My Audience

Attracting my audience

In order to attract my chosen audience of young students aged 15-24 I must ensure that my magazine has content and design that appeals to them. 

To do this I shall include:

• An artistic, cluttered design with dark colours.
• A double page spread on an in-depth interview with an upcoming indie musician and their new album.
• Grunge fonts and design.
• Sans Serif font.
• Lots of artists and music-related content.
• Pictures of band members and singers.
• Artsy design and decorative patterns to appeal to the artistic members of my audience.

On the right is a discontinued music magazine called 'The Fly' which was given out for free. On the right is a magazine that looks at fashion and style rather than music but is still Indie. From these two examples I can learn that the shot I use for my front cover does not matter as both use a different shot for the people on the front cover. One also uses fairly bright colours, contradicting my previous beliefs that dark colours had to be used. However 'The Fly' does use dark colours and is a music magazine, meaning I will most likely lean towards using darker tones. Both magazines contain little on the covers, with a small amount of text. The only text not relating to the masthead on the 'Indie' magazine is ' Oh I see' written in a handwriting font. On 'The Fly' however, there is slightly more text with the band name written in big, capital red letters and smaller text both above and below it. 

Persona

Persona

Mass or Niche?:

Niche, my audience will be select and specifically aimed at a certain group of people.

Age: Young people from the ages 13-21

Gender: Male or female although slightly more leaning towards female

Interests: Music, parties, instruments, indie-pop/indie-rock, art, design, fashion and music artists

Lifestyle: Fun, adventurous, fantasy, creative, enjoy art and expressing emotion, us sparkle children

Socio-economic group: Students, although not really class-specific 

Penumbra effect: Friends of target audience, family and other young people who spend time on social network sites like Tumblr or Instagram who might read about it from other people.

Psychographics: Strugglers, explorers and maybe aspirers.

I feel that my target audience is:

Indie

• Students
• Spend a lot of time with friends
• Go to gigs often
• Listen to music on a daily basis via their iPop/phone while going about their day
• Have a strong connection with music
• Wear a fashion style that consists mostly of skinny jeans, plaid shirts and canvas shoes.
• Likely have experience with playing an instrument themselves
• Use websites like Tumblr, Instagram or have their own blog
• May drink alcohol and/or smoke
• Might have an interest in tattoos and piercings 
• Have an 'edgy', artistic style

Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow

This relates to my project as my audience will be of a western culture, meaning they should have all these needs and be able to purchase such luxuries as magazines. However as my magazine is aimed at Strugglers and Explorers they might not have self-esteem or safety and security. However they should have self-actualisation, especially creativity and spontaneity. Their physiological needs might not all be met however, as some could be from poor backgrounds and not have a stable home that supplies them with clothing or luxury needs.

Ideology in Magazines

Ideology in Magazines

Between these magazines there are differences that show the ideology in Music. The 'Kerrang!' magazine, usually associated with alternative music like rock and metal has darker colours and a more rebellious style. The masthead looks as though it's been smashed, giving it that edgy appearance. The cover model, Jared Leto, is punching his hand and looking all rough and hard which is typical of the genre. The colours are dark, usually associated with the genre and also the text is very striking with a spiked bubble at the top with the words 'MEET ALICE IN CHAINS!'. This all fits with what I have previously said about the ideology for rock music, using a rebellious and edgy style. On the pop magazine however, the colours are a lot lighter with hot pinks and teals rather than the black and red seen on 'Kerrang!'. 'Top of the Pops' features Lady GaGa on the front cover with her posed more professionally, whereas Jared Leto on the other magazine looks as if he's trying to act tough and as though he's not really 'posing' for the photo. GaGa looks more like a model posing for the camera. Her hair is all curled and a small bit of her cleavage is shown, typical of the pop genre as they often sexualise their artists a lot whereas 'Kerrang!' has Jared in heavy clothing, with his hands and head being the only visible skin. 

The pop magazine is far more innocent with cover lines such as '1D's cutest interview ever!' which when compared to the other magazines 'Jared Leto's dark side exposed!' really seems light-hearted and sweet. A cute interview with a boy band for the pops magazine, as expected, and a dark, enlightening interview with a lead singer for the alternative magazine, as expected. However, right in the middle of the pop magazine we have 'I'm not body confident'. Again, as I mentioned previously, the pop genre focuses a lot more on physical appearance and sex appeal. In the rock genre, you can get by in your career if you look like an average human being, whereas in the pop industry you must have good looks and a good body as well as a good voice, which is a lot of expectation. Pop magazines also generally have content that expose artists and present them very sexually, as demonstrated in the cover line 'Wow! Aston's private pics! More inside'. Pop music is generally a lot more about the artist these days than the actual music, and many obsessive fans will stalk their celebrity crush and don their bedroom walls with shirt-less posters. However the rock industry focuses more on the music itself and the artists lives rather than their six-packs. 

The content in the magazines is mostly similar however pop magazines generally have a lot more light-hearted pages about celebrity gossip and quizzes as well as fashion. The 'Top of the Pops' magazine has a quiz on 'are you a flirt failure?' again talking about romance and making people feel insecure. It also has content on '103 new trends', again, something unrelated to music. When we look at the 'Kerrang!' magazine, all of the cover lines are linked to music and the artists. 

Ideology

Ideology

Music ideology has changed over time, with different music genres adopting 'traits' that were originally associated with only one genre. For example nowadays a lot of pop artists are being rebellious and loud, things that were previously thought to be part of the rock genre. Pop stars are usually expected by society to behave well and be good, clean and respectable role models for their target audience of young people. However rock stars were thought to be more rebellious, doing risky things, behaving in a way that goes against the way society would want them to and trying to be 'edgy'. However some of these things have leaked into the pop genre, with artists like Miley Cyrus and One Direction getting caught doing unrespectable things and behaving inappropriately. Currently, pop stars are more likely to be a bad influence on their audience than rock stars, as a lot of media focuses on the artists physical appearance and convinces young people that they need to look and act the way they do. Pop music also has a lot of underlying negative messages, and glorifies things such as stalking, taking alcohol/drugs and harassment by covering it up to make it seem romantic or fun. In the past people frowned upon rock music for the 'negative impact' on its audience, believing that the newfound interests in rebellious nature, sex and drugs was appalling and needed to be stopped. However now a lot of modern pop songs contain inappropriate words and themes, with songs like 'Last Friday Night' by Katy Perry and 'S&M' by Rhianna.

The line between different music genres is getting more and more blurred, with new genres constantly being invented that combine two previously existing genres such as Dubstep which is a genre of electronic dance music which has expanded into other genres such as Regstep (Reggae dubstep)  and Chillstep (A calm, less gritty version of dubstep). With so many genres it can be hard to conform to just one, meaning artists often experiment. 

Comparison

 

Comparison

 

 

The magazine on the left is a lot more tidy and formal, with a colour scheme of purple, white and black. The colour scheme of my magazine is four colours rather than three, using purple, pink white and black. There is more text on the cover of my magazine, making it look less formal and more funky and artistic with flowery patterns. The cover of the other magazine is  organised and 'sophisticated' with the main, central image being a row of smartly dressed students standing neatly. The school is in the background and the border gives it a neat, clean appearance. My magazine however is more stylised and artsy, with a close up of a student, although in both magazines the student(s) is smartly dressed and positioned in a formal manner.

 

The text on the KSA magazine is brief and small, with only two cover lines, 'prom photographs' and 'football academy update'. They are both written in the same font in the same size and in the same colour. The other magazine is more varied in its text, using different fonts, various sizes and changes in colour and also has more cover lines.

School magazines seem to be more formal and neat, with an organised cover and less decoration than what I have created.



Creativity mind map