This reinforces the demographics
of this magazine and their culture traits. When
comparing this to ‘the source’ it is evident that
their are two different marketing strategies applied
as the iconography of Hip-pop tends to be more
bold.
I then started to look at the iconography for this
genre of music as it would help me to get a
better understanding of the images that could be
integrated within my music magazine which
would help me to appeal to my target audience
and meet their needs and wants so that i am
successful in replicating a contemporary R&B
music magazine.