This document discusses the key features and characteristics of music magazines. It explains that music magazines cover a range of music genres and are aimed at advertising those genres to audiences through interviews, release dates, and merchandise ads. Content includes images of artists, venues, and studios to provide visuals related to stories. Characteristics that music magazines typically share are visual style, varied fonts and colors, language tailored to the target audience, and frequent publication rates. Standard features found across magazines are mastheads, cover lines, price, main cover image, and color schemes, which help identify the magazine and attract intended readers.

1. Task 1-
Music Magazines
Vikki Grimmett

2. What is a music magazine?
 Music magazines cover a range of genres whether they be:
rock, pop, classical, rap, R and B, Jazz and many more.
There purpose is aimed at advertising the specific genre to
the audience chosen, this can include providing adverts of
merchandise; music magazines also intend on entertaining
the audience by introducing factors that will create great
interest, they achieve this by including exclusive interviews
with a popular band/artist. Information is a vital part of music
magazines for they tell the audience of release dates or even
concert dates; the audience is therefore up-to-date and kept
aware of what is coming up. Typically the audience for a
music magazine is someone who enjoys listening to music
and has an interest in it.

3. What content would you expect to
find in a music magazine?
 Images are a vital factor of a magazine that you expect to see,
most audiences for magazines prefer a visual experience- this
includes graphics and colours also. The chaotic atmosphere it
creates can intrigue the audience, therefore you expect to see
such a technique used in a music magazine also. It is common
to have a lot of text within a magazine as it adds to the chaotic
appearance you would like to see, however there cannot be too
much text in a magazine as the audience can become
disinterested- there needs to be an equal balance of imagery
and text. Gossip is always a greatly interesting subject to have
within a magazine, it comes with human nature. Therefore it is
important to include stories and articles about your favourite
artists, as people always want to know more.

4. What images would you expect to
find in a music magazine?
 You would like to find the image of artists in the magazine, this is the
most important type of image that is included in a music magazine; this
is because the image informs the reader of the genre of the magazine
and possibly what the magazine is going to include. For example if you
have an image of Beyonce, you know it will be a pop magazine. The
image of the artist is also vital in setting a basis for the target audience,
for certain age groups are interested in certain artists: One direction
attract young teenage girls while Eminem attract older teenage males.
Other images may include venues of where artists play, this would often
be shown if the subject has made a performance or is about to- this can
suggest what the story or article is going to be about. Studio images are
significant for they allow you to have a glance into what work goes into
the artists success. Many images create the brand identity for the
magazine, having images of drums and an artist with tattoos may
represent the rock genre- this ultimately allows you to relate a specific
magazine to the genre you like. Rolling stones for example always have
an artist dressed in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, sitting on an arm
chair with a guitar in their hands- this is unique to Rolling stones and
therefore creates and identity for them that the audience instantly

5. What characteristics/features would
you expect to find in a music
magazine? Visual style is important for a music magazine, the audience want to
see the image of an artist in order to know whether they would be
interested in the genre of magazine they are looking at. Visual style
increases the interest of the audience for it attracts your eye to the
magazine, this is what can sell magazines. You also want to see
varieties of colour and fonts for it sets a chaotic atmosphere for the
audience, this makes it seem exciting to look at, it also means that
the magazine is not mainstream and has a unique touch to it.
Language varies with different style magazines and different
audiences, an older audience would prefer sophisticated language
for it represents the maturity of the magazine- therefore will relate to
their interests; however using informal, slang, language for younger
audiences represents the way the generation speak, this will then
relate to them and feel more familiar to them- they would feel
comfortable reading the magazine because they understand the
language. Frequency of publication is important, for it represents how
often there is a new magazine. It can also allow the audience to
determine the prices of the magazine- the less frequent the
magazine the higher the price. The material of the paper can be a
significant factor that could be expected for a magazine, this is
because the cheapness of the paper can make an audience member
lose interest as it does not look as appealing as the glossy affect
paper that is usually used.

6. Identify the features/characteristics
of the magazines
 Mastheads- although they are mostly formatted in the typical layout,
there is one that is different from this, Billboard has positioned the
title going downwards on the page rather than at the top. This is a
daring technique which may not always be successful.
 Cover lines- they all include cover lines offering insight to the articles
that are included with in the magazine, these often increase
audience interest.
 Price- Often found by the bar code on the front cover, its vital to see
the price as it allows the audience to gain an idea of how reliable,
popular the magazine is.
 Main cover image- it establishes the genre an topic of the magazine,
if there is a popular artist on the front the magazine is more likely to
be successful.
 Colour schemes- they help obtain a specific target audience, pink
attracts girls, red creates a sex appeal, blue is masculine and so on.
 Font- is important for you do not want the font to be the same
throughout the magazine, having a variety of fonts ensures that the
audience stays interested whilst going through the magazine.

7. Why are these features present on all of
the magazines? Why are they
important?
 They introduce the themes and techniques that make the
magazine more memorable for the audience. They follow a
strict layout that is rarely avoided, this is because daring
changes can create a great loss in interest for the magazine,
people can be interested in a specific style and would not like
great change. This is important as it creates an identity for the
specific magazine as the audience will always relate a
specific style to the specific magazine they read. It is
important to have characteristics that readers will remember,
if you have a magazine that is more memorable you are likely
to gain loyal customers for they prefer something that is
familiar to them; however a unique change can also be
important for it creates a difference between one magazine
and another, therefore your magazine could be the one to
interest a reader more than a magazine that is following the
conventional formats of a typical magazine. A balance of the
both is most important for you are including a mixture of
normality and originality in a magazine- this may make your
magazine more appealing for the audience can enjoy the
mixture.

8. What type of music magazine is
this?
 This magazine is a pop
magazine, you know this
because of the artists on the
front cover- Beyoncé and J-z
are well known in their genre.
You also know that this is a pop
magazine by the strict design it
follows. It is not using the
conventional layout of that of a
rock magazine- which is a lot of
colour and chaos, it does
however have a more relaxed
tone to it. The colours that are
used are more subtle compared
to that of a rock magazine. The
font used is simple and legible,
it follows a strict pattern of
simplicity. It does not have a lot
of cover lines, this informs us
that the magazine maybe for a
more older generation as it does
not require certain aspects of a
magazine to gain the audiences
attention.

9. Who is the target audience of
this magazine?
 I believe the target audience for this magazine is late teens or
young adults, this is because of the age of the artists and the
age group of the fans- you can easily relate the target
audience to the artists for you know what type of person
these artists attract. The colour scheme that is used is not
overly bright which you would stereotypically relate to young
people for they have a lot more energy and enthusiasm
compared to that of someone older. Someone older would be
more interested in simplicity for they do not need as much
detail to be interested- mature minds require less detail on
the front of the cover, their first impressions may be based
more on the price and quality of the magazine apposed to the
colour and excitement. The font used is not child-like, it more
sophisticated this therefore states that the magazine is aiming
at a more older audience because they do not require
unusual fonts to be attracted. It appears that having a more
simple magazine indicates an older generation compared to
that of a more busy magazine where you relate it to a
younger audience with fast-pace minds.