Target Audience

The overall concept and connotations with my magazine will predominately appeal to a female gender specific  audience due to the aspiration and idealistic ideologies the artist featured in the magazine , who will majority be successful woman, will convey.For example by using inspirational female artists that relate to the likes of Cheryl Cole and Pixie Lott,  the readers of our magazine will be able to have insight into such celebrities highly sort after lifestyle, and be able to embody thier intermixture of fashion and music.

Due to the glamours association with the funky house genre my magazine centres around, the life style demographic we will be focusing on portraying will be materialistic; aspirational for success, wealth and seeking pleasure and escapism, which could be through the trance like beats and optimistic lyrics found in funky house music. This concept echoes the hedonistic connotations clubs and festivals have, and ties back into the cultural origins funky house has in disco,famously know for its middle and upper class glamorous relations.

In addition to the luxurious and appealing aphorism our magainise will have, it will also partially connote will a rebelious and anit-authority life style due to the associations clubs and festivals also have with drugs and alcohol. However will not convey the heavy pessimistic and extremely rebellious of society or authority, views that rock genre magazine such as NME have. This hybrid of lifestyle demographics may imply a somewhat post-modernist outlook as its embodies a combination of perspectives from more than one angle, which is beneficial in the magazine industry as it will widen our target audience, and intern the popularity and success of our magazine.

My music magazines genre

The genre we have based my music magazine on is 'funky house' and sub genre of house and funk culturally originated from disco in the late 80 in the us. This commercially orientated genre is becoming increasingly popular, with funky house record labels such a Hed kandiand Ministry of sound successfully advancing at a rapid rate and featuring as the the central focus of night clubs and festivals. As the genre appears regularly at the of top album and single charts globally, we have analyzed that this growing music trend is a gap in themagazine market.We wish to create a product that highly incorporates this genre and its prestigious artists, portraying a fresh,young and fun outlook on this new generation of music. Due to its ideology of optimisum and living live to its fullest, and connotationsof glamour, success and positivity our magazines will target audiencewill be of middle class origins, with a mixed demographic of gender and age, however will predominately be between the ages of 15-25, which would appear as a nesh product in the market as the currently it is dominated by rock and grunge genres targeted at an older generation. As a resul of this this unique factor i believe my magazine will break the conventions of currant magazines and portray a fresh and original outlook on music.

Why I have chosen the print brief - music magazine

By assessing my preliminary task of creating a front cover of a school magazine and evaluating my ability to create a visually professional product with interesting and relevant articles to appeal to the chosen target audience, we have made the decision to create a music magazine for a our coursework piece. This is due to my creativity when not only deciding on the layout and text featured but also the ability to echo the ideology of the magazine into the styling, body language and facial expressions of the featured artist on the magazine and combining it with the overall colour scheme to appeal to our target audience. Benefits of this will be producing over all a realistic and authentic looking product that appeals to not only the target audience of my magazine but that of the genre of music we have chosen.

Mood board for concept of my music magazine

Research into magazine publishers

Before creating a moodboad of initial ideas from my music magazine I have looked into publishers and what competitors already in the industry in order to establish I gap in the market for new genre and style of magazine that would target an audience that may not predominately be catered for already.


The most established and prestigious two publishes were IPC who publishes NME, that's emulated a more rock, grungy anti establishment ideologies targeting a rebellious audience that challenged and went against conventional style and image. Bauer media, also a ground breaking publishers who main star in the market is Q, a more glamours, high end magazine with an empathises of style and comeporary music, wit also a politically provative outlook. 


I believe for my magazine Bauer will be more suited due to its target audience of a more economically stable, mainstream, image driven lifestyle demographic, and due to this they would aid in creating a synergy between contemporary music and fashion, which is the route i wish to go down as its currently not a concept exploded in the industry.

Codes and Conventions - Music Magazines

This research will enable me to create an authentic music magazine that conforms to stereotypical expectations of music magazines and additionally allows me to find innovative way in which to contrast this to make my magazine more unique, and target a broader audience.

Further music magazine analysis

The overall image of the Christmas issue of NME featuring the notorious celebrity manager Simon cowell conveys the diverse range of people that have influence on the music industry. Here NME conveys that music has changed though out out the 21st century, and where previously it would conventually be an artist them self's featuring on the cover, now as the music industry and the media evolves, so do the aspects impacting the it, such as managers or TV stars. This modern and innovative ideology, represented in the unconventional cover echoes NME's alternative, modern and forward thinking style.

The Christmas issue layout, with a snow covered title, Christmas decorations with a edgy twist and the piercing red white and black colour scheme all echos Simon Cowells sharp, witty and brutally critical character and mirrors his strong impact on the music industry. His devilish and cheeky facial express represents his personality, coinciding with the article title 'The Grinch speaks' which juxtaposes the Christmas theme also illustrates the unconventional alternative and individual concept. The tag line ' NME  goes head to head with Simon Cowell ' emulates that he may be see a enemy of alternative music as he is famously for manufactured, overly commercialised pop music, so intern by putting him on the cover it again echoes the controversial and confrontational ideologies of NME magazine.

Magazine Analysis - NME

The overall image of this cover is created primarily by the confrontational manor and attitude conveyed though female artist Lilly Allen's body language. The garish colour scheme emulates the styling of the artist, and edgy text resembling the style of newspaper clippings represent her constant appearance in the tabloids, and the connotations of female power, liberation, freedom of speech and concuring success in the music industry conveyed though the title 'taking on the world' which overall creates a rebellious,non conformist and anti authority image, which would appeal to the typical target audience of NME, an anarchistic modern and unconventional music lover, but as its predominately directed at a male audience the use of a young and inspirational iconic female artist breaks the boundaries of music, and would appeal to a wider demographic, of both male and female.

The use of quotations on the cover conventionally appeals to the celebrity culture of the 21st centre who desire deeper access into the lives and minds of music artists today.

This double page spread layout is extremely conventional of a magazine, with the right side of the page taken up predominately with the image of artistic, done for visual affect as when flicking though a magazine the eye rest majority on the right side. the feature headline echoes the style of the front cover, this bold and eccentric text juxtaposes the white background and re forces Lilly Allen's loud and confrontational manner, this image also helps to appeal to the demographic of the target audience who emulate these nonconformist ideologies. Lilly Allen's styling matches the aesthetic of the article, and her masculine lumberjack shirt conveys that she does not what to appeal sexualized in the media, unconventionally portraying her as anti patriarchal, appealing to women who may not stereotypically read NME. Her strong body language and facial expressions in which she is directly looking at the reader which piecing direct eye contact conveys she is demanding attention from the reader. Additionally The headline 'people think I'm an attention seeker but I'm just honest' portrays her rebellious nature and upfront and honest personality, which appeals again to her anti conformists audience.

Introduction to creating a Music Magazine

In this blog I will be exploring the codes and conventions of music magazines in the industry today. By researching what emulates a magazine genre and ideologies I will be able to create proficiently a authentic and original magazine that fills a gap in the currant market and targets its audience professionally.